Bringing technological affordances into virtual work
Jennifer L. Gibbs, Nitzan Navick · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023
Scholars have been studying virtual work for over two decades, but the Covid-19 pandemic has brought renewed focus and meaning to the phenomenon of virtual work, as electronic interactions became normalized over face-to-face interactions for safety reasons. This chapter reviews prior research on the role and impacts of technology in virtual work. It then reviews the technological affordances perspective and argues for the need to incorporate it into the virtual work scholarship. Its benefits lie in helping to better theorize the role of technology in virtual work, bridging and integrating the virtual work scholarship, and keeping pace with the ever-changing technological landscape. The chapter ends by highlighting contemporary trends facing virtual workers and proposing future research directions to further propel the scholarship on virtual work forward.