ICT Enabled Virtual Collaboration through Trust

Abstract

The advent of information and communication technology (ICT) provides opportunities for employees with offices in geographically dispersed locations to communicate, share and collaborate on projects to achieve common business goals. Previous studies on computer-mediated communication and computer-supported cooperative work suggest that the higher utilization of ICT for supporting collaborative work is largely dependent on the business strategy, which promotes trust among parties. Our focus is on understanding the effect of virtual organizing for achieving higher collaboration in virtual settings. We identify the challenges for developing trust in a virtual collaborative environment. We describe how the process for virtual organizing helps promote higher levels of collaboration among parties in geographically dispersed locations. We posit that virtual organizing helps support creating, sustaining and deploying key intellectual and knowledge assets while sourcing tangible, physical assets in a complex network of relationships. Our analysis demonstrates that the real challenge for the management of virtual collaboration is trust and has to be guided by a shared business principle or shared vision. Eight propositions are offered based on this analysis. We conclude that virtual organizing as presented here suggests a set of rules and norms enabling and constraining actions that promote a desired and required higher level of trust. This, in turn, is critical (a) to the development and sustainability of virtual collaboration and (b) to ensure the optimal use of ICT.

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