As organizations shift their work space from more traditional tethered locations to geographically dispersed spaces, virtual work is emerging as a critical feature of contemporary organizational life.

Virtual Work and Human Interaction Research uses humanistic and social scientific inquiry from interdisciplinary and international perspectives to explore how individuals engage in the new virtual work paradigm. This book explores a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, boundary management in virtual work, shadowing virtual work practices, creative workers’ attitudes in virtual work, high-touch interactivity in virtual experiences, surveys, interviews experimental, ethnography grounded-theory, and phenomenology in virtual work contexts.

Coverage:

The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to:

Distributed teams
Ethnographic research in virtual work
Experimental research in virtual work
Informal and formal communication
Organizational life
Quantitative methods in virtual work
Virtual work
Virtual work behaviors

Reviews & Statements

This book brings together international and interdisciplinary scholars with diverse theoretical and methodological orientations, from a variety of legacy disciplines. This is an interdisciplinary and international project. My hope is that this book and the diverse contributions in this volume signal the importance of focusing on the broad opportunities the virtual work paradigm offers to researchers and practitioners worldwide and that spirited disciplinary and international conversations will continue around this topic.

– Shawn Long, University of North Carolina Charlotte, USA

"An informative set of articles about the virtual work space and the people who work in this environment. [Long's] extensive body of work, as well as his demonstrated leadership achievement in university and professional academic programs, more than qualifies him for editorship. The 17 articles cover a broad range of topics concerning individual and cultural/group communication dynamics in virtual work; they also apply a variety of research and analytical methods." [...] "Summing up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections."

– CHOICE, Vol. 50, No. 04. N.J. Johnson, formerly Metropolitan State University

Intended for researchers, this volume collects quantitative and qualitative studies on virtual work practices, possibilities, and limitations. Four studies from the University of North Carolina examine the impact of virtual work on creative workers' attitudes, the role of experiments in the study of virtual groups, phenomenology, and dramaturgy. The other 13 papers analyze the timing of replies to mobile text messages, describe digital content for high-touch interactions, map a typology of culturally-related challenge to global virtual teams, and offer advice on conducting virtual surveys.

– Book News Inc. Portland, OR

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Editor/Author Biographies

Shawn D. Long (Ph.D., University of Kentucky; M.P.A., Tennessee State University) is Chair of the Department of Communication Studies and former Director of the Communication Studies Graduate Program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is currently Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Associate Professor of Organizational Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. An organizational scholar with numerous peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Long’s teaching and research spans organizational communication, organizational science, virtual work, diversity communication, virtual- team assimilation, and socialization, and health communication. Dr. Long studies the utility and development of communication practices and processes in virtual work. He has consulted several organizations on communication, technology, culture, diversity, and structure. He has written, presented, and published several peer-reviewed papers around issues of organizational technology, diversity, virtual work in organizations, health communication, and organizational culture. He has appeared as a featured guest on several media outlets including the National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. His most recent research appears in Communication Monographs, Journal of National Medical Association, Clinical Transplantation, Health Communication, Journal of Health Psychology, Journal of Health Communication, Communication Teacher, Health Communication, Information and Science Technology, The Encyclopedia of Organizational/Industrial Psychology, Case Studies for Organizational Communication: Understanding Communication Processes, and Virtual and Collaborative Teams. His book, Communication, Relationships and Practices in Virtual Work (2010) was nominated for two Outstanding Book Awards in two divisions of the National Communication Association. He is currently guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology Research. He serves on a number of journal editorial boards. Dr. Long is immediate past-Chair of the African American Communication and Culture Division of the National Communication Association. Prior to arriving at UNC-Charlotte, Dr. Long was a Southern Regional Educational Board Doctoral Scholar and Lyman T. Johnson Doctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky. He has been recognized with several professional awards including the 2011 Southern States Communication Association Outreach Award, 2009 Organizational Science Outstanding Service Award, 2010 Southern States Communication Association Minority and Retention Award, Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching at the University of Kentucky, The Multicultural Summer Fellowship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Outstanding Teaching Assistant in the College of Communication and Information Studies at the University of Kentucky, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant recognized by the International Communication Association, and Who’s Who Among American Teachers.

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Editorial Advisory Board

Brenda J. Allen, University of Denver, USA
Anita Blanchard, University of North Carolina – Charlotte, USA
Stacey Connaughton, Purdue University, USA
Tyler Harrison, Purdue University, USA
Gaelle Picherit-Duthler, Zehid University, UAE