ADVANCED WORKPLACE INSTITUTE

MANAGING THE VIRTUAL WORKFORCE SUMMARY

In association with:

www.cebma.org

Published in June 2020 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

"There will be a long-term adjustment to our collaborative technologies and more ways location strategy. The notion of putting 7,000 to work. Covid-19 has accelerated the notion people in the building may be a thing of the that the workplace is where you work from, past." Jess Staley, CEO of Barclays plc on the not where you go to. Virtual working is here impact of Covid-19 to stay, and this brings serious challenges for managing the modern workforce. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building Directed connected communities the new,” Socrates Organisations are increasingly becoming When we all worked in the office everyday life connected communities - teams of teams was easy. The rich social soup provided an configured and directed to deliver outcomes ‘always on’ flow of subliminal information, a that will create commercial and or societal single physical and psychological context and value (see Figure 1). a support network that made life easy and simple. Relationships were easy to develop, Within such organisations, hierarchical networks strong and things got done at pace is giving way to enthusiastic commitment to and with quality. Cross functional working missions and goals. Organisations increasingly was easy. That was the somewhat inaccurate need to harness their knowledge resources as romantic vision which still persists in the opposed to controlling and ‘managing them’. minds of many. Conventional wisdom held The role of is about creating the that it was impossible to develop relationships conditions for growth and directing the energy. and grapple with difficult challenges unless When people work in a more virtualised everyone turned up in the same office model, old models become more difficult and everyday of their working lives. we need new understandings and practices to deliver success in a virtualised world. But 20 years ago this vision began to dissolve as knowledge workers were equipped with Covid 19 prompts the ultimate virtual laptops, mobile devices and networks that model allowed them to work in a variety of locations with a variety of people at different times. In 2020, as Governments asked citizens to stay Globalisation meant working with people in at home to protect their health services and different geographies, cultures and time zones save lives, organisations sent their knowledge – and people realised that it was possible to workers to work from home. Many had work productively despite being physically worked this way before (although full time remote from colleagues. home working was rare), but large numbers had not. Home working was not even an The fact is that even people working in the endorsed or highly supported way of working same physical building who work together in many organisations prior to this event – but electronically do not know each other and everyone was asked to make the best of the sometimes have never met in person. The situation. Now major organisations – from whole world of work is virtual and getting tech giants such as Google or Twitter – to more so and we’re not going back. Moores Law major banks, law firms and global advertising means we are only going forward with richer agencies – are saying that Covid-19 has

2 changed the way they will work for good, two extremes of working – “all in the office” so more people will spend at least part of vs “all at home” have never been experienced their week working from home rather than side by side before – and this time is providing commuting into a big central office. an opportunity to compare the two conditions. This gives everyone an opportunity to Early indications suggest a mixed picture, but experience the benefits and challenges of there is a lot of encouraging anecdotal as well home working and to refine their practices as more systematically collected feedback so that future choices can be more evidence indicating that traditional concerns about large based. scale home working have proven unfounded. This is not to say that things are perfect, and there is probably room for improvement, but given that there was no opportunity to prepare teams beforehand or embark upon THIS RESEARCH REVEALS THE PRACTICES any supportive , things THAT MAKE THE MOST DIFFERENCE are more encouraging than might have been FOR VIRTUAL KNOWLEDGE WORKER expected. COMMUNITIES – BOTH WITHIN AND BETWEEN TEAMS – ADDING VALUE AT It should also be recognised that while things ALL ORGANISATIONAL LEVELS. are not perfect now, nor were they before. The

Connected Communities

Figure 1: An organisation is a community of connected brains. Individuals bring their skills, expertise and knowledge together to achieve a commercial or societal objective. The ultimate goal is to maximise the energy of each brain; to create the maximum flow of knowledge and enable its fusion (avoiding it becoming silo’d or landlocked in individual brains or teams); thereby creating a connected community irrespective of where people are working.

