Misattribution and Attributional Redirection in Distributed Virtual Groups

Virtual distributed groups must adapt to a number of sociotechnical characteristics in order to relate positively and work effectively over distance. Short-term groups, in particular, experience considerable difficulty in making the adaptations to systems and partners in virtual teams. When adaptation failures occur, such group members are prone to make attributional judgments about distant partners rather than to consider their own adjustment difficulties. However, by redirecting participants’ attributional attention to situational issues, through experience with local rather than distributed virtual interaction, participants become more effective when they encounter subsequent distributed virtual environments. This report describes the theoretical dynamics and the results of three pilot studies, the data from which, in comparison to one another, begin to substantiate this attributional framework for virtual work groups.