Presence and Absence in Global Virtual Team Meetings : Physical, Virtual, and Social Dimensions

Abstract

Global virtual work is commonly organised around virtual meetings. As virtual team members often belong to multiple groups in their work, finding time for global team meetings may be challenging due to competing priorities and roles as well as different time zones and schedules. Furthermore, social presence does not automatically emerge based on physical or virtual presence. Therefore, the notions of being physically, virtually and socially present or absent in global team meetings are important, and affect the collaboration of global work groups. These different dimensions of presence and absence and their nature as fluctuating phenomena have not yet been scrutinised in virtual work literature. This chapter examines the dimensions of presence and absence in global virtual work and presents a propositional model to study predictors and effects of presence and absence in virtual meetings. The physical, virtual and social dimensions of presence are examined in both co-located and virtual settings.