Trust and knowledge-sharing factors in the context of efficiency of virtual teams

Abstract

Virtual teams, as a group of people who perform work interdependently with the division of responsibilities in the outcomes of work tasks, significantly rely on technology that supports their communication and everyday work. The topic of this paper is the research on the connection between trust factors (individual, institutional and cognitive) and knowledge sharing in a team in the context of the efficiency of virtual teams. For this purpose, a correlation-regression study was conducted on a non-random sample of 132 respondents consisting of employees from teams that function exclusively as virtual, multicultural and multinational. Also, the mediator effect of knowledge sharing factors concerning trust, and efficiency of virtual teams were examined. The obtained results confirmed that all dimensions of trust - individual and institutional and cognitive trust are important for the efficient functioning of virtual teams. Contrary to the created hypotheses, it was shown that the factor of knowledge sharing in virtual teams is not a predictor of trust or efficiency of virtual teams.