Forced to go virtual. Working-from-home arrangements and their effect on team communication during COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

Working-from-home arrangements have become increasingly important for firms’ work organization. In this context, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to teams that previously did not work virtually being forced to interact and communicate virtually. In this study, we analyze changes in intra-team communication of four teams in a German medium-sized enterprise. Quantitative network analyses of email communication and qualitative analyses of interviews before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 show that flat hierarchies and self-managing processes helped team members to mitigate negative effects due to spatial and temporal dispersion in forced working-from-home arrangements. Moreover, analysis of the teams’ communication networks shows that forced remote work can trigger faultlines to become salient but that team cohesion, identification with the team, and individuals taking on broker roles prevent negative effects of faultlines on team performance. In discussing these findings, our study contributes to the research on coordination and communication in virtual teams by analyzing contextual, organizational, team-related as well as individual factors that explain how and why teams differ in successfully implementing working-from-home arrangements.

The Management of Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams

“…Managers cannot change national cultures but can mitigate their effects, using a range of mechanisms for conforming team members' behaviours that are directly tied to organisational culture, such as organisational values, mission statements, ethical codes, rituals and ceremonies, business structures, strategy, leadership and technology. Organisational culture can be a factor in the integration of CCVTs since it can positively influence team identification, contributing to feelings of ownership and belonging and promoting social cohesion within the CCVT (Maurer et al, 2022). Team identification is a process by which an individual sees the team as part of itself and forms a psychological bond with the group (Connaughton and Daly, 2004).…”

“…MNCs often recur to virtual teamwork to integrate the tasks developed by staff and supporting departments from headquarters, expatriates and local employees distributed in foreign subsidiaries (Henderson et al, 2018). The COVID-19 pandemic caused one of the fastest adaptations in the history of societies, moving many organisations and teams entirely to virtual work (Burkart, 2022;Maurer et al, 2022;Logemann et al, 2022).…”

Examining discrimination in asynchronous video interviews: Does cultural distance based on country‐of‐origin matter?

“…For many organizations, face‐to‐face (FTF) interviews are no longer the only option. Alternative mediums such as using video‐conference software (e.g., Zoom, Teams, and Skype) and asynchronous video interview (AVI) platforms (e.g., HireVue, ModernHire, and Aon VidAssess) for interviewing job applicants are increasingly used in the selection process (Griswold et al, 2021; Maurer & Maurer, 2020). As an example, the two biggest AVI providers, Modern Hire and HireVue, claim to work with over half and a third of the Fortune 100 companies, respectively.…”

“…First, it examines whether findings about how biased decisions based on country of origin or nationality using traditional selection methods (Derous et al, 2012; Petersen & Dietz, 2005; Veit & Thijsen, 2021) also take place in an AVI context. Such an investigation is particularly significant given that the COVID‐19 pandemic has forced many organizations to interview applicants primarily through online mediums (Maurer & Maurer, 2020). Second, extant research has generally compared interviewees from in‐group (e.g., local applicants) versus out‐group (e.g., one type of immigrant).…”

Autonomy and engagement in self-managing organizations: exploring the relations with job crafting, error orientation and person-environment fit

“…The COVID-19 pandemic fueled all these challenges, which caused turbulences in the market but also turned upside down the daily job and family routine for many employees (Kaushik and Guleria, 2020 ; Shirmohammadi et al, 2022 ; Chung et al, 2023 ; Leslie-Miller et al, 2023 ). First studies showed that self-managing processes and flat hierarchies helped handle the COVID-19 challenges, like the sudden remote work (Maurer et al, 2022 ).…”