VUOROVAIKUTUS, LUOTTAMUS JA YHTEISÖLLISYYS VIRTUAALISISSA TIIMEISSÄ Jenni Kärkkäinen, Jemina Lakkapää & Johanna Trast
Communication, trust and community in a virtual team This thesis examined the concept of establishing and building communication, trust and community in virtual teams. The research questions were; “How managers and employees working virtually can affect building communication in their virtual team” and “what the employee experience is of communication, trust and community when starting to work in a new virtual team”. This topic was chosen as it has become prevalent and even the ´norm´ for companies to move to virtual teams due to covid-19 pandemic. Consequently, there are teams now starting to work in an online environment without ever having met each other face to face. The methodology used for this research was a case study and it was done for the Helsinki Employment Services. The first part of the study is based on a survey provided to employees evaluating their experiences of working virtually and how they felt communication, trust and community has built and been affected by working in their new teams. The second part involved interviews done in three groups; one group for the managers, two groups for the employees. The results were mainly positive. Both the managers and the employees felt trust in the team. However, building a feeling of community has not been easy. Communication was perceived as more difficult within the virtual team in comparison to working in the office. Employees felt at times that it was difficult to reach out and ask for help. They also felt the need for more honest conversations with everyone to resolve any ongoing issues. As a consequence of this thesis, the company has bought new ideas to help them develop and enhance communication, trust and community in the future. Keywords: trust, communication, community, virtual team
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