3 Best available evidence working in the office, but that because of the lower levels of ‘face time’ and immersion in In 2013 the Advanced Workplace Institute a single physical environment, the factors (AWI) formed a rich research partnership with are more difficult to maintain on an ongoing the Centre for Evidence Based Management basis and consequently need a greater and (CEBMa), a global network of top-flight more conscious effort to enable effective academics that teach, preach and practice performance. evidence-based management and decision making. The quest was simple, to establish THE SIX KEY FINDINGS the truth about productivity in the world of knowledge work. CEBMa’s role was to identify 1. Working apart impacts team dynamics, the and rigorously review all the peer reviewed frequency and quality of communications, levels of consensus and conflict, and the academic research on the topic, using their amount and quality of social interaction. All of ‘Rapid Evidence Assessment’ methodology these impact the performance of teams and - designed to establish the best available the outcomes they generate. evidence. The role of the AWI was to contribute real world organisational experience and 2. Successful virtual working requires an understanding of the differencesthat people translate the academic research into business experience, compared to being co-located. To language - creating guidelines and tools for its avoid damage to team performance, people application within organisations. need to respond to the differences and find alternative ways to operate. In 2014 AWI and CEBMa undertook a research 3. Effective virtual teams are determined by the programme on ‘Managing the agile workforce’, strength of their social and cognitive states – i.e. the degree to which they are socially to identify the best strategies for working and cohesive, trust each other, operate within a managing when people are not physically psychologically safe climate and share skills, together - in different geographies, time experience and knowledge freely. zones, shift patterns or simply when they work asynchronously, despite being based in the 4. While all factors interconnect, trust and communication lie at the foundation of same location. cohesion, supervision, communication, the sharing of skills and knowledge, work In 2020, given the increasingly virtual nature relationships and the performance of virtual of work, the Virtual working programme teams. was re-run and combined with the earlier 5. Trust, social cohesion and information sharing research which had been re-run in 2019. seem to be the most potentially vulnerable This has resulted in the most up to date, to damage when people work virtually and comprehensive review of peer reviewed must be consciously understood and actively academic research on the subject anywhere on managed – they can’t be left to chance. the planet. 6. In virtual teams there is potential for everyone to be a leader – they respond well to more The Research: Six Key Findings transformational management styles. This involves creating a strong team structure, The research found that many of the factors empowering and guiding the team, involving them in the development of group goals and that influence the productivity of virtual supporting them in actively reflecting on knowledge workers are the same as for those decision making and outcomes.

4 Managing the Virtual Workforce Model

Figure 2: The model shows the six core factors together with additional elements that help build, sustain and grow them – all drawn from the research base. For example, getting to know people, understanding how to work with different personalities and building a strong team based on sound relationships helps to develop a socially cohesive team.

5 The factors that influence and community performance

Social Cohesion Perceived Supervisory Support

Social cohesion is a shared liking or team Perceived supervisory support refers to how attraction that includes bonds of friendship, people feel the supervisor helps them in times caring about each other, closeness, and of need, praises them for a job well done, or enjoyment of each other’s company. recognises them for extra effort.

In other words - business friendships. The logic This is your perception of how well supported, is simple - the more people you know, and the developed and encouraged you are by your better you know them, the more generous supervisor, be they a line manager, senior they are with their knowledge, enabling you leader or team leader. build a picture of who knows what, within teams and workplace communities. Employees who positively viewed support from their supervisor also experienced higher Social factors such as relationship building, effectiveness, productivity, and lower staff cohesion, and trust are crucial for the turnover. This in turn led to the development effectiveness of virtual teams, which in turn of positive views about support provided by the leads to team satisfaction in terms of its ability, organisation. (Eisenberger et al, 2002) commitment and confidence.(Lin et al 2008) Information Sharing Trust Information sharing refers to the extent Trust is an expectation that someone else’s to which a team utilises the expertise and actions will be to our benefit, or at least not to knowledge of its individual members for the our detriment (and not just based on their self- team’s benefit. interest). In other words, you feel free to openly share This means you feel colleagues have your your knowledge and skills with colleagues, back and you can be open, reveal your true without fear that you will suffer any loss and feelings and be generous with your ideas and that the team will gain as a consequence. knowledge without fear that you will be dis- advantaged. Open information sharing facilitates team processes / outcomes that are arguably more Team trust is most critical for team challenging to handle in virtual settings but performance when team members work in are nonetheless important to team functioning a highly interdependent manner, with other (e.g., cohesion building, cooperation, trust). members who possess unique skills and have (Mesmer Magnus et al, 2011) different levels of authority within the team. (De Jong, 2016)

