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Organizational control in the context of remote working: A synthesis of

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DOI: 10.1111/emre.12515

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Organizational control in the context of remote working: A

synthesis of empirical findings and a research agenda

Tommasina Pianese1 | Luisa Errichiello1 | Joao Vieira da Cunha2

1
Italian National Research Council (CNR),
Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean
(ISMed), Naples, Italy
2
IESEG School of Management, Lille, France
Correspondence
Luisa Errichiello, Italian National Research
Council (CNR), Institute for Studies on the
Mediterranean (ISMed), Via Guglielmo
Sanfelice, 8, Naples 80134, Italy.
Email: luisa.errichiello@cnr.it
Abstract
The increasing diffusion of remote working puts organizational control in the
foreground. As employees work at a distance from traditional offices and/or are
geographically dispersed, companies are called upon to influence their willingness
to act in accordance with a company’s vision, values, and objectives. To date, a
comprehensive understanding of how organizational control is implied in remote
work arrangements (RWAs) is still lacking. To fill this gap, a research synthesis—
that is, a systematic review of 131 studies that empirically investigated this issue—
is carried on. The analysis is not limited to direct forms of control (e.g., output
control) but also includes managerial practices as well as actions enacted by
employees that influence the dynamics of control, acting as indirect levers of con-
trol. Findings were presented and discussed in relation to five “control domains”:
control systems, supervisory management styles, trusting relationships, organiza-
tional identification, and work identity in RWAs.

KEYWORDS
literature review, mobile work, organizational control, remote work, telework, virtual teams

INTRODUCTION work disruption (Richter, 2020). A significant number of

Advances in information and communication technolo-
gies (ICTs) have allowed an increasing number of organi-
zations to adopt different typologies of remote work
arrangements (RWAs). These can be distinguished
according to an individual (e.g., home-based telework
and mobile work) or group perspective (virtual teams).
Notwithstanding their features, all RWAs involve
employees spending working hours far from their col-
leagues and/or managers and relying on electronically
mediated communication (e.g., emails and videoconfer-
encing) to interact with them.
The Coronavirus pandemic has forced a significant
number of organizations worldwide to introduce remote
working (Toniolo-Barrios & Pitt, 2020). A large work-
force has been called in the first months of 2020 to rap-
idly change their work routines shifting from traditional
office-based to RWAs and increasingly relying on digital
tools, like collaboration and videoconferencing, to avoid
firms have already announced their serious interest in
embracing these ways of working in the aftermath of the
Covid-19 pandemic and investments in remote work pro-
grams are among the priorities in their digital agenda for
the near-next future (Errichiello & Pianese, 2021).
The adoption of RWAs triggers a complex process of
organizational change. This partly unfolds in a prescribed
way, reflecting deliberate decisions by executives, and is
partly socially constructed and emerges as managers and
employees behave based on their goals and expectations
along with opportunities and constraints (Errichiello &
Pianese, 2016). However, especially for firms lacking pre-
vious experience, the suddenness of remote working
adoption due to Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult for
organizations to adequately prepare managers to lead in
a virtual work environment (Newman & Ford, 2021) and
employees to work remotely (Mangla, 2021). This means
that in the “new normal” of the post-COVID era, organi-
zations are called to effectively manage the transition

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© 2022 The Authors. European Management Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Management (EURAM).

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2 PIANESE ET AL.
towards RWAs through adequate planning and innova-
tion in organizational structures, enabling technologies,
managerial practices, and resources (De et al., 2020;
Errichiello & Demarco, 2020; Richter, 2020).
Literature on RWAs has pointed out that physical
distance from offices raises questions about how remote
workers should be controlled, with organizations and
managers being called upon to orientate these work
transformations in order to maintain the alignment of
individual and organizational objectives (e.g., Lautsch
et al., 2009). This concerned not only organizations that
recently implemented remote working but also those
organizations where remote working was the ordinary
work arrangement.
Despite being considered a relevant challenge by
managers (e.g., Kurland & Cooper, 2002; Kurland &
Egan, 1999), we still lack a comprehensive understanding
of the relationship between organizational control and
RWAs—that is, how working remotely influences how
organizations exercise control so that employees act in
accordance with company’s goals.
We filled this research gap through a research synthe-
sis—that is, a systematic review aimed at providing a
novel picture of knowledge on organizational control in
RWAs through the aggregation, interpretation, and criti-
cal analysis of 131 empirical studies (Tranfield
et al., 2003). In this regard, we have adopted a broad
interpretation of organizational control, and our analysis
does not limit to direct forms of control (e.g., output con-
trol) but also includes managerial practices as well as
actions enacted by employees that influence the dynamics
of control, acting as indirect levers of control.
This paper responds to recent calls for boosting orga-
nizational control research (e.g., Cardinal et al., 2017;
Sitkin et al., 2020). This research synthesis reinvigorates
knowledge in the under-researched context of remote
working and provides an integrated overview of the
implications of physical distance on organizational con-
trol. From a practical perspective, the focus on empirical
studies secures the academic rigor while also being help-
ful to practitioners by providing them with concrete
answers to control-related issues (McGahan, 2007).
The study is articulated so as to present our conceptu-
alization of organizational control, describe the review
method, and then provide a critical analysis of how phys-
ical distance implied in working remotely influences orga-
nizational control according to five control domains. In
the last sections, we present unlocked questions that need
further investigation and conclusive remarks.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL: AN
EXTENDED PERSPECTIVE
Organizational control—that is, set of mechanisms aimed
at aligning employees’ capabilities, activities, and perfor-
mances to organizational aspirations and objectives—has
been broadly interpreted in this study (Errichiello &
Pianese, 2016; Sitkin et al., 2010). Specifically, we do not
limit to consider direct forms of control (e.g., output con-
trol). We also include indirect levers of control enacted
top-down by managers (e.g., leadership style) and organi-
zations (e.g., organizational identification), as well as
bottom-up by remote workers. Although some managerial
practices and organizational structures may not be aimed
at exerting control, they are likely to influence employees’
willingness to act in accordance with a company’s vision,
values, and objectives. Similarly, employees influence the
dynamics and efficacy of organizational control also based
on the way they appropriate of all technologies, not only
those designed for monitoring purposes.
This perspective on control resonates with theory of
structuration (Giddens, 1984), which conceptualizes struc-
ture and agency as mutually constitutive, that continu-
ously interact and reciprocally influence. In this regard,
employees play an agential role and through their engage-
ment they reproduce and transform control structure
(Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). Employees influence the
control by monitoring themselves (i.e., self-control) and
their colleagues (i.e., peer control) and taking actions that
influence the efficacy of organizational and managerial
control (e.g., by refusing to fill out reports). In so doing,
they are affected by their perception of the context in
which they are embedded (Kennedy et al., 2021). Organi-
zational control is thus not only a coercive function to
enhance efficiency but also a consequence of human sense-
making and meaning-giving processes (Sitkin et al., 2010).
Following we describe the “control domains,” that is,
conceptual categories that coherently with the proposed
perspective on organizational control have been used in
this study to deeper its understanding. These are (1) con-
trol systems; (2) supervisory management styles;
(3) trustingrelationships; (4) organizational identification
(aimed at control); and (5) work identity (aimed at
control).
Control systems
A control system refers to the set of direct mechanisms
through which organizations seek to align employees’
capabilities, activities, and performance to organizational
aspirations and goals (e.g., Sitkin et al., 2010). The litera-
ture has identified several mechanisms
(e.g., Ouchi, 1977)—notably: behavior control, exercised
through the definition of rules and procedures regulating
task execution; output control (intended as synonym of
management by objectives or MBO), focused on measur-
able objectives assigned to employees; peer control,
exerted by colleagues; self-control, when employees self-
regulate to achieve goals; and clan control, based on
shared norms, beliefs, and values within a group that
push individuals to reciprocally commit to socially pre-
scribed behaviors.
PIANESE ET AL.
Whereas some mechanisms (e.g., output control) tar-
get individual actions, others (e.g., clan control) seek to
affect norms, beliefs, and values. In this regard, a distinc-
tion is made in the literature between (a) technocratic con-
trol, acting on individual behaviors through the
identification of procedures and/or objectives that limit
the employees’ ability to influence the control structure;
and (b) socio-ideological control, based on shared mean-
ings that justify some actions, while discourage others
whereby the organizations delegate the employees to con-
trol his or her own work (i.e., self-control) and that of
colleagues (i.e., peer control) with whom he or her share
a set of values (i.e., clan control) (Alvesson &
Karreman, 2004).
According to our perspective on organizational con-
trol, although control systems decisions are established
by organizations, their implementation is mediated by
managers’ interpretations and understanding of
established organizational structures. Indeed, they can
exploit their role and position to influence how control is
enacted in practice, for example, by negotiating targets
assigned to employees.
Supervisory management styles
Managers’ attitudes and behaviors indirectly can foster
the alignment of individual and organizational aspira-
tions and goals by affecting employees’ expectations, per-
formance, and satisfaction (e.g., Pfeffer & (Karreman & Alvesson, 2004), so that their actions are in
Salancik, 1975).
Managers are seen by employees as organizational
agents because they are responsible for implementing
monitoring norms and procedures as defined at the orga-
nization level (Kurtessis et al., 2017; Rouleau &
Balogun, 2011). At the same time, they influence organi-
zational control through their behaviors implied in
(a) the leadership style, which is also influenced by the
expectations from subordinates, bosses, and peers that
lead them to behave in a given way (Yukl &
Falbe, 1991); and (b) the relationships established with
subordinates that encourage them to adhere to rules and
norms of organizational control (Kurtessis et al., 2017).
Trusting relationships
Trust is a psychological state reflecting a trustor’s
(e.g., manager’s) positive expectations about intentions
or behaviors of a trustee (e.g., an employee)—that is, his
or her ability, competence, or willingness to fulfill the
commitments to the trustor (Mayer et al., 1995). It
encompasses both a vertical dimension, that is, trustwor-
thy relationships between the manager and his or her sub-
ordinate, and a horizontal dimension, that is, trust-based
relationships among colleagues. The trust–control nexus
has been investigated according to a “substitution” or a
3
“complementarity” perspective. The former views trust
and control as alternative choices; that is, trust is the pre-
mise for flat organizations and is associated with
employees’ empowerment; the latter assumes that trust
and control are both necessary and reinforce each other
(Costa & Bijlsma-Frankema, 2007). Clearly, next to man-
agers, also employees can deliberately act to build trust
and maintain trusting relationships with both their man-
agers and colleagues.
Organizational identification (aimed at control)
Organizational identification has been defined as the
individual’s perception of belongingness within an orga-
nization (Ashforth & Mael, 1996). It includes a cognitive
and an affective component—that is, individual under-
standing about being a member of a social group
together with the emotional meaning attached to that
membership. It can be analyzed as a top-down process—
that is, how organizations influence individuals through
sense-breaking and sense-making aimed at fostering iden-
tification with an organization—and as a bottom-up
process—that is, employees’ thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors enacted to negotiate the boundaries between
the self and the organization (Ashforth et al., 2008).
Organizational identification acts as an indirect lever of
control, as it impacts on employees’ motivations and pro-
motes coordination and convergent expectations
accordance with a company’s vision, values, and objec-
tives (Ashforth & Mael, 1996).
Work identity (aimed at control)
Work identity explains who a person is and why he does
what he does, including “why he joins organizations and
why he voluntarily leaves, why he approaches his work
the way he does and why he interacts with the others the
way he does during that work” (Ashforth et al., 2008). It
is related to the concept of identification that requires
that an individual recognizes his identity in terms of
membership to the organization.
Work identity can act as a “pervasive and intentional
modality of organizational control,” as it favors the self-
positioning alignment of individual and organizational
objectives (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002; George &
Qian, 2010). Specifically, employees’ self-positioning
(and thus control) is pursued through the process of “reg-
ulation of identity,” which is affected by the organiza-
tional culture, the managerial practices (e.g., discourses
about work) along with the individual patterns of self-
identity formation and transformation.
Figure 1 reports how the five control domains
regulate—also acting simultaneously—the dynamics of
organizational control. The key agents of this dynamics
4 PIANESE ET AL.
FIGURE 1 An extended perspective on organizational control. (1)–(5): Control domains
are the organization, managers, and employees. Each
type of control consists of upward and downward flows
between managers and employees because each control
requires employees to reproduce the conditions necessary
for it to be effective. Moreover, in the proposed frame-
work, technology plays a transversal role, because it can
work as enabling or constraining for each domain of con-
trol in relation to its material and design features as well
as specific ways in which those features are appropriated
by workers to enact control.
REVIEW METHOD
Several methodological approaches have been developed
to synthetize research findings (Hoon, 2013; Sandelowski
et al., 2012; Tranfield et al., 2003).
We embraced a “research synthesis” that “entails the
arrangements of thematically diverse empirical findings
into a coherent theoretical rendering of them. Although
their relationship may not be immediately evident, find-
ings are viewed as potentially related. Researchers link
findings, even though these links may not have been
addressed in any of the studies reviewed” (Sandelowski
et al., 2012). The aggregation, interpretation, and critical
analysis of existing studies enable to provide a novel pic-
ture of state-of-the-art knowledge on a specific
phenomenon.
The process of selecting studies to be included in this
review involved several stages. As for the selection of
keywords (Tranfield et al., 2003), each author identified
terms used in literature to refer to both RWAs and orga-
nizational control. After comparison, authors agreed on
30 keywords to use for the subsequent database search
(Table 1). The selection of keywords was made on the
basis of two criteria: (1) the rich variety of terms used in
the literature to refer to one or more typologies of RWAs
(notably telework, mobile work, and virtual teams) and
(2) a broad conceptualization of organizational control
that we decided to adopt in this study coherently to the
objective of this review.
Each keyword from Group A (referring to RWAs)
was combined with keywords from Group B (concerning
organizational control). The 200 search strings were first
used to retrieve documents from the Elsevier Scopus
database, one of the largest databases of peer-reviewed
business literature (Levine-Clark & Esther, 2008).
Following a search on titles, abstracts, and keywords,
limited to the subjects “Business, management and
accounting” and “Social area,” 2747 documents were
found as of November 2020. This large number of hits
was systematically brought down through an ad hoc pro-
cess that aimed at selecting only academic studies relying
on a qualitative, quantitative, or a mixed methodology to
empirically investigate control-related issues in RWAs.
All authors individually read the abstracts (or full texts
when necessary), and then they compared their judge-
ments to decide which studies to include in the research
synthesis (Tranfield et al., 2003). Studies considered not
relevant for the research objective or having a theoretical
PIANESE ET AL.
TABLE 1 List of keywords for database search
Group A (n. 20) Group B (n. 10)
virtual work*; virtual office; control; supervis*; leadership;
virtual employee; remote monitor*; surveill*; power;
work*; remote office; remote identity; identification;
employee; telework*; empower*; trust
distributed work*; home-
based work*; flexible work*;
smart work*; mobile work*;
telecenter; telecentre;
telecottage; virtual team;
remote team; distributed
team; technology-mediated
work; nomadic work
or conceptual nature were deliberately excluded. More-
over, authors also excluded works where (a) empirical
investigation was focused on students and (b) the concept
of flexibility was exclusively referred to the flexi-time
dimension (e.g., part-time) but not to the flexi-space one.
The overall process of literature screening and selection
resulted in 122 papers.
As a second step, authors used the same search strings
to extend document retrieval to the following relevant
databases for business literature: Jstor, Web of Science
Core Collection, and ScienceDirect. This extended search
was carried on to ensure that the literature review did not
leave out relevant works dealing with control-related
issues in RWAs. As the objective was to integrate the lit-
erature ranked in Elsevier Scopus database, authors lim-
ited to research articles published in the subject
“management and organizational behavior” in the period
2010–2020. By applying these search filters, authors
retrieved 237 papers on Jstor, 43 papers on Web of Sci-
ence Core Collection, and 2176 papers on ScienceDirect.
By reading the title and abstract, authors first removed
any duplicates, then they considered the exclusion criteria
set at the beginning of the search process
(e.g., conceptual paper), and finally, they checked for rel-
evant references. This activity enabled to identify nine
additional papers addressing organizational control
in RWAs.
In the end, 131 empirical studies were included in the
research synthesis, which was largely representative of
work in the area of interest.
As for data analysis, authors reviewed the full text of
selected papers, whose objectives, methodological
approach, and main findings are reported in Appendix 1.
Then, they followed a deductive approach for data
coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994). This process aimed at
assembling empirical findings according to “control
domains,” that is, conceptual categories identified from
the literature coherently with the broad conceptualization
of organizational control adopted by authors, namely,
(1) control systems; (2) supervisory management styles;
5
(3) trusting relationships; (4) organizational identification
(aimed at control); and (5) work identity (aimed at
control).
Authors coded independently findings and assigned
them to the over mentioned categories. As synthesis
relied on disparate materials, contexts, and research
streams, authors met regularly to discuss their indepen-
dent coding, solve disagreements about data, and identify
a shared interpretation of the most suitable attributions
of findings in each control domain.
Authors used ATLAS.ti, a software for qualitative
data analysis that allowed to quickly return to the pri-
mary documents; select text portions; visualize “codes”—
that is, labels to link quotations referring to the same cat-
egory and “memos,” containing a summary of each docu-
ment; and create “family”—that is, a set of primary
documents, memos, codes, and quotations grouped
together so as to support the interpretation of findings
(Friese, 2014).
EMPIRICAL RESULTS
In reviewed studies, a variety of terms were interchange-
ably used to refer to practices whereby employees are
allowed to work at a distance from traditional offices—
for example, remote working, virtual work, or, more gen-
erally, physical distance (Neufeld et al., 2010). The same
was found for each RWAs (see Table 2 for an overview).
As for typologies, the majority of studies focused on
home-based telework—that is, employees equipped with
ICTs to work from home—or virtual teams, which are
groups of geographically dispersed employees who col-
laborate remotely using ICTs. Both typologies were
explored, above all, in multinational high-technology
organizations and professional service organizations.
With regard to virtual teams, although “pure” virtual
teams (i.e., team members never meet) are rare, only few
authors reported on the degree of geographical dispersion
(O’Leary & Cummings, 2007) or specified if they had a
“hybrid” nature—that is, (a) team members work virtu-
ally but periodically meet each other face to face;
(b) some members work remotely and others are co-
located; or (c) members are co-located at different local
sites.
A limited number of studies investigated control
issues for mobile workers—that is, employees who carry
out activities mainly outside traditional offices
(e.g., salespeople)—and flexible workers—that is,
employees who have limited space and time constraints.
Acknowledging the different perspectives, each con-
trol domain is discussed by distinguishing findings for
remote workers (including home-based teleworkers and
mobile workers) and virtual teams that are reported in
Table 3.
6 PIANESE ET AL.
TABLE 2 Terms used to refer to remote working and RWA
typologies
RWAs virtual work, remote work,
telework, telecommuting,
distributed work,
distributed environment,
virtual organization,
virtual workplace,
dislocated work, physical
distance, physical
isolation, located mobility,
hybrid workspace
RWA typologies Home-based home-based telework, home-
telework working, domestic
workplace
Virtual team virtual team, intra-
organizational virtual
team, cross-functional
virtual team, inter-
organizational virtual
team, hybrid virtual team,
semi-virtual virtual team,
virtual project team,
virtual multilateral
development organization,
distributed work team,
distributed work group,
distributed project team,
globally distributed team,
geographically distributed
team, geographically
dispersed team
Mobile work mobile work, nomadic work
Flexible work flexible work practices,
flexible work
arrangements
Abbreviation: RWAs, remote work arrangements.
The organizational control of remote workers
Control systems
Reviewed studies revealed that organizations combined
management by objectives, autonomy, and self-control to
monitor remote workers (e.g., Charbonneau &
Doberstein, 2020; Groen et al., 2018; Leclercq-
Vandelannoitte et al., 2014; Timms et al., 2015). In this
respect, remote workers appreciated output control even
though it produced negative effects in some circum-
stances (Caillier, 2013; Lautsch & Kossek, 2011; Virick
et al., 2010; Vuolle, 2010). MBO increased pressure, anxi-
ety, and stress among remote workers performing com-
plex activities (Biron & Van Veldhoven, 2016).
Moreover, MBO was likely to reduce teleworkers’ pro-
pensity to collaborate with colleagues, because it pushed
to focus on their own objectives losing the collective
dimension (Kurland & Egan, 1999).
Also, flexibility and related autonomy emerged as
ambiguous issues. Remote workers appreciated control
ensured by informal teleworking programs
(e.g., Fogarty et al., 2011; Hall & Atkinson, 2006), but
they showed different expectations in terms of flexibil-
ity (Collins et al., 2013; Kossek et al., 1999). Not all
remote workers experienced the benefits of flexibility
and autonomy (Lee-Kelley, 2006). This was not caused
by external conditions (e.g., lack of adequate equip-
ment) but rather by people’s perceptions of their own
ability to work in a virtual environment, at a distance
from their supervisor and peers (Staples et al., 1999;
Whittle, 2005). People coped with this lower sense of
self-efficacy by working longer hours and doing their
best to avoid interruptions (Bathini & Kandathil, 2019;
Dimitrova, 2003; Kelliher & Anderson, 2010;
Taskin & Edwards, 2007).
Supervisory management styles
Managers adopted the same supervisory practices for
remote workers and office-based colleagues
(Dimitrova, 2003; Raghuram & Fang, 2013). These were
not affected by physical distance because they depended
on the task (e.g., routine or non-routine), pre-existing
supervisor–subordinate relationships (e.g., trust-based or
not), workspaces (home, office, and cyberspace), and
socio-cultural context (e.g., conceptualization of power).
Nevertheless, in virtual environments, managers were
required to act more as “coaches” and “motivators”
(Dambrin, 2004; Kwon & Jeon, 2020), and thus to bal-
ance a direction-giving language designed to provide with
job-related instructions (Madlock, 2013; Masuda
et al., 2017), with communications aimed at reducing per-
ceived distance, restoring morale, and supporting remote
workers in managing the overlap between work–family
spheres (Golden & Veiga, 2008; Harris, 2003;
Katz, 1987).
Managers were also required to differentiate leader-
ship style according to remote workers’ personalities.
Indeed, transformational leaders that encourage
employees to deal with problems, thus emphasizing “self-
control,” were beneficial for reducing the perception of
isolation experienced by autonomous teleworkers (Munir
et al., 2016; Neufeld et al., 2010). In contrast, teleworkers
who were less able to act autonomously preferred the
transparent approach (e.g., about job requirements) of
transactional leaders who are reinforced their role
through reward and penalty systems (Howell et al., 2005;
Overbey, 2013).
Despite that, reviewed studies showed that physical
distance affected performance assessment depending on
supervisors’ perceptions about motivations underlying
remote workers’ requests for flexible work (i.e., did
employees require flexible practices to improve their pro-
ductivity or personal life?) (Leslie et al., 2012), along with
their interpretations about impression-management
actions enacted to increase visibility (Barsness
et al., 2005). Both issues were mitigated when managers
PIANESE ET AL.
TABLE 3 Main findings from the research synthesis
Control domains in RWAs Remote workers
Control systems Antecedents:
- The efficacy of forms of control
enhancing autonomy depends on
remote workers’ self-management
ability (that, in turn, is affected by
personal characteristics, e.g., self-
efficacy and locus of control).
Practices (including technology use):
- In established telework programs, most
organizations combine management
by objectives, autonomy, and self-
control.
- Management by objectives and
autonomy often coexist with strict
behavioral control mainly aimed at
supporting employees.
- Employees contribute to enforcing
control through enhancing their
visibility. Technology is exploited to
sustain this goal.
Outcomes:
- Output-based forms of control often lead
workers to focus on their own
objectives, thus reducing their
propensity to collaborate with
colleagues.
Supervisory management styles Antecedents:
- Effective virtual leadership requires
additional managerial abilities (e.g.,
ability in supporting remote workers’
work–life overlap; ability in combining
a coaching role with a job-focused
supporting role).
- The preference for a transformational or
transactional leadership style depends
on remote workers’ personalities (e.g.,
attitude to work autonomously).
Practices (including technology use):
- Physical distance does not affect
traditional supervisory practices (e.g.,
phone calls), whose choice rather
depends on other factors (e.g., pre-
existing trusting relationships with
employees).
- Physical distance influences remote
workers’ performance assessment by
supervisors. In turn, this is affected by
supervisors’ perceptions about
employees’ motivations for flexibility,
along with their interpretations about
individual actions aimed at increasing
visibility. This issue is mitigated when
(a) managers are teleworkers and (b)
remote workers communicate and
interact frequently with supervisors.
- A variety of technologies, also those not
specifically design for control
purposed, supports the monitoring of
employees’ performance.
Trusting relationships Practices (including technology use):
- Remote workers struggle to construct a
new image of themselves as “reputable
employees” also by exploiting
7
Virtual teams
Practices (including technology use):
- Organizations rely on behavior and clan
control alone or in combination.
- Technological tools support control (e.g.,
supervisors use technology to monitor
employees’ synchronous and
asynchronous activities).
Outcomes:
- The adoption of standard procedures
(behavior control) favors the
internalization of the organizational
culture and ameliorates problems
deriving from cross-cultural differences
among team members.
- The sharing of norms, beliefs, and values
among team members (clan control)
favors conflict resolution and learning
unwritten procedures and rules.
- Both forms of controls lead to goal-
congruent behaviors. Some actions
(including the organization of face-to-
face meetings, the training on popular
culture, and the identification of social
brokers) favor the socialization process
among virtual team members.
Practices (including technology use):
- Effective leadership in virtual teams
requires additional abilities to
managers:
(a) ability in effectively managing
relationships with virtual team
members, which passes through the
understanding of individual
personalities, skills, and cultural
norms;
(b) ability in supporting collaborative
efforts through the organization of
successful virtual meetings, where
positive discussion is encouraged and
creativity is fostered;
(c) ability in managing formal and
transparent communication with all
team members; and
(d) definition of norms and procedures
regulating technology-mediated
communications.
Outcomes:
- A transformational leadership style is
effective to motivate and engage team
members, thus improving virtual team
performance.
Practices:
- Trust-building is usually challenging due
to diversity in team members’
attitudes, values, and preferences.
(Continues)
8 PIANESE ET AL.

TABLE 3 (Continued)

Control domains in RWAs Remote workers Virtual teams

technologies (e.g., through enhanced - Cognitive trust (based on recognition of

Organizational identification (aimed at
control in RWAs)
Work identity (aimed at control in
RWAs)
connectivity).
Outcomes:
- Trusting-based relationships with the
supervisors lead remote workers to be
more satisfied about their work and
their company and more willing to
pursue organizational objectives.
Antecedents (including technology use):
- Remote workers’ identification with the
organization is affected by individual
need for affiliation; perceptions of
procedural justice, along with
organizational, supervisor, employees,
and technological support.
- Technological tools can sustain remote
workers’ identification by preserving
old patterns of interaction and
communications with both remote and
office-based colleagues.
- Technologies can reduce organizational
identification when a state of constant
connectivity increases the work–home
conflict.
Practices (including technology use):
- Digital communication through a variety
of channels (e.g., phone calls, email,
and chat) is leveraged by remote
workers to maintain connections with
distant colleagues and strengthen their
sense of belonging to a group and/or
the organization.
Outcomes (including technology use):
- Organizational identification affects
remote workers’ motivations and
promotes convergent behaviors
towards the achievement of
organizational objectives.
Practices (including technology use):
- Remote workers engage in a process
aimed at defining their identity in this
work arrangement by
(a) defining new norms and rules (e.g.,
schedule the work activities regardless
the location);
(b) adopting strategies to manage the
overlap between personal and
professional spheres (i.e., segmentation
or integration); and
(c) exploiting technologies (e.g., social
media and smartphones) to maintain
their image and to perform their
identity towards colleagues.
- Smartphones and social media are used
to perform work identity remotely and
competences) is more important than
affective trust (based on emotional
connection).
Outcomes:
- Trusting relationships help to overcome
misunderstanding among team
members, thus favoring the alignment
of behaviors and objectives.
- Some roles and resources favor trust-
building process. These encompass
trust integrators and provision of
technologies enabling effective
interactions and sharing of common
goals among virtual team members.
Practices:
- Managers can favor virtual team
identification by
(a) emphasizing the relevance of common
goals;
(b) empowering team members to actively
engage in virtual meetings;
(c) providing support to virtual team
members; and
(d) organizing training courses, team-
building activities, and face-to-face
meetings.
Outcomes:
- Identification with the virtual team
favors the willingness to collaborate
with distant members to achieve team
objectives.
Practices:
- Team identity is important to reduce
misunderstandings and conflicts that
are more frequent when members are
at a distance from each other.
- Team identity can be built through the
organization of virtual meetings where
managers leverage emotional
connections among colleagues.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL. 9

TABLE 3 (Continued)

Control domains in RWAs Remote workers Virtual teams

to counterbalance the negative effects

of invisibility on career opportunities.
Outcomes:
- Work identity fosters self-positioning
and the alignment of individual and
organizational objectives.
- The physical distance implied in remote
working questions traditional
employees’ identity, which has long
been built on specific symbols and
places (e.g., formal dressing and
moving to corporate office to work).
Abbreviation: RWAs, remote work arrangements.

