The Power of Virtual Distance: A Guide to Productivity and Happiness in the Age of Remote Work

Summary

Virtual Distance—the measurable disconnect that arises when we rely on digitally mediated communication—applies to all of us. In the Second Edition of The Power of Virtual Distance, Karen Sobel Lojeski and Richard R. Reilly showcase fifteen years of data to describe their powerful framework for predicting everything from trust, employee engagement, and job satisfaction to bottom-line results.

Technology is at the very core of everything we do, and it enables us to be more connected than ever before. But even though technology can collapse the physical distance between us, it can also spark an explosion of psychological and emotional distance. Every business leader needs to understand how these phenomena affect employees' health and well-being—and, ultimately, business performance.

The Power of Virtual Distance, Second Edition represents a major new update to the authors' original text on the concept of Virtual Distance. What was, at that time, a groundbreaking new theory, proved to be a prescient expression of what has become the mainstream understanding: the more connected we become, the more isolated we begin to feel. In this Second Edition, the authors present new data, case studies, and the exponentially growing body of evidence underscoring the business case and human necessity for accounting for Virtual Distance.