Can virtuality be protective of team trust? Conflict and effectiveness in hybrid teams

Abstract

Virtuality is noticeably present in organisations and influences the way people interact within teams. This study involved 104 organisational teams with some degree of virtuality and intends to analyze a moderated-mediation model in which virtuality moderates the indirect effect of team conflict on team effectiveness and innovation through team trust. First, results reveal that the negative association between conflict and team trust was significant for task conflict only in teams with low virtuality, and for relationship conflict was significant under low and moderate levels of virtuality. Finally, findings indicate that virtuality moderated the negative mediated relationship between both task and relationship team conflict and team effectiveness only through cognitive trust. Overall, the findings suggest that virtuality may protect team trust from the negative effects of conflict, and they point to the key role of cognitive trust as an antecedent of team effectiveness in hybrid teams.