Time Pressure, Cultural Diversity, Psychological Factors, and Information Sharing in Short Duration Virtual Teams

The purpose of this research is to examine whether time pressure and cultural diversity influence psychological factors (i.e. motivation, and trust) in virtual teams. We also examine if the psychological factors shape information sharing in these teams. Results of a laboratory experiment on virtual teams indicate that teams exhibited higher motivation and trust under time pressure, and both motivation and trust, in turn, have a positive relationship with information sharing. We also find that national cultural diversity has negative relationship with information sharing. However, information sharing is found to be unrelated to solution quality. Additional statistical analyses demonstrate that sharing of process information is positively related to solution quality.