Managing Virtual Work: An Integrative Framework for Human Resource Management

ABSTRACT

Virtual work has become a defining feature of contemporary organizations, yet Human Resource Management (HRM) scholarship lacks an integrated understanding of how it should be managed. We address this disconnect by shifting the focus from individual and team experiences to the organizational management of virtual work through HRM. We conceptualize virtual work and organize prior research along four dimensions: spatial, temporal, technological, and employment relationship. Building on this, we develop an integrative framework based on two axes, the degree of virtuality and the nature of the employment relationship, from which four forms of virtual work emerge and between which organizations may transition: co‐located, hybrid, fully virtual, and virtual gig work. We delineate four corresponding HRM roles and their implications for managing and transitioning between these arrangements: traditional, integrative, enabling and empowering, and algorithmic HRM. We conclude by outlining future research directions to advance HRM in virtual work, with a focus on emerging technologies, global contexts, and rethinking theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches.