Boundarylessness and sleep quality among virtual team members – a pilot study from Germany

Abstract

Background In the course of globalisation and digitalisation, new ways of work are becoming increasingly prevalent. To remain competitive as an organisation, cooperation across time, place, and organisational boundaries is becoming necessary. Virtual teamwork offers these advantages, but can also be both, an opportunity and a burden, for employees. This pilot study aims to gain first insights into job demands and resources in virtual teamwork to provide a basis for further research from which appropriate health promotion and prevention measures can be derived. Methods In this pilot study, an online questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between boundarylessness as a job demand, psychological detachment as a personal resource, as well as perceived stress and sleep quality as health outcomes among 46 virtual team members from Germany. Data collection lasted from October 2019 to January 2020. Validated scales were used for the questionnaire, except for virtuality. Due to insufficient operationalisation to date, a virtuality scale was developed based on the current state of research. The data were analysed with ordinal logistic regression analyses and median split t-tests. Results The results indicate that perceived stress impaired sleep quality of virtual team members in this sample. In contrast, successful psychological detachment from work was positively related to sleep quality. A higher degree of virtuality coincided with higher levels of boundarylessness. Virtual team members with leadership responsibility showed higher levels of psychological detachment. Conclusion The present pilot study breaks ground and provides initial insights into the relationship between virtual teamwork and employee health in the German context. Further research, particularly on job demands in virtual teamwork, is needed to derive concrete health promotion and prevention measures.

Evaluation of anxiety, depression and sleep quality in full-time teleworkers

“…The lack of a clear separation from the worker’s personal and family space results in an increase in working hours into the night, stress, loss of regular social and professional schedules finally resulting in sleep cycle dysregulation and impairment of sleep quality. 35 …”

“…Evidence that successful psychological detachment in virtual teams enables the setting of work-personal life boundaries, and positive correlation to sleep quality is an example of how research on this topic is essential to improve working conditions of remote workers. 35 …”

The Work-Home Border Accounting System: A Function of Psychological Detachment

“…Information communication technologies usage during COVID-19 work-from-home enables permeability or interruption in the home domain. Specifically, excessive information communication technologies usage during COVID-19 work-from-home induces stress in employees (Rohwer et al, 2020). ICTs use at home causes extended work hours and encroachment of work into private territories, i.e., work-life conflict (Arlinghaus & Nachreiner, 2014).…”

“…Employees encountered difficulties in detaching from work and balancing work and home obligations (Žiedelis, Lazauskaitė-Zabielskė, & Urbanavičiūtė, 2021). Virtual work presents opportunities but can also be burdensome for employees because it interferes with space and time (Rohwer, Kordsmeyer, Harth, & Mache, 2020). Working from home causes difficulties in attaining psychological detachment because of the absence of physical distinction between work and home.…”

Liderazgo de equipos virtuales: estudio bibliométrico

“…El liderazgo en equipos virtuales es una nueva forma de interactuar, la cual cada vez es más frecuente, por dinámicas como la globalización y la digitalización (Cascio y Montealegre, 2016; Gibson y Gibbs, 2006). Estas formas de trabajo son cada vez más esenciales para la competitividad de la organización; se requiere implementar ventajas diferenciadoras como las que ofrece el trabajo en equipo virtual (Rohwer et al, 2020), tal como lo formula Cerón (2015) en relación a los ambientes virtuales, los lazos sociales potencializados por las TIC, permite la democratización del saber, la versatilidad de la inteligencia nómada y la producción de saberes significativos.…”