Working in virtual teams: A systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis

Garro Abarca Victor, Palos-Sanchez Pedro R., Rus-Arias Enrique
2020 IEEE Access  
Modern developments in technology have changed the way we socialize, communicate and work. Globalization, Information and Communication Technologies, digital culture and the increase in the amount of technology available for online communication mean that more organizations are implementing virtual teams. The growth in the use of virtual teams in organizations has incited researchers to investigate the different aspects, factors and challenges of these teams. This article uses a systematic
more » ... ature review and a bibliometric analysis of virtual teams to identify the most relevant articles on the subject. These articles are then thoroughly reviewed and finally, a summary is made of all the research published over a five-year period. The systematic review of literature proposed by Ramey and Rao [1] and enhanced by Pulsiri and Thesenvitz [2] was used to examine the Scopus and Web of Science databases to identify the theories, research problems, research methodologies and results of 2354 studies on virtual teams published between 2015 and 2019. The main topics of the existing research in the field are reviewed, and the main limitations, problems and existing gaps in research are presented. INDEX TERMS systematic literature review; bibliometric analysis, COVID-19, thematic analysis, virtual teams I. INTRODUCTION Crises, wars, disasters and epidemics have triggered or accelerated changes in all types of activities, including the ways we live and work. Currently, the COVID-19 outbreak is a global health challenge. Health authorities suggest that "it is time for businesses, hospitals, schools and citizens to start preparing". Many companies have chosen to reduce risks by using remote working or working from home to prevent employees from being in close contact and spreading the virus [3] . Globalization, improvements in information and communication technologies (ICTs), the increase in the number of remote workers and the emergence of computermediated groups, have led to changes in how workers communicate and collaborate in organizations. With current technological advances, the knowledge economy and digital culture, new ways of working are appearing in organizations. This study investigates the type known as virtual teams [4] . For this new type of working groups, the physical limits of distance or differences in time-zone are no longer relevant. Other characteristics of teamwork have become more important when working remotely, such as communication, trust, task characteristics, leadership, cohesion and empowerment, all of which have an impact on a team's performance [5], [6] . However, the number and range of publications available on virtual teams can cause confusion if there is no effective and systematic process for classifying and associating the ideas in them. In addition, advances in information and communication technology means that information is transmitted around the world much faster and this has encouraged academic researchers to produce even more publications and therefore add to the confusion [2] . This excess of information and the confusion caused by it makes a systematic review of the existing literature necessary. The main objective was to find the most important articles
doi:10.1109/access.2020.3023546 fatcat:npqc4lawlzaevlwnmqr7naxiyq