Leading via virtual communication: a longitudinal field experiment on work team creativity in an extreme context

Lan Wang (), Xiao-Ping Chen () and Jun Yin ()
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Lan Wang: Peking University, The China Center for Economic Research, The National School of Development
Xiao-Ping Chen: University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business
Jun Yin: Peking University, Institute of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era

Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2024, vol. 41, issue 1, No 9, 195-231

Abstract: Abstract COVID-19 has prompted diverse responses from governments and created an extreme context for organizations to operate. In this context, company leaders face fluctuated macrolevel policies, endure physical separation from their members, and must rely on virtual communication to conduct teamwork. Yet little is known about what and how leader communication can be effective in inducing team creativity to survive the extreme context. Building on the affective events theory and the literature on media richness, we develop a theoretical model explicating how leaders’ rich (as opposed to lean) virtual communication can mitigate the negative impact of stringent government responses to COVID-19 on work team creativity via a sequential mediation process: first by inhibiting team anxiety and then by facilitating team information elaboration. Data from a three-stage eight-day longitudinal field experiment, in combination with an experience sampling method with 251 employees, on a chain preschool in eight Chinese cities, provide strong support for the hypothesized model.

Keywords: Extreme context; Richness of leader virtual communication; Stringency of government responses to COVID-19; Team anxiety; Team information elaboration; Team creativity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10490-022-09846-5

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