6 Vision and Goal Clarity External Communications

Vision refers to the organisation’s objectives External communication is the ability and and purpose – what it is trying to achieve. desire to seek information and resources from For people’s work to have meaning, it is people outside the team through fostering important that they understand how their positive relationships. efforts contribute to that overall mission. This is referred to as goal clarity. In other words - get out more. Look outside your immediate world for new stimuli, ideas What this means in reality is that if you and knowledge to add to your own and keep understand the vision and your goals (and that you challenged. they align) - then you can be clear about what you’re doing and commit your energy to the Knowledge worker performance tends to be organisation’s cause. enhanced when their external communication network is diverse – as these acquaintances Long-term goals give direction but also are beneficial for problem solving and locating allow teams enough time to try out different solutions or requisite knowledge. (Burton et al, approaches and hone them down to those that 2012) deliver success. (Simon et al, 2011)

7 APPENDIX

Research Methodology

In conducting the Virtual Workforce research, Level A: randomized controlled studies CEMBa used four databases to identify aca- Level B: non-randomized controlled studies demic studies: ABI/INFORM Global from Pro- with a pretest Quest, Business Source Premier from EBSCO, Level C: controlled studies without a pretest PsycINFO from Ovid, and Google Scholar. The or uncontrolled studies with a pretest search applied the following general search Level D: uncontrolled studies without pretest filters: Level X: expert opinion, non-systematical • Scholarly journals, peer-reviewed reviews of the literature • Published in the period 1980 to 2020 for meta-analyses and 2010 to 2020 for pri- In addition, the following criteria were applied mary studies to further refine the included studies: • Articles in published in English • Studies on the drivers/determinants for the uptake and implementation of virtual An initial search based on keywords identified working over 350 potential studies which were then • Studies on teams working within a virtual screened for relevance using the study titles world and abstracts. In case of doubt or lack of infor- • Studies on virtual student teams or virtual mation, the study was included and duplicate training groups publications were removed. This first phase • Studies on the effect of tools aimed at yielded 16 meta-analyses (a study of studies) supporting virtual teams and 51 primary studies (a standalone study). Second, studies were reviewed and selected This second phase yielded a total number for inclusion in the research findings based on of 10 meta-analyses and 35 primary studies. the full text of the article using these inclusion These 10 meta analyses covered 715 studies, criteria: although there may be overlaps in some areas where original studies have been included in • Type of studies: Focusing on quantitative, >1 meta-analysis study. The number of studies empirical studies within the meta-analysis studies range from 19 • Measurement: Only studies in which to 150. The total number of original studies that relationships among team attributes, con- constitute the research base is therefore c750. textual factors and outcomes were quanti- tatively measured • Context: Only studies related to work- place settings were included • Level of trustworthiness: Only studies that were graded level C or above. The research design of the included studies was systematically assessed and catego- rized according to Campbell’s and Petti- crew’s classification system (Petticrew & Roberts, 2006; Shadish, et al., 2002)

8 Quality and reliability of findings Further reading

The overall quality of the studies included in AWI Research is available on the Advanced each REA is evaluated by CEBMa. Typically, the Workplace Associates website. studies included in the Knowledge Worker Pro- The following links provide access to each ductivity and Agile / Virtual working REAs were broad topic area – where individual blogs on rated moderate to high. This includes good each factor / area of interest can be found. volumes of meta-analyses, which encompass earlier studies and permit a broader critical The original research reports and guidance appraisal of a larger volume of findings and documents are available to all AWI Members. conclusions. Where the meta-analyses include high quality studies, confidence in the results is naturally higher. The Productivity of Knowledge Workers (2013) The objective is, within reason, to identify the https://www.advanced-workplace.com/ best available academic evidence on the topic. category/6-factors-knowledge-worker- This is combined with AWA/AWI’s knowledge productivity/ and expertise to produce practical guidance for organisations. Naturally, caution is always Managing the Agile Workforce (2014) advised if the settings of the studies or the subjects studied do not align closely with https://www.advanced-workplace.com/ knowledge worker populations. That said, we category/managing-the-agile-workforce/ are confident that the results are sufficiently consistent and robust to enable them to form Cognitive Fitness (2015) the basis of the guidance contained in this https://www.advanced-workplace.com/ report. category/cognitive-fitness/

Designing Workplace Experiences (2016) https://www.advanced-workplace.com/awa/ research/whitepapers/

