Overcoming Virtual Distance through Effective Communication and Team Trust

One of the important determinants of a successful organization is communication. This paper explores the impact of leader communication effectiveness on employee engagement in a virtual team whose members transcend time, space and organizational boundaries. It has also investigated whether trust would mediate the relationship between leadership communication and engagement. The proposed research model was tested using a survey research method. Data was collected using a questionnaire and was analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results confirmed that leadership communication effectiveness positively impacts employee engagement in virtual teams, and trust partially mediates the relationship between the two. There was no significant effect of team size in engaging employees virtually.