Work and non-work identities in global virtual teams: Role of cultural intelligence in employee engagement
International Journal of Manpower
ISSN: 0143-7720
Article publication date: 28 January 2020
Issue publication date: 10 March 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Increasing digitization has transformed ways of work in modern age. Organizations are increasingly relying on global virtual teams (GVTs) as new forms of working. However, the challenges of configuration of GVTs have been reported to reduce the levels of employee engagement, especially so in multicultural GVTs. Extant research indicates cultural intelligence as one of the drivers of employee engagement in GVTs, though the nature of this relationship has remained unclear. As there is scarce literature on the nature of this relationship, the purpose of this paper is to examine the linkages between cultural intelligence and employee engagement and the authors explain the findings using the identity lens.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is an ethnographic inquiry to understand the nature of the relationship between cultural intelligence and employee engagement.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that the inclusionary pressures of non-work identities (national culture) are high in context of GVTs owing to their configuration. However, preferences (alignment or misalignment) of team members either initiate gain cycles or loss cycles, thus effecting the levels of employee engagement. Further, it was found that individual preferences may dynamically change from misalignment toward alignment with improved levels of cultural intelligence among team members of GVTs. The relationship between cultural intelligence and employee engagement has been found to be mediated by trust among team members in GVTs.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to understand the dynamics of this relationship in an organizational GVT context. The authors also propose a unique framework combining cultural intelligence, trust and employee engagement in the context of GVTs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors owe a big thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for helping out in crafting the manuscript toward refinement. Lastly, the authors are very thankful to the editors of this journal for their continuous support and guidance.
This work was supported by Cyient Ltd, headquartered at Hyderabad, India. The authors would specifically like to thank Dr PNSV Narasimham (Sr Vice President and Global Head, Human Resources, Cyient) for the interest in this research and giving the authors requisite access and permissions in the field. Also, a special thanks to Samit Patil (Deputy General Manager, Human Resources, Cyient) for the continuous guidance and support during the process of data collection.
Citation
Shaik, F.F., Makhecha, U.P. and Gouda, S.K. (2021), "Work and non-work identities in global virtual teams: Role of cultural intelligence in employee engagement", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 51-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2019-0118
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited