Keeping Virtual Team Members Engaged in Their Roles: An Impossible Task or a Paramount Necessity for an Increasingly Globalized World

As the world economy and ways of working move in the direction of globalization (Ebrahim et al., 2009), organizations continue to look at ways to move employees into a virtual space (Malhorta et al., 2017). However, overall levels of engagement and job satisfaction tend to be lower in virtual teams (Gurtner et al., 2007), due to a number of factors (Cordey & Soo, 2008). Virtual teams have grown in prominence at such a fast pace, yet there is rather limited knowledge about the appropriate best practices, policies, and procedures that work within this group (De Bruyn, 2017). In addition, with the increases in technology and other platforms of virtual communication, virtual teams will continue to grow in prominence in future years (Dulebohn & Hoch, 2017). This speed has been seen first-hand throughout 2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the conversion of many traditional office roles into virtual, work-from-home, environments (Waizenegger et al., 2020). Therefore, the problem of practice being addressed in this study is the poor employee engagement experiences of individuals working in virtual teams. As these teams become staples in organizations, it is important that organizations understand as much as possible about this population. For this particular study, Employee Tech (ET) served as the organizational foundation, and virtual team members (not managers) served as the group of focus. In order to address this problem of practice, this study relied on the gap analysis framework created by Clark and Estes (2008). In this framework, the assumed needs along the knowledge, motivation, and organizational spheres were hypothesized and tested. Using qualitative methods (interviews primarily, supplemented by document analysis of employee engagement data), this study uncovered the salient components needed for virtual team members to be engaged in their roles. Based on these findings, a set of recommendations was provided and the creation of a new employee engagement plan was outlined. This study served as a first step for the organization to better understand the experiences of virtual team members and create salient and structured actions to improve these experiences, as well as overall employee engagement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]