Gender Relations in Virtual Project Team

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the existing gender stereotypes in virtual project teams and the assessment of the personality characteristics of the team members in terms of desirability and social utility. These stereotypes can influence the perception in work efficiency and the distribution of tasks in developing and implementing the specific professional projects, depending on the gen of participants.Investigated subjects (17 men and 13 women), are students involved in the work process. They were asked to imagine a situation where they are working that coordinators in a team project (educational, social and industrial respective ly). In this situation the subjects are asked to describe, in a first stage, the individuals and the activities / workload of ind ividuals included in the project team. In the second stage, the person characteristics are assessed in terms of their social desirability and social utility.The results follow the evidence of gender bias regarding the type of project and activities of its members. Gender difference is evident in estimating the personal characteristics of team members in terms of their social desirability and social utility.