Working in the era of multiple virtual team membership. A study on the effects of variety of communication rules on individual management of knowledge resources

In contemporary workplaces, individuals are concurrently members of more than one virtual team. As they experience multiple virtual team membership, they may be subjected to different rules related to communication with collaborative technology. We propose that this context variety (i.e. different communication rule systems) and switching between teams negatively affect individual capability to acquire and provide resources in a team, due in part to an increased perception of role overload. In our experimental studies, we confirm that context variety directly and negatively affected individuals' ability to acquire resources, and, through role overload, negatively influenced the ability to provide resources. Contrary to our hypotheses, switching frequently between teams reduced role overload, which, in turn, increased ability to provide resources. Our results have theoretical implications for understanding the changing nature of work in increasingly virtual and complex team contexts, as well as practical implications for managing teams and designing collaborative technology.