Virtual Teams, Academic Resilience and Mental Wellbeing: A Study of International Students in Virtual Teams in India

Abstract

The study addresses upon the call of mental wellbeing in global virtual teams. The objective is to explore how virtual scenarios of learning process, influence academic resilience and finally form mental wellbeing among the cohort group of different cultural and geographic backgrounds. Using stratified sampling technique, primary data were collected from 367 international students. In the present study, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to obtain the results. The results revealed the challenges faced by the virtual teams in online learning setting. These challenges offer a path to both academic practitioners, higher management of the institutions and policymakers to offer an online learning process that is apt and suitable to the team members who participate from different geographical places. It was also found that online learning process is directly linked to academic resilience. Further, academic resilience successfully mediates between online learning process and mental wellbeing. The study opens debates on how online learning process should be made effective and relevant, especially, for those who do not belong to the same geography and cultural backgrounds.