When Do Virtual Teams Benefit from Digital Disclosure? The Role of Power and Status Hierarchies

Abstract

Digital collaboration tools (DCTs), such as Microsoft Teams and DingTalk, are essential in the functioning of virtual teams. However, existing research on how these technologies influence coordination among virtual team members remains underexplored. This study investigates how DCT-enabled disclosure awareness—the extent to which virtual team members are aware of each other’s personal information via DCTs—influences team functioning. Drawing on adaptive structuration theory, we argue that DCT-enabled disclosure awareness positively affects team coordination and, subsequently, team performance. In addition, we propose that power and status hierarchies moderate this relationship, such that the positive impact of DCT-enabled disclosure awareness is stronger when power hierarchy is low or status hierarchy is high. Our hypotheses are supported by multi-source, multi-wave field survey data from 130 virtual teams. These findings provide new insights into virtual team management in the era of organizational digitalization, specifically highlighting how virtual teams can leverage digital technologies to improve performance.

Keywords

virtual teams digital disclosure adaptive structuration theory team coordination power and status hierarchies

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ali-Hassan

Nevo

Wade

(2015). Linking dimensions of social media use to job performance: The role of social capital. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(2), 65–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2015.04.002

Anderson

Srivastava

Beer

J. S.

Spataro

S. E.

Chatman

J. A.

(2006). Knowing your place: Self-perceptions of status in face-to-face groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1094–1110. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.6.1094

Arnett

R. D.

(2023). Uniting through difference: Rich cultural-identity expression as a conduit to inclusion. Organization Science, 34(5), 1887–1913. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1648

Bazarova

N. N.

Choi

Y. H.

(2014). Self-disclosure in social media: Extending the functional approach to disclosure motivations and characteristics on social network sites. Journal of Communication, 64(4), 635–657. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12106

Behrend

T. S.

Ravid

D. M.

Thapa

(2024). Implications of social media for a changing work landscape. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 11(1), 337–361. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-110721-041023

Bell

B. S.

Kozlowski

S. W.

(2002). A typology of virtual teams: Implications for effective leadership. Group & Organization Management, 27(1), 14–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601102027001003

Bell

B. S.

McAlpine

K. L.

Hill

N. S.

(2023). Leading virtually. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10(1), 339–362. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-050115

Bendersky

Pai

(2018). Status dynamics. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104602

Berthold

Zatta

Smith

(2022). Five fast facts: Return to office. Cushman & Wakefield. https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/insights/five-fast-facts-return-to-office

10.

Blader

S. L.

Chen

Y.-R.

(2012). Differentiating the effects of status and power: A justice perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 994–1014. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026651

11.

Blader

S. L.

Chen

Y. R.

(2014). What’s in a name? Status, power, and other forms of social hierarchy. In The psychology of social status (pp. 71–95): Springer New York.

12.

Blader

S. L.

Shirako

Chen

Y. R.

(2016). Looking out from the top: Differential effects of status and power on perspective taking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(6), 723–737. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216636628

13.

Blagoeva

R. R.

Mom

T. J.

Jansen

J. J.

George

(2020). Problem-solving or self-enhancement? A power perspective on how CEOs affect R&D search in the face of inconsistent feedback. Academy of Management Journal, 63(2), 332–355. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.0999

14.

Bliese

P. D.

(1998). Group size, ICC values, and group-level correlations: A simulation. Organizational Research Methods, 1(4), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442819814001

15.

Braun

M. T.

Kozlowski

S. W.

Brown

T. A.

DeShon

R. P.

(2020). Exploring the dynamic team cohesion–performance and coordination–performance relationships of newly formed teams. Small Group Research, 51(5), 551–580. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496420907157

16.

Brislin

R. W.

(1980). Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In Triandis

H. C.

Berry

J. W.

(Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (2, pp. 389–444). Allyn & Bacon. Methodology.

17.

Bryant

S. M.

Albring

S. M.

Murthy

(2009). The effects of reward structure, media richness and gender on virtual teams. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 10(4), 190–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2009.09.002

18.

Bunderson

J. S.

(2003). Team member functional background and involvement in management teams: Direct effects and the moderating role of power centralization. Academy of Management Journal, 46(4), 458–474. https://doi.org/10.5465/30040638

19.

Chan

(1998). Functional relations among constructs in the same content domain at different levels of analysis: A typology of composition models. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(2), 234–764. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.2.234

20.

Charlier

S. D.

Stewart

G. L.

Greco

L. M.

Reeves

C. J.

(2016). Emergent leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel investigation of individual communication and team dispersion antecedents. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(5), 745–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.05.002

21.

