The Effect of Generation Differences on Team Familiarity and Virtual Team Effectiveness in Malaysia

This study aimed to investigate the team factors that influence the work effectiveness of distributed virtual teams in Malaysia and the moderating role of generational differences in the relationship between team familiarity and virtual team effectiveness. This quantitative research study used the questionnaire from Norhanim and Md. Nas’aiman to operationalize virtual team effectiveness measures, and the questionnaires from Maynard and Lucy to operationalize team familiarity measures. Age group categorized by generation cohort was used as one of the demographic questions. This study was conducted on 400 virtual team members in Malaysia using convenience sampling method. There were six hypotheses being tested in this study, in which two models were analysed using Regression Analysis and one model was analysed using Univariate Analysis of Variance Analysis. This research study provides important insight, particularly on virtual team factors that influence their overall team deliverables.