11th Business & Management Conference, Dubai

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE DEGREE OF VIRTUALITY AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

MILA KACHOVSKA

Abstract:

Organizations are constantly devoting time and financial resources in understanding how to formalize virtual teams and its policies and procedures, how to keep them engaged, how to manage their performance and communication, and how to measure the impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) on their development. This quantitative pilot study assessed the correlation between the degree of virtuality and employee engagement within virtual teams. The sample size of the study consisted of 190 participants. Data showed that the concept of team distribution (a subscale of the degree of virtuality) was reported to have relationship to employee engagement. This provides organizations an opportunity to further explore, develop, reshape, and adapt to endless global presence and engagement. Moreover, data showed that variety of practices (a subscale of the degree of virtuality) predicted absorption (a subscale of engagement). This relationship provides organizations and researchers with the opportunity to investigate the positive and negative aspects of cultural and work diversity within virtual environments. The results of the study and future research will contribute to organizations’ successful engagement, formation, and managing of virtual teams.

Keywords: Virtual teams engagement, virtual teams communication, engaged virtual workforce, remote employees, distributed teams, virtual teams and organizational effectiveness, managing virtual employees, virtual teams in business, international virtual teams

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