were themselves teleworkers, because this status fostered
a convergence of attitudes and beliefs (Golden &
Fromen, 2011).
Trusting relationships
Trust emerged to be a pervasive lever of control in RWA
because it is less easy to monitor remote employees com-
pared with traditional office-based contexts (Felstead
et al., 2003). Teleworkers worried about how managers
and peers perceived them, and they strived to maintain
remotely a trusting relationship that “had historically
been built on visibility and presence” (Sewell &
Taskin, 2015). Remote workers who perceived them-
selves as trusted reported higher satisfaction and felt less
isolated from company/supervisors and coworkers, thus
aligning their objectives to organizational ones
(e.g., Munir et al., 2016).
Organizational identification (aimed at control
in RWAs)
Organizational identification fosters remote workers’
willingness to act coherently to organizational vision,
values, and objectives, thus reducing the need to invest
in expensive monitoring systems (Wiesenfeld
et al., 1999).
Reviewed studies shed light on factors that influenced
remote workers’ identification with the organization.
Specifically, the degree of identification with the organi-
zation was influenced by remote workers’ need for affilia-
tion (i.e., desire for social contact and belongingness,
Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), perception of being treated in
accordance with organizational norms and standards
(Bartel et al., 2012), and a feeling of being (mainly tech-
nologically) supported by the organization (Baker
et al., 2006; Bentley et al., 2016) and (mainly socially) by
supervisors and colleagues (Collins et al., 2016;
Neufeld & Fang, 2005; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001).
Communication technology supported the process of
remote workers’ organizational identification, as it hel-
ped them to feel connected and maintain informal link-
ages with their organization. However, the perpetual
connectivity ensured by technology increased stress from
interruptions for high-intensity teleworkers, resulting in a
reduced level of identification (e.g., Wiesenfeld
et al., 1999).
Work identity (aimed at control in RWAs)
Work identity regulation (aimed at control in RWAs)
entails the process through which employees position
themselves as members of an organization with the con-
sequent alignment of personal and organizational objec-
tives. Physical distance along with the lack of tangible
symbols puts into question “work identities,” which were
clearly defined and socially recognized in the traditional
arrangement (Bean & Eisenberg, 2006; Jordan, 2009;
Meerwarth, 2009).
Remote workers engaged in a continuous process to
regulate their work identity by (1) defining new norms
and rules and (2) adopting strategies aimed at maneuver-
ing boundaries between professional and private spheres.
As for self-assigned norms and rules, remote workers
sought to regulate their identity via symbolic cues and
actions (Brocklehurst, 2001; Strawn, 2009), including
adoption of formal dresses, re-creation of a workspace at
home, and schedule the work day as in the office
(Halford, 2005).
The overlap between professional and personal
domains required remote workers to negotiate “space”
and “relations” with family and colleagues to attain the
desired level of work–life balance (e.g., Harris, 2003;
Richardson & McKenna, 2014; Tietze & Nadin, 2011).
Studies identified two boundary management strategies
as part of identity regulation ensuring bottom-up control
(Kossek et al., 2006).
A role segmentation strategy—that is, a process to
separate professional and personal roles—was based on
10
several cues. Specifically, remote workers adopted differ-
ent routines for marking the separation between roles
(time cue), identified workspaces indicating the role per-
formed (space cue), and explicitly communicated, or indi-
rectly made evident (e.g., laptop switched on/off) role
transition to colleagues and family (communication/tech-
nological cues) (e.g., Lal & Dwivedi, 2010). Role integra-
tion strategy was used when the transition from
professional to personal roles occurred as a flux, with no
clear separation (e.g., Fonner & Stache, 2012). Anyway,
the inability to manage interruptions and the excessive
integration between professional and personal spheres
were detrimental to work–family balance (Kossek
et al., 2006; Lange, 2009).
Summary of results
The adoption of RWAs triggered a shift from direct
supervision to management by objectives, and supportive
leadership styles that emphasize trust-based relationships
and remote workers’ empowerment and self-control.
This study showed the value of adopting a broad con-
ceptualization of organizational control for disentangling
this complex phenomenon, which implies looking in an
integrated manner at control systems along with man-
agers’ and employees’ attitudes and behaviors towards
working remotely. This revealed a specific dynamic of
control for remote workers.
Firstly, it emerged that an organizational and mana-
gerial approach emphasizing remote workers’ autonomy
and empowerment often co-exists with a strict control
(Pearlson & Saunders, 2001; Porter & van den
Hooff, 2020). Counterintuitively, this tightened control
was not so much the result of a top-down deliberate
choice but of remote workers’ intentions and behaviors.
Indeed, organizations’ and managers’ choices regarding
control mainly aimed to show that they were convinced
about the value of flexible working that improves
employees’ work–life balance. As a result, rather than
exerting strict monitoring, managers often sought to
develop a “supportive environment” to empower people.
As a response, remote workers attempted to construct a
new image of themselves as “reputable employees”
(e.g., by communicating frequently with supervisors and
colleagues) to address concerns resulting from the physi-
cal distance. Remote workers even self-reinforced norms
of control regulating their behaviors, as a response to the
state of insecurity experienced in the new work context.
This arose from their perception of not being able to
effectively work remotely or manage the overlap between
professional and personal roles, as well as not being effec-
tively supported by their organization (e.g., Bentley
et al., 2016; Errichiello & Pianese, 2021). The fear of
career penalties induced remote workers to strive for
achieving their own interests at the expense of supporting
and helping their peers, jeopardizing their role in their
PIANESE ET AL.
team and their overall contribution to their organization
(Golden & Eddleston, 2020).
However, there are potential risks associated with
over-delegating to employees, who strive to demonstrate
their contribution to the achievement of organizational
objectives. Situations where organizations and managers
are not concerned with driving positive changes in peo-
ple’s beliefs and behaviors are likely to make remote
employees confused, stressed, dissatisfied, and therefore
unproductive. In this dynamic, the indirect levers of
control—for example, the identification with the
organization—play a role in promoting convergent
behaviors and thus favoring the alignment of individual
and organizational objectives.
Secondly, technological tools supported surveillance
and monitoring of teleworkers. Interestingly, these
encompassed not only tools specifically designed with
monitoring purposes (e.g., login/logout systems) but also
systems—such as Customer Relationship Management—
used indirectly to remotely track the activities to achieve
by teleworkers assigned objectives (e.g., Leclercq-
Vandelannoitte et al., 2014; Limburg & Jackson, 2007).
Technological channels (e.g., phone calls, email, and
chat) were also used to communicate and maintain con-
nections with distant colleagues and strengthen their
sense of belonging to a group and/or organization, thus
influencing the dynamics and efficacy of organizational
control (Fonner & Roloff, 2012). Finally, technologies—
in particular, smartphones and social media—were used
by remote workers to perform their work identity shaped
by their expectations and organizational roles (Gluesing,
2009 ; Symon & Pritchard, 2015), also to cope with the
negative effects of invisibility on their careers (Dery &
Hafermalz, 2016). Beyond opportunities, however, tech-
nologies emerged to become a stress factor that challenge
the alignment of individual and organizational goals
when the unrestricted connectivity to work enabled by
smartphones impeded the separation of professional and
personal roles and reduced the organizational identifica-
tion (Ruppel et al., 2013). Figure 2 provides a graphical
representation of key findings related to the control of
remote workers according to the proposed conceptualiza-
tion of control reported in Figure 1.
The organizational control of virtual teams
Control systems
Available research evidenced that behavior and clan con-
trol are leveraged by organizations and leaders to guaran-
tee the alignment of virtual team members’ and
organizations’ objectives.
In this regard, standard procedures and rules were
highly valued in complex projects and high-virtual teams
because of the positive effects they produced on perfor-
mance (O’Sullivan, 2003; Workman, 2007). Formal rules
PIANESE ET AL.
FIGURE 2 The control of remote workers: Key findings
were also important to establish a shared organizational
culture among virtual teams’ members of different coun-
tries. Indeed, these had frequently different language
skills (Presbitero, 2020) and system of values and beliefs
that turned into different attitudes and behaviors
(e.g., team members’ preferences towards rewards) due to
the influence of local cultures (e.g., Chi et al., 2012;
Cramton & Hinds, 2014).
Clan control supported conflicts resolution and pro-
duced goal-congruent behaviors among virtual team
members (e.g., Kirkman et al., 2002). It also increased
the effectiveness of technocratic control, through
supporting remote workers in learning unwritten organi-
zational procedures and rules (Zhang et al., 2007). The
socialization process encouraging individuals to share
organizational norms, beliefs, and values was enacted
through the organization of face-to-face meetings; train-
ing on popular culture, enabling small talk and chit-chat;
and identifying “social brokers”—that is, individuals
mediating communications among distant employees
(e.g., Oshri et al., 2007).
Again, there was evidence of the centrality of technol-
ogy to enable control both through inscribing formal
rules and sustaining a shared culture (Limburg &
Jackson, 2007). Behavioral control is offered by surveil-
lance technologies enabling supervisors to monitor vir-
tual team members’ synchronous (e.g., login accesses)
and asynchronous (e.g., writing posts) activities (Bisbe &
Sivabalan, 2017; Malhotra et al., 2007).
Supervisory management styles
Some attributes, capabilities, and behaviors emerged to
be crucial for effective leadership in virtual teams. Specif-
ically, leaders’ ability in managing relationships with
11
team members allowed to better understand personalities,
skills, and cultural differences, and this led to improved
task efficiency (Chi et al., 2012; Guinalíu &
Jord
an, 2016; Pauleen, 2003a). Moreover, their capability
to support employees was crucial to foster collaboration
(Han, 2006; Ng & Tung, 2018; Ruiller et al., 2019), while
their ability in organizing “choreographic” virtual meet-
ings, empowering and encouraging free discussion, fos-
tered creativity (e.g., Maduka et al., 2018).
The need to control workers at a distance affected
managers’ communication abilities, which, when effec-
tive, led to goal congruence (e.g., Darics, 2020;
Lockwood & Forey, 2016; Newman et al., 2020). In par-
ticular, leaders’ ability in managing formal communica-
tions directed to all team members was required to
effectively conduct virtual meetings (Al-Ani et al., 2011),
while formal procedures for regulating technology-
mediated communications served to foster trusting rela-
tionships among virtual team members (Malhotra
et al., 2007; Sivunen, 2006).
As for leaders’ behaviors, a transformational leader-
ship inspired greater motivation, work engagement, and
performance among virtual team members (Guinalíu &
Jord
an, 2016; Hill & Bartol, 2016; Hoegl &
Muethel, 2016; Kirkman et al., 2004; Rapp et al., 2010;
Whitford & Moss, 2009). At the same time, a
“decentralized leadership” was fundamental in an asyn-
chronous virtual project environment to empower team
members and encourage teamwork (Muganda &
Pillay, 2013).
Trusting relationships
Trusting relationships played a key role in virtual teams,
even more than in co-located teams, because
12
misunderstandings arising from language and cultural
barriers were more likely to occur at a distance
(Lippert & Dulewicz, 2018; Webster & Wong, 2008).
Specifically, both trust among team members (Chi
et al., 2012; Mumbi & McGill, 2008) and trust in leader
(Guinalíu & Jord
an, 2016; Riedl et al., 2012; Romeike
et al., 2016) contributed to virtual team performance,
indirectly traceable to the higher cohesion and availabil-
ity to collaborate and exchange knowledge among mem-
bers that trusted each other (Brahm & Kunze, 2012;
Peters & Karren, 2009; Pinjani & Palvia, 2013). In partic-
ular, cognitive trust, based on the recognition of compe-
tences, reliability, and professionalism by other members,
was more long-lasting and widespread than affective
trust, based on emotions and social bonds, and it could
be built electronically even without face-to-face interac-
tions (Alsharo et al., 2017; Kirkman et al., 2002;
Malhotra et al., 2007). The reflected knowledge, that is,
self-perceptions based on how people believe that other
see them, increased the feeling of closeness to distant col-
leagues, thus favoring the development of trusting rela-
tionships (Mortensen & Neeley, 2012).
Despite its importance, trust-building and trust-
maintaining in virtual teams are challenged both by the
physical distance and by diversity among global virtual
team members in terms of attitudes and values (Oertig &
Buergi, 2006; Pinjani & Palvia, 2013). Anyway, research
identified a number of roles and resources that could sup-
port trust-based relationships in virtual teams. For exam-
ple, some people may act as “trust brokers” transferring
trust between disconnected people (Julsrud, 2008); alter-
natively, leaders may assume the role of “team integra-
tors” (Khan, 2012). Likewise, technologies could be
exploited for building trust among virtual team members
(Pinjani & Palvia, 2013), under the condition that man-
agers establish formal procedures and provide with tech-
nological tools (e.g., videoconferences) ensuring effective
interactions and sharing of common goals among virtual
team members (Kimble, 2011; Olson et al., 2014;
Pauleen, 2003b; Thomas & Bostrom, 2008).
Organizational identification (aimed at control
in RWAs)
Studies found that a shared emotional status and the per-
ception of organizational support predicted team mem-
bers’ identification, resulting in an increased cooperation,
team effectiveness, and efficiency (Drouin &
Bourgault, 2013; Lin et al., 2017).
In this regard, some managerial tactics emerged as
relevant to promote members’ identification with virtual
teams (Hakonen & Lipponen, 2008; Sivunen, 2006), such
as emphasizing the right to express ideas and contribute
to discussions; bringing out common goals and adoption
of transparent procedures; and organizing training and
team-building activities along with face-to-face meetings.
PIANESE ET AL.
Work identity (aimed at control in RWAs)
Where research on remote workers focused on bottom-
up patterns of identity regulation, the few available
studies on virtual teams focused on top-down patterns.
Team identity emerged as critical among team members
to overcome misunderstandings (Webster &
Wong, 2008) and reduce conflicts that are more fre-
quent at a distance (Mortensen & Hinds, 2001).
According to reviewed studies, team identity could be
built by designing virtual meetings so that they fostered
emotional connections among colleagues and by creat-
ing “communities of practices” based on a shared inter-
est between colleagues that could cross organizational
boundaries and span hierarchies (Kimble, 2011;
Kirkman et al., 2002).
Summary of results
At the collective level, results challenged the assumption
that the establishment of standard norms and procedures
was sufficient for control in virtual teams. Although
behavioral control fostered the overcoming of tensions
and misunderstanding in cross-cultural teams, this syn-
thesis revealed the importance to combine technocratic
control with socio-ideological control, based on informal
sharing of norms, beliefs, and values among members,
trusting relationships and team identification, which
jointly fostered the alignment of individual and collective
goals. Leaders’ capabilities in supporting and
empowering virtual team members during virtual meet-
ings and through electronically mediated communica-
tions were essential to this soft form of control.
It is noteworthy to observe that virtual team members
appreciated to have the resources (e.g., access to organi-
zational databases) to effectively perform individually
when working at a distance. But what emerged to be even
more important to them to be committed to achieve orga-
nizational goals was attributable to the group dynamics,
which included a job dimension, that is, having trustwor-
thy and competent colleagues, as well as an emotional
dimension, that is, feeling a connectedness with the team
and with the organization. In this dynamic, the organiza-
tion was responsible, among others, for identifying and
implementing appropriate socialization mechanisms to
encourage the sharing of norms, beliefs, and values
among employees. Managers were in charge of stimulat-
ing creative processes and fostering trusting relationships
between people at a distance who often have never met
face to face. These top-down choices were essential for
ensuring coherence and consistency in the attitudes and
behaviors of team members and thus establish a shared
“culture of control” (Pfister, 2009). However, these initia-
tives could not be effective without the genuine willing-
ness of team members to adhere to these values and
norms of control (Pfister, 2009).
PIANESE ET AL.
In this dynamic, technologies play a role for effec-
tively work in the virtual environment. Management con-
trol systems support individual and team work and play
both a decision-facilitating role (e.g., providing timely
information to take decisions) and a decision-supporting
role (e.g., an “effort-based incentive system” producing
motivational effects and fostering alignment of team
members’ goals) (Bisbe & Sivabalan, 2017). More impor-
tantly, ICT tools that ensure effective social interactions
are able to increase the perceived proximity to colleagues
(Andressen et al., 2012; Ruiller et al., 2019) so that, if
combined with virtual meetings effectively conducted by
transformational e-leaders, set the conditions for trusting
environment where team members are committed to
achieving organizational goals. Figure 3 provides a
graphical representation of key findings related to the
control of virtual teams according to the proposed con-
ceptualization of control reported in Figure 1.
FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA
Notwithstanding the insights derived from existing stud-
ies, a number of unlocked questions should be addressed
in future studies to understand how the physical distance
influences organizational control (see Table 4).
First, efforts should be directed at investigating orga-
nizational control in new flexible work practices
(e.g., smart working), and workplaces (e.g., smart work
centers, Errichiello & Pianese, 2018, 2020), as well as in
public and SME organizations, embracing the perspec-
tive of the “blended workforce” that includes office-based
and distant employees (e.g., Lautsch et al., 2009). More
research should be devoted also to define a shared termi-
nology on new work arrangements (Berkery et al., 2017)
and reconcile the perspective of organizations and
employees on flexibility (Bal & Izak, 2021).
Second, future studies should conceptualize “virtual-
ity” as a continuous time-dependent dimension ranging
from traditional office-based situations to “pure virtual-
ity” where employees never meet face to face. This means
distinguishing organizational control for “high-intensity”
and “low-intensity” remote workers (Belle et al., 2015), as
well as conceptualizing “virtual team distribution”
according to its spatial (i.e., geographical distance), tem-
poral (i.e., time differences), and configurational disper-
sion (e.g., arrangement of members across sites)
(O’Leary & Cummings, 2007). In more sophisticated
analysis, researchers could take into account remote
workers’ perception of distance (Ruiller et al., 2019)
along with technological solutions (e.g., communication
media, Andressen et al., 2012) aimed at increasing the
perceived proximity to colleagues.
Third, more research should be devoted to under-
stand how the relationship between technology and con-
trol in RWAs has evolved over time. In this vein, it
would be relevant to explore how existing and new
13
technological tools (having or not having surveillance
purposes) shape processes and practices of organizational
control in RWAs to obtain the alignment between indi-
vidual and organizational objectives.
Fourth, it would be important to empirically analyze
the functioning of clan control, that is, top-down organi-
zational and managerial initiatives, as well as bottom-up
employees’ cognitive and behavioral patterns shaping
socialization processes and leading to the institutionaliza-
tion of shared principles, values, and norms. Attention
should be paid also to the employees’ capability to exert
remotely peer control. Even without formal authority
over one another, colleagues may have a meaningful
influence on employees’ behaviors and motivate and
encourage them to act in ways desirable to achieving
group and/or organizational objectives (De Jong et al.,
2014; Loughry, 2010).
From a methodological perspective, future empirical
studies on organizational control in RWA would benefit
from longitudinal studies (e.g., Porter & van den
Hooff, 2020), based on cross-sectional surveys or qualita-
tive studies faithful to a process perspective. These are
valuable for understanding how and why changes
emerge, develop, grow, or terminate over time, by bring-
ing out patterns and causal mechanisms underlying
changes, along with meanings attached by managers, and
remote and office-based colleagues (Cardinal et al., 2004;
Langley et al., 2013).
The process perspective may offer valuable support to
understand how “control systems” change during remote
work implementation (e.g., Cardinal et al., 2004;
Pearlson & Saunders, 2001). Process studies may also
support the understanding of how trust-based relation-
ships among remote workers (included with newly hired
employees) emerge and develop over time, as a result of
managerial initiatives aimed at fostering trust among col-
leagues, and employees’ behaviors fostering trust with
supervisors (e.g., through impression-management
actions) and colleagues (e.g., in relation to the frequency
of communication with colleagues).
Fifth, a promising area of investigation concerns the
interplay between the organizational and managerial
practices of control, and specifically how managers perpe-
trate top management decisions about organizational con-
trol and establish/exert their own structures (e.g., periodic
reports) and practices (e.g., phone calls) for monitoring
distant employees. Moreover, it would be valuable to
obtain a deeper understanding of the role of supervisors in
driving remote workers’ behaviors to achieve organiza-
tional objectives. Supervisors are seen by employees as
organizational agents, who act on the behalf of the organi-
zation (Kurtessis et al., 2017). A positive relationship with
supervisors is likely to encourage remote workers to
adhere to rules and norms of organizational control. It is
important that future research deepen the relational
dynamics between supervisors and distant employees in
order to identify how specific practices (e.g., informal
14 PIANESE ET AL.

FIGURE 3 The control of virtual teams: Key findings

TABLE 4 Main avenues for future research

Research questions

Cross-cutting issues
Control systems in RWAs
Supervisory management styles in
RWAs
Trusting relationships in RWAs
Organizational identification (aimed at
control in RWAs)
Work identity (aimed at control in
RWAs)
Abbreviation: RWAs, remote work arrangements.
• How is organizational control implemented in new flexible work practices, public organizations, and
SME enterprises?
• How does “remote work intensity” or the “degree of virtual team dispersion” affect organizational
control over remote and office-based employees?
• How have evolutions in technology shaped choices about organizational control in RWAs?
• How do control systems change over time (in terms of patterns, mechanisms, and meanings for
managers, remote workers, and office-based colleagues)?
• How does physical distance shape the functioning of clan control in remote working compared with
virtual teams?
• How does physical distance affect the enactment of peer control over colleagues?
• What is the interplay between organizational control as defined at the strategic level and the
enactment by managers during the RWA’s implementation?
• Which is the role of supervisors’ actions, channels, and resources in driving remote workers to behave
in a way to pursue organizational objectives?
• Investigate the process of trust building and maintaining between supervisors and remote workers.
• Investigate the process of trust building and maintaining among remote workers, including with
office-based colleagues.
• Are there any specificities in the process and factors affecting trusting relationships with newly hired
employees working at a distance?
• How does the process of distant workers’ organization identification unfold over time? Which actions
and resources can be implemented to foster distant workers’ organizational identification? What
about employees’ beliefs and behaviors?
• Are there any specificities in the processes and factors that affect distant workers’ organizational
identification in the case of employees that have never worked in the office?
• What about the relationship between the identity of the organization, the individual identity of
remote workers, and/or the collective identity of a virtual team for control purposes?
• Which organizational and managerial practices affect the remote workers’ identity regulation? How
do top-down initiatives interact with individual beliefs and behaviors in the identity regulation for
control purposes?

communication exchange) influence or impede the align-
ment of individual and organizational objectives.
Sixth, further studies are required to shed light on
what extent remote workers’ organizational identification
fosters the alignment of individual and organizational
objectives (Karreman & Alvesson, 2004). As it is
expected that more people will be hired to work remotely
in the future, it will be important to understand the
dynamics that the process of distant employees’ organiza-
tional identification assumes in the case of employees
PIANESE ET AL.
with no previous experience of office-based working in
proximity to colleagues.
Finally, future research should investigate the relation-
ship between the identity of the organization (“who are we
as an organization?”) and remote workers’ identity (“who
am I?”) and/or virtual team members’ identity (“who am I
relative to a group?”) (Ashforth et al., 2008) and identify
the mechanisms through which this relationship favors
self-positioning and the alignment of individual, team,
and organizational objectives (Alvesson & Willmott,
2002). In this vein, as employees’ identity regulation is
affected by top-down initiatives, it is paramount to under-
stand how organizational processes (e.g., institutionaliza-
tion of symbols and rituals) and managerial practices
(e.g., discourses about work) affect individual processes of
identity formation and transformation and interact with
remote workers’ behaviors to inform their self-identity.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper aimed at filling a relevant research gap by
providing a deeper understanding of how the physical dis-
tance influences organizational control through a research
synthesis. This created new knowledge through the aggre-
gation, interpretation, and critical analysis of studies that
empirically investigated control issues in organizations
that implemented RWAs. In more detail, findings were
analyzed considering both organizational control and
managerial practices, and remote workers’ and office-
based colleagues’ beliefs and behaviors. In this regard, it
shed light on employees’ psychological and behavioral
dimensions—that is, experiences lived by people involved
in the organizational change—allowing in-depth compre-
hension of implications of physical distance for organiza-
tional control. Despite limitations both for the focus on
the perspective of remote workers and for the inclusions
of disparate materials regarding different organizational
contexts and work practices, this review contributed by
enriching existing literature on organizational control and
RWAs and provided managers with an overview of impli-
cations of physical distance for organizational control.
A C K NO W L E D G E M E N T S
Open Access Funding provided by Consiglio Nazionale
delle Ricerche within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.
D A T A A V A I L AB I L I T Y S T A T E M E N T
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new
data were created or analyzed in this study.
ORCID
Luisa Errichiello https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0410-0300
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A P P E N D IX

Reviewed studies: Objectives, methodology, dimensions/variables, and main findings

PIANESE ET AL.

Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

1. Alsharo Explain the relationship Quantitative Knowledge sharing Collaboration among VT Trust among VT In the context of virtual
et al. (2017) between knowledge Hypothesis tested among VT members members (as members teams, knowledge
[T] sharing, trust, through a survey on mediator) Collaboration among VT sharing positively
collaboration among 193 virtual team members influenced (cognitive)
members, and virtual members. Virtual team effectiveness trust and related
team effectiveness. collaboration among
members with
positive effect on
team effectiveness.
2. Al-Ani Investigate the leader role Qualitative Distributed team The role of leaders
et al. (2011) in structuring group Single case study, mainly Leader role regarding task and
[S] tasks and supporting based on interviews to - task role versus socio- socio-emotional
[RWA/OI] socio-emotional 16 employees that had emotional process processes were the
processes in experience of work in - in communication same for traditional
distributed team. both co-located and - in facilitating trust and distributed teams.
distributed teams. Team distribution as a However, leaders in
continuum distributed teams
(frequently identified
by peers) were
required specific
competences (e.g., in
organizing virtual
meetings). As for
communication,
leaders initiated
formal
communications in
both traditional and
distributed teams
while they had no role
in facilitating
informal
communications
among team
members. Leaders
(Continues)
21
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

supported trusting
relationship among
members, particularly
they favored swift
trust in distributed
teams.
3. Andressen Investigate the Quantitative Transformational leaders Employee’s self- Employees’ The employees’ ability in
et al. (2012) relationship between Hypothesis tested leadership (as input, - motivation self-leadership was
[S] transformational through a survey on mediator, or - job performance important in all
leadership style, 681 members of 129 moderator) - affective commitment teams, particularly in
employees’ self- traditional and virtual Virtuality (distance from virtual teams. It
leadership, teams. leader) (as moderator) mediated the
motivation, job relationship between
performance, and transformational
affective commitment. leadership style and
Virtuality as employees’
moderator. motivation that, in
turn, affects job
performance and
commitment.
However, virtuality
moderated this
relationship so that
transformational
leadership style was
less effective when
employees were at a
considerable distance
from their leaders.
4. Baker et al. (2006) Investigate the Quantitative Organizational support Home-based teleworkers Both technological (i.e.,
[RWA/OI] relationship between Hypothesis tested - technology-related (e.g., - satisfaction IT support and
different forms of through a survey on IT support) - perceived productivity appropriateness of
organizational 50 professionals from - somewhat technology- - days spent working technology) and non-
support and 20 organizations, related (e.g., financial from home technological (i.e.,
employees’ reactions working from home resources) manager’s trust)
to home-based at least 1 day for - non-technological (e.g., organizational
telework. week. trust) support had a
significant positive
impact on home-
based teleworkers’
satisfaction and
numbers of days spent
working at home.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

Instead, their
perception about
productivity was
influenced only by the
amount of investment
that the organization
devoted to ICT.
5. Barsness Explain the relationships Quantitative Remote work Demographic Impression management The adoption of
et al. (2005) among remote work, Hypothesis tested - mobile work (road and dissimilarity (age, sex, actions by remote impression
[S] demographic through a survey on office) and race) workers management actions
dissimilarity, social 91 pairs of remote - home-based telework Social network centrality - supervisory focused increased with
network centrality, workers and their (house and office) (as moderators) -job focused increasing remote
and the use and direct supervisors - flexible work (home, Performance evaluation work intensity. This
effectiveness of (who evaluated their road, and office) by supervisors relationship was not
impression performance). moderated by
management actions. demographic
dissimilarity, but it
was affected by the
position in the
organizational
network. Indeed, it
was higher the
adoption of
impression
management actions
in the case of same
sex pairs and
employee’s central
position. Both
demographic
dissimilarity and
network centrality
affected performance
evaluations by
supervisors. Indeed,
in mixed pairs,
supervisors did not
appreciate job-
focused actions where
they positively
considered
supervisory-focused
actions. Higher
(Continues)
23
 24

Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

performance
evaluations were
attributed to central
employees.
6. Bartel et al. (2012) Investigate the Quantitative Degree of employees’ Employee perceived Employee perceived The amount of time
[RWA/OI] relationship between Hypothesis tested physical isolation respect (as mediator) respect employees spent
employees’ degree of through two surveys Organizational working isolated by
physical isolation, on 374 recent hired identification the organization had
perceived respect in employees and 146 (negative) implication
the organization, and employees (both short for perceived respect
organizational and long tenured). and organizational
identification. identification.
Specifically, the
higher the physical
isolation, the lower
the perception to be
respected by the
organization, thus
resulting in lower
level of employees’
organizational
identification.
7. Bathini and Understanding the Qualitative Home-based teleworkers This study evidenced that
Kandathil (2019) mechanism Data collected through Orchestrated negotiated work intensification
[CS] underlying the work 61interviews to full- exchange should not always be
intensification for a time employee intended as the
group of non- belonging to 17 IT negative consequence
managerial employees companies based in of telework. Indeed,
following the India. Indian IT employees
adoption of home- were often required to
based telework. work at odd times
and for long hours
(OLH) to answer to
requests of clients
based in the United
States, the United
Kingdom, and
Europe. Many
employees opposed to
this work
intensification.
Findings revealed
that, in these
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

circumstances,
managers introduced
home-based telework
not as a benefit for
their unsatisfied
employees. Rather, it
was an “orchestrated
exchange,” that is, a
deliberate managerial
strategy to obtain
employees’ consent
for taking up unpaid
longer working hours
in return for telework.
8. Bean and Understand changes in Qualitative Nomadic work Following the transition
Eisenberg (2006) employees’ identity, Ethnographic single case Sense-making to nomadic work, all
[RWA/IW] organizational study. Data from Identity disconfirmation employees
culture, and social observations, Changes in individual experienced an
structure during a documents analysis, identity; “identity
major organizational and 80 interviews organizational disconfirmation.” For
transformation. with employees culture; and social most of them, this
during their passage structure identity
to nomadic work. disconfirmation was
due to related changes
in personal identity
(i.e., how they
perceived themselves
as nomadic workers),
while for a limited
number of employees,
it resulted from
changes in
organizational culture
and social structure
following the
adoption of nomadic
work.
9. Belle et al. (2015) Understand the Qualitative High-intensity telework Organizational belonging
[RW/OI] experience and the Phenomenological study Teleworker’s is a concept that
process of based on interviews development process includes the
organizational (articulated in 2 of organizational employee’s need for a
belonging for a group stages) to 10 belonging sense of community
participants employed and organizational
(Continues)
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alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

of high-intensity across a variety of Relationship between inclusion as well as

teleworkers. industries and organizational organizational
organization types. belonging and identification. Three
organizational avenues were relevant
identification for high-intensity
teleworkers’
organizational
belonging: (1) They
should choose
telework as work
arrangement; (2) they
should negotiate with
colleagues to preserve
freedom and balance
organizational and
individual needs; and
(3) they should be
informed about how
they have to act, so as
to maintain power
and a state of
confidence.
10. Bentley Explain the role of Quantitative Organizational support Social isolation Teleworkers’ (low or Providing organizational
et al. (2016) organizational social Hypothesis tested - social support (mediator) hybrid) support was
[RWA/OI] support and specific through a survey to - teleworker support (i.e., - psychological strain appreciated by
support for 804 teleworkers manager support and - job satisfaction teleworkers.
teleworkers in (various in terms of ICT support) Specifically,
influencing teleworker intensity, location, employees’
well-being. formality, etc.). perceptions about
being supported by
the organization,
managers, and
colleagues reflected in
an increased job
satisfaction and
reduced psychological
strain. Social isolation
mediated the
relationship between
social support and job
satisfaction and
psychological strain.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology
alphabetical order
11. Biron and Van Investigate the impact of Quantitative
Veldhoven (2016) work location on Hypothesis tested
[CS] part-time teleworkers’
need for recovery and
concentration.
12. Bisbe and Understand the interplay Qualitative
Sivabalan (2017) between formal Single case study of a
[CS] management control
[T] systems (MCS) and
interpersonal trust in
virtual teams.
Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.
Work location (home vs. Job control (in terms of Part-time teleworkers’ Results demonstrated a
office days) worktime) (as - need for recovery lower need for
through a Job demand (job and moderator) - concentration recovery and higher
questionnaire and time pressure) ability to concentrate
diary survey for teleworkers on
completed by 77 home days than office
Dutch employees days, also in the case
during 6 working of high demanding
days (3 at home and 3 jobs. However, the
at the office). positive effect of
home-working on
employees’ need for
recovery was
confirmed for
medium job control,
but not for high job
control. Indeed, too
much control at home
provoked anxiety,
thus increasing the
need for recovery. No
differences emerged
between medium and
high control at the
office. Finally, the
ability to concentrate
was higher at home
than office in the case
of high job demand,
whatever the level of
job control.
Virtual teams A formal MCS had been
Interpersonal trust adopted in a virtual
new product among team members team whose members
development virtual Decision-facilitating and reported high
team. Data collected decision-influencing interpersonal trust. As
throughout field roles of MCS for trust–control
observations, archival nexus, MCS helped
data, and 22 upholding
interviews with all interpersonal trust
members. and, in turn, trust
enabled the adoption
and workability of
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

incomplete and
potentially
suboptimal formal
MCS. It emerged a
synergy between
MCS and
interpersonal trust
because the former
had a prominent
decision-facilitating
role where the latter
decision-influencing
role was able to
promote congruent
behavior and provide
motivational effects.
13. Brahm and Explain the relationship Quantitative Virtual team goal setting Virtual trust climate (as Virtual team cohesion The capability to define
Kunze (2012) [T] between virtual team Longitudinal study. moderator) Virtual team performance common goals (goal
goal setting, team Hypothesis tested (virtual team cohesion setting) influenced
cohesion, and team through a survey on related to team positively the degree
performance. 124 members of 50 performance) of cohesion among
virtual teams. virtual team members
and accordingly team
performance. Virtual
trust climate
moderated the
relationship between
team goal setting and
both team cohesion
and team
performance.
14. Brocklehurst Understand changes in Qualitative Home-based telework The introduction of
(2001) [CS] power and identity Longitudinal case study Power (re)distribution telework provoked a
[RWA/IW] following the on 11 home-based Professional isolation change in power
transition to home- teleworkers Identity work distribution that
based telework. (collection data became more
before introducing the favorable to
project and after teleworkers. Indeed,
12 months). they resisted to
managerial control
practices (e.g., home
visits and electronic
diaries) and escaped
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

from peer control.

Moreover, the
introduction of
telework led
employees to build a
new identity work,
obtained through
defining themselves as
self-employed
entrepreneur and
reproducing old
habits and routines.
15. Caillier (2013) Investigate differences in Quantitative Managerial effectiveness Teleworkers’ and non- Results demonstrated
[CS] teleworkers’ and non- Data on the US agency (i.e., ability to teleworkers’ that both teleworkers
teleworkers’ IRS from 2011 successful manage perceptions about (both high and low
perceptions about FedView Survey. human capital) - to be managed by intensity) and non-
management by objectives teleworkers perceived
objectives. - managers’ ability to give managers as able to
feedback manage by results and
provide constructive
feedbacks to
employees, wherever
they worked.
16. Charbonneau and Investigate public Quantitative Public employees and Electronic work
Doberstein (2020) employees’ and Survey administered in citizens’ perceptions surveillance tools,
[CS] citizens’ perceptions Canada to 346 public about the even if invasive, were
about the employees and 3009 reasonability and accepted and
reasonability and public employees in intrusiveness of 12 tolerated when
intrusiveness of March 2020, during electronic workplace interpreted as related
electronic workplace Covid-19 pandemic. surveillance tools to support and
surveillance tools (e.g., email software, monitor work
implemented in the occupy eye, random productivity and
public sector for photo capture, non- performance (e.g.,
home-based telework. visible camera, and clickstream software
facial recognition) and AI email
implemented in the analysis). In contrast,
public sector for surveillance
home-based telework technologies outside
the realm of work
(e.g., photo capture
and humanize badges)
were generally viewed
as too much intrusive
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Independent variable (for
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and unreasonable.
The study also
revealed that
“bureaucracy”
affected the degree of
technological
surveillance adopted
and accepted by
employees in public
organizations. The
higher the
bureaucratic
environment, the
higher the electronic
monitoring over
employees. The
perceptions of
intrusiveness and
reasonability of tools
for workplace
surveillance also
depended from the
people’s trust in
colleagues and public
employees. The more
confidence people
have in fairness of
public workers, the
more they consider
intrusive and
unreasonable the
electronic work
surveillance.
17. Chi et al. (2012) Explain the relationship Quantitative Virtual team Virtual team performance Virtual team
[CS] between team Hypothesis tested characteristics (e.g., - task efficiency performances were
[S] characteristics, through a survey on leader competence, - quality improvement affected by leaders’
[T] communication 172 virtual team trust, and behavior - communication ability in managing
environment, and members in Taiwan. control) satisfaction distant employees, the
virtual team Virtual team - job satisfaction identification of
performance. communication standard norms and
environment (e.g., procedures to exert
media information (behavioral) control,
richness) the level of trust
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

18. Collins Explore how home-based Qualitative Home-based teleworkers
et al. (2016) teleworkers, their Single case study within a Social support
[RW/OI] office-based large English local
colleagues, and authority. Data
managers make sense collected through
of the social support interviews to 32
relationships. employees, including
managers, office-
based clerical staff,
and home-based
teleworkers.
among team
members, and task
interdependence
(team characteristics)
as well as by available
communication media
and their easy to use
(communication
environment).
Surprisingly, ICT
information richness
was not relevant to
team performance.
Leaders’ competences
positively affected
both task efficiency
and communication
satisfaction.
The study demonstrated
that perceptions and
relationships with actions related to
other teleworkers, social support were
office-based different between
employees, and office-based and
supervisors teleworkers.
Teleworkers
developed stronger
relationships with
other teleworkers,
mainly with those
with whom they had a
pre-existing
relationship. They
were proactive in
exploiting ICT to
obtain informational
and emotional
support from other
teleworkers, while
they disconnected
from office-based
workers seeing
themselves as a
distinct group with a
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distinct identity.
Finally, most of them
attached great
importance to
emotional support
received by superiors.
In contrast, office-
based colleagues
valued support from
co-located staff (and
not by supervisors)
and, in their turn, felt
to be a group distinct
by teleworkers.
19. Collins Explore the content of Qualitative Full-time home-based All full-time
et al. (2013) the employment Single case study within a teleworkers homeworkers desired
[CS] relationship and large English local Psychological contract temporal flexibility in
[S] expectations in terms authority. Data according to order to achieve
of temporal flexibility collected through - temporal flexibility better work–life
and fairness of a interviews to 12 full- - fairness balance. Anyway,
group of time clerical female flexibility emerged as
homeworkers. home-based an ambiguous issue
teleworkers, 2 because supervisors,
managers, 6 office- who had a great deal
based staff, and 12 of control over home-
office-based working conditions,
colleagues. differed in their
implementation of
temporal flexibility.
Indeed, each home-
based teleworker
negotiated working
hours with his or her
own supervisor and
did not perceive
unfairness in the case
colleagues obtained
more favorable
conditions as long as
they achieved their
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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Independent variable (for
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PIANESE ET AL.

own personal desired

levels of temporal
flexibility.
20. Cramton and Explore the process Qualitative Globally distributed Individuals and teams
Hinds (2014) through which Longitudinal case study teams were embedded in the
[CS] globally distributed on a large National culture cultural systems
teams adapted to multinational Team cultural adaptation around them, which
cross-cultural company. Data due to cross-cultural could trigger and
national differences collected on 9 differences in terms of reinforce culturally
among team distributed teams - management structure specific beliefs and
members. based in the United - review and rewards behaviors. The case
States, Germany, and - project management study showed that
India through - interpersonal team members from
interviews (n. 132), communication the United States,
observations, and 19 Germany, and India
follow-up interviews. had different
conceptualization
(norms, practices, and
conditions) about the
team structure,
reviews processes,
social norms for
rewards assignment
and project
management, and
interpersonal
communications.
Authors tracked the
dynamic process of
cultural adaptation in
these nine global
distributed teams.
The process required
several iterations and
a sequence of moves
and countermoves
through which
individuals and
groups rejected each
other’s approach in
key domains and
press for alternative
solutions.
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alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
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21. Crossman and Understand the role of Qualitative Virtual organization All permanent or
Lee-Kelley (2004) trust and commitment Case study. Data from Trust temporary virtual
[T] in virtual interviews and a Commitment team members
[RWA/OI] organizations. survey on virtual believed commitment
team members of a and trust as
company belonging to fundamental in the
a multinational work relationship.
group. Anyway, they showed
different levels of
commitment and trust
that were affected by
what each member
perceived to receive
from the group, the
company, and the
European division (so
called reciprocity
mechanism).
22. Dambrin (2004) Explore the impact of Qualitative Home-based telework The adoption of telework
[S] telework on manager– Single case study on Manager–employee had both positive and
employee salespeople of the relationship negative effects on
relationship. French subsidiary of manager–employee
multinationals. Data relationship.
from 15 interviews, Specifically, it
on field observations facilitated
and documents. communications
between distant
hierarchical levels and
increased employees’
ability in dealing with
professional concerns
without the manager.
Then it increased
teleworkers’
autonomy who were
evaluated by results
by their manager.
However, telework
reduced formal
communication
between employees
and their direct
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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PIANESE ET AL.

manager, thus
favoring
interpretation bias.
23. Darics (2020) Understand how Qualitative E-leadership Nonverbal cues were
[S] managers do Data collected from Computer-mediated important in digital
leadership in through conversations through conversations communications to
instant messages IM among members Instant text messaging the same extent as to
conversations of a virtual team of a (IM) face-to-face
considering nonverbal global consultancy Nonverbal interactions. In
communications. company with communications in particular, the
headquarters in the IM functions achieved by
United Kingdom. audio and visual
nonverbal
communications in
face-to-face
interactions were
deliberately and
creatively recreated in
IM using
orthographic and
typographic means.
These nonverbal cues
served to emphasize,
clarify, and
disambiguate
meaning and
intentions as well as
to communicate
hierarchical status.
24. Dery and Examine how remote Qualitative Remote workers Identity was intended as
Hafermalz (2016) workers use A single interpretive case Organizational belonging “the way we know
[RWA/OI] technologies to study in an Australian Identity ourselves and the way
[RWA/IW] establish identity and organization with all Technologies (mobile, we would like to be
favor organizational staff working social media, and known by the
belonging. remotely. Data cloud) organization.”
collected through Remote workers used
interviews to mobile, social media,
employees and and cloud-based
managers. technologies to
“perform” their
identity online with
the aim of
maintaining informal
connections with
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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Independent variable (for
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colleagues and favor

the recognition of
their belonging to the
organization.
25. Dimitrova (2003) Investigate the mediating Qualitative Telework Supervisors’ style and
[CS] [S] role of work context Single case study. Data Supervision style (formal control procedures
on the relationship from 20 interviews to vs. informal) depended on tasks,
between the telecommuters and Work context (task and work schedule, and
supervision style and non-telecommuters, relationship with previous relationship
teleworker’s observations, and supervisor) between supervisors
autonomy. documents. Teleworkers’ autonomy and employees (both
teleworkers and
office-based
colleagues). Indeed,
supervisors used the
same supervision style
and control
procedures for
employees performing
the same activities
and whom they had a
similar previous
relationship. The
nature of task
influenced
teleworkers’
autonomy and
flexibility.
26. Drouin and Investigate which Quantitative Organizational support in Context (i.e., degree of Quality of decision- Strategic staffing and
Bourgault (2013) dimensions of Hypothesis tested distributed project distribution; variety making process training and tools
[RWA/OI] organizational through a survey on teams of culture, work Teamwork effectiveness provided to team
support contributed 149 project managers - strategic staffing practices, and members had a
to the decision- of international - training and tools experiences as positive impact on
making process and companies. - team autonomy moderator) both the quality of
teamwork - top management decision-making and
effectiveness in monitoring teamwork
distributed project effectiveness. The link
teams. between the quality of
decision-making and
team effectiveness was
re-confirmed.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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Independent variable (for
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PIANESE ET AL.

Team autonomy was

crucial to foster
decision quality in a
highly culturally
diverse context.
27. Fay and Examine telecommuters’ Quantitative Telecommuters’ informal Liking of telecommuters Telecommuters’ Complaining talk with
Kline (2011) relationships with Hypothesis tested communications with with office-based - communication colleagues was related
[RWA/OI] office-based through a survey on colleagues (socializing colleagues (as satisfaction with negatively to
colleagues and how 100 high-intensity or complaining) moderator) office-based telecommuters’
informal telecommuters (at Liking of telecommuters colleagues commitment and
communication least 3 days a week). with office-based - organizational satisfaction. Anyway,
practices are colleagues commitment the effect of
associated with - job satisfaction complaining talk on
organizational telecommuters’
commitment and job commitment was
satisfaction. moderated by the
liking with office-
based colleagues.
Liking with office-
based colleagues was
positively related to
telecommuters’
communication
satisfaction with
coworkers, thus
increasing their
commitment and job
satisfaction.
28. Felstead Understand changes in Qualitative Home-based telework Supervisors adopted
et al. (2003) traditional Data collected through Managerial control and managerial practices
[CS] managerial control 202 interviews to practices to overcome the non-
[T] based on visibility managers (82), home- Trust presence and non-
and presence towards based teleworkers Organizational culture visibility of home-
employees working at (60), and their based telework that
home. spouses/partners (60). included a great
emphasis on trust and
organizational culture
as means to align
teleworkers’ activities
to organizational
objectives. However,
these managerial
practices were
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
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frequently ineffective
due to the lack of a
strategic vision (not
planned but emerging
ad hoc) and the lack
of understanding of
the pre-existing social
structures.
29. Fogarty Understand office-based Qualitative Telework (formal vs. Office-based employees
et al. (2011) employees’ Single case study. Data informal) believed necessary to
[CS] perceptions regarding from documents and Control (formal and adopt formal control
formality and control 12 interviews to informal) for remote workers.
towards teleworkers. office-based Equity perceptions They believed
employees (with Organizational justice important to specify
colleagues that are (normative, days of teleworking,
teleworkers). procedural, and even if this in practice
interactional) can generate
inflexibility for
teleworkers in
changing their plans
to meet on-site
colleagues’ needs.
Finally, it emerged a
paradox in equity
perceptions, as formal
telework programs
guarantee distributive
and procedural equity
whereas informal
programs guarantee
interactional justice.
30. Fonner and Investigate if Quantitative Frequency of High-intensity Connectivity increased
Roloff (2012) communication media Hypothesis tested communication media teleworkers stress from
[RWA/OI] use affects through a survey on use by high-intensity - perceptions of social interruptions for high-
[RWA/IW] teleworkers’ 89 high-intensity teleworkers presence intensity teleworkers
perceptions of social teleworkers and 104 - stress from interruptions and indirectly
presence, stress from office-based - organizational diminished their level
interruptions, and employees. identification of organizational
organizational identification.
identification.
31. Fonner and Examine strategies used Qualitative Home-based telework Role segmentation
Stache (2012) by home-based 142 employees home- Boundary management strategy (the most
[RW/IW] teleworkers to working at least once frequent) supposed a
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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Independent variable (for
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PIANESE ET AL.

