가상 팀의 지식네트워크, IT 활용, 성과 간의 관계에 관한 연구: 사회 네트워크 분석을 중심으로

A virtual team is defined as a group of people that works across space, time, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by the diverse computer-mediated communication media. By forming virtual teams, people can easily collaborate with other people and acquire information and knowledge from anywhere and at anytime. However, managing virtual teams is far more challenging than managing traditional teams because ad hoc virtual teams may engage in a lower level of social interacts and supports than their counterparts in face-to-face environments. The problem of how to manage social relationships among virtual team members to increase their performance is considered to be very pivotal and still remains unsolved. Through the lens of social networks, this study examines the following specific questions: (1) to what extent should ad hoc virtual teams maintain internal cohesion; (2) whether do virtual team members’ external bridging ties guarantee the higher level of team performance; and (3) how does IT play the role in balancing and harmonizing internal cohesion and external bridging ties for increasing the performance of a virtual team. We investigate these questions with the specific type of social networks; the knowledge networks which contain knowledge or task-related intelligence in the networks. These knowledge networks contain the collective competencies that enable organizational members to produce products and services. By examining the influence of knowledge networks of virtual teams on their performance, this study aims to reveal how to manage knowledge network among members to maximize the performance of a virtual team. The contributions of this study are three-fold. First, we conceptually clarify the properties of knowledge networks that individuals maintain within and outside their work groups: network density and group-level structural holes. Next, by integrating social network theory and CMC related theories, we develop a theoretical framework linking knowledge networks, IT use, and team performance. Third, we examine the interplay among the research constructs and elucidate a complex phenomenon in relations to the forming and managing knowledge networks of a virtual team, which is in short supply in the current literature. The proposed model was tested with 172 consultants and 42 virtual teams in 5 global consulting companies in Korea. The study found that increasing network intra-group network density was crucial for better team performance. On the contrary, increasing extra-group structural holes decreased the team performance, contradicting the prevailing wisdom. The most important standpoint is that the effect of knowledge network of virtual teams varied along the level of IT use that is related to communal CMC such as group ware or group decision support systems (GDSS). This study is meaningful in that it examined how to manage knowledge network by integrating social network theory and computer-mediation communication theory, and by analyzing the moderating effect between knowledge network and IT use in the context of virtual teams. Based on these findings, the study suggests that optimal knowledge network configurations to maximize the performance of a virtual team should be considered along with the IT use.