Thank you for your participation in helping to expand our research on emotional intelligence and work engagement of virtual team members.

Virtual teams are becoming an important operating model for businesses to consider for a variety of reasons including the ability to attract differentiating talent, reduce overhead, and improve performance. The transition from a physical to virtual environment also creates leadership challenges that can impact employee engagement, tenure, and performance. Companies that better understand the challenges of operating virtual teams will be positioned to improve operational performance and enhance organizational culture.

Thank you for joining me in this large-scale study of virtual teams that will explore the impact of a leader’s emotional intelligence on his/her team members. As a participant in this research, there are 3 primary benefits to your organization:

1. Leadership Development: Each leader who participates will complete an emotional intelligence assessment (approximately 45 minutes). As a certified assessor, the researcher will provide each participant with their own comprehensive report and individualized professional development feedback.
2. Engagement level of virtual workforce: Employees will complete a work engagement scale (approximately 15 minutes).  This will help identify work engagement trends of the company. The information will focus on holistic, organizational-level perceptions among employees that will equip you with insights to help drive appropriate positive cultural change. It is important to note, all responses are completely anonymous and are only viewed by the researcher.
3. Research trends: Once analyses are complete, participating organizations will receive the final research findings via summary report.

Once again, please note, anonymity of participants and organizational data will be protected at all times.  Leader name is collected in the engagement survey for correlation purposes only; individual employee participant data is not captured.  All identifying data, including leader names, organizational names, etc. will be omitted from all reported/published insights.

NEXT STEPS:

1. ALL EMPLOYEES/TEAM MEMBERS – May 1st to May 12th 
   • Read and sign an electronic consent form (3 minutes)
   • Complete demographic survey (5 minutes)
   • Complete Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (15 minutes)
2. LEADERS – May 13th to May 19th
   • Read and sign an electronic consent form (3 minutes)
   • Complete demographic survey (5 minutes)
   • Complete MSCEIT Assessment (45 minutes)

Your participation in this research is much appreciated.  Please ensure to complete the steps in order listed above beginning with signing the electronic consent form, which is accessible under the form button on the right.  Should you have any questions, you may contact me directly at [email protected].

Respectfully,
Kimberly Sebastian
PhD Candidate
Benedictine University