Intention To Collaborate Online: Measurement Scale Development Analysis

Intention to Collaborate Online: Measurement Scale Development
Mohammad Alsharo, Dawn Gregg
Introduction
The emergence of online tools supporting collaboration has allowed more people to work together online, some in open online communities, others in professional groups within organizations, and others in professional groups across inter-organizational systems. From an organizational perspective, globalization along with continuous advancement of information and communication technology provides the opportunity for organizations to establish virtual teams with needed expertise regardless of geographical or organizational boundaries. Nowadays, organizations have the opportunity to form partnerships, communicate with each other, and coordinate
It is reported in the literature that virtual teams create forms that are more reconfigurable, flexible, and require mass collaboration (DeSanctis and Monge, 1999; Zammuto et al. 2007). The challenges to virtual teams include time difficulties, feedback delays, misinterpretation, cultural barriers, scheduling, and lack of communication and response (Fussell et al. 1998; Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1998; Powell et al, 2004). These challenges if not addressed and managed by the organization can threaten virtual teams’ success and effectiveness (Piccoli et al. 2004). We argue that virtual teams can only thrive if individual team members can overcome the challenges to virtual collaboration and manage to work in a coordinated effort to solve problems together. This suggests the need for an improved understanding of how to create virtual teams that collaborate
While sometimes used interchangeably, a main difference between the two is the degree to which the work is coordinated among individuals. It is noted that collaboration requires higher level of coordination among individuals than cooperation (Dillenbourg, 1999). Previous studies have investigated why virtual team members share their knowledge especially outside the organization boundaries (Bechky, 2003, Wasko and Faraj, 2005). However, collaboration goes beyond sharing information or knowledge through a form of an information system, it’s about working together in a coordinated effort through continuous discussion and communication in order to jointly and collectively solve a problem. In face-to –face setting, Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001) define a team as “a social system of three or more people, which is embedded in an organization, whose members perceive themselves as such and are perceived as members by others, and whose members collaborate on a common task.” Kudaravalli and Faraj (2008) argue that online collaboration has received limited attention in the literature. This study investigates the factors which influence a virtual team member’s intention to collaborate in organizational settings. While prior research on online collaboration has focused on finding new constructs that contribute to online collaboration; this study improves our understanding of how different factors combine to influence an individual’s intention to