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Organizations in many different industries employ virtual teams in a variety of contexts, including research and development, customer support, software development, and product design. Many virtual teams are geographically and culturally dispersed in order to facilitate around-the-clock work and to allow the most qualified individuals to be assigned to a project team. As such dispersion increases, virtual teams tend to experience greater and more diverse conflict compared to co-located teams. Since the dynamics of virtual team leadership are not yet well understood, research that examines how team leaders alleviate threats to team cohesion and provide strategies for conflict resolution makes significant contributions to the literature. Our study uses a survey-based methodology to examine the perceptions of 159 virtual team members employed by a large U.S. telecommunications corporation and five Korean firms involved in construction, finance, business consulting, sales, and distribution. The study integrates the dynamic model of conflict in distributed teams with the behavioral complexity in leadership theory to investigate the roles that virtual team leaders must effectively employ to reduce various forms of virtual team conflict. Our findings indicate that communication technologies are effective in reducing task conflict; however, the team leader may also mitigate task conflict by assuming the role of monitor. Likewise, process conflict may be abated in the virtual team as the leader performs coordinator activities. An effective virtual team leader exhibits specific roles to manage different types of conflict and the leader's response to conflict plays an important part in virtual team success. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Intrinsic motivators of technology beliefs have received scant attention in the technology acceptance literature despite indications of their efficacy. This study uses the framework of TAM to explore the effect of intrinsic variables on technology beliefs and user behavior. Specifically, we examine the effect of cognitive absorption and playfulness on user beliefs including perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness within the context of mobile devices. Moreover, we manipulate the hedonic and utilitarian purpose of the mobile device to determine how the nature of the device influences user beliefs. Findings indicate that cognitive absorption and user playfulness significantly impact beliefs and that the hedonic or utilitarian orientation of the technology has implications for maximizing use.

Website designers are beginning to incorporate social cues, such as helpfulness and familiarity, into e-commerce sites to facilitate the exchange relationship. Website socialness elicits a social response from users of the site and this response produces enjoyment. Users patronize websites that are exciting, entertaining and stimulating. The purpose of our study is to explore the effects of website socialness perceptions on the formation of users' beliefs, attitudes and subsequent behavioral intentions. We manipulate website socialness perceptions across two different online shopping contexts, one for functional products and the other for pleasure-oriented products, and draw from the responses of 300 Internet users. Our findings show that website socialness perceptions lead to enjoyment, have a strong influence on user intentions and these effects are invariant across shopping contexts.

Monitoring agencies continue to express concern over the use of unlicensed business software in organizations because of the ethical, legal, and financial implications of noncompliance. We constructed a multiple mediation model based on protection motivation theory in order to examine the threat and coping evaluation processes of employees regarding software license compliance. The responses of 138 organizational employees were used to empirically test the research model. The research model helps explain why compliance awareness influences compliance attitudes and behavior. The empirical findings indicate that compliance attitudes result from both consequence and coping appraisals with ethical beliefs having a stronger influence on compliance attitudes compared to the threat of sanctions. Furthermore, awareness drives the formation of threat and coping beliefs and directly influences attitude. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings that will enable organizations to meet the compliance challenge.

Globally distributed teams are becoming more common among organizations that seek to maximize knowledge creation and innovation for competitive advantage. Although they are becoming widely used among global organizations, distributed teams are creating an environment replete in cultural and functional diversity. Whereas synergy among members is desired, diversity is likely to hinder team cohesion and individual performance. Our study models and empirically tests the effect of perceptions of diversity on trust, cohesion, and individual performance in actual globally distributed teams. The results indicate that individual productivity is negatively influenced by the extent of diversity within a team; however, this liability may be restrained if an environment of trust is encouraged and team cohesion develops.

Within the context of the initial Trust Building Model (TBM) of McKnight et al. (39), we examine specific factors related to Web site quality and structural assurance. Our model is tested using an actual Web site and consumers experienced in e-commerce. Findings show that consumer perceptions of certain cognitive cues (i.e., communication, opportunism, product brand equity, Web site attractiveness) are important predictors of initial trust in an e-retailer. However, Web assurance structures are less important in the formation of initial trust and purchase intentions. It is important in the development of Web assurance and consultative services to address pertinent trust issues by offering specific Web site solutions.

Organizations in many different industries employ virtual teams in a variety of contexts, including research and development, customer support, software development, and product design. Many virtual teams are geographically and culturally dispersed in order to facilitate around-the-clock work and to allow the most qualified individuals to be assigned to a project team. As such dispersion increases, virtual teams tend to experience greater and more diverse conflict compared to co-located teams. Since the dynamics of virtual team leadership are not yet well understood, research that examines how team leaders alleviate threats to team cohesion and provide strategies for conflict resolution makes significant contributions to the literature. Our study uses a survey-based methodology to examine the perceptions of 159 virtual team members employed by a large U.S. telecommunications corporation and five Korean firms involved in construction, finance, business consulting, sales, and distribution. The study integrates the dynamic model of conflict in distributed teams with the behavioral complexity in leadership theory to investigate the roles that virtual team leaders must effectively employ to reduce various forms of virtual team conflict. Our findings indicate that communication technologies are effective in reducing task conflict; however, the team leader may also mitigate task conflict by assuming the role of monitor. Likewise, process conflict may be abated in the virtual team as the leader performs coordinator activities. An effective virtual team leader exhibits specific roles to manage different types of conflict and the leader's response to conflict plays an important part in virtual team success.

Research exploring the Machiavellian personality trait shows it is often a significant variable influencing career choice and behavior in the workplace. This study proposes a number of research questions examining the relationships between the Machiavellian trait and accountants' demographic characteristics, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and ethical ideology. Findings indicate that, in general, accountants participating in this study are significantly less Machiavellian than vocational groups participating in previous studies. However, accountants higher in the trait appear to be less satisfied with accounting as a career and tend toward a relativistic ethical stance. Findings suggest that Machiavellian behavior is not required to achieve success in the accounting profession, and the promulgation of ethical standards should sustain a high level of integrity in a profession characterized by idealism.

The SANS Institute indicates that weak or nonexistent passwords are among the top 10 most critical computer vulnerabilities in homes and businesses. A compromised password is an opportunity for someone to explore files and accounts, and even obtain administrative privileges, undetected. Security experts at the SANS Institute predict major liability lawsuits for companies whose computer systems exhibit security lapses. Security breaches not only put firms at risk of litigation for failing to protect confidential information, they can also lead to financial losses. Passwords are commonly used to gain access to websites storing confidential financial information. The most common password vulnerabilities include user and administrative accounts with weak or nonexistent passwords and the lack of company policy to adequately protect passwords. Effective measures to reduce network vulnerability and increase security include the implementation of policies that outline important password habits, and proactive verification of password integrity.