The conflicting relationship of two aspects of team virtuality in teamwork: How telework affects teamwork in the workplace

Abstract

This study aimed to examine how workplace teleworking affects teamwork. Teamwork in remote situations has been studied from the perspective of virtual teams and team virtuality. Team virtuality can be classified into two aspects: (1) geographic dispersion and (2) technology use. Telework increases both geographic dispersion and technology use. On the other hand, past studies have not sufficiently examined how these two aspects affect teamwork. In this study, we examined the relationship between the two aspects of team virtuality and teamwork by analyzing two datasets, one at the individual level (Study 1, individual N＝567) and the other at the team level (Study 2, team N＝53). The results of Study 1 revealed that geographic dispersion was negatively associated with teamwork, while technology use was positively associated with teamwork. Study 2 showed a similar overall trend of association, although some aspects did not achieve statistical significance. Telework was positively associated with both geographic dispersion and technology use. In other words, the two aspects of team virtuality were shown to have potentially conflicting effects. Furthermore, Study 1 showed an interaction effect between these two aspects, suggesting that technology may moderate the negative effects of geographic dispersion on teamwork.