Cheng

Bao

Shen

(2021). Trust and group efficiency in multinational virtual team collaboration: A longitudinal study. Group Decision and Negotiation, 30(3), 529–551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-020-09722-x

22.

Chiu

Y.-T.

Staples

D. S.

(2013). Reducing faultlines in geographically dispersed teams: Self-disclosure and task elaboration. Small Group Research, 44(5), 498–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496413489735

23.

Choi

J. S.

Hong

Kim

B. K.

(2025). Asymmetric effects of holding power versus status: Implications for motivation and group dynamics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 51(1), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231182852

24.

Christie

A. M.

Barling

(2010). Beyond status: Relating status inequality to performance and health in teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5), 920–934. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019856

25.

Cohen

West

S. G.

Aiken

L. S.

(2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410606266

26.

Collins

N. L.

Miller

L. C.

(1994). Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 116(3), 457–475. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.457

27.

Cozby

P. C.

(1973). Self-disclosure: A literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 79(2), 73–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0033950

28.

Cummings

Dennis

A. R.

(2018). Virtual first impressions matter: The effect of enterprise social networking sites on impression formation in virtual teams. MIS Quarterly, 42(3), 697–718. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2018/13202

29.

De Jong

B. A.

Elfring

(2010). How does trust affect the performance of ongoing teams? The mediating role of reflexivity, monitoring, and effort. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 535–549. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468649

30.

DeSanctis

Poole

M. S.

(1994). Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: Adaptive structuration theory. Organization Science, 5(2), 121–147. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.2.121

31.

Duan

Zhang

M. J.

Liu

Ling

C. D.

Xie

X. Y.

(2023). Investigating the curvilinear relationship between temporal leadership and team creativity: The moderation of knowledge complexity and the mediation of team creative process engagement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 44(4), 717–738. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2698

32.

Dumas

T. L.

Doyle

S. P.

Lount

R. B.

Jr. (2024). Self-disclosure and respect: Understanding the engagement of value minorities. Organization Science, 35(3), 1072–1094. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15768

33.

Edmondson

A. C.

Bransby

D. P.

(2023). Psychological safety comes of age: Observed themes in an established literature. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10(1), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-055217

34.

Enders

C. K.

Tofighi

(2007). Centering predictor variables in cross-sectional multilevel models: A new look at an old issue. Psychological Methods, 12(2), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.12.2.121

35.

Fast

N. J.

Halevy

Galinsky

A. D.

(2012). The destructive nature of power without status. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 391–394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.013

36.

Fragale

A. R.

Overbeck

J. R.

Neale

M. A.

(2011). Resources versus respect: Social judgments based on targets’ power and status positions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 767–775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.03.006

37.

Gibson

K. R.

Harari

Marr

J. C.

(2018). When sharing hurts: How and why self-disclosing weakness undermines the task-oriented relationships of higher status disclosers. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 144(1), 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2017.09.001

38.

Gilson

L. L.

Maynard

M. T.

Bergiel

E. B.

(2013). Virtual team effectiveness: An experiential activity. Small Group Research, 44(4), 412–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496413488216

39.

Gilson

L. L.

Maynard

M. T.

Jones Young

N. C.

Vartiainen

Hakonen

(2015). Virtual teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5), 1313–1337. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314559946

40.

Greer

L. L.

de Jong

B. A.

Schouten

M. E.

Dannals

J. E.

(2018). Why and when hierarchy impacts team effectiveness: A meta-analytic integration. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(6), 591–613. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000291

41.

Greer

L. L.

van Kleef

G. A.

(2010). Equality versus differentiation: The effects of power dispersion on group interaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(6), 1032–1044. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020373

42.

Halevy

Chou

E. Y.

Galinsky

A. D.

Murnighan

J. K.

(2012). When hierarchy wins: Evidence from the national basketball association. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3(4), 398–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611424225

43.

Hardin

A. E.

(2024). The more you know: The impact of personal knowledge on interpersonal treatment at work. Organization Science, 35(5), 1908–1929. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15606

44.

Harrison

D. A.

Klein

K. J.

(2007). What’s the difference? Diversity constructs as separation, variety, or disparity in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1199–1228. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.26586096

45.

Hays

N. A.

Bendersky

(2015). Not all inequality is created equal: Effects of status versus power hierarchies on competition for upward mobility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 867–882. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000017

46.

Hays

N. A.

Yang

J. K.

Chen

Y. R.

Hollenbeck

J. R.

Jamieson

B. B.

(2022). A tale of two hierarchies: Interactive effects of power differentiation and status differentiation on team performance. Organization Science, 33(6), 2085–2105. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1547

47.

Hill

N. S.

Bartol

K. M.

(2016). Empowering leadership and effective collaboration in geographically dispersed teams. Personnel Psychology, 69(1), 159–198. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12108

48.

