**5. Conclusions**

200 Virtual Reality and Environments

situation where the user spent hours learning to use free program to find out if it is suitable

Fig. 3. The elements impacting the functional fit or misfit of virtual workplaces

of leisure time and discussed their holiday plans with live-meeting tools.

**4.3 Psychosocial comfort and fit in the virtual workplace of a mobile employee** 

The discourse concerning the psychosocial fit of virtual places dealt with the concepts of

When the employees described the matters of territoriality, they stressed the importance of selecting the right virtual communication tools and channels. For example, sending emails was not the channel for enhancing **belonging**; more nuanced communication channels were

The interviewed subjects described the virtual teambuilding methods that enhance belonging they have used or participated in. For this reason the normal working tools and applications were used for sharing work divergent matters. For example they shared photos

The managers of distributed teams expressed the essence to select and use the most suitable virtual behavior for enhancing the belonging of individuals**.** For example the calls "for no particular reason" played important role in enhancing employees' feeling of belonging.

According to the interview data, the concept of privacy consisted of three components. The interviewed described privacy through problems in simultaneous co- and telepresence, simultaneous use of many virtual communication and collaboration channels as well as problems followed from simultaneous use of work and leisure related virtual environments. The ensemble of the privacy was related to the concept of accessibility: the feeling of fit arose from the good control over the multidimensional opportunities to access both physical

Simultaneous co- and telepresence enabled simultaneous use of many communication and collaboration channels. For example, when taking part in a conference call without visual communication employees tend to do many other duties too, i.e., mute the microphone and

for his purposes – it was not and the time was wasted.

territoriality, privacy and control (fig. 4).

selected and used.

and virtual worlds.

This research showed that Vischer's model (2005, 2007) of environmental fit is useful for a more detailed classification of virtual places and spaces. In virtual work the threshold of usability is at the functional level due to accessibility demands (see fig. 1). The work of a mobile employee will stop completely if the worker is not able to connect.

In order to develop well-functioning virtual workplaces for mobile employees, extensive attention should be paid to the whole system, within which employees confront their duties in different locations. Gaining comprehensive understanding on the context in which a given task is performed starts by forming questions first on the physical places and later on psychosocial themes. As such a vast field, the process demands profound multidisciplinary collaboration of different actors in organizations and support functions. The inspection of different fit levels is a useful tool for helping different authorities to explain their expertise in relation to other authorities. Gaps in management may also be demonstrated. There is a need for putting more emphasis in analyzing the non-visible work processes we have learned to conduct in virtual entity.

According to this research with Vischer ´s model as a frame of reference, it can be stated that

The Virtual Reality of Work –

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