Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Daniels College of Business

First Advisor

Sung Soo Kim

Second Advisor

Cindi Fukami

Third Advisor

Valerie Bartelt

Fourth Advisor

Sarah Watamura

Keywords

Belongingness theory, Collaborative technologies, Employee belonging, Virtual employee, Well-being

Abstract

Globalization, improvements in information and communications technologies, and the COVID-19 outbreak have increased the prevalence of virtual work arrangements. This change in the workforce presents both opportunities and challenges to employees and their organizations, transforming how organizations operate and how workers interact with each other. This shift to more virtual work has a high likelihood of impacting other fundamental human motivations, such as the need to belong, which has significant implications for an employee’s well-being and the broader organization’s health. This study asks the question: How do collaborative technologies impact virtual employee belonging? The study proposes a conceptual framework of virtual employee belonging using the lens of belongingness theory and tests hypotheses by surveying employees with varying degrees of virtuality to investigate how the use of collaborative technologies impacts their sense of belonging. Results show that collaborative technology use will buffer the adverse effect of virtuality on employees’ sense of belonging, which has important implications for business practitioners managing virtual employees.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Martha Davis

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

151 pgs

Discipline

Business administration

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