Hill

N. S.

Bartol

K. M.

Tesluk

P. E.

Langa

G. A.

(2009). Organizational context and face-to-face interaction: Influences on the development of trust and collaborative behaviors in computer-mediated groups. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(2), 187–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.10.002

49.

Hoch

J. E.

Kozlowski

S. W.

(2014). Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(3), 390–403. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030264

50.

Hofstede

Neuijen

Ohayv

D. D.

Sanders

(1990). Measuring organizational cultures: A qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(2), 286–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393392

51.

Karl

K. A.

Peluchette

J. V.

Aghakhani

(2022). Virtual work meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic: The good, bad, and ugly. Small Group Research, 53(3), 343–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/10464964211015286

52.

Kirkman

B. L.

Rosen

Tesluk

P. E.

Gibson

C. B.

(2004). The impact of team empowerment on virtual team performance: The moderating role of face-to-face interaction. Academy of Management Journal, 47(2), 175–192. https://doi.org/10.5465/20159571

53.

Körner

Overbeck

J. R.

Schütz

(2025). Structuring hierarchy concepts: Evaluating measures of power, status, dominance, and prestige on the basis of an integrative model and systematic literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 151(3), 322–364. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000470

54.

Kozlowski

S. W. J.

Bell

B. S.

(2013). Work groups and teams in organizations: Review update. In Schmitt

Highhouse

(Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 12. Industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 412–469). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118133880.hop212017

55.

Kuegler

Smolnik

Kane

(2015). What’s in IT for employees? Understanding the relationship between use and performance in enterprise social software. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(2), 90–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2015.04.001

56.

Kunze

Menges

J. I.

(2017). Younger supervisors, older subordinates: An organizational-level study of age differences, emotions, and performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(4), 461–486. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2129

57.

Lanaj

Hollenbeck

J. R.

Ilgen

D. R.

Barnes

C. M.

Harmon

S. J.

(2013). The double-edged sword of decentralized planning in multiteam systems. Academy of Management Journal, 56(3), 735–757. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0350

58.

Lane

J. N.

Leonardi

P. M.

Contractor

N. S.

DeChurch

L. A.

(2024). Teams in the digital workplace: Technology’s role for communication, collaboration, and performance. Small Group Research, 55(1), 139–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/10464964231200015

59.

Larson

DeChurch

L. A.

(2020). Leading teams in the digital age: Four perspectives on technology and what they mean for leading teams. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), Article 101377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.101377

60.

LeBreton

J. M.

Senter

J. L.

(2008). Answers to 20 questions about interrater reliability and interrater agreement. Organizational Research Methods, 11(4), 815–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106296642

61.

Leonardi

P. M.

(2014). Social media, knowledge sharing, and innovation: Toward a theory of communication visibility. Information Systems Research, 25(4), 796–816. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2014.0536

62.

Leonardi

P. M.

(2015). Ambient awareness and knowledge acquisition. MIS Quarterly, 39(4), 747–762. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2015/39.4.01

63.

LePine

J. A.

Piccolo

R. F.

Jackson

C. L.

Mathieu

J. E.

Saul

J. R.

(2008). A meta-analysis of teamwork processes: Tests of a multidimensional model and relationships with team effectiveness criteria. Personnel Psychology, 61(2), 273–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00114.x

64.

Lewis

(2003). Measuring transactive memory systems in the field: Scale development and validation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 587–604. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.587

65.

H. J.

Wang

X. C.

Williams

Chen

Y.-R.

Brockner

(2023). My boss is younger, less educated, and shorter tenured: When and why status (in)congruence influences promotion system justification. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(9), 1445–1460. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001086

66.

Lim

J. Y.

(2018). IT-enabled awareness and self-directed leadership behaviors in virtual teams. Information and Organization, 28(2), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2018.02.001

67.

Lin

C. P.

Chiu

C. K.

Joe

S. W.

Tsai

Y. H.

(2010). Assessing online learning ability from a social exchange perspective: A survey of virtual teams within business organizations. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(9), 849–867. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2010.496336

68.

Lin

Utz

(2017). Self-disclosure on SNS: Do disclosure intimacy and narrativity influence interpersonal closeness and social attraction? Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 426–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.01.012

69.

Lockett

(1988). Culture and the problems of Chinese management. Organization Studies, 9(4), 475–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084068800900402

70.

Lowry

P. B.

Roberts

T. L.

Romano

N. C.

Jr. Cheney

P. D.

Hightower

R. T.

(2006). The impact of group size and social presence on small-group communication: Does computer-mediated communication make a difference? Small Group Research, 37(6), 631–661. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496406294322

71.

