Drivers of Employee Engagement in Global Virtual Teams

Abstract

Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) comprise geographically distributed groups of people collaborating with each other through technology-mediated communication. Members of GVTs are from different cultural backgrounds and time zones, who may (or may not) meet in person to take complex decisions or to deliver on the tasks that are of strategic importance. Though technology has enabled GVTs in almost all multinational organisations across all industries, keeping the members of GVTs engaged over the duration of the team's task or project could still pose a challenge for organisations. Employee engagement is defined as an employee's cognitive, behavioural and physical state directed towards organisational outcomes. While employee engagement has been researched in a collocated team context, it remains an under-researched area in the context of GVTs. Given that there are several characteristics of GVTs which are distinct from the collocated team, it warrants a separate inquiry, which we undertake in this study. This study uses the Job Demands-Resources theory of employee engagement to derive the drivers of employee engagement in GVTs. Through interpretive analysis of the lived experiences of members working in an organisation which extensively uses GVTs for achieving its strategic goals, we conceptualise five drivers of employee engagement, namely, cultural intelligence, communication (formal and informal), technology, trust and individual maturity.

Sustainable Virtual Teams: Promoting Well-Being through Affect Management Training and Openness to Experience Configurations

“…Diversity may have positive effects on team results [12][13][14][15]. Nevertheless, due to the reduced richness of the information exchange and interpersonal contact [10], diversity can also have also negative consequences [16]. Individuals may look for other members within the virtual team with whom they share characteristics, thus leading to team fragmentation.…”

“…In this setting, the job demands-resources model [29] provides a useful framework for studying virtual teams' sustainability [16]. Moreover, this model has been used to study well-being in educational environments [30] and the implementation of innovative teaching methods (e.g., instructional technological tools) [31,32].…”

“…Moreover, this model has been used to study well-being in educational environments [30] and the implementation of innovative teaching methods (e.g., instructional technological tools) [31,32]. Virtualization of work processes could increase technology-induced demands [33], at least in the short term, as well as emotional demands [16], leading to negative outcomes [34]. In fact, technology has mainly been studied in terms of its role as a barrier, rather than an asset, in telework and virtual teamwork literature [5].…”

“…In parallel, if members lack the proper skills and knowledge resources, the motivational process is hampered [34,35]. This demands-resources imbalance reduces team members' energy and motivation and increases their cognitive effort, producing exhaustion and disengagement [16,34]. In brief, working in virtual teams with faultlines could reduce their eudaimonic well-being.…”

Learning in Global Virtual Teams: A Practitioner’s View

“…GVTs comprise of geographically distributed groups of people collaborating through technology-mediated communication (Martins & Schilpzand, 2011). These teams could comprise of members from different cultural backgrounds who may or may not have met in person during their association to work as a team (Shaik & Makchech, 2019). The structure for such teams has been evolving to effectively bridge the delivery teams with the customer such that there is a cost/time advantage without foregoing expected quality outcomes and thereby ensuring customer satisfaction and repeat business.…”