How Does Team Virtuality Influence Work-Life Balance: A Moderated Mediation Model

The prevalence of virtual teamwork arrangement endows organizations with managerial flexibility and efficiency but also gives rise to problems involving work-life balance of employees. Previous studies based on boundary-separation perspective to hold that high reliance on ICT leads employees in virtual teamwork arrangement to work in life space or life time and thus undermine their work-life balance. However, there is no clear boundaries to separate work from life in terms of space and time in virtual teamwork arrangement. This study pointed out the boundary-crossing perspective and argued that team virtuality undermines work-life balance by diminishing the social cues that help employees cross their role boundary. Using multilevel path analysis and data from 260 employees in 65 teams, this study verified that team virtuality is negatively related to work-life balance via psychological detachment, and that AR use and VR use moderate the relationship between team virtuality and psychological detachment by their influence on individuals’ sensitivity to social cues. Theoretical and practical implications for work-life balance in virtual teamwork arrangement are discussed.