Building Trust in a Virtual Team: A Conceptual Framework

There has been a tremendous increase of technology - mediated working environment leading to the formation of virtual teams due to the globalization and it requires a new leadership approach in making them succeed. E-leadership has been recognized as relevant to lead the virtual team. It is claimed that trust is one of the factors vital to the formation of a successful virtual team. It is also suggested that building and maintaining trust may be one of the most important factors leading to virtual team success. However, building trust in a virtual team is a major challenge as team members do not have face-to-face interaction. Thus, it becomes the sole responsibility of the e-leader in the virtual team to build a trusting relationship between the team members without which the virtual relationship will not succeed. This paper explores the current knowledge about the factors that build trust deemed as critical in virtual team effectiveness and proposed a framework for building trust in the virtual team. This paper is a reflection for e-leadership in understanding how e-leaders can build trust in virtual teams that will enhance the performances of virtual teams in the virtual work environment.