Chapter 10: Virtual Meetings: Increasing Equity, Exacerbating the Inequities, or Just ‘Meh?

COVID-19 created a rapid increase in people using videoconferencing technology to interact with team members. As relatively little is known about behavioral differences between face-to-face meetings and those conducted via videoconferencing, the current study was conducted to address these issues. More specifically, we compared levels of overall activity, agentic behaviors, and communal behaviors from people in parallel face-to-face (N = 668) and virtual team settings (N = 652). Results found videoconferencing was associated with lower overall activity than occurred in face-to-face meetings. Further, the frequency of agentic and communal behaviors was reduced in videoconferences. Gender, to a much lesser degree than meeting format, was also associated with differential levels of overall activity, agentic behaviors, and counter to the hypothesized relationship, communal behaviors. Meeting format and gender failed to interact to impact the behavioral outcomes. Findings showed videoconferencing cannot be considered as improving equity compared to face-to-face meetings, but it likely does not exacerbate the differences associated with face-to-face team meetings either. Recommendations are provided to alleviate potential reductions in important behaviors.