9 Sources

The following is an extract of the studies Fang, C., Limin, Z., & Latimer, J. (2014). How much included in the original research and recent has my co-worker contributed? The impact of updates. anonymity and feedback on social loafing in asynchronous virtual . International Anderson, N., & Salgado, J. F. (2009). Team-level Journal of , 34(5), 652- predictors of innovation at work: a comprehensive 659. meta- analysis spanning three decades of research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1128-1145. Furumo, K., de Pillis, E. and Green, D. (2009) Personality influences trust differently in Bachrach, D. G., Lewis, K., Kim, Y., Patel, P. C., virtual and face to face teams. International Campion, M. C., & Thatcher, S. (2019). Transactive Journal of Human Resources Development and memory systems in context: A meta-analytic Management, 9(1), pp. 36-58. examination of contextual factors in transactive memory systems development and team Golden TD, Barnes-Farrell J and Mascharka P performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(3), (2009) Implications of virtual management for 464. subordinate performance appraisals: A pair of simulation studies. Journal of Applied Social Bijlsma-Frankema, K. M., De Jong, B. A., & Van de Psychology 39(7): 1589–1608 Bunt, G. G. (2008). Heed, A Missing Link Between Trust, Monitoring and Performance in Knowledge Harrison, D.A., Price, K.H., Bell, M.P., Beyond Rela- Intensive Teams. International Journal of Human tional Demography: Time and The Effects of , 19, 19-40 Surface- and Deep- level Diversity on Work Group Cohesion. Academy of Management Journal, 41, Burton, P., Wu. Y., Prybutok, V. R, (2012) (1), 1998, 96-107. Differential Effects of the Volume and Diversity of Communication Network Ties on Knowledge Hülsheger, U. R., Anderson, N., & Salgado, J. F. (2009). Workers’ Performance Transactions On Team-level predictors of innovation at work: a Professional Communication, Vol. 55, No. 3, comprehensive meta- analysis spanning three September, 239-253 decades of research. Journal of Applied Psychol- ogy, 94(5), 1128-1145. De Jong, B. A., Dirks, K. T., & Gillespie, N. (2016). Trust and team performance: A meta-analysis of main Kanawattanachai, P., & Yoo, Y. (2007). The impact effects, moderators, and covariates. Journal of of knowledge coordination on virtual team Applied Psychology, 101(8), 1134. performance over time. MIS Quarterly, 31, 783– 808. Eisenberger, R., Stinglhamber, F., Vandenberghe, C., Sucharski, I., & Rhoades, L. (2002). Perceived Kleingeld A1, van Mierlo H, Arends L. (2011) The supervisor support: contributions to perceived effect of goal setting on group performance: a organizational support and employee retention. meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, Nov; The Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 565–573. 96(6):1289-304.

10 Konradt, U., Schippers, M. C., Garbers, Y., & Steenfatt, Ortiz de Guinea, A., Webster, J., & Staples, D. S. C. (2015). Effects of guided reflexivity and team (2012). A meta-analysis of the consequences of feedback on team performance improvement: The virtualness on team functioning. Information & role of team regulatory processes and cognitive Management, 49(6), 301. emergent states. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(5), 777. Peñarroja, V., Orengo, V., Zornoza, A., (2017). Reducing perceived social loafing in virtual Jarrett, S. M., Glaze, R. M., Schurig, I., Muñoz, G. J., teams: The effect of team feedback with guided Naber, A. M., McDonald, J. N., Arthur, W. (2016). reflexivity:Journal of Applied Social Psychology, The comparative effectiveness of distributed 47(8), 424-435 and colocated team after-action reviews. Human Performance, 29(5), 408-427. Seibert, S. E., Wang, G., & Courtright, S. H. (2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological Lin, C., Standing, C., & Liu, Y.-C. (2008). A model to and team empowerment in organizations: A meta- develop effective virtual teams. Decision Support analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), Systems, 45(4), 1031. 981–1003.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a Simon, M., Stachel, C., Covin, J. The Effects of practically useful theory of goal setting and Entrepreneurial Orientation and Commitment to task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Objectives on Performance. New England Journal Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. of Entrepreneurship; 2011, Vol. 14 Issue 2, 915

McEwan, D., Ruissen, G. R., Eys, M. A., Zumbo, B. D., Turner, J. R., Chen, Q., & Danks, S. (2014). Team & Beauchamp, M. R. (2017). The effectiveness of shared cognitive constructs: A meta-analysis teamwork training on teamwork behaviors and exploring the effects of shared cognitive team performance: a systematic review and meta- constructs on team performance. Performance analysis of controlled interventions. PloS one, Improvement Quarterly, 27(1), 83-117. 12(1).

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Mesmer-Magnus, J. R., DeChurch, L. A., Jimenez- Rodriguez, M., Wildman, J., & Shuffler, M. (2011). A meta-analytic investigation of virtuality and information sharing in teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115(2), 214

11 ADVANCED WORKPLACE INSTITUTE

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