Factors Affecting the Productivity and Satisfaction of Virtual Workers

With the advancements in ICT and the Internet in the workplace, both small and large organizations have the ability to compete on a global scale, revolutionizing the business world (Madlock, 2012). Because of the continued advances in ICT, businesses realize the benefits of cost savings and improvements in productivity by leveraging the 4 technological progression of high-speed communications (Lojeski & Reilly, 2008). Through computers, email, and smartphones, employees can work from virtually anywhere in the world (Soukup, 2015). Advances in ICT and the global workforce can benefit a business in many ways, such as the elimination of corporate brick-and-mortar infrastructure across the organizations; consequently, businesses would need less real estate as they move toward the virtual workforce (Lojeski & Reilly, 2008). Although the advent of the virtual worker is a relatively new phenomenon, it has rapidly been expanding across the business industries (Lojeski & Reilly, 2010). Virtual workers are individuals who do not physically work at the office with co-workers or management. Typically, a virtual worker works from home and leverages technology to facilitate communications. The globalization of work has opened up the opportunity to virtual teams, and organizations have responded by supplementing their traditional team structures with a virtual workforce (Au & Marks, 2012; Hanif & Yunfei, 2013). The ability to work virtually has rapidly increased an organization's ability to develop a globalized diverse cultural team, which, in turn, positions an organization with a more extensive talent pool of professionals to draw from (Mockaitis et al., 2012). As the virtual worker has transformed the traditional brick-and-mortar organization structure to that of a virtual workforce, management’s role of the virtual workforce is still evolving. This study may add to the existing body of knowledge on virtual management communication in a way that researchers can use to expand the literature on the topi