1826: Motivation in Virtual Teams: A Dynamic Exploration of Trajectories and Contextual Associations (16130)

Engaging effectively in a virtual team demands a high level of motivation from team members. Yet, little is known about how the motivation of individuals in virtual teams changes over time, particularly in connection to various facets of team context. Employing a problematization approach and social motivation theory, this research adopts a sequential mixed-methods design to delve into the trajectories of motivation of individuals working in virtual teams and their associations with the team context – distinguished between team characteristics and team dynamics. First, a latent class growth analysis on 3,428 individuals nested in 639 virtual teams revealed three distinct trajectories of individual motivation - consistently high, decreasing, and increasing motivation patterns. Whereas varying team dynamics were significantly linked to the diverse motivational trajectories, team characteristics displayed no association with the distinct patterns of individual motivation. Second, findings from a subsequent qualitative study uncovered underlying rationales for these quantitative results. Findings suggest that team characteristics were less consequential for the motivation of virtual team members due to their diminished salience during task-oriented activities. The evolvement of team dynamics and concurrent motivation was contingent on the perceived proximity between individuals and their virtual team. We discuss implications for both theory and practice.

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