manage the work– a month, selected - segmentation strategies complex process to

home boundary and through a snowball (and cues) separate work and
identify cues they rely sampling, responding - integration strategies family. Time, space,
upon to facilitate to an open-ended and technology/
transition between survey question. communications were
work–home roles. used by home-based
teleworkers as cues to
delineate work–life
boundaries and aided
transition between
professional and
personal roles.
Anyway, continuous
changes in the level of
desired balance
between work and life
emerged from the
data analysis.
32. Gluesing (2009) Explore mobile workers’ Qualitative Identity evolution Identity was interpreted
[RWA/IW] identity evolution Longitudinal Plural versus unique as a process. Author
along with changes ethnographic study identity reported her identity
over time in job roles, Author self-analyzed the Culture hybridization evolution over time
work arrangements, evolution of her own due to changes in
and technological identity by technologies, job
development. considering changes roles, and culture. She
in job, work observed that the
arrangements, and increasing availability
technologies. of sophisticated
technologies allowed
her to maintain a
unique identity, and
not multiple mindset
and identities to
manage different
relationships and
cultures. Finally,
author evidenced a
cultural hybridization
that integrated culture
from physical and
virtual space that was
influenced by several
different cultures.
(Continues)
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33. Golden and Explore the relationship Quantitative Telework (with different Work context Career success Teleworkers did not
Eddleston (2020) between telework and Hypothesis tested intensity) - telework normativeness - promotions differ from non-
[S] career success. through a survey on - supplemental work - salary growth teleworkers in terms
405 teleworkers - face-to-face contact of promotions,
working in a US IT with supervisors (as although they did
company. These data moderators) differ in salary
were compared with growth. Teleworkers
corporate-provided were penalized in
promotion and salary terms of career
growth data, success, mainly when
including teleworkers they worked
and non-teleworkers. frequently at a
distance (i.e.,
extensive telework).
However, some
contextual factors
buffered this negative
effect, and thus the
“flexibility stigma.”
Indeed, a greater
number of
promotions were
received by extensive
teleworkers in the
case of high telework
normativeness,
additional time spent
on work-related
activities, and
frequent face-to-face
contact with
supervisors.
34. Golden and Explain the impact of Quantitative Manager work mode Employees’ (traditional, Traditional employees
Fromen (2011) managers’ work mode Hypothesis tested (traditional, telework, telework, and virtual with teleworking and
[S] (traditional, telework, through a survey on and virtual work) work) virtual managers
and virtual work) on 11,059 employees - work experience (e.g., reported less positive
employees’ work (traditional, empowerment and work experience and
experience and teleworkers, and professional work outcomes than
outcomes. virtual) with development) colleagues with
Congruence of traditional, - work outcomes (e.g., traditional office-
manager and teleworking, and job satisfaction and based managers. In
subordinate work virtual managers. turnover intentions) situations where both
managers and
(Continues)
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mode is investigated subordinates were

too. teleworkers or virtual
workers, employees
reported a more
positive (although
modest in size) work
experience and work
outcomes than those
with traditional
managers.
35. Golden and Investigate the Quantitative Leader–member Virtual work Professionals’ The degree of virtual
Veiga (2008) moderating role of Hypothesis tested exchange (LMX) - extensive virtual - organizational work moderated the
[S] virtual work on the through a survey on - high-quality - limited virtual (as commitment relationship between
[RWA/OI] relationship between 375 professionals. relationships moderator) - job satisfaction LMX and
leader–member - low-quality - job performance professionals’
exchange and relationships outcomes. Indeed, in
professionals’ the case of a strong
commitment, job relationship between
satisfaction, and job leader and member,
performance. an extensive virtuality
affected positively
professionals’
commitment, job
satisfaction, and
performance. In the
case of low-quality
relationship, an
extensive virtuality
influenced negatively
professionals’
commitment and job
satisfaction but
increased their
performances.
36. Goldmacher Explore boundary Qualitative Located mobility The status of located
(2009) [RWA/IW] management in the Ethnographic study Boundary management mobility required the
case of located An anthropologist Permeability between author a strong
mobility, that is, reported her work and home permeability between
simultaneously (but experience in located Flexibility in emotional work and home. She
temporary) living and mobility. connections belonged
working in more than simultaneously to
one space (city/ more than one space
country). and she had to
(Continues)
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alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
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manage multiple
work–family
boundaries. Anyway,
she was interested in
demonstrating her
presence only to her
community while,
although recognized
the importance of
being “flexible in
emotional
connections,” she had
no interest in building
new relationships in
the “temporary” city.
37. Groen Investigate the Quantitative Telework Output control The intensity of
et al. (2018) relationship between Hypothesis tested teleworking was
[CS] the implementation of through a survey on positively related to
telework and the 897 employees of the adoption of
emphasis on output financial services output control by
control. institutions managers. This means
(teleworkers and that the higher the
office-based). number of hours
spent teleworking, the
higher the adoption of
evaluation systems
where employees are
assessed on the basis
of the achievement of
objectives.
Nevertheless,
employees who are
allowed to telework
reported less emphasis
on output controls by
their managers
relative to those not
allowed to telework.
38. Guinalíu and Investigate the Quantitative Virtual team members’ Leadership style Confidence in the virtual Results evidenced that
Jord

an (2016) relationship between Hypothesis tested perceptions of (transactional or team leaders the virtual team
[S] virtual team through a survey on - leaders’ physical transformational members’ perceptions
[T] members’ perceptions 241 people who attributes leadership style as of leader’s physical
of leaders’ physical (attractiveness) moderator) attractiveness,
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

attributes and regularly work in - leaders’ behavioral empathy, and

behavioral virtual teams. characteristics perceive justice
characteristics, and (empathy and exerted a positive and
trust in leaders. fairness) significant effect on
the degree of trust in
leaders. In addition, a
high transformational
leadership style
moderated the
relationship between
both leader
attractiveness and
empathy, and
confidence in leaders.
This result suggested
that attractive and
empathetic leaders
were more likely to be
trusted by members of
virtual teams.
39. Hakonen and Explain the relationship Quantitative Virtual team members’ Geographical dispersion Virtual team Results evidenced a
Lipponen (2008) between perception of Hypothesis tested perceptions of and frequency of face- identification (at positive relationship
[RWA/OI] procedural justice and through cross- procedural justice to-face meetings (as group level) between virtual team
virtual team sectional data moderator) members’ perceptions
identification. collection (three of procedural justice
surveys) on 293 and virtual team
virtual team identification. This
members. link was stronger in
the case of teams
whose members were
highly dispersed and
rarely met face to
face.
40. Halford (2005) Explore the implication Qualitative Hybrid workspace (i.e., Spatial hybridity changed
[S] of work identity Longitudinal case study employees are the nature of work,
[RWA/IW] aimed at control in in a large UK-based multiple located at organizational and
RWAs of hybrid financial service home, in virtual, and management across
workspace, that is, company that organizational space) domestic space,
how spatial flexibility introduced a Working practices organizational space,
changed the nature of voluntary part-time Organizational and cyberspace.
work, organization, home-working along relationships Specifically,
and management with a policy of hot Managerial practices employees maintained
across domestic desking. Data two distinctive sets of
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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Independent variable (for
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space, organizational collected through working practices in

space, and interviews, non- terms of what they do
cyberspace. participant in different spaces and
observation, survey, how they do it. In
and focus groups. terms of
organizational
relationships, hybrid
workspaces
strengthened
sociability both in
“place” (i.e.,
employees physically
meet in the office) and
in virtual space where
employees used email
and phone calls for
personal exchanges.
Different spaces
implied also
distinctive (and not
fixed) power relations
and managerial
practices, where
emphasis was put on
building personal
relations with staff.
41. Hall and Understand employees’ Qualitative Flexible work (formal or Informal flexible work
Atkinson (2006) perceptions about Data collected through informal) was more widely used
[CS] flexible work. 43 interviews and a Employee control and valued by
focus group with participants who
flexible workers perceived as able to
(formally or increase their sense of
informally designed). responsibility. Formal
flexible work was not
seen as relevant to
them.
42. Han (2006) Explore the relationship Quantitative Organizational tenure Virtual team members’ Perceptions of leader Tenure diversity affected
[S] between tenure Hypothesis tested diversity among perceptions of leader support by virtual perceptions of leader
diversity and through a survey on virtual team members support (as mediator team members support by virtual
individuals’ 107 members of 38 between tenure (its relationship with team members, so
perception of leader virtual teams. diversity and OCB) OCB) that the higher the
support and the differences in tenure
incidents of compared with other
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

organizational Organizational team members, the

citizenship behavior citizenship behavior lower the support
in global virtual (OCB) they perceived to
teams. receive from the
leader. The leader
support mediated the
relationship between
tenure and
organizational
citizenship behavior
(OCB), so that the
lower the perceptions
of leader support (due
to differences in
tenure), the lower the
collaborative
behaviors with
colleagues.
43. Harris (2003) Examine the experiences Qualitative Home-based telework In the transition to full-
[S] of salespeople Longitudinal case study (full-time) time home-based
[RWA/IW] following the in a large Employer–employee teleworkers,
transition to full-time multinational relationship salespeople perceived
home-based telework, company during first Managerial challenges a trust violation that
and related year of and dilemma resulted in the loss of
managerial challenges implementation of equilibrium and
and dilemmas. home-based telework subsequent
for its salesforce. renegotiation and
Data collected recalibration of the
through 2 surveys, 4 employer–employee
focus groups, and relationship. They
interviews with sales perceived to have
staff and their line been abandoned by
managers. managers for work
issues (e.g., they
worked harder and
longer, and they felt
more stressed) and
mainly for family
issue, that is,
managing the blurring
of work and family
life. Findings revealed
the importance for
(Continues)
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Independent variable (for
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managers to support
employees in coping
with the difficulties in
managing work–
family boundaries
and pay close
attention to family-
related issues in
implementing a full-
time home-based
telework program.
44. Hill and Investigate the extent to Quantitative Empowering team Team geographically Team virtual At team level,
Bartol (2016) which distributing Hypothesis tested leadership (as dispersion (as collaboration and empowering
[S] leadership to team through a survey on moderator between moderator) virtual team leadership (i.e.,
members 193 dispersed team virtual teamwork performance sharing power with
(empowering members and another situational judgement team members) had a
leadership) favors survey to their 29 and team member positive impact on
virtual collaboration team leaders. virtual collaboration team members’
and performance in and performance) aggregate virtual
dispersed teams. collaboration, and
indirectly on team
performance, that
increased at higher
level of team
dispersion. At
individual level, under
condition of high
empowering team
leadership, a team
member’s virtual
teamwork situational
judgement was
positively associated
with his virtual
collaboration
behaviors and
indirectly with his
individual
performance in the
team.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
PIANESE ET AL.

alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)

Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

45. Hoegl and Investigate relationship Quantitative Shared leadership Virtual team performance Shared leadership, and
Muethel (2016) between shared Data from a previous perceptions by virtual therefore the
[S] leadership behaviors study on 96 virtual project team leaders attribution of
and virtual team software development and members autonomy to team
performance. project teams from 36 members, was
companies. paramount for virtual
team performance.
Indeed, team leaders
who underestimated
the shared potential
of their team
members
unconsciously
jeopardize team
performance by not
sharing leadership.
46. Howell Explain relationship Quantitative Leadership style Physical distance between Business unit Transformational
et al. (2005) between leadership Hypothesis tested - transformational senior manager and performance (BUS) leadership affected
[S] style and business unit through a survey on - transactional branch managers (as positively business
performance, 101 senior managers moderator) unit performance.
considering and their direct report Physical distance
supervisor–follower (branch managers). moderated this
distance. relationship because it
largely depended on
senior managers’
capabilities in
inspiring subordinates
at a distance. In the
case of supervisor–
follower distance, a
transactional style
was preferred because
branch manager
perceived higher
freedom in choosing
how to reach
objectives.
(Continues)
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47. Hunton and Explain the relationship Quantitative Traditional office Organizational Task performance Teleworkers showed a
Norman (2010) among alternative Longitudinal study. Telework arrangement commitment higher level of
[RWA/OI] work arrangements, Cross-sectional data - home-based telework (affective, commitment than
organizational collection through 2 - satellite office continuance, and non-teleworkers,
commitment, and surveys involving - flexible work normative) when supervisors
task performance. teleworkers and non- (relationship with allowed them the
teleworkers. telework) possibility to choose
(as mediator or from multiple
moderator) locations.
Commitment
mediated the
relationship between
telework and task
performance;
therefore, teleworkers’
commitment
positively influenced
job performance.
48. Igbaria and Explain the relationship Quantitative Telecommuters’ and non- Telecommuters’ and non- Compared with office-
Guimaraes among Hypothesis tested telecommuters’ telecommuters’ job based colleagues,
(1999) telecommuting and through a survey on perceptions about satisfaction, teleworkers were less
[RWA/OI] employees’ work 225 salespeople work stressor (role commitment, and stressed, more
stressor, job (telecommuters and conflict or ambiguity) turnover intentions satisfied, and higher
satisfaction, non-telecommuters). committed and had
commitment, and lower intentions to
turnover intentions. leave the
organization.
49. Jordan (2009) Changes in behavioral Qualitative Remote work In the initial transition to
[RWA/IW] patterns and social Ethnographic study. An Behavioral patterns and remote work, author
connections in the anthropologist social connections reported an identity
transition to remote reported her Boundary keepers and crisis resolved by a
work. experience as remote integrators symbolic cue (a new
worker (6 months in business card). She
California and had not specific office
6 months in Costa space at home,
Rica). whereas she
recognized wider
opportunity in public
spaces (e.g., lounges
in airport). She
identified 2 boundary
management
(Continues)
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PIANESE ET AL.

Independent variable (for

quantitative study)

strategies, that is,

keepings or
integrators; both
assumed new norms
and rules in managing
the work–family
interface. She
underlined that
remote work required
to invest greater
energies in social
relationships and
reported the fear that
colleagues do not
appreciate her work.
50. Julsrud (2008) Understand the Qualitative Distributed work group Within inter-
[T] mechanisms that Case study based on Trust (affective, organizational
generate different interviews to 11 cognitive, or swift distributed work
types of trust among engineering belonging trust; active and group, cognitive trust
members of inter- to 2 organizations passive, e.g., was more widespread
organizational based in Norway and institution-based) than affective trust,
distributed work Denmark. Trust network or broker with several
groups. “boundary crossing”
among members of
the two groups.
Affective trust was
established only
within the local
group. Even if it
seemed similar,
cognitive and
affective trust
followed different
patterns in inter-
organizational
distributed work with
some members acting
as “trust brokers,”
crucial to develop
both types of trust.
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51. Katz (1987) Understanding changes Qualitative Home-based telework This study found a series
[S] in productivity, Longitudinal case study Telecommuter’s of benefits during the
[RWA/IW] performance, morale, on a single engineer - productivity period of home-based
and interactions with voluntarily - performance teleworking, which
peers and supervisors participating to a - communication allowed a reduction in
through a telecommuting pilot - changes in morale absenteeism,
longitudinal study on project. (identity conflict, interruptions, and
a telecommuting pilot Author traced changes in transition, steady distractions that
project. morale and state, and transition affected the rate of
interactions with II) finalization of
colleagues from Supervisor role (planned and
office-based work, to unplanned) activities,
transition to telework, and improvement of
to reintegration at the projects quality. After
office. an initial breakdown
in communications
(received and
originated), calls with
colleagues
substantially
increased after the
telecommuter
discussed this concern
with her supervisor.
Author found a
fluctuation of home-
based teleworker’s
morale from identity
conflict, transition I
(office–home), steady
state, and transition II
(home–office).
52. Kelliher and Examine consequences of Mixed Flexible work Job satisfaction Flexible workers reported
Anderson (2010) flexible work for a Data collected through - home-based telework Organizational higher levels of job
[CS] group of focus group and semi- - reduced hours commitment satisfaction and
[RWA/OI] professionals. structured interviews Non-flexible work Work intensification organizational
to 37 flexible workers; arrangement - imposed intensification commitment than
questionnaire to 2066 - enabled intensification their non-flexible
employees (office- - as act of reciprocation counterparts did.
based and home- or exchange However, results
based or had reduced demonstrated a work
working hours). intensification for
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology
alphabetical order
53. Khan (2012) Explore the role of trust Qualitative
[T] and relationships in Interviews to 12 members
virtual teams in the
development sector.
Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
flexible workers.
Authors identified
three means by which
this intensification
occurred: imposed
intensification,
enabled
intensification, and
intensification as act
of reciprocation or
exchange towards the
organization.
Geographically Trust and relationships
distributed team among members were
of 3 distributed teams Trust (affective and crucial for team
belonging to the cognitive) formation and
development sector. Leader as team integrator collaboration among
Technology use members in
distributed teams,
more than in
collocated teams,
because
misunderstanding
were more likely to
happen at a distance.
Trust was a precursor
to relationships.
Anyway, members
reported high
cognitive trust even if
they desired affective
trust from their leader
too. Leader played a
key role as it acted as
team integrator to
favor and build
relationships among
members of
distributed teams.
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54. Kimble (2011) Explore the role of trust Qualitative Virtual team Case studies evidenced
[OI] and identity in virtual Case study on 10 Technical and significant challenges
[T] teams and discuss organizations organizational to trust and team
[RW/IW] technical and operating in several solutions identity building in
organizational sectors. Trust virtual team.
solutions. Social presence Solutions for trust
Virtual team identity building can be the
organization of face-
to-face meetings and
the provision with
technologies ensuring
“social presence” (i.e.,
perception that
available ICT allow
effective interactions
with colleagues).
Communities of
practice emerged as a
(organizational)
solution for building
team identity.
55. Kirkman Identify main challenges Qualitative (Cross-functional) virtual Despite the several
et al. (2002) in establishing, Single case study. Data team managerial challenges
[CS] maintaining, and from interviews to 7 Managerial challenges to virtual team
[T] supporting virtual top managers, 58 Virtual team success success, according to
[RWA/IW] teams. members, and 11 managers of virtual
leaders of 18 virtual teams, the main issues
teams. regarded building
trusting relationships
among team
members; maintaining
synergies and
collaboration at a
distance; overcoming
employees’ feeling of
isolation; balancing
employees’
technological and
interpersonal skills;
and implementing
correctly a
performance review
system.
(Continues)
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alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
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Independent variable (for

quantitative study)

