Managing Someone 'Less like You' From Afar: The Role of Virtual Communication Modality

<p>With the proliferation of remote work options, leaders are faced with new challenges and opportunities to manage their followers in a virtual context. However, insufficient research examines whether a follower’s perception of trust and connection with a leader change across virtual communication modalities. Using a mixed-factorial experimental design, this study examined the moderated-mediation effect of digital communication media on trust, and the relationship between deep-level diversity and LMX quality. Using a workplace scenario, participants (N=354) received developmental feedback from a hypothetical manager whom they may identify as being more similar or different. All participants were given the same scenario but randomly assigned to different digital communication conditions (email vs. voicemail vs. video message). The study measured Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) quality, trust, and perceived similarity. The results of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis showed that while trust fully mediates the positive relationship between perceived similarity and LMX quality, the computer-mediated communication modality does not moderate this fully mediated relationship. The findings of this study contribute to the growing body of research on virtual work and enrich the existing literature on LMX, by emphasizing the critical role of trust within virtual settings. Moreover, the results of this study offer practical insights to assist managers in effectively fostering LMX with their subordinates in the virtual landscape, particularly when dealing with individuals who differ from them.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Psychology, MA

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Master's Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Boree

Contributors dc:contributor

• Michelle Bligh

• Computer-mediated communication
• LMX
• Perceived similarity
• Trust
• Virtual work
• Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/873

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-1896