The Effect of Empathy on Team Members’ Moqi in Virtual Teams: A Moderated Mediation Model

Xuan Yu,1 Luxiaohe Zhang,1,2 Meilin Liu,3 Bin He4 1School of Economics and Management, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Foreign Languages, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an, Shannxi, People’s Republic of China; 3Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 4School of National Governance, Southwest University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Meilin Liu, Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People’s Republic of China, Email liumeilin@sjtu.edu.cnPurpose: Moqi can help team members facilitate communication without all interlocutors present, so the researchers speculate it can be an efficient communication tool for virtual teams to compensate for its lack of synchronous communication and in-person contact. However, the only study on the predictors of team members’ moqi believed that shared understandings could only arise from team tasks. Based on social exchange theory, the current study emphasizes the social and emotional benefits exchanged among team members and explores moqi-making among virtual team members through a lens of relationship-building.Methods: With a two-wave time-lagged survey design, a total of 381 team members from 86 virtual teams in China participated in the study. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses.Results: Results confirmed that virtual team members’ empathy is conducive to their experiences of high-quality interpersonal relationships (HQIR) and moqi. Relationship closeness positively moderates the link between empathy and experiences of HQIR and the mediating effect.Conclusion: This study helps unveil the significance of compassionate communication and life-giving connections in cultivating virtual team members’ moqi and offers meaningful insights for facilitating virtual collaborations.Keywords: empathy, moqi, high-quality interpersonal relationship, relationship closeness, virtual teams