Team dynamics in virtual, partially distributed teams: Optimal role fulfillment

Social facilitation effects in online coaction: the moderating role of social comparison direction

Online and face-to-face coactions are widely used work organization modes. This study aims to investigate the effect of social comparison direction on task performance when people coact online. A total of 40 individuals were recruited to participate in a 2 (coaction type: online and face to face) × 3 (social comparison direction: upward, downward and no comparison) × 2 (phase: pre-comparison and post-comparison) within-subject experiment. The participants performed visual search tasks while their response time and search accuracy rates were measured. Results showed that the participants were reported to perform faster when they coacted online than face to face. The upward comparison led to a stronger social facilitation effect than the downward and no comparison directions, either in online or face-to-face coaction. These findings provide practical implications in the design of coaction modes for groups and teams working remotely.

Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams at Work: Practical Strategies and Research Suggestions for Human Resource Development

Working in virtual teams has become more prevalent in some industries, especially following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To address rapidly developing markets, businesses are implementing changes in leadership structures, work systems, and technology adoption. Human resource development (HRD) and virtual HRD (VHRD) practitioners and researchers must draw on best practices from previous research regarding virtual teams to help meet organizational needs and changes. Shared leadership is one of the emerging approaches showing promise in tackling complex challenges as it responds to problems by drawing on all members’ expertise rather than on the authority of a few. To understand shared leadership in virtual teams, we conducted a systematic literature review to identify how shared leadership is conceptualized and measured in virtual team research. We also synthesized the antecedents and outcomes of shared leadership in virtual teams. We presented practical remote work strategies and future research suggestions for HRD and VHRD.

Identifying Learners' Interaction Patterns in an Online Learning Community

The interactions among all members of an online learning community significantly impact collaborative reflection (co-reflection). Although the relationship between learners’ roles and co-reflection levels has been explored by previous researchers, it remains unclear when and with whom learners at different co-reflection levels tend to interact. This study adopted multiple methods to examine the interaction patterns of diverse roles among learners with different co-reflection levels based on 11,912 posts. First, the deep learning technique was applied to assess learners’ co-reflection levels. Then, a social network analysis (SNA) was conducted to identify the emergent roles of learners. Furthermore, a lag sequence analysis (LSA) was employed to reveal the interaction patterns of the emergent roles among learners with different co-reflection levels. The results showed that most learners in an online learning community reached an upper-middle co-reflection level while playing an inactive role in the co-reflection process. Moreover, higher-level learners were superior in dialog with various roles and were more involved in self-rethinking during the co-reflection process. In particular, they habitually began communication with peers and then with the teacher. Based on these findings, some implications for facilitating online co-reflection from the perspective of roles is also discussed.

The Sustainable Positive Effects of Enterprise Social Media on Employees: The Visibility and Vicarious Learning Lens

The proliferation of enterprise social media (ESM) has resulted in a research domain focused on its potential influence on the sustainable development of enterprises. Visibility has been increasingly applied as a useful lens through which to explore the effects of ESM. However, most prior research either has not addressed the multi-dimensionality of this concept or has not fully explored its dimensions separately. To bridge this knowledge gap, this paper identifies four categories of visibility to explore how they affect the process of an individual’s vicarious learning. We propose eight theoretical propositions and verify them through a confirmatory case study. The results show that each type of visibility affects the vicarious learning process in its own unique manner. Our research makes significant contributions to the literature by extending the existing implications of vicarious learning and ESM visibility and investigating their relationships, laying a strong foundation for further theoretical work. In addition, our research provides valuable insights and guidance for ESM practitioners.