Virtual teams and well-being A fascinating project launched in June 2020

Research context

Virtual teams have been an area of cross-disciplinary importance for over two decades. Despite the richness of the virtual team literature, important knowledge gaps still exist. In particular, how virtual teamwork impacts well-being is under-explored, and needs addressing. Using the job demands-resources (JDR) framework, we examine the specific demands that are presented when working in both newly formed and established virtual teams, and the resources that people need to mitigate these demands, in order to work well and effectively.
 

Research question

How do workers in VTs (a) experience work demands, and what do they report these to be, and (b) utilise job resources, and what do they report these to be? How do VT workers’ job demands and resources dynamically interact to influence their subjective experience of well-being? 

Methodology and milestones

A three-phase study

Virtual teams and well-being

 

Research team

  • Almudena Cañibano (ESCP, Madrid campus)
  • Petros Chamakiotis (ESCP, Madrid campus) 
  • Emma Russell (University of Sussex)

Research keytake aways (to be explored further in phase 3)

Virtual teamworking has specific demands (e.g. more meetings, new work processes and reporting mechanisms, learning new tools, etc.) that are added to the existing demands of the job.

Virtual team members experience a decrease in their resources (particularly interpersonal ones).

The combination of increased demands and reduced resources puts virtual team members’ well-being at risk

The increase in demands is more salient for the teams that had to transform into virtual overnight because of Covid-19 and for members of globally dispersed virtual teams.

Daily sensory contact has been found to be a resource that can help virtual team members manage the demands of virtual teamworking.


Key outcomes

External ecosystem

Shared research outputs / Awards and articles

ESCP Impact Paper: 

“Virtual teamwork and employee well-being: The Covid-19 effects.” ESCP Impact Papers, 2020-25-EN [link ]

 

Book chapter: 

“Understanding Well-being in Virtual Teams: A Comparative Case Study.” In: Themistocleous, M., Papadaki, M. (eds) Information Systems. EMCIS 2021. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 437. Springer, Cham.[link]

 

Conference papers: 

“Employee experiences and well-being in rapidly transformed virtual teams.” Accepted at the 82nd Academy of Management (AoM) Annual Meeting, August 5–9 2022, Seattle, WA, USA

“Exploring Well-being in Virtual Teams: Emerging Demands and Daily Sensory Contact.” Submitted to the 43rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), December 9–14 2022, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

 

Campuses