Working Here, There, and Everyware: The Impact of Virtual Work on Employee Belonging

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