Influence of Social Identity on Negative Perceptions in Global Virtual Teams

Pekka Vahtera, Peter J. Buckley, Murod Aliyev*, Jeremy Clegg, Adam R. Cross

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The paper combines insights from social identity theory and organizational network theory to specify the conditions under which social capital can induce negative attitudes in global virtual teams. The structural configuration of social capital has crucial implications for the sociocognitive processes causing individuals to adopt negative attitudes to out-group members. The paper evaluates both the negative implications of structural configurations on out-group perceptions, which are important precursors to successful intergroup interaction in global virtual teams. We collected data from 160 actors across 40 global virtual teams embedded within three separate organizations. 34 social identity groups were detected and ties between and within the groups were investigated. Our analyses provide insights on the roles of social identity groupings and social capital as well as in-group brokerage and interactions on (negative) perceptions of other group members in global virtual teams.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)367-381
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of International Management
Volume23
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2017

Keywords

  • Global virtual teams
  • Knowledge sharing
  • Multinational enterprise
  • Social capital
  • Social identity theory

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