Virtual collaboration and application support teams : a study of productivity and job satisfaction

Abstract

In the competitive and dynamic business world the business continuity is a key factor. No employee can works for 24 hours continuously. If an employee or a single team can perform 8 hours work and transfer the work to another team to continue from what they stop the business continuity will be followed. In scientific terms this phenomenon is known as the “virtual collaboration” The technology drives the virtual collaboration but behind that there are technical experts who work hand to hand with the latest technology. This research is focusing on these technical experts in software development domain. This is an empirical study of how the job satisfaction of these virtual teams can be achieved and enhanced and how the productivity of the virtual teams can be achieved and enhanced. This study aims at finding out the impact of Virtual collaboration on productivity and job satisfaction of virtual teams (application support engineers) of ten leading software development companies in Sri Lanka. To investigate this, a quantitative empirical study was conducted using a self-designed questionnaire backed by strong literature on the selected convenient sample (n = 88). Then reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) of the questionnaire was determined and the questionnaire was found to be reliable. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. The study reveals that technology and effective communication are significant predictors of productivity and job satisfaction. Further it reveals that the inclusion of moderating factors such as trust, cohesiveness, commitment, health issues, cultural diversity, geographic dispersion, co-ordination of personnel life increase the variance and significantly explained the productivity and job satisfaction. It is, therefore, recommended that the software development companies should focus on independent and moderating factors very seriously when crafting and executing new strategies towards the organizational productivity and job satisfaction of their employees. This will ensure that the virtual teams remain sustainable and continue to make a positive contribution to Sri Lankan economy.