The effect of social interaction in virtual meeting settings on work engagement: a socio-technical systems study

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns drove new types of interactions between employees. Before the pandemic, social interaction could be performed both in person and online, but measures against COVID-19 required a reduction in personal contact. As a result, employees were forced to interact via virtual meetings, which influenced their work engagement. Thus, it is important to investigate how social interaction influences work engagement in a virtual meeting context and how virtual meetings should be conducted to promote work engagement. This research adopts socio-technical systems theory in the context of examining the influence of social interaction during virtual meetings on work engagement. We surveyed 195 office employees, who were asked to assess their work engagement according to the perceived technical aspects and social interaction in virtual meetings. Our results show that social and technical aspects indeed influence work engagement. The results enhance our understanding of how to design virtual meetings that support employees in their work and improve social communication with colleagues, which is important for future business communication.