Extending the faultline concept to geographically dispersed teams

About this book

Members of dispersed work teams can span a number of geographical locations, individually or in subgroups. In fully dispersed teams, each member resides in a unique location, whereas partially dispersed teams are composed of some collocated and some distant members. Some configurations of partially dispersed teams may activate harmful geographical faultlines, diminishing trust and increasing conflict between subgroups in different locations. We drew upon the faultline concept from the diversity literature to conceptualize how member locations may be a source of geographic faultlines and how these faultlines impact team functioning.