Luciano

M. M.

Leslie

J. B.

Mathieu

J. E.

Hoole

E. R.

Anderson

Fenters

V. W.

(2025). Improving virtual team collaboration paradox management: A field experiment. Organization Science, 36(1), 429–451. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.17952

72.

Magee

J. C.

Galinsky

A. D.

(2008). Social hierarchy: The self-reinforcing nature of power and status. The Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 351–398. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520802211628

73.

Marks

M. A.

Mathieu

J. E.

Zaccaro

S. J.

(2001). A temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes. Academy of Management Review, 26(3), 356–376. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2001.4845785

74.

Martins

L. L.

Gilson

L. L.

Maynard

M. T.

(2004). Virtual teams: What do we know and where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 30(6), 805–835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jm.2004.05.002

75.

Mathieu

J. E.

Gallagher

P. T.

Domingo

M. A.

Klock

E. A.

(2019). Embracing complexity: Reviewing the past decade of team effectiveness research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6(1), 17–46. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015106

76.

Moore

D. A.

Kurtzberg

T. R.

Thompson

L. L.

Morris

M. W.

(1999). Long and short routes to success in electronically mediated negotiations: Group affiliations and good vibrations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 77(1), 22–43. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1998.2814

77.

K. H.

Yee

R. W.

(2020). Technological affordance discovery in enterprise social media success. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 120(10), 1797–1812. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2020-0036

78.

Park

Mathieu

J. E.

Grosser

T. J.

(2020). A network conceptualization of team conflict. Academy of Management Review, 45(2), 352–375. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0472

79.

Phillips

K. W.

Rothbard

N. P.

Dumas

T. L.

(2009). To disclose or not to disclose? Status distance and self-disclosure in diverse environments. Academy of Management Review, 34(4), 710–732. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.34.4.zok710

80.

Podsakoff

P. M.

MacKenzie

S. B.

Lee

J.-Y.

Podsakoff

N. P.

(2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879

81.

Rishani

Hoever

I. J.

van Dierendonck

(2025). When do teams communicate more asynchronously to support their members’ multiteaming? Small Group Research, 56(6), 10464964251325209–10464964251325986. https://doi.org/10.1177/10464964251325209

82.

Rollag

(2004). The impact of relative tenure on newcomer socialization dynamics. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(7), 853–872. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.280

83.

Rothbard

N. P.

Ramarajan

Ollier-Malaterre

Lee

S. S.

(2022). Omg! my boss just friended me: How evaluations of colleagues’ disclosure, gender, and rank shape personal/professional boundary blurring online. Academy of Management Journal, 65(1), 35–65. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2018.0755

84.

Schweitzer

Duxbury

(2010). Conceptualizing and measuring the virtuality of teams. Information Systems Journal, 20(3), 267–295. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2009.00326.x

85.

Slade Shantz

A. F.

Kistruck

G. M.

Pacheco

D. F.

Webb

J. W.

(2020). How formal and informal hierarchies shape conflict within cooperatives: A field experiment in Ghana. Academy of Management Journal, 63(2), 503–529. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2018.0335

86.

Tarakci

Greer

L. L.

Groenen

(2016). When does power disparity help or hurt group performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(3), 415–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000056

87.

TechSmith . (2023). Workplace flexibility report: How workplace flexibility impacts productivity, engagement, and retention. TechSmith Corporation. https://www.techsmith.com/resources/research/workplace-flexibility-report/pdf/

88.

Tesluk

P. E.

Mathieu

J. E.

(1999). Overcoming roadblocks to effectiveness: Incorporating management of performance barriers into models of work group effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(2), 200–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.2.200

89.

Van der Kleij

Maarten Schraagen

Werkhoven

De Dreu

C. K.

(2009). How conversations change over time in face-to-face and video-mediated communication. Small Group Research, 40(4), 355–381. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496409333724

90.

Weisbuch

Ivcevic

Ambady

(2009). On being liked on the web and in the “real world”: Consistency in first impressions across personal webpages and spontaneous behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(3), 573–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.009

91.

Wellman

Applegate

J. M.

Harlow

Johnston

E. W.

(2020). Beyond the pyramid: Alternative formal hierarchical structures and team performance. Academy of Management Journal, 63(4), 997–1027. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.1475

92.

Windeler

Maruping

L. M.

Robert

L. P.

Riemenschneider

C. K.

(2015). E-profiles, conflict, and shared understanding in distributed teams. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 16(7), 608–645. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00401

93.

Hays

N. A.

Zhao

E. Y.

(2019). Development of a bipartite measure of social hierarchy: The perceived power and perceived status scales. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 152(2), 84–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.03.011