What: Research article from the Journal of Applied Psychology on antecedents of coworker trust
Posts to which it is related: Transfer of Trust in Virtual Team Collaboration, Building Trust in Virtual Teams, Manipulate Perceptions to Improve Performance in Virtual Teams
Bottom line: Trust between the members of a virtual team is an important requirement for team performance.  How can a leader build trust between members? A few months back, Betsy had provided an answer in a post following her first face-to-face meeting with Angelo: a leader can build trust by trusting the team members and acting as an influential third-party who transfers trust across members. We now have research evidence for this mechanism. The authors of the research article covered here found that coworkers in 32 work groups representing 4 diverse organizations tended to place more trust in fellow coworkers who were also trusted by the teams’ formal leaders than in coworkers who were less trusted by leaders.

What: Research article from the Journal of Applied Psychology on how emotions influence advice taking
Posts to which it is related: What Quick Tips Do You Suggest for Leading Virtually?, Building Social Relationships in Virtual Teams, Spread Your Virtual Smile, Really
Bottom line: In past posts, we have encouraged positive socio-emotional communication (or communication aimed at building relationships and evoking positive emotions) in virtual work or virtual teams. Such communication, we have argued, makes a team more effective by building trust and cohesion within the team. New research suggests another reason: by putting team members in a positive emotional state, such communication is likely to make them more receptive to advice. Virtual team leaders, oftentimes, have to provide advice to team members who lack experience or are failing at something. By first putting such team members in a positive emotional state, a virtual team leader is more likely to make her/his advice stick.

What: eWeek.com article on IBM releasing a virtual desktop bundle.
Posts to which it is related: None
Bottom line:  IBM is aiming to replace Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office suite by providing a virtual desktop bundle. This bundle, which includes the Ubuntu Linux operating system and IBM’s Lotus Suite, will help a virtual worker access collaboration and productivity software from any desktop, laptop, or mobile device. In addition, this bundle is being offered as a solution to reduce costs, a boon for companies facing tremendous financial pressures these days. According to the article, “IBM claims the virtual desktop will yield a 90 percent savings of desk-side PC support and 75 percent savings on security and user administration, not to mention 50 percent on help desk services and software installations from Microsoft-based deployments.”