How Motivation Fluctuates During Virtual Team Work: The Role of Team Characteristics and Dynamics

Abstract

Motivation is an essential factor in achieving high-level outcomes in virtual teams (VT). Using a dataset of 3,071 individuals nested in 614 VT, we examine whether distinct individual motivation-change patterns coexist during VT work and how team context (e.g., team characteristics and team dynamics) relates to such motivation-change patterns. Based on a problematization approach and social motivation theory, and using the latent class growth analysis, we identified three distinct classes of individual motivation-change patterns (i.e., constant high motivation, decreasing motivation, increasing motivation) over time. Interestingly, while team dynamics (e.g., transition/action process, collective efficacy, interpersonal process, team cohesion) are related to motivation-change patterns, team characteristics (e.g., the average age of team members, team size, homogeneity of intrateam nationalities, gender diversity) are not related to individual motivation-change patterns in VT. This suggests, in contrast to face-to-face work settings, that team characteristics may play a different role in VT because people do not meet in person. Thus, to improve and/or maintain the motivation of VT members over time, it would be beneficial to focus on task- and relational-focused processes (e.g., team dynamics), regardless of team characteristics.