TOGETHER BUT STILL ALONE? MITIGATING EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY ON TEAM MEMBERS’ PERCEIVED VIRTUALITY
Journal
Academy of Management
Type
conference contribution
Date Issued
2025
Author(s)
Abstract
The ongoing globalization and technological advancement of organizations, which led to a ubiquitous presence of virtual collaboration, have significantly altered the way teams collaborate. While scholars have addressed the structural virtuality in teams, the understanding of the cognitive-affective side of virtuality is limited. The construct of perceived virtuality, a deficit-oriented state capturing the dimensions of experienced distance and experienced information deficits of team members, captures this facet of virtuality. In this study, we use the social identity perspective to examine the effect of psychological safety on both perceived virtuality dimensions for individual team members. We hypothesize that psychological safety will be negatively associated with the experienced distance and experienced information deficits of these individuals, partially by promoting team identification through constructing a team-inclusive social categorization process. Further, we present reasonings for why these relationships should attenuate under higher job autonomy as a contextual factor. Using a sample comprising 344 individuals working full-time in the United States of America, we show that psychological safety is directly related only to experienced information deficits, while indirectly affecting especially experienced distance. We provide implications for research and practice and outline limitations as well as avenues for future research.
Language
English (United States)
Keywords
Psychological safety
Perceived virtuality
Team virtuality
Team identification
Job autonomy
Social identity theory
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Academy of Management
Volume
2025
Event Location
Copenhagen
Contact Email Address
winfried.ruigrok@unisg.ch
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Name
Ruigrok & Schäfer_Together but still alone.pdf
Size
448.19 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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