Abstract:
Virtual teams are increasingly expanding across the workforce facing many
challenges to remain competitive. Like traditional “brick-and-mortar” work forces, there may be challenges within virtual teams that affect organizational
success such as employee engagement, job satisfaction, commitment, leader ship, trust, and knowledge sharing. However, it is uncertain how virtual
teams maintain long-term sustainability. This research study brings together
two constructs, employee engagement and computer-mediated communica tion, to examine their importance and relevancy in virtual team’s effective ness (success). Further, social exchange theory (SET) theoretical foundation
explained employee motivation and satisfaction behaviors. This research em ployed a quantitative, non-experimental explanatory research design and used
two instruments to investigate the relationship between computer-mediated
communication (CMC) competence and employee engagement in telecom muting knowledge workers in the US. To measure dimensions of employee
engagement, the researchers used the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale
(UWES-9) and the Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) competence
model to measure 5 subscales of computer-mediated communication, i.e. ex pressiveness, attentiveness, efficacy, knowledge, motivation. The target popu lation was a random sample of 134 teleworkers. Demographic information
collected included age, gender, education level, and number of years of ser vice. The findings suggest that the most significant predictor of engagement is
attentiveness, followed by expressiveness, and then motivation. Thus, leader ship can engage in telecommuting knowledge workers to increase and max imize productivity.