56. Kirkman Investigate relationship Quantitative Team empowerment (at Number of face-to-face Virtual team performance The level of team
et al. (2004) between team Hypothesis tested group level) meetings (as - process improvement empowerment had
[S] empowerment and through a survey on moderator) - customer satisfaction positive effect on both
virtual team 280 members of 35 virtual teams’
performance, and virtual teams. performance
moderating role of measures. Anyway, it
face-to-face meetings. was particularly
critical for the
improvement of work
processes in high-
virtual team, whose
members rarely meet.
57. Kossek Investigate factors Quantitative Manager Flexible schedule (i.e., Among alternative
et al. (1999) influencing the Data collected through - personal characteristics flextime, part-time, schedule, in the
[CS] decision of managers survey on 1000 - social influence of peer and leave) future, managers
to opt for flexible managers of a - productivity concerns - past use would prefer flextime
schedule (i.e., telecommunication - future intended use to part-time and
flextime, part-time, company. leave. Main factors
and leave). influencing past,
current, and future
use of flextime were
gender and age
(personal factors);
peer use (social); and
business impact
(productivity).
58. Kossek Examine professionals’ Quantitative Psychological flexibility Telecommuters’ Professionals’
et al. (2006) use of telecommuting, Hypothesis tested experienced by Work family conflict performances
[RWA/IW] perceptions of through a survey on professionals that are Supervisor performance improved in case of
psychological job telecommuters and a (formally or rating formal teleworking
control, and survey on their informally) Depression programs. Higher
boundary supervisors (90 dyads telecommuters Turnover intentions perceptions of job
management telecommuters– - psychological job autonomy reduced
strategies. supervisors). control turnover intentions,
- boundary management depression, and
strategy work–family conflict,
excepted when work
and personal life were
too integrated.
(Continues)
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59. Kurland and Understand the nature of Qualitative Telecommuting Supervisors used a mix of
Cooper (2002) managerial control in Case studies. Data from Managerial control (for control mechanisms
[CS] telecommuting document, telecommuters and that, excepted for
environments and its observations, and non-telecommuters) clan, were the same
relationships with interviews with (output, behavior, and for office-based
telecommuters’ supervisors, clan) employees and
professional isolation. telecommuters, and Telecommuters’ teleworkers.
non-telecommuters. professional isolation Teleworkers
considered that
output control
reduced the risks of
career penalties.
However, supervisors
and a part of
teleworkers believed
important to combine
it with clan control.
Indeed, working at a
distance could reduce
career opportunities
in the long term due
to the fewer
opportunities to
informally learn and
develop skills and
interpersonal
relationships.
60. Kurland and Explain the relationships Quantitative Control Telecommuters’ The adoption of telework
Egan (1999) among Hypothesis tested - outcome-based perceptions of affected remote
[CS] telecommuting, through a survey on evaluation organizational justice workers’ perceptions
monitoring strategies, 191 telecommuters - job formalization (distributive, about organizational
and organizational from 11 - formal communication procedural, and justice. Anyway,
justice perceptions (as organizations. Data interactional) teleworkers perceived
proxy of professional integrated with to be treated equally
isolation). interviews with to their office-based
telecommuters and colleagues when they
their supervisors. were controlled based
on the standard
procedures
(behavioral control)
and when they
interacted and
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
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communicated
frequently (also
informally) with their
supervisors.
61. Kwon and Examine whether Quantitative - Managers’ commitment Teleworker satisfaction Senior managers’
Jeon (2020) managers’ Hypothesis tested based to telework commitment to
[CS] commitment to on data collected in - Performance-oriented telework (i.e., support
[S] telework and 2008 and 2015 on a culture towards work–life
performance-oriented federal agency. - Enactment of Telework balance) and the
culture matter for Enhancement Act adoption of a
federal teleworker performance-oriented
satisfaction. culture (based on an
effective performance
management, proper
incentive and reward
system, constructive
feedback, and
training) were crucial
for the effectiveness of
telework in a public
organization.
Likewise, the
enactment of a formal
Telework Act
significantly increased
teleworkers’
satisfaction by
overcoming
unexpected
consequences posed
by being distant from
the organization.
62. Lal and Explore the Qualitative Homeworkers Homeworkers attempted
Dwivedi (2010) homeworkers’ Semi-structured Mobile phone and to separate work and
[RWA/IW] connectivity to work interviews to 25 connectivity to work home sphere, by
via mobile phones. homeworkers. Segmentation actions allocating specific
(time, space, and time and space to
people boundaries) each domain.
Nevertheless, they
remained connected
and contactable at
anytime and
(Continues)
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anywhere via their

mobile phones.
Findings revealed that
home-based
teleworkers took
various actions to
reduce the possibility
to be contacted by
colleagues outside the
work domain.
63. Lange (2009) Explore individual Qualitative Home-based teleworker The capacity to be
[RWA/IW] attitude to Ethnographic study. Intertasking multitasking
multitasking and Author reported her Multitasking depended on personal
intertasking as well as own experience as Negotiating interruptions predisposition (not on
strategies to negotiate home-based gender). There were
interruptions. teleworker focusing several strategies to
on the relationship manage interruptions
with her husband, a at home; the most
home-based effective assumed
teleworker too. negotiation of
interruptions as not
rigidly fixed but as a
discretionary space
recognized to others
(based on the
importance or
urgency of requests).
64. Lautsch and Identify supervisory Qualitative Blended workforce Authors underlined the
Kossek (2011) issues in managing a Data from Lautsch Telecommuting importance that, in
[CS] blended workforce et al. (2009), that is, Supervisory issue implementing
(including remote survey and interviews telecommuting
workers and office- with 90 dyads of programs, managers
based employees). supervisors and consider the blended
telecommuters and composition of
non-telecommuters. workforce.
Specifically,
interviews to both
managers and
employees evidenced
5 main supervisory
issues, that is,
improving
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
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PIANESE ET AL.

gatekeeping;
identifying adequate
systems for
monitoring both
groups of workers;
favoring social
integration among
telecommuters and
non-telecommuters;
supporting
telecommuters in
managing the overlap
between work and life
domains; and
promoting a new
work-group culture.
65. Lautsch Explain the relationship Quantitative Telecommuting status Supervisor monitoring Employees’ Telecommuting was
et al. (2009) between telework, Hypothesis tested - telecommuters behaviors in terms of - job performance associated with lower
[CS] supervisor style, and through a survey and - non-telecommuters - job formalization - helping behavior work-to-family
[S] individual outcomes interviews with 90 - feedback - work–family conflict conflict. Both
(i.e., work–family dyads of supervisors - frequency of contacts (work-to-family and telecommuters and
conflict, job and subordinates, - family supportive style family-to-work) non-telecommuters
performance, and both telecommuters (as moderator) appreciated the use of
helping behaviors). (79%) and non- the same control
telecommuters (21%). mechanism (based on
objectives). This
positively affected
performance and
work–family balance
but affected
negatively the
propensity to
collaborate of both
telecommuters and
office-based
colleagues. Managers
succeeded in
increasing
telecommuters’
availability to
collaborate by
contacting them
(Continues)
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frequently and
inviting them to
contact other
colleagues. The
adoption of a family
supportive leadership
style favored
teleworkers but
penalized non-
teleworkers. Indeed,
telecommuters
showed a better work-
to-family balance
while office-based
colleagues reported a
worsening in work-to-
family balance.
66. Leclercq- Investigate whether Qualitative Mobile work Results evidenced that
Vandelannoitte mobile information Longitudinal case study Mobile IS the adoption of
et al. (2014) systems reinforce on a small consulting Panoptic control mobile IS determined
[CS] panoptic control or company. Data Free control the emergence of an
generate other types collected from Allowed subjection invisible but powerful
of control. documents analysis, form of free control,
observations, and 18 where professionals
interviews. were in a position of
allowed subjection.
Indeed, in exchange
of autonomy they
received from
management,
professionals accepted
an insidious and
pernicious control on
their activities.
67. Lee-Kelley (2006) Examine the influence of Mixed Virtual team members’ Virtual team members’ Virtual team members’
[CS] employees’ control Survey on 108 control expectancies perceptions about locus of control (i.e.,
expectancies on professionals (from (locus of control) - job satisfaction perceptions about
virtual team Company A) and - internal - role conflict relevance of internal
members’ job interviews to 12 IT - external or external factors)
satisfaction and role professionals (from were important for
conflict. Company B). All of their job satisfaction,
but not for role
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
PIANESE ET AL.

alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)

Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

them are project conflict, which is

managers. believed to be part of
the assigned activities.
However, job
satisfaction linked to
role conflict for
“internals,” so that
high role conflict
caused a deterioration
on job satisfaction for
those that attribute
success or failure to
their own ability,
capabilities, and so
forth.
68. Leslie Investigate whether the Quantitative Supervisor’s flexible work Perceived employee Employees’ career success Managers rewarded
et al. (2012) use of flexible work Hypothesis tested practices (FWP) commitment (as (premium or employees who
[S] practices (FWPs) through a survey on attributions: mediator) penalties) believed that required
affect employees’ supervisors and - organization serving FWP in order to
career success. flexible workers. Data - self-serving improve their
integrated with a productivity and
laboratory performance; indeed,
experiment. they considered them
more committed to
the organization. Not
always, they rewarded
employees who
believed that required
FWP for personal
needs; in this case,
supervisors’
perceptions about
employees’
commitment
depended on both
managers’ and
organizations’ set of
values.
(Continues)
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69. Limburg and Explore the links between Qualitative Remote work (home- Data and information
Jackson (2007) the management of Cross-case studies: public based telework, provided by workflow
[CS] remote workers employees working mobile work, and management systems
(home-based, mobile, from home; virtual team) supported different
and virtual team) and salespeople of a Workflow management control mechanisms
the use of workflow commercial company; systems whose combination,
management systems. and members of a Control mechanisms however, depended
virtual team. (output, behavior, on the typology of
input, self, and peer remote work
control) arrangements (i.e.,
home-based telework,
mobile, and virtual
teams) and on the
nature of task
performed remotely.
70. Lin et al. (2017) Investigate the Quantitative Virtual team leaders’ use - Virtual team In hybrid virtual teams,
[RWA/OI] relationship between Hypothesis tested based of a positive or identification leaders’ use of a
leaders’ affective tone on a survey on 680 negative affective tone - Virtual team positive affective tone
and virtual team members and leaders cooperation had a positive effect
performance, via of 141 hybrid virtual - Virtual team on both team
team identification teams in 24 high-tech performance identification and
and team firms in Taiwan. team cooperation.
cooperation. Indeed, team
identification
increased members’
availability to
cooperate with
colleagues (team
cooperation), thus
positively affecting
virtual team
performance.
71. Lippert and Investigate the Quantitative Trustworthiness (e.g., Team performance Findings revealed that
Dulewicz (2018) importance of Hypothesis tested benevolence) (schedule and trustworthiness was
[T] trustworthiness, through a survey on Commitment (e.g., business adherence, the main factor
commitment, 108 global virtual towards goals) conflict resolution, explaining the success
communication teams in a large Communication: technical innovation, of a virtual team.
characteristics, cross- international telecoms - characteristics (e.g., and efficiency) Although at a less
cultural company. Two empathy) extent, members’
communication style, managers rated team - style (high/low interpersonal
and structure effect performance contextualized) communication with
on virtual team independently. - structure for people/task colleagues,
(Continues)
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PIANESE ET AL.

Independent variable (for

quantitative study)

performance (i.e., commitment, and

high-performing cross-cultural
virtual team). communication style
were important to
high-performing
teams too.
72. Lockwood and Investigate how language Qualitative Virtual team Patterns of domination
Forey (2016) in synchronous A single case study on Power and dominance and control by the on-
[S] computer-mediated collaboration between Role of language in shore manager and
discourses (CMD) is an Australian and an virtual meetings off-shore team
used in virtual Indian team. members were
teamwork to create Examination of the revealed in the high
interpersonal language used by a number of
meanings of native English- interactions and large
dominance, power, speaking on-shore amount of time spent
and solidarity among manager during talking in virtual
team members. virtual meetings meetings, with little
through critical contribution from the
discourse analysis and team members
appraisal analysis. located in India.
Significantly, specific
on-shore manager’s
linguistic choices, for
example, use of
proclamations and
idioms, revealed a
closing down of
communication and
very little effort to
engage off-shore team
members in any form
of inclusion or
negotiation. As a
result, the off-shore
team feel
marginalized and
disempowered in the
meetings.
(Continues)
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73. Madlock (2013) Explore the use of Quantitative Motivational language by Telecommuters’ The leaders’ use of a
[S] motivational Hypothesis tested leader in - perceptions of motivational
language by through a survey on telecommuting setting supervisor’s language influenced
supervisors and 177 telecommuters - direction giving communication positively
effects on belonging to 7 - empathetic language competence telecommuters’
telecommuters’ organizations with - meaning making - communication commitment, job, and
communication consolidated satisfaction communication
satisfaction, job telecommuting - job satisfaction satisfaction as well as
satisfaction, and programs. - org. commitment their perceptions
organizational about supervisors’
commitment. communication
competence.
However, differently
from traditional
workplace, direction-
giving language was
the most frequently
language adopted in
telecommuting
settings and had the
highest impact on all
individual outcomes.
It followed the
empathetic language,
demonstrating that it
was possible to send
relationship-oriented
communications
through ICT. Finally,
the meaning making
language was the less
adopted in
telecommuting
settings, excepted
during the process of
socialization with new
hired employees or
when introducing new
policies to favor their
acceptance.
(Continues)
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Independent variable (for
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74. Maduka Identify competencies Qualitative Virtual teams Authors identified some
et al. (2018) required for effective Case study. Data Leader competences competences crucial
[S] leadership in virtual collected through to the effective
teams. interviews to 14 leadership in virtual
members of two teams. Specifically,
virtual teams. leaders must be able
to develop trusting
relationships among
members, as well as
to orient team
members towards
common objectives;
they must be able to
identify individual
goals clearly
communicated to
members, and they
should be able to
effectively monitor
performance, provide
constant feedback,
and resolve conflicts
among team
members. Virtual
team leaders must
have technical skills
but also be able to
transmit optimism,
hope, and resilience to
team members; they
have to be aware of
the teams overall
mission, strengths and
weaknesses, and
group dynamics.
Finally, they have to
be good decision
maker in complex
(Continues)
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situations and able to

monitor changes in
environmental
conditions.
75. Malhotra Identify leadership Mixed. Virtual team Authors identified
et al. (2007) practices to Data from (a) case study Leadership practices managerial practices
[CS] successfully manage on a virtual team Virtual team success relevant for virtual
[S] virtual teams. during its life cycle team success.
[T] and (b) interviews to Specifically, managers
[RWA/OI] leaders of 54 should learn how to
successful virtual establish and
teams and survey on maintain trusting
their 269 members. relationships among
team members
working at a distance,
by exploiting
technological tools
and solutions.
Moreover, they
should ensure
diversity among team
members and learn
how to effectively
manage virtual
meetings and monitor
virtual teams’
progress. Finally, they
should enhance
external visibility of
the team and its
members and ensure
members benefits
from participating in
virtual teams.
(Continues)
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Independent variable (for

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76. Martínez- Analyze the contribution Quantitative Human resource Telework adoption Human resource
S

anchez of human resource’s Hypothesis tested - commitment practices Firm performance practices, aimed at
et al. (2008) commitment practices through a survey on - social benefits improving employees’
[RWA/OI] and social benefits on 156 Spanish firms, commitment and
firm performance. that is, CEOs’ and recognizing them
HR managers. social benefits, related
positively to the
adoption of telework
programs in the
organization with a
positive impact on
firm performance (in
terms of, e.g.,
financial performance
and innovation).
77. Masuda Investigate the effect of Quantitative Telecommuting Perceived supervisor goal Individuals who worked
et al. (2017) telecommuting on Longitudinal study. availability support in organizations that
[S] employees’ Hypothesis tested Work goals progress offer telecommuting
engagement via through surveys Employee’s work were more engaged
perceived supervisor administered in three engagement than those who
goal support and goal phases on 139 worked in
progress. employees belonging organizations that did
to different not offer
companies. telecommuting.
Anyway, it was
crucial that
teleworkers perceived
to achieve assigned
goals and to be
supported by their
supervisors.
Teleworkers’
engagement decreased
over time, but
employees who
attained their work
goals were able to
maintain high levels
of engagement.
(Continues)
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78. Mazmanian Examine how the use of Qualitative Mobile work The authors found that
et al. (2013) mobile email devices Interviews to 48 - patterns of use of knowledge
[RWA/IW] by knowledge knowledge mobile email devices professionals use
professionals professionals (e.g., to manage mobile email devices
influences their lawyers and bankers) communications with to communicate with
autonomy in from different colleagues their colleagues and
controlling where and organizations and - paradoxical effects clients enacting a
how to work and active users of mobile produced in the short state of constant
effects produced on email devices. and long term in connectivity and
work performance. terms of autonomy, accessibility. This
that is, control over state produces a
the location and complex dynamics
timing of work and its and generated
performance tensions. Indeed, in
the short-term mobile
devices offer to
knowledge-based
professionals: 1) the
expected flexibility
and autonomy in
choosing when and
how to work; 2)
increased control on
interactions; and 3)
work performance.
To workers, these
valued outcomes
serve to reaffirm their
identity as
accomplished
professionals.
However, as they
show constant
availability and
commitment to
colleagues and clients,
they unwittingly enter
a state of escalating
engagement that
tends over time to
diminish their
capacity to disconnect
from work, thus their
level of autonomy in
(Continues)
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PIANESE ET AL.

practice. The above

dynamics generates
what the author
called “autonomy
paradox” because the
reliance on mobile
devices both increases
and diminishes
professionals’
autonomy. Moreover,
it subtly produces a
reconfiguration in the
norms and practices
of what it takes to be
an effective
professional and
which are
expectations by the
professional
community in terms
of personal
accessibility,
responsiveness, and
responsibility.
79. Meerwarth Explore changes in Qualitative Nomadic work Author initially
(2009) patterned behaviors Ethnographic study. An Patterned behavior in distinguished between
[RWA/IW] regarding physical anthropologist - physical space “home” and “away,”
spaces and social reported her own - social relationships both referred to the
relationships in the experience as Identity as socially physical space and to
case of nomadic nomadic worker (she constructed the emotional and
work. works as entrepreneur symbolic areas. After
in one city and as a while, she attempted
anthropologist in to resolve this
another city). distinction by
duplicating the same
work and house
habits in both cities
and optimizing the
transitional space
(e.g., airport) that
signed the passage
from one city to the
other one. Regarding
(Continues)
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social relationships,
she reported that she
did not feel truly
connected and
integrated with both
cities, because “all
perceive she was
passing through.” So,
she had to invest a lot
of effort to maintain
long-dated
relationship with
colleagues and
friends. Finally,
according to the
author, the main
challenge concerned
the multiple
conflicting roles
emerged from
nomadic work, which
are not individually
defined but socially
constructed based on
people expectancies.
80. Morris and Investigate which Mixed. Remote work Authors found that,
Connaughton managerial Data from interviews and Effective managerial according to
(2017) competences are surveys to managers competences and managers and
[S] perceived to be more and public employees behaviors employees, some
effective by remote during the transition managerial
workers. from traditional to competences are
virtual office. crucial in the context
of remote working.
These competences
referred to cultivate
interpersonal trust
and encourage
employees’
identification with the
organization, support
employees in using
technologies, promote
a supportive culture,
(Continues)
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revise the
communications and
the evaluation of
performance of
remote employees,
and modify the
knowledge
management process
and the selection
criteria.
81. Mortensen and Investigate group Quantitative Collocated versus - Group conflicts Findings found that
Hinds (2001) conflicts and shared Hypothesis tested based distributed teams (affective or task) (affective and task)
[RWA/IW] team identity among on a survey on 141 Shared team identity - Team performance conflicts among
members of members of 24 Cultural heterogeneity members were more
collocated and product development among members frequent in collocated
distributed teams, and teams (12 co-located Technology-mediated than distributed
related effects on teams; 7 domestically communications teams. However,
team performance. distributed teams; and conflicts were more
5 internationally detrimental for
distributed teams). performance of
distributed teams than
co-located teams. The
study evidenced that a
shared team identity
among members was
effective in reducing
both affective and
task conflicts in
distributed teams. No
differences were
found in the
frequency and types
of technology-
mediated
communications.
Anyway, results
suggested more task
conflict in teams that
relied heavily on
technology to
communicate with
colleagues.
(Continues)
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82. Mortensen and Deeping the Mixed
Neeley (2012) understanding of Hypothesis tested based
[T] antecedents of trust in
distant collaboration.
Trust in distance Cognitive impact Direct knowledge of the
collaboration - understanding and/or personal
on a survey on 140 - direct knowledge (i.e., feeling understood by characteristics,
employees of a gained in unmediated distant collaborators relationships, and
multinational communication) Affective impact behavioral norms at
chemical company, - reflected knowledge - feeling close to distant distant collaborators’
with offices (i.e., self-perceptions collaborators site helped focal
distributed in six based on how people Link of cognitive and actors understand
countries. Data believe others see affective impacts to those colleagues’
triangulated with 77 them) trust in distant expectations.
interviews to other (as influenced by collaborators Reflected knowledge,
employees of firsthand experience) that is, understanding
company, with or about the distant
without experience in collaborators’
global collaboration. perceptions of the
focal actors’
characteristics,
relationships, and
behavioral norms,
increased the focal
actors’ confidence in
being understood.
Reflected knowledge
thus provided insights
unique to cross-site
interactions. It drove
the feelings of being
understood by distant
colleagues, whereas
direct knowledge did
not. It also deepened
the distributed
colleagues’ feeling of
closeness to their
distant colleagues.
Reflected—in
addition to direct—
knowledge shaped the
perception of the
trustworthiness of
others. Findings
evidenced that the
development of trust
(Continues)
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was due to the direct

