Keating and team studied the effects of virtual work on what are known as “negative work behavior” (NWB). They report that “Negative work behavior (NWB) occurs with concerning frequency in virtual work environments. Despite their prevalence and a substantial, multidisciplinary research literature on virtual negative behaviors in general, we lack clear answers regarding if, how, and why conditions differentiating virtual (i.e., computer-mediated) from face-to-face (F2F) work impact perpetrators’, victims’, and bystanders’ involvement in NWB. . . . We explain why we cannot assume that what is known about perpetrator engagement, victim experience, and bystander intervention from studying F2F NWB applies uniformly to virtual negative work behavior (VNWB). Specifically, we identify how eight conditions of the virtual workplace facilitate three psychological enablers (i.e., ambiguity, anonymity, and (un)accountability) of perpetrators’, victims’, and bystanders’ involvement in VNWB.”
David Keating, Kristin Cullen-Lester, and Jeremy Meuser. 2024. “Virtual Work Conditions Impact Negative Work Behaviors Via Ambiguity, Anonymity, and (Un)accountability: An Integrative Review.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 169-201, https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001126