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PP 335 Emotional Display in Virtual Team Meetings
K. Laitinen1, M. Valo1
1 University of Jyväskylä, Department of Communication, Jyväskylä, Finland
Emotions and emotional display are part of technologically mediated working life communication, e.g. virtual teams. However, previous research on emo‑
tional display in virtual teams has only rarely investigated naturally occurring data. Instead, emotions in virtual teams have mainly been studied in student
teams (e.g., Glikson & Erez, 2013). Previous studies have also focused for the most part on text-based technologies, making use of quantitative methods
(e.g., Chesin, Rafaeli, & Bos, 2012). We present an empirical qualitative study on emotional display in virtual team meetings. By emotional display we
mean the verbal and nonverbal expressions (e.g., words, phrases, facial expressions, gestures and vocalisations) that manifest the inner state of an in‑
dividual (e.g., Burleson & Rack, 2008). The aim of our study is to find out how team members express emotions about the team and their teamwork.
The study concentrates not only on the content, frequency, and repetitive patterns of emotional expressions but also on the role of emotional display as
a part of team interaction. The data consist of video recordings of team meetings of three virtual teams. The teams are Finnish expert teams, which work
by means of a versatile video conferencing platform (which allowed direct recordings). The recordings were transcribed and an analysis was carried out by
the microethnographic approach (Streeck & Mehus, 2005). The analysis was based on the 27 basic emotions that can be perceived and distinguished from
one another, as defined by Ekman & Cordaro (2011). The analysis included identifying and categorizing all emotional expressions, and examining the in‑
teraction preceding and following those expressions. Preliminary results show that virtual teams differ in their emotional display. However, both positive
(e.g., pleasure, amusement) and negative (e.g., confusion, frustration) emotions are present in every team. Emotional expressions are mainly reactions to
matters discussed, to other team members’ actions and work tasks. Team members also react to emotional expressions in many ways. The results confirm
the previous notion of the meaningfulness of emotional display in virtual teams. Moreover, the study gives new insights into the significance of emotional
display as an integral part of team interaction in the context of a video conferencing platform. The results of this study emphasize the need of advancing
team technologies capable of emotional display. References: Burleson, B. & Rack, J. (2008). Emotion. In W. Donsbach (Ed.) International Encyclopedia
of Communication Online. Blackwell. Retrieved from: /tocnode.htmlid=g9781405131995_
yr2014_chunk_g978140513199510_ss19–1. Chesin, A., Rafaeli, A., & Bos, N. (2012). Anger and happiness in virtual teams: Emotional influences of text
and behavior on others’affect in the absence of non-verbal cues. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 116 (1), 2–16. Ekman, P. & Cordaro,
D. (2011). What is meant by calling emotions basic. Emotion Review 3 (4), 364–370. Glikson, E. & Erez, M. (2013). Emotion display norms in virtual teams.
Journal of Personnel Psychology 12 (1), 22–32. Streeck, J. &Mehus, S. (2005). Microethnography. In K. Fitch & R. Sanders (Eds.), Handbook of Language and
Social Interaction. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, 381–404.