A key component of team performance is participation among group members. One widespread organizational function that provides a stage for participation is the workplace meeting. With the shift to remote work, roughly half of all meetings are conducted virtually. One encouraging opportunity that can elevate meeting participation in this context is the use of written chat. Chat offers a second avenue of participation during a meeting, where attendees can synchronously contribute to the conversation through writing. This study explores factors influencing participation in virtual meetings, drawing on individual differences (status characteristics theory), psychological safety perceptions, and group communication. Results reveal gender and job level nuances: women engage more in chat, while men verbally contribute more frequently. Further, we found men highest in job level verbally contributed the most in virtual meetings, whereas women highest in job level use the chat the most frequently. Regarding type of chats sent, women use emoji reactions more often than men, and men send more attachments than women. Additionally, results revealed psychological safety moderated the relationship between job level and overall chat participation, such that employees low in job level with high perceptions of psychological safety sent more chats than their counterparts. This study provides insights into communication patterns and the impact of psychological safety on participation in technology-mediated spaces.

中文翻译：

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虚拟声音：探索虚拟会议中聊天和口头参与的个体差异


团队绩效的一个关键组成部分是团队成员的参与。工作场所会议是一项广泛的组织功能，为参与提供了舞台。随着远程工作的转变，大约一半的会议都是虚拟进行的。在这种情况下，可以提高会议参与度的一个令人鼓舞的机会是使用书面聊天。聊天提供了会议期间的第二种参与途径，与会者可以通过写作同步参与对话。本研究利用个体差异（地位特征理论）、心理安全感知和群体沟通，探讨影响虚拟会议参与的因素。结果揭示了性别和工作级别的细微差别：女性更多地参与聊天，而男性更频繁地进行口头贡献。此外，我们发现职位级别最高的男性在虚拟会议中口头贡献最大，而职位级别最高的女性使用聊天的频率最高。关于发送的聊天类型，女性比男性更频繁地使用表情符号反应，男性比女性发送更多附件。此外，结果显示，心理安全感调节了工作级别与整体聊天参与度之间的关系，因此工作级别低、心理安全感高的员工比同事发送了更多的聊天内容。这项研究提供了关于沟通模式以及心理安全对参与技术介导空间的影响的见解。