Person, environment, and virtual work adoption: Back to basics

Virtual work is becoming more and more commonplace in the globalised and increasingly complex business environment. To adapt, many organisations are adopting technologies and policies to implement virtual work practices. However, it is important to understand the potential barriers and facilitators of the take-up of virtual work practices among employees. We present a model and propositions about virtual work take-up, as a function of individual and environmental factors. We argue that individuals' perceptions about their ability to perform under virtual work arrangements (virtual work self-efficacy) and individuals' perceptions about whether the environment is conducive to virtual work (virtual work climate) play central roles in virtual work practice adoption. We conclude by discussing the scholarly and practical implications of our work.

[1]  G. Ekvall.  Organizational climate for creativity and innovation , 1996 .

[2]  Steven D. Caldwell,et al.  Beyond change management: a multilevel investigation of contextual and personal influences on employees' commitment to change. , 2007, The Journal of applied psychology.

[3]  L. James,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL CLIMATE: IMPLICATIONS FROM COGNITIVE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY AND INTERACTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY , 1978 .

[4]  J. F. Veiga,et al.  The impact of superior–subordinate relationships on the commitment, job satisfaction, and performance of virtual workers , 2008 .

[5]  Richard P. Bagozzi,et al.  The Legacy of the Technology Acceptance Model and a Proposal for a Paradigm Shift , 2007, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[6]  Amy Wrzesniewski,et al.  Knowing Where You Stand: Physical Isolation, Perceived Respect, and Organizational Identification Among Virtual Employees , 2012, Organ. Sci..

[7]  Chia-Huei Emily Ko,et al.  Organizational and psychological climate: A review of theory and research , 2008 .

[8]  Yinglei Wang,et al.  Individual Virtual Competence and Its Influence on Work Outcomes , 2011, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[9]  J. Webster,et al.  Comparing traditional and virtual group forms: identity, communication and trust in naturally occurring project teams , 2008 .

[10]  Stephen G. Green,et al.  Leadership self‐efficacy and managers' motivation for leading change , 2002 .

[11]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[12]  Jennifer L. Gibbs,et al.  Unpacking the Concept of Virtuality: The Effects of , 2022 .

[13]  J. Dawson,et al.  Validating the organizational climate measure: links to managerial practices, productivity and innovation , 2005 .

[14]  Icek Ajzen,et al.  From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior , 1985 .

[15]  Young-Gul Kim,et al.  Breaking the Myths of Rewards: An Exploratory Study of Attitudes about Knowledge Sharing , 2002, Inf. Resour. Manag. J..

[16]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Assessing the state of organizational safety—culture or climate? , 1999 .

[17]  Lawrence R. James,et al.  Organizational climate: A review of theory and research. , 1974 .

[18]  L. James,et al.  Integrating Work Environment Perceptions: Explorations into the Measurement of Meaning , 1989 .

[19]  A. Bandura,et al.  Social Cognitive Theory of Organizational Management , 1989 .

[20]  L. James.  Aggregation Bias in Estimates of Perceptual Agreement. , 1982 .

[21]  Lucy Gilson,et al.  Virtual Teams: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here? , 2004 .

[22]  K. Lewin.  Field theory in social science , 1951 .

[23]  William R. King,et al.  A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model , 2006, Inf. Manag..

[24]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. , 1977, Psychological review.

[25]  P. Tierney,et al.  Creative Self-Efficacy: Its Potential Antecedents and Relationship to Creative Performance , 2002 .

[26]  Timothy D. Golden,et al.  The role of relationships in understanding telecommuter satisfaction , 2006 .

[27]  Sumita Raghuram,et al.  Work-nonwork conflict and job stress among virtual workers , 2004 .

[28]  Ellen Ernst Kossek,et al.  Assessing diversity climate: A field study of reactions to employer efforts to promote diversity , 1993 .

[29]  T. Golden,et al.  Does it matter where your manager works? Comparing managerial work mode (traditional, telework, virtual) across subordinate work experiences and outcomes , 2011 .