Cyberbullying in global virtual teams - A thematic analysis

This research investigates the situational vulnerabilities that make global virtual team (GVT) members suitable for cyberbullying (CB) victimization based on routine activities theory (RAT), and the impact of team diversity and communication media on CB victimization, and the consequences on targets and GVTs. Role of GVTs in businesses across the world has become more significant with the advent of Internet and ICTs. Although GVTs have had a vast number of benefits for businesses, they have also brought about challenges that could impede the effectiveness of collaboration and eventually team performance. One of the severe challenges that GVTs encounter has been cyberbullying, an escalated conflict when not handled effectively. In order to ensure methodological rigor, we followed six steps in Braun and Clarke's (2006) qualitative thematic analysis and analyzed a large data corpus composed of comments made by student GVT members. All propositions in the research model were corroborated.