Navigating Multiple Virtual Teams: How Variety in Communication Rules Affects Knowledge Sharing

In contemporary workplaces, individuals are often members of more than one virtual team at a time, that is, they experience multiple virtual team membership (MVTM), and they are subjected to context variety due to different rules across their teams. The aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between context variety related to communication rules and knowledge sharing in situations of MVTM. We propose that context variety and switching between teams negatively affect the individual capability to acquire and provide knowledge resources in a team, due in part to an increased perception of role overload. Through an experimental study, 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 the ability to provide resources. Our results have theoretical implications for understanding the changing nature of work in increasingly virtual and complex team contexts.