Cohesion and performance in global virtual teams: the moderating role of technical skills

This study assesses the extent to which cohesion affects performance in Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) and whether this effect depends on team members' technical skills. Data are collected from X-Culture, a large-scale experiential learning project involving business students dispersed globally and relying on 'virtual' electronic communication tools to solve business problems presented by multinational companies. The total number of participants we use for this study is 3001 individuals working in 679 GVTs. Results indicate that team cohesion is positively and significantly related to team performance when team members' skills are high, but is not significantly related to team performance when team members' skills are low. Based on the empirical results, the influence of cohesion on team performance should be predicated on the team characteristics. This study suggests the existence of boundary conditions to the cohesion-performance relationship and proposes the use of the concept of 'expeditious cohesion' in GVTs.