knowledge, along
with knowledge
gained about focal
individuals’ home site
from interactions and
how focal actors feel
about their own social
contexts through
vicarious self-
knowledge.
83. Muganda and Investigate the Quantitative Empowerment climate Effective leadership in Findings revealed that a
Pillay (2013) effectiveness of Hypothesis tested based - leader power games VPE (forms of VPE required
[S] leadership in on a survey on 28 - leader politics leadership: different forms of
asynchronous virtual project managers and transformational, leadership, power,
project environment virtual team members transactional, and politics for
(VPE; i.e., absence of of 6 participative, influencing the nature
nonverbal telecommunications situational, virtual, of interactions, which
communication and companies based in charismatic, and is required for
body language). South Africa. shared) collaborative work.
They found the
following two forms
of effective
leadership, notably
structured charismatic
exchange and
decentralized team
leadership. The first
one was underpinned
by charismatic,
virtual, and
transactional
leadership style and
the focus was on how
the leader projected
his personality to
influence people. The
second one included
participative and
shared leadership that
encouraged
teamwork.
(Continues)
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84. Mumbi and Explore the role of trust Quantitative Virtual team trust Project success (meeting Trust was demonstrated
McGill (2008) in virtual project Test hypothesis. Data Members’ trusting time, cost, and quality to be crucial to
[T] teams and investigate from a survey on 65 intention objectives; quality of project success in
how trusting project managers, Managers’ trust building project manager virtual teams.
relationship influences members of the skills and previous process; and satisfy Specifically, virtual
project outcomes. Project Management project experience stakeholders’ needs) team trust was
Institute, with at least Deterrence-based trust influenced mainly by
5 years of experience Swift trust their members’
in managing virtual trusting intentions (in
teams. their turn affected by
institution-based trust
and perceived
trustworthiness of
project manager). In
contrast, managers’
trust-building skills
and their previous
experience with
managing project, as
well as deterrence-
based trust, had a
small effect on virtual
team trust.
Surprisingly, swift
trust appeared not to
have a direct
influence on team
trust.
85. Munir Investigate the impact of Quantitative Interpersonal trust Employees’ perceptions Employees’ perceptions Interpersonal trust and
et al. (2016) interpersonal trust Hypothesis tested Transformational about their self- of virtual workplace transformational
[S] and leadership style through a survey on leadership style efficacy in virtual isolation leadership style
[T] on workplace 227 salespeople of 5 workplace (as helped to reduce the
isolation in the pharmaceutical firms moderator) perception of “virtual
context of virtual in Pakistan. workplace isolation”
workplace. experienced by a
group of salespeople.
The positive impact
on workplace
isolation was even
stronger and
important in the case
of self-efficacious
(Continues)
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Independent variable (for

quantitative study)

people, that is,

employees trusting in
their own abilities and
skills to meet job
requirements.
86. Neufeld and Investigate the Mixed Homebased teleworkers’ Homebased teleworkers’ The quality of
Fang (2005) relationship between Interviews to 32 home- beliefs and attitudes productivity interactions with
[RWA/OI] home-based based teleworkers of a towards remote - high productivity colleagues, managers,
teleworkers’ beliefs multinational. Survey working (influenced - low productivity and family members
and attitudes towards on 100 home-based by individual [e.g., had a strong influence
remote working and telecommuters of 2 family status], social on the home-based
their productivity. companies. [e.g., interaction with teleworkers’ beliefs
colleagues], and and attitudes towards
situational factors remote working,
[distraction-free]) which were strongly
associated with
productivity.
87. Neufeld Investigate the Quantitative Leadership style Communication Remote workers’ Transformational
et al. (2010) relationship between Hypothesis tested - transformational style effectiveness between perceptions about leadership style
[S] leadership style and through a survey on - transactional style leader–follower (as leader performance influenced positively
remote workers’ 41 leaders and their mediator) remote workers’
perceptions about 138 remote followers. perceptions about
leader performance. leader performance.
This relationship was
mediated by the
degree of effectiveness
perceived by remote
workers about
communication
exchanges with
leaders. Therefore,
distance did not affect
remote workers’
perceptions neither
about leaders’ ability
in communicating
effectively with them
nor about their
leaders’ performance.
(Continues)
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88. Newman Investigate how virtual Quantitative Virtual team members’ Virtual team members’ Virtual team performance The study found five
et al. (2020) team members’ Hypothesis tested perceptions of their trust in leader (as communication
[S] perceptions of their through a survey on leaders’ effective use moderator) techniques and
leaders’ effective use 1322 virtual team of communication attributes that
of communication members of a global tools and techniques positively influenced
tools and techniques human resource and the virtual team
affect team consulting company. members’ perceptions
performance of leader
outcomes. communication
abilities. These are
frequency (i.e.,
number of time the
leader communicates
with team members),
predictability (i.e.,
predictable
communication),
responsiveness (i.e.,
timely response),
clarity (i.e.,
transparent
communication), and
mode (i.e.,
identification of the
most effective
communication tool).
The higher the
perceptions of leaders’
communication
abilities and trust in
leaders, the higher the
perceptions of virtual
team performance.
Interestingly, these
perceptions about
team performance not
always match with the
actual performance as
reported at
organizational level.
(Continues)
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89. Ng and Understand the leaders’ Qualitative Virtual team Reward and recognition
Tung (2018) perspective regarding Data collected through Reward and recognition were positively related
[S] reward and interviews to project Project team effectiveness to virtual team
recognition, and how team leaders effectiveness as they
reward system affect belonging to different served as
virtual project team financial institutions encouragement and
effectiveness. in China region. satisfaction for team
members. According
to leaders, individual
and team-based
rewards were
important to motivate
virtual team
members, reinforce
relationships,
generate team
cohesion, enhance
communications, and
favor knowledge
exchange. Leaders
also believed that
informal recognition
system had a
symbolic meaning, as
perceived by team
members as an
appreciation of their
efforts and
contribution to team
performance.
90. Oertig and Understand the Qualitative Virtual project team Authors identified 3 main
Buergi (2006) challenges in Case study based on 17 Managerial challenges challenges in
[S] managing cross- interviews to 6 project - leadership without managing virtual
[T] cultural virtual leaders, 6 project authority project teams in a
project teams within a managers, 2 product - trust matrix organization.
matrix organization. area managers, and 3 - virtual communication These were the
senior managers. frequent lack of
formal authority in
exerting leadership on
virtual team
(Continues)
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members; difficulties
in communicating
with members
working at a distance;
and the difficulty in
building trusting
relationships with
colleagues due to high
turnover. Another
relevant challenge
was associated to the
need to manage
language and cultural
differences among
team members.
91. Olson Explore the impact of Qualitative Virtual team Results demonstrated an
et al. (2014) web-based video via Phenomenological Webcam and web-based increase in trusting
[T] webcams on virtual longitudinal case video relationship among
[RWA/OI] team trust and study (6 weeks) on a Virtual team trust team members that
effectiveness. single virtual team Virtual team perceived used webcam for their
composed of 5 effectiveness (i.e., virtual meetings.
members that met productivity, team Indeed, web-based
weekly using a learning, and team video via webcam
webcam. member satisfaction) allowed team
members to share
common goals and
increased their ability
to focus on tasks.
Team members’
perceptions about the
effectiveness of web-
based video via
webcam increased
over time, until the
introduction of a new
technological
application (i.e.,
screen sharing) that
caused a second
round of technology
innovation.
(Continues)
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Independent variable (for

quantitative study)

92. Oshri et al. (2007) Understand the Qualitative Globally distributed team Face-to-face meetings
[CS] socialization process, Cross-case studies. Data (GDT) were crucial for
mainly the role of from documentations Hybrid teams favoring socialization
face-to-face meetings, and 23 interviews to 3 Socialization process among members of
in globally distributed global distributed Face-to-face meetings globally distributed
teams. team members. teams as long as they
were carefully
organized and a
number of activities
were carried out
before and after
meetings (e.g., short
visits, relocation of
experts, and language
courses). Moreover,
re-socializing
activities were
fundamental in long
projects to confirm
and maintain team
members’ behaviors,
norms, and attitudes.
93. O’Sullivan Analyze work patterns in Qualitative Virtual multi-lateral Lead firm’s imposition of
(2003) a virtual multilateral Case study on a virtual development standards for work
[CS] development team, composed of a organization content and timing
organization (multi- lead firm and 20 Standardization of work gave an efficient basis
organization, multi- supplier organizations content (i.e., norms to resolve task
team, and VMDO). involved in an for design output and interdependencies,
aerospace product processes) allowing integrative
development project Synchronization of patterns to emerge.
Data from 78 semi- workflow (time-based Indeed,
structured interviews, norms) standardization and
participation in 160 synchronization
meetings, and structured the flow of
documents analysis. information and
resolution of design
issues among all the
organizations
participating to the
project.
(Continues)
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94. Overbey (2013) Explain the relationship Quantitative (Perceived) leadership Telecommuters’ turnover Differently from
[S] between perceived Hypothesis tested style intentions traditional workplace,
leadership styles and through a survey on - transformational it resulted that
telecommuters’ intent 113 salespeople - transactional telecommuters were
to leave an employed at 2 - laissez-faire less willing to leave
organization. commercial firms. the organizations in
the case of
transactional and
laissez-faire leaders.
In contrast, turnover
intentions resulted to
be greater in the case
of leaders that
adopted a
transformational
style.
95. Panagopoulos Investigate the Quantitative Thought self-leadership Organizational-based Self-efficacy (as mediator The sensibility to
and relationship between Hypothesis tested strategies (TSL) (as self-esteem (OBSE) between TSL and expressive behaviors
Ogilvie (2015) self-leadership through a survey on influenced by (as moderator performance) of others and ability
[CS] strategies (TSL) and 301 mobile workers sensibility to between TSL and self- Salesperson performance to modify self-
salesperson involved in sales expressive behaviors efficacy) representation
performance. activities in 5 of others and ability increased salespeople’
companies. to modify self- engagement in
representation) thought self-
leadership strategies,
notably positive self-
talk, mental imagery,
and ability to
eliminate
dysfunctional beliefs.
These reflected
positively on sales
performance through
heightened levels of
self-efficacy. In
particular, the effect
of TSL on self-
efficacy depended on
whether the
salesperson perceived
himself or herself as
valuable for the
organization.
(Continues)
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96. Park and Investigate the behaviors Quantitative Supervisor (comparison - Formal and informal The study found no
Cho (2020) and perceptions of Hypothesis tested based between teleworker communications with differences between
[S] supervisors in the on the telework and non-teleworkers subordinates teleworker and non-
telework context. survey data produced supervisors) Impact of telework teleworkers
by the US Office supervision style supervisors for what
Personnel concerned the
Management in 2011 frequency of formal
with regard to public and informal
employees. communication flux,
as well as the
organization of
meetings with
subordinates. This
was essentially due to
the availability and
use by telework
supervisors of a
variety of ICT
communication tools.
Authors also found
that subordinates’
perceptions about
telework supervisors
were positively
affected by the ability
of their supervisors to
assign fair objectives,
as well as by their
proficiency and
experience in
managing at a
distance.
97. Paul (2006) Understand how sense- Qualitative Distributed environment Sense-making was
[RWA/IW] making can be Cross-case studies on Virtual teams challenged in
effectively and telemedicine projects Sense-making (at group distributed
efficiently carried out from 4 virtual teams. level) environments.
in a distributed However, it was
environment. efficiently managed
through the adoption
of a holistic approach
and a series of
measures ranging
from an adequate
(Continues)
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design of ICT tools

(e.g., to extract salient
cues or allow
retrospect analysis)
and to the
organization of
sessions reproducing
face-to-face
interactions (i.e.,
create a sensible
environment).
98. Pauleen (2003a) Develop a three-step Qualitative Virtual team Author identified 3 steps
[S] model for leader- Data collected through Leader-initiated for leader-initiated
initiated relationship action learning relationship building relationship building
building with virtual techniques. 7 leaders with virtual team
team members. were grouped in 2 members. The first
learning groups that step consisted of
met once a week for assessing conditions
10 weeks. Data to relationship
analyzed based on buildings (in terms of,
grounded theory. e.g., team issues and
available ICT). The
second step regarded
the definition of the
level of relationships
(low, medium, and
high). The third step
referred to create
strategies for building
relationships in terms
of messages and tools
(e.g., phone calls and
email).
99. Pauleen (2003b) Explore communication Qualitative Virtual team The choice of
[T] and trusting building Data collected through Cross-cultural boundaries communication
[RWA/OI] relationships in a action learning Relationship building practices was
virtual team whose techniques. Focus on Communication practices influenced by virtual
members had relevant one (semi) virtual (face to face, email, team members’
cultural differences. team leader, as part and phone calls) preferences (in their
of a larger research turn affected by
project. culture), then by
familiarity, skills, and
availability of a
(Continues)
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specific technological
tool.
Communications
preferences may
change over time due,
for example, to
deadlines that
required to speed the
process. Face-to-face
meetings were crucial
for building trusting
relationships among
team members.
100. Peasley Investigate the effects of Quantitative Personal stressor for Salesperson burnout Personal stress strongly
et al. (2020) personal stress Hypothesis tested based salespeople (financial, (emotional affected the burnout
[RWA/IW] (family-to-work) on on a survey to 331 health, and exhaustion, of a group of
work performance in B2B salespeople from relationship) depersonalization, salespeople and
the case of across a variety of and diminished reflected on their
salespeople. industries. personal performance.
accomplishment) Specifically, health
And their effect on stress increased
salesperson exhaustion and
performance calloused disposition
towards clients and
colleagues. It also led
to the gradual
diminishing of a
salesperson’s sense of
importance for
stakeholders.
Likewise, when
personal non-work
relationships
underwent strains, the
resulting stress
increased exhaustion
and perception of
diminished personal
accomplishment due
to the failure in
private relationships.
Finally, financial
stress provoked in
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salespeople emotional
exhaustion and
depersonalization.
101. Peters and Investigate the Quantitative Trust in team member Trust in team member (as Virtual team performance The study evidenced
Karren (2009) relationship among Hypothesis tested based Functional diversity moderator) - efficiency different perceptions
[T] trust in team member, on a survey to 195 - effectiveness for virtual team
functional diversity, virtual project team - timeliness members and
and team members and 33 managers. The former
performance in a project managers. believed that trust in
virtual environment. team members and
functional diversity
are both relevant for
team performance.
The latter did not
agree as, according to
them, the effect of
functional diversity
on team performance
depended on
knowledge exchange
and competence
complementarity
among members; the
impact of trust on
team performance
depended on swift
trust,
communications
among members,
previous experience
with distributed work,
and so forth. In the
end, managers
believed that trust
moderated the
relationship between
functional diversity
and team
performance so that
the higher the
functional diversity,
the higher the effect
of trust on virtual
team performance.
PIANESE ET AL.

(Continues)
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102. Pinjani and Investigate the Quantitative Diversity among GVTs Task interdependence Mutual trust and The deep-level diversity
Palvia (2013) relationship between Hypothesis tested based - diversity type Collaborative technology knowledge sharing among global virtual
[T] diversity, mutual on a survey to 213 - functional diversity (as moderators) among GVTs’ team members in
trust, and knowledge members of 58 GVTs - deep-level diversity members terms of personal
sharing among global from different Mutual trust and characteristics
virtual team (GVT). companies. knowledge sharing as (attitudes, values, and
mediators between preferences) strongly
diversity and affected the
- GVT performance establishment of
- GVT member mutual trusting
satisfaction relationships and the
availability of sharing
knowledge with other
members. This was
moderated by the
need to interact with
other members due to
the degree of task
interdependence and
by the availability of
effective collaborative
ICT tools and
systems. Mutual trust
and knowledge
sharing among GVTs’
members mediated
the relationship
between diversity and
team effectiveness.
103. Porter and van Understand the Qualitative Mobile work By comparing pre- and
den Hooff (2020) “complementary Longitudinal case study Complementary control post-implementation
[CS] control system,” that about the system of a mobile IS, this
is, role of mobile implementation of a Employees’ autonomy study found that the
technologies for mobile Sales Force Managerial control mobile Sales Force
enhancing employees’ Automation tool in a Informational affordance Automation tool led
autonomy while multinational to an “informational
increasing managerial company. Data from affordances”
control. 46 interviews to sales (automation of sale
agents and managers. information, real-time
access/visibility of
sales and customer
information, and
auditable
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performance
information) that
increased both
employees’ autonomy
(over content, timing,
location, and work
performance) and
managerial control.
Autonomy and
control were not
opposite concepts;
rather, they were
balanced in a “system
of complementary
control” where sales
agents and managers
were connected in a
positive relationship
based on increased
fairness, relatedness,
and trust.
104. Presbitero Understand whether (and Quantitative VT member’s foreign VT member’s foreign Individual task In globally dispersed
(2020) how) employees’ Hypothesis tested based language skill language anxiety (as performance work environment,
[CS] foreign language skill on a survey to 294 mediator) virtual team
influences individual pairs (GVT members Cultural intelligence (as members’ foreign
task performance in and their supervisors) moderator) language skills were
global virtual teams. working in global - cultural knowledge crucial for their
virtual teams in an - cultural metacognition performance.
offshoring firm based - cultural skill Specifically, the
in the Philippines. higher their
knowledge of a
foreign language, the
lower the anxiety and
stress in interacting
with foreign
colleagues, thus
resulting in a higher
individual task
performance.
Anyway, the “cultural
intelligence,” that is,
ability to interact
effectively across
(Continues)
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cultural contexts, was

found to act as a
moderator, so that
high cultural
intelligence reduced
the negative effects of
foreign language
anxiety on task
performance.
105. Raghuram and Explain the relationship Quantitative (employees’ perceptions Telecommuting intensity The intensity of remote
Fang (2013) between employees’ Hypothesis tested based about) Supervisory working connected
[S] perceptions about on a survey on 150 power positively with
supervisory power Chinese employees of - legitimate power perceptions of
and telecommuting 4 multinationals with - reward power (also in supervisory power
intensity in China. consolidated the case of supervisor and with the fact that
telecommuting that telecommuters) supervisors were
policies. themselves
teleworkers.
Interestingly, power
conceptualization
emerged as specific of
each country and
influenced by the
socio-cultural context;
for example, Chinese
employees recognized
higher power to
supervisors adopting
a paternalistic
approach.
106. Rapp Explain if team leaders Quantitative Input Process Outcome Empowering leadership
et al. (2010) empowering Longitudinal study Leader empowering Virtual team processes Virtual team outcomes improved team
[S] behaviors and team Hypothesis based on behaviors - planning processes - team commitment planning processes.
experience influence input-process- Team experience - action processes - team performance This relationship was
virtual team outcome model tested Degree of virtuality (as moderated by
processes, through 3 surveys on moderator) previous team
commitment, and 651 salespeople of 218 experience. Indeed, in
performance. virtual sales teams. the case of high team
Moderator role of the experience, team
degree of virtuality is members were less
investigated. likely to engage in
effective planning.
These effects were
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attenuated as long as
the team was virtual.
107. Richardson and Examine how Qualitative Flexible workers Flexible work required a
McKenna (2014) professionals reorder Case study on a Reordering continuous reordering
[RWA/IW] their home and work multinational - spatial relations of space and social
lives through the company. Data from - social relations (both relations with
process of becoming documents and 80 with colleagues and colleagues (i.e., they
flexible workers. interviews to 4 senior family members) look for new pattern
HR managers, 27 of interactions) and
managers of flexible family members (e.g.,
workers, and 49 establishing new
flexible workers. rules). It emerged as
not a stable entity but
a continually evolving
entity, mutually
constituted by space
and social relations.
108. Rico Investigate how Quantitative Communication Task interdependence (as Trust building among In the “early on” phase,
et al. (2009) communication Cross-sectional data behaviors moderator) virtual team members task-oriented
[T] behaviors among collection in order to - task-oriented (early on phase) communications were
virtual team members trace trust evolution communication Trust changes among fundamental for
interact with task from “early on” to - socially oriented virtual team members building trusting
interdependence in “later on” project communication (later on phase) relationships among
relation to the phase. 187 members Communication virtual team
building and changing of 53 virtual project enthusiasm members.
of trust. teams took parts to Predictable Enthusiastic
the study. communication communications were
Substantive relevant only in the
communication case of low task
interdependence
activities. Predictable
and substantive
communications were
both relevant to trust
among team members
during the “later on”
phase, mainly in the
case of high task
interdependence. The
study evidenced the
importance to
consider that trusting
relationships change
(Continues)
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Independent variable (for

