Enhancing the transfer of computer-assisted training proficiency in geographically distributed teams

The authors examined factors that determine whether knowledge gained from computer-assisted (i.e., technology-based) team training in a geographically distributed team (GDT) context transfers to organizational results. They examined the moderating effects of team trust, technology support, and leader experience on the relation between teams' average individual training proficiency on a computer-assisted (i.e., CD-ROM-based) training program and team performance as assessed by team customer satisfaction ratings. Using data collected from 40 GDTs in a high-technology company, the authors found that the relation between teams' average training proficiency and team performance was complex and moderated by several factors. In particular, teams' average training proficiency had a positive association with customer satisfaction when GDTs were higher, rather than lower, in both trust and technology support and when team leaders had longer, rather than shorter, levels of tenure with their specific team.     

Emotional intelligence, teamwork effectiveness, and job performance: the moderating role of job context

We advance understanding of the role of ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) and its subdimensions in the workplace by examining the mechanisms and context-based boundary conditions of the EI-performance relationship. Using a trait activation framework, we theorize that employees with higher overall EI and emotional perception ability exhibit higher teamwork effectiveness (and subsequent job performance) when working in job contexts characterized by high managerial work demands because such contexts contain salient emotion-based cues that activate employees' emotional capabilities. A sample of 212 professionals from various organizations and industries indicated support for the salutary effect of EI, above and beyond the influence of personality, cognitive ability, emotional labor job demands, job complexity, and demographic control variables. Theoretical and practical implications of the potential value of EI for workplace outcomes under contexts involving managerial complexity are discussed.     

Organizational context and face-to-face interaction: Influences on the development of trust and collaborative behaviors in computer-mediated groups

Using adaptive structuration theory as a framework [DeSanctis, G., & Poole, M. S. (1994). Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: Adaptive structuration theory. Organization Science, 5(2), 121–147], we examined the influence of organizational context (competitive versus cooperative) and introductory meeting communication medium (face-to-face versus electronic) on the development of trust and collaborative behaviors of dyads communicating electronically. Based on a sample of 208 senior business students operating in computer-mediated (CM) dyads while performing a strategic decision-making simulation, we found that context, introductory communication medium, and time interacted to influence trust and collaborative behaviors. The pattern of development of trust and collaborative behaviors differed for the same introductory communication medium in different context conditions. Further, the level of trust and collaboration for dyad members in the competitive/electronic introductory meeting condition lagged significantly behind those in the other conditions. The findings suggest that introductory face-to-face interaction plays a more important role in facilitating the development of trust and collaboration in a CM environment when the context is competitive.     

An examination of crossover and spillover effects of spousal and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment on expatriate outcomes

Integrating work-family and cross-cultural adjustment literatures, the researchers proposed and tested a spillover and crossover model of expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment with reciprocal relationships. Spillover effects refer to the influence that expatriate attitudes in a particular domain (e.g., work) have on attitudes in other domains (e.g., nonwork), whereas crossover effects refer to the influence of expatriate attitudes on the spouse's attitudes (and vice versa). Data collected from Japanese expatriates, their spouses, and their superiors strongly supported both spillover and crossover effects between expatriate and spousal cross-cultural adjustment. In addition, expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment was found to be related to satisfaction, which, in turn, was found to be negatively related to expatriates' intention to return to their homeland early.