Delivering affectively in virtual environments: ROI and improved productivity (original) (raw)
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Effective affective communication in virtual environments
1999
Studies of communication between entities in virtual environments have tended to focus on the relevant technical issues and its social impact impact. An important component of human communication is the conveying of affective information via voice, facial expression and gestures and other body language. Virtual environments may be populated by representations of human or virtual agent participants. Communications may be between person-person, agent-agent or person-agent.
arXiv (Cornell University), 2022
During the Covid-19 pandemic, online meetings became common for daily teamwork in the home office. To understand the opportunities and challenges of meeting in virtual reality (VR) compared to videoconferences, we conducted the weekly team meetings of our human-computer interaction research lab on five off-the-shelf online meeting platforms over four months. After each of the 12 meetings, we asked the participants (N = 32) to share their experiences, resulting in 200 completed online questionnaires. We evaluated the ratings of the overall meeting experience and conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the quantitative data to compare VR meetings and video calls in terms of meeting involvement and co-presence. In addition, a thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed genuine insights covering five themes: spatial aspects, meeting atmosphere, expression of emotions, meeting productivity, and user needs. We reflect on our findings gained under authentic working conditions, derive lessons learned for running successful team meetings in VR supporting different kinds of meeting formats, and discuss the team's long-term platform choice.
Performing in the virtual organization
This qualitative study examined fifteen organizational members across four international technology companies to discover how they behave and manage daily interactions in a virtual environment within a geographically distributed team. Using a grounded theory methodology, an extensive analysis of the interview data was conducted. Three core themes emerged that focus on the individuals’ attempts to manage impressions in an environment that demands multicommunication. The themes of time stacking, participation predications and performance are discussed in detail using the theoretical lens of impression management.
EXPLORING EFFECTIVE METHODS TO BOOST VIRTUAL WORKERS' MORALE FOR IMPROVED PROJECT PERFORMANCE
International Journal of Professional Business Review, 2024
Background: The continuous advancement of information technology has transformed how businesses and organizations carry out their day-today activities. Many people are choosing to work remotely because they are handling a significant number of human interactions through various virtual communication platforms. Remote work facilitates business growth and improves customer service, yet it presents its challenges, necessitating an investigation into virtual team morale to guarantee project success. Method: This study employed content analysis of readily available secondary data to examine the investigated phenomenon. Results: The study determined that the key elements for enhancing project success in virtual teams are technology adoption, an environment free from distractions, effective leadership, trust, communication, a well-defined task, active team engagement, and motivation. The study also found that morale strongly influences engagement and productivity in virtual teams. Therefore, when morale is high, virtual teams achieve their optimal performance. Conclusion: The research concluded that selecting the suitable technology for communication, assigning virtual team members with distinct roles and responsibilities, fostering a culture of accountability and trust within virtual teams, promoting efficient team collaboration, and motivating virtual team members are the most impactful tactics for enhancing employee engagement and performance in virtual teams.
Fostering work engagement in geographically-dispersed and asynchronous virtual teams
Information Technology & People
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that enable work engagement to develop when asynchronous communication is used in virtual team (VT) projects. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative approach, a longitudinal study of an eight-month long VT project was carried out. Data collected included an extensive e-mail archive, project documentation, observation of team meetings and interviews with project members and leaders. Findings The findings show that VT leaders can actively promote work engagement through the effective use of resources along with appropriate practices that foster its development. They can also sustain and nourish work engagement throughout the different phases of the VT lifecycle project. Research limitations/implications The study has examined work engagement in asynchronous mediated settings. Future work should involve studying the effect of synchronous communications on work engagement within VTs. Practical implications Organization...
2016
The effective use of global virtual teams (GVTs) has become critical to the success of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We explored the practices utilized by a GVT collaborating in a virtual world. We found that GVT team culture and technology possibilities and limitations contributed to situated challenges. The team employed three communication practices to address these challenges: articulating presence, articulating experience, and articulating action. These practices allowed the team to develop mutual representations of action in context to allow their collaboration. Drawing on interactive perspectives on culture, we elaborate on the role of cultural and technological factors in creating situational challenges for GVTs and the role of communication practices in overcoming these challenges. This study contributes to the GVT literature in particular and IB literature in general, by highlighting the utility of dynamic perspectives on intercultural interactions for research on how individuals and groups accomplish tasks across cultural boundaries through technology.
To What Extent Do Affective Events Influence the Performance of Global Virtual Teams
The effect of emotions on team performance is traditionally related to personal interactions. This study aims to advance the theory in global virtual teams (GVTs) by exploring how emotions evolve over time and impact team performance. This study evaluates GVTs working on a business through large data sets capturing interactions and performance steps. We investigate the impact of affective events on the performance of GVTs. The data was collected, and the initial draft of the study was performed before the COVID-19 pandemic ensued. The findings demonstrate that the level of emotions varies over time according to work-related stimuli, such as workload and deadlines, while the high level of emotion displayed-both positive and negative-also influences GVTs and is correlated with teams' performance.
Communication strategies to encourage interactivity in virtual meetings.
Academia Letters, 2022
Facilitating the teaching and learning process in virtual meetings requires a different set of communication techniques than those previously utilized for in-person meetings. We have heard it said: Commanding a Zoom is not the same as commanding a room (Smith, 2020)! For instance, non-verbal gestures, body language, and physical ques, may not easily translate from the physical space to the virtual space. Generally, presentations are about the listener, not about the speaker (Plank, 2016). While this seems to occur more naturally in an in-person setting, our goal is to consider how this translates to virtual environment. Plank (2016) suggests to design the following three components of charismatic communication into your delivery style: 1. Energy: more effectively achieved through warm-up and preparation 2. Engagement: use visual cues to establish a connection with participants 3. Empathy: focus on the needs of your listeners The ability for the instructor, facilitator, or leader to effectively deliver educational content in a virtual setting requires an active retooling of one's skillset from the in-person environment to a virtual setting. This may include establishing a more effective communication flow by practicing communication signals that clearly show engagement and interest in what others are saying. Besides nodding heads, the use of reactions feature (emoticons) can help in signaling agreement or emotions. Similarly, the chat function allows for sharing quick comments to clarify or add information without interrupting the speaker. In turn, these effective communication skills can enhance a facilitator's virtual presence as well.
Team Dynamics in Virtual Spaces
IGI Global eBooks, 2012
Collaboration within virtual environments is an increasingly important aspect of organizational and workplace activities. "Virtual teams" are intentional groups of highly qualified people brought together in a virtual environment in order to capitalize upon each member's unique attributes. In many instances these people represent different organizations, or branches of an organization, who work together virtually to tackle a specific problem or project. This paper examines issues that "virtual teams" encounter and identifies best practices that can positively contribute to effective and efficient teamwork within the virtual environment. The ideas and practices presented may be of value to organizational leaders, planners, human resource professionals, adult educators, and others involved in workforce training.