quantitative study)

over time and

therefore include
temporal dimension
in their analysis.
109. Riedl Investigate the Quantitative Virtual team member’s Virtual team size and Trust in virtual team Trust in leader depended
et al. (2012) relationship between Hypothesis tested based perceptions of culture (individualism leader on virtual team
[T] virtual team on a survey on 70 - leader status vs. collectivism) (as Virtual team members’ perceptions
members’ perceptions employees that - leader power moderator) performance: of its status.
about leader status worked in virtual - job satisfaction Relationship between
and power, and trust team. - task satisfaction leader status and trust
in leader and team in leader was
performance. moderated by team
Moderator effect of culture. Trust in
team size and team leader was crucial in
culture. virtual teams for its
positive effect on
team performance.
110. Romeike Investigate the effects of Quantitative Social comparison Trust among virtual team Trust among virtual team In the case that virtual
et al. (2016) social comparison Hypothesis tested based processes (perceptions members (as members team members
[T] processes on virtual on a survey on 753 about individual mediator) Virtual team members’ perceived that their
team members’ trust members of 57 virtual performance job satisfaction performance was
and job satisfaction. teams. 5 focus groups compared with team higher compared with
with team leaders to performance) team performance
corroborate results. (over performance),
they experienced
lower level of trust
towards team and
lower level of job
satisfaction, as they
perceived that
colleagues invested
less effort and
contributed less to
virtual team
performance. Trust
mediated the negative
effect of social
comparison processes
on job satisfaction.
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111. Ruiller Identify managerial Qualitative Objective distance versus Teleworkers’ perceptions
et al. (2019) practices able to Single case study. Data perceived proximity of proximity from
[S] develop and maintain collected through by teleworkers colleagues represent a
the perception of interviews with 6 HR E-management mode relevant issue for
proximity of directors and Shared identification managers. According
teleworkers. managers, and 16 Communications to this study, the
teleworkers (home- Relationship quality adoption of an “e-
based, telecentre- management mode”
based, and virtual (that, e.g., combines
team members). virtual and face-to-
face communications)
is able to favor shared
identification among
distant colleagues and
improve the quality
and quantity of
exchanged
communications.
Together, they
increased the
proximity perceived
by teleworkers while
ICT use (email,
phone, etc.) supported
the quality of
relationships
established with
colleagues.
112. Ruppel Explore how members of Qualitative Global virtual team Managers chose those
et al. (2013) a global virtual team Single case study on a Domestic workplace communication media
[RWA/IW] chose communication global (high) virtual Work–life balance that met task
media for managing teams. Data from Boundary management requirements and
multiple boundaries. interviews to 5 US - time, language, and allowed them to
Focus on home-based managers who cultural boundaries maintain the
US managers who teleworked from - challenges and strategies boundaries and
communicated with home, and a focus - communication media clearly separate work
virtual team members group with 4 office- choice and personal lives.
located in office in based employees from Their decisions about
India. India. communication media
did not take into
account the exigencies
and preferences of
Indian colleagues.
(Continues)
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Therefore, they
extensively used email
and instant
messaging, followed
by phone calls for
more complex issues.
They did not
appreciate
videoconferences.
113. Sewell and Examine the tension Qualitative Hybrid work (i.e., both at Both technical and
Taskin (2015) between teleworkers’ Longitudinal case study home and in office) professional
[CS] experience of being of a Belgian bio- Organizational control teleworkers developed
[T] physically absent pharmaceutical Spatiotemporal scaling similar strategies of
[RWA/OI] from the workplace company. Data from (i.e., a sort of spatiotemporal
while being semi-structured territorialization scaling as a response
simultaneously under interviews to 31 dealing with the to change in
close managerial and technical and tension between managerial control
peer control. professional workplace and after telework
teleworkers who only domestic scale) introduction. These
work from home once Re-regulation (i.e., a shift changes (i.e., re-
or twice a week. in the technocratic regulation) consisted
and socio-ideological of a formalization of
control) technocratic control,
extension of
hierarchical
relationship (i.e.,
supervision), and
development of
stronger social and
normative pressure to
conform that lead to
perceptions of
reduced autonomy.
Both groups
attempted to
reterritorialized their
experience through
establishing their
visibility and presence
in a remote setting, so
as to feel more
integrated into the
social relations of
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work. Distantiation
lead teleworkers to
challenge existing
norms such as
trustworthiness and
because they worried
about how they
would be perceived by
managers and peers,
that were trying to
put themselves into
the minds of other
rather than using the
domestic scale as a
refuge from
managerial intrusion.
114. Sivunen (2006) Identify tactics Qualitative Virtual team Author identified several
[S] implemented by Case studies on 4 virtual Virtual team leaders identification-
virtual team leaders teams belonging to 4 Team identification promoting tactics
to strengthen the organizations. Data Computer-mediated adopted by virtual
employees’ team from interviews to communication team leaders. These
identification through leaders, observation Virtual team leaders’ included catering for
computer-mediated of video conferences, identification- the individual; giving
communication. recording of IM, and promoting tactics positive feedbacks to
forum. Focus on tools members; bringing
allowing group out common goals
discussion. and workings; talking
up the team activities;
and organizing face-
to-face meetings.
Author recognized
the crucial role of
technological tools
and warned about the
need to provide a
variety of ICT tools
allowing both
synchronous and
asynchronous
communications
among virtual team
members.
(Continues)
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alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)

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quantitative study)

115. Staples Investigate relationships Quantitative Antecedents (remote Remote work Remote employees’ self-
et al. (1999) between antecedents Hypothesis tested based work and experience - self-efficacy assessment efficacy assessments
[CS] to remote workers’ on a survey on 376 and training; - attitude (job played a critical role
self-efficacy remote workers in 18 modeling best satisfaction, ability to in influencing their
assessments and their organizations. practices by manager; cope, and effectiveness,
behavioral and computer anxiety; commitment) perceived
attitudinal physical conditions; - behavior (performance productivity, job
consequences. and connectivity) and job stress) satisfaction, and
ability to cope. There
was a strong
relationship between
self-efficacy
assessment and
several antecedents,
specifically, remote
work experience and
training, best
practices modeling by
management, and
computer anxiety IT
capabilities.
116. Strawn (2009) Understand the process Qualitative Remote work The transition to remote
[RWA/IW] of identity Ethnographic study. An Sense of fragmentation work and the
structuration in the anthropologist and disjuncture continuous
case of remote reported her own Identity structuration commuting from one
workers. experience as remote Re(structuring) identity place to another one
worker that is forced caused a
to regular relocation fragmentation and
from family-based disjuncture in
city to an office-based author’s identity. She
city. reported that she
restructured her (new)
identity by identifying
at home-specific space
devoted to work and
by setting the same
routines in both cities
to control chaos (e.g.,
(Continues)
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same cereals).
However, she
reported a work
intensification and a
desire to restore the
visibility by
organizing frequently
formal face-to-face
meetings with her
own team members.
117. Symon and Understand the socio- Qualitative Mobile work Connection viewed as a
Pritchard (2015) materiality of Single case study within a Connectivity socio-material
[RWA/IW] connectivity, that is, large organization in Identity work assemblage that
how smartphones are the engineering Socio-material performed a
used by mobile sector. Data collected perspective (and particular work
workers to maintain through interviews to specifically, the identity, that is,
“connections” to the 46 mobile workers in concepts of “mangle contactable,
organization and how different occupational of practice” and responsive,
the entanglement of roles. “double mangle”) committed, and
social and material authoritative. The
aspects of technology concept of
and work practices connectivity was
shape work identity. developed taking into
account material
agency and human
actions. Analysis
suggested that
connected identity
emerged from the
mangle of practice,
that connectivity can
be viewed as an
entanglement of
different agencies that
produces connection,
and that alternative
socio-material
performances are
achieved by
questioning ideational
identities and position
in relation to others.
(Continues)
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118. Taskin and Understand the Qualitative Home-based telework Findings revealed that
Edwards (2007) relationship between Cross-case studies Changes in rules of telework programs
[CS] the adoption of A successful and failure control and could be suitable to
telework and work re- case of telework relationship public bureaucratic
regulation, in terms of adoption in public Bureaucratic public environments.
changes in rules of sector was compared. environment However, they needed
control and work Data mainly from 37 to be planned
relationships. interviews. adequately in order to
be successful. Indeed,
results evidenced the
emergence of new
control mechanisms
both horizontal (i.e.,
reinforcement of
social control) and
vertical (i.e.,
introduction of new
control by
supervisors) that
needed to be coherent
and not conflicting
with pre-existing
control mechanisms.
119. Thomas and Explore the technology Quantitative Virtual team leader style Technology adaptation Project outcomes Trust was essential to
Bostrom (2008) adaptation by leaders Hypothesis tested - Theory X forcing style (use of transitional collaboration and
[T] to build and maintain through critical - Theory Y linking style object) knowledge transfer
trusting relationships incidents Trust change among virtual team
among members of methodology based members. Leaders
virtual teams. on interviews to 13 used ICT as
leaders of VT. transitional objects
(technology
adaptation) for
building trusting
relationships among
VT members.
Technology adaption
(mainly combined
with a forcing style)
positively affected
trust and
collaboration. Leader
linking style, even if
positively related to
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trust and
collaboration,
required higher
technology
adaptation.
120. Tietze and Explore how the Qualitative Home-based telework Employees expected to
Nadin (2011) transition from office- Longitudinal case study Psychological contract obtain a series of
[RWA/IW] based to home-based on a local authority (relational and benefits from
work impacts upon that introduced a transactional) telework, that is,
the psychological 3-month home- Relationships with better work–life
contract (i.e., working pilot scheme. employer, colleagues balance, but also the
relationship with 21 interviews to 7 (teleworkers and opportunity to escape
employer, colleagues, low-skilled home- office-based), and from tensions of
and family members) based teleworkers family members office environment.
of employees. (before, during, and Home-based teleworkers’ Participants to this
after telework job satisfaction and study had a
adoption). life satisfaction transactional oriented
relationship with their
employer (mainly due
to personal
characteristics and
routine tasks).
Teleworkers
reinforced
transactional oriented
contract towards the
organization (they
worked more
intensively only to
obtain to prolong
teleworking), office-
based colleagues
(avoided contacting
them), and managers
(indifference because
they did not trust
teleworkers). It
improved
relationship-oriented
contract towards
other teleworkers.
(Continues)
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In the family context,

telework improved
harmony but required
renegotiating
domestic duties (with
partner) and
emotional boundaries
(with parents).
121. Timms Investigate employees’ Quantitative Organizational culture FWA use versus non-use Supportive
et al. (2015) use of flexible work Longitudinal study. (2 - hindering Relationship with work organizational culture
[CS] and relationship with waves separated by a - supportive engagement, turnover was fundamental to
[RWA/IW] work engagement, 12-month interval) intentions, and the actual use of
turnover intentions, Hypothesis tested based psychological strains flexible work. Indeed,
and psychological on a survey on 823 it reduced the
strains. Australian employees. inconsistence between
formal and informal
organizational
messages. A negative
relationship between
flexible work use and
work engagement was
found, probably due
to economic crisis in
Australia. Flexible
use resulted to be
predictor of turnover
intentions.
122. Virick Investigate factors related Quantitative Extent of telecommuting Performance outcome Job satisfaction It existed a curvilinear
et al. (2010) to employee (job and Hypothesis tested (high vs. low) orientation (as Life satisfaction inverted U-shaped
[CS] life) satisfaction with through a survey on moderator) relation between
telecommuting. 85 telecommuters Worker type (work drive extent of
Moderator role of employed at a global and work enjoyment) telecommuting and
performance outcome telecommunication (as moderator) job and life
orientation and organization in the satisfaction; both
worker type are United States. were higher when
investigated. there was moderate
intensity of
telecommuting.
Performance outcome
orientation was a
moderator because,
although job
satisfaction stayed the
(Continues)
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

same regardless the

extent of
telecommuting when
performance outcome
orientation was high,
job satisfaction was
higher for those with
low performance
orientation when
there was a moderate
level of
telecommuting.
Worker type
moderated only the
relationship with life
satisfaction so that
workaholics reported
a high level of life
satisfaction despite
the intensity of
telecommuting; life
satisfaction was
higher for others
when there is a
moderate amount of
telecommuting.
123. Vuolle (2010) Understand and evaluate Mixed Mobile worker Results showed that the
[CS] the impact on Data from interviews, Mobile office service main (productivity)
productivity following group discussion, and Productivity impacts (at impacts deriving from
the adoption of a a survey to 115 individual level) the use of the mobile
mobile office service mobile workers office service were the
in the context of (knowledge workers ability to accomplish
mobile workers. and salespeople) using tasks that needed a
a mobile service rapid reaction or
office. response, better
situation awareness,
and better utilization
of idle time while on
the move.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
PIANESE ET AL.

124. Youngblood Communication Qualitative Remote work In order to feel to be part

(2009) strategies Ethnographic study Remote workers’ of the workplace
[RWA/OI] implemented by An anthropologist communication community, remote
remote workers to documented his own Workplace community worker
overcome experience as remote Professional isolation communicated
professional isolation worker. Career progression continuously (often
and be part of the carefully timed) with
“workplace co-located colleagues
community” created and used various tools
among collocated and channels, that is,
workers. email, IM, and phone
calls. These
communications were
very detailed, in order
to give visibility of
work done, and very
formal in order to
avoid
misunderstandings
with colleagues.
125. Webster and Compare identity, Quantitative Project team Project team members’ Members of traditional
Wong (2008) communications, and Hypothesis tested based - co-located perceptions about and pure virtual
[T] trust in co-located, on a survey on 453 - pure virtual - group identity and trust teams behaved in a
[RWA/IW] pure virtual, and employees of a large - hybrid (composed of a - perceived task skills similar fashion in
hybrid project teams. company. Of these, 79 local subgroup and - project satisfaction terms of
work in traditional remote team Communication communications, and
teams; 118 in VT, and members) perceptions of
256 in hybrid teams. colleagues’ task skills
and group trust and
identity. This study
revealed important
differences in the case
of hybrid teams,
where members
communicated more
and show higher trust
and task skills and
better group identity
with local members
than with remote
workers. Finally, VT
members reported
project satisfaction
higher than
traditional teams.
97

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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

126. Whitford and Investigate the Quantitative Transformational Employees’ regulatory Employees’ (in co-located In distributed teams,
Moss (2009) relationship between Hypothesis tested leadership style (in co- focus and goal and distributed teams) when employees had
[S] transformational through a survey on located and orientation (as - work engagement a promotion focus
leadership and 165 employees (some distributed teams) moderator) - job satisfaction (fulfill hopes and
employees’ work working in co-located Personal recognition aspirations),
engagement and job teams and others in transformational
satisfaction. distributed work leadership style had a
Moderating role of group). positive effect on both
employees’ regulatory job satisfaction and
focus and goal work engagement. On
orientation in the contrary, in co-
distributed and located teams, a
collocated work are prevention focus
investigated. (fulfill duties and
obligations)
reinforced the positive
effect of
transformational
leadership style on
both job satisfaction
and work
engagement. When
leader–follower were
in the same location,
the positive
relationship between
personal recognition
and work engagement
was greater for
employees with
performance goal
orientation.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
PIANESE ET AL.

alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)

Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

127. Whittle (2005) Explore the relationship Qualitative Flexible work Results revealed tensions,
[CS] between being Ethnographic study. Organization discourse contradictions, and
preacher and Data from non- Manager as producers of cynicism between
practitioner of flexible participant organization what consultants
work for a group of observations over discourse preached publicly
consultants. To this 9 months and semi- Consultant as preacher (front stage) about the
end, their (back stage structured interviews and practitioner of virtues of flexible
and front stage) to 10 UK consultants flexible work work and their
discourses are of a large UK discourses during
analyzed. telecommunications back stage
firm. interactions. Author
found that they
sustained these
discourses on flexible
work rather than
discrediting them for
career reasons, failing
in reconciling the
contradictions and
ambivalence they
experienced.
128. Wiesenfeld Investigate the Quantitative Virtual workers’ need for Virtual workers’ Organizational Personal attributes helped
et al. (2001) relationship between Hypothesis tested affiliation perceptions of work- identification explain the level of
[RWA/OI] individual differences through a survey on based social support remote workers’
in need for affiliation 250 salespeople (as moderator) organizational
and virtual workers’ employed at a high- identification. In fact,
organizational tech organization. remote workers, with
identification. high personal need for
affiliation, showed
high levels of
organizational
identification. Instead
for those with less
need for affiliation, it
was critical the
support they
perceived to receive
from supervisors and
colleagues in office.
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Author(s) in Research objectives Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
alphabetical order qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)

129. Wiesenfeld Investigate the role of Quantitative Communication of Virtual status (high, i.e., Virtual workers’ Degree of virtuality
et al. (1999) electronic Survey on 276 virtual workers with less than 2 days in- organizational moderated the
[RWA/OI] communication in salespeople of a large organizational office; and low, i.e., identification relationship between
obtaining that virtual international members more than 2 days in- communication media
workers identify with company that - frequency with office) (as moderator) and organizational
their organization. implemented within subordinates, peers, identification.
the previous 6 months and supervisors Electronic
a mandatory virtual - communication media communication
work program. (document, electronic, (mainly email)
face-to-face, and resulted to be more
telephone) important to OI for
those extensively
working at a distance.
Phone calls resulted
to be more important
to OI for less virtual
telecommuters. F2F
meetings were not
important to OI in
virtual work.
However, authors
invited to consider
those results as
affected by the state
of implementation of
telecommuting
programs (e.g., F2F
could be important
during the initial
adoption).
130. Empirically investigate Quantitative Organizational culture Team boundary: Global transnational Process-oriented teams
Workman (2007) global virtual team Hypothesis tested (procedural and openness (as virtual team had better
[CS] performance through through a survey on political structure) moderator) performance performance of result-
boundary 1197 members of 436 Relationship - efficiency oriented teams when
permeability theory virtual team projects (interpersonal and - production adopting procedural
and organizational of a transnational organizational) - high-quality solution structure. Openness
culture framework. organization. Author Control (tightly vs. moderated such
examined also loosely controlled) relationship. Tightly
artifacts. controlled teams had
better performance
than loosely
controlled teams.
(Continues)
PIANESE ET AL.
View publication stats
Author(s) in Research objectives
alphabetical order
131. Zhang Explore how formal and
et al. (2007) informal control play
[CS] out in distributed IT
work where teams are
composed of
subgroups that are
distributed across
countries and
cultures.
Abbreviations: [CS], control systems; [RWA/IW], work identity aimed at control in remote work arrangements; [RWA/OI], organizational identification aimed at control in remote work arrangements; [S], supervisory management
styles; [T], trusting relationships.
PIANESE ET AL.
Methodology Key dimensions (for Moderator/mediator (for Dependent variable (for Main findings
qualitative study) quantitative study) quantitative study)
Independent variable (for
quantitative study)
Qualitative Globally distributed IT Formal control was
Longitudinal work team complemented with
ethnographic study IS project team informal control in
(observations and Formal and informal distributed IT work.
interviews to 40 control Informal control had
employees) on a Organizational culture additive powers that
software development Relationship transfer improved the
project from a Popular culture effectiveness of
globally distributed Social brokers formal control.
work team (members Formal control
based in the United supported
States, Ireland, and organizational culture
India). diffusion. Clan
control could be
increased by personal
relationship buildings,
face-to-face meetings,
pop up culture
training, and social
brokers.
101