“Should I Introduce myself?”: Asynchronous semi-guided professional introductions for enhanced perceived team effectiveness in new virtual dyadic teams

Abstract

Achieving effective collaboration and trust has been shown to be harder for virtual vs. in-person teams. Related work has confirmed that introductions are a key mechanism to form trust in newly-formed teams. The rise of remote work necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for accelerating the development of effective collaboration in virtual teams. In response to this need, based on the research around introductions and trust in team settings, we have developed a novel approach for virtual introductions. This is what we term as asynchronous, semi-guided, professional introductions. Participants pre-record an introduction that uses a set of professionally-focused questions and watch these introductions prior to the meeting. Our study examines the impact of these introductions on virtual teams in three conditions: video, text, and no introduction. In this study, we used the Team Diagnostic Survey post-task completion to assess team effectiveness and interpersonal processes of 28 dyads. Thematic coding was used to collect dyads’ experience and engagement. The introduction conditions demonstrated significantly improved collaboration, effectiveness, and engagement amongst participants. Notably, the video condition was particularly well-received by participants and resulted in higher levels of engagement and effectiveness compared to the text and no introduction conditions. Ultimately, the use of these introductions led to a marked increase in trust and collaboration amongst participants. We reflect on the effects of this finding in the mainstream and propose further research to support newly-formed virtual dyadic teams to increase team effectiveness. This study contributes to the existing literature by introducing a novel asynchronous, semi-guided approach to virtual dyadic team introductions, offering insights crucial for contemporary remote work dynamics.