Advancing Research on Women’s Equality in Virtual Work

A growing number of employees are participating in virtual work arrangements such as working from home, virtual teamwork (team members communicating via electronic means from dispersed locations), and other forms of computer-mediated work. Despite its rising popularity, there is research to suggest that virtual work can be a double-edged sword for women in the workplace with mixed effects on their job opportunities, social integration at work, and ability to control their work-nonwork boundary. Yet, many unanswered questions remain regarding the implications of virtual work for women’s equality. There is an urgent need to address these questions, given the increasingly widespread implementation of virtual work in contemporary organizations and the persistent problem of women’s inequality in the workplace. The papers in this symposium help to advance research in this area through empirical studies that apply different theoretical perspectives to provide important new insights on virtuality’s career- enhancing as well as detrimental effects for women. The authors of the papers, who collectively span four continents, examine women’s equality related to their work and family success and their well-being in different aspects of virtual work, including virtual collaboration, virtual leadership, and working from home. The research findings presented in this symposium point to the need to manage the burgeoning phenomenon of virtual work in ways that leverage its benefits and mitigate its downsides for women. Gender Differences in Virtual Collaboration Effectiveness Author: N. Sharon Hill; George Washington U. Author: Maria Ximena Hincapie; School of Management, U. de los Andes The Role of Gender in Implicit Virtual Leadership Theories Author: Isabel Villamor; IESE Business School Author: N. Sharon Hill; George Washington U. Working From Home, Together: The Role of ICT Permeability, Planning, and Gender Author: Manju K. Ahuja; U. of Louisville Author: Rui Zhang Sundrup; U. of Louisville Author: Massimo Magni; Bocconi U. Reconnecting to Morning Work Routines to Overcome Work-from-Home Challenges: A Gender Role Perspec Author: Anita Keller; U. of Groningen Author: Yukun Liu; Zhejiang U., China Author: Sharon Parker; Centre for Transformative Work Design / Curtin U.