Status : Verified
| Personal Name | Acenas, Ma. Jesusa Joshua R.; Nidea, John Macky C. |
|---|---|
| Resource Title | Filipino Virtual Assistants’ Leveraging of Media Affordances in Optimizing Their Self-presentation in the Virtual Workplace |
| Date Issued | 4 June 2026 |
| Abstract | As global demand for VAs has expanded, accelerated by pandemic digitization and wage arbitrage, Filipino VAs have leveraged their English proficiency and digital skills—all while managing cultural translation, emotional regulation, and optics of productivity. To investigate how these self-presentation practices are negotiated across integrated technological tools, we were guided by the Hyperpersonal Model of Computer-mediated Communication (Walther, 1996), which we updated for the modern VA context through Technology Affordances for Enhancing Job Performance in Digital Work (Duan et al., 2024). In doing so, we aim to examine how Filipino virtual assistants leverage media affordances to optimize their self‑presentation in the virtual workplace. We employed phenomenology via in‑depth interviews with 14 Filipino VAs recruited through maximum-variation criterion sampling and snowball recruitment. Transcripts were thematically analyzed through cluster and axial coding. Findings show that Filipino VAs engage in nuanced self-presentation practices across media affordances, navigating the tension between wanting and needing to be a VA, maintaining a virtual presence that is simultaneously candid and filtered, balancing remote autonomy with the persistent need for client recognition, and meeting client needs on their own terms. These practices surface the mediated, often invisible labor underpinning Filipino VA work and its complexities in the virtual workplace. |
| Degree Course | Bachelor of Arts in Communication Research |
| Language | English; Filipino |
| Keyword | Filipino virtual assistants; Online self-presentation; Digital work affordances; Hyperpersonal model of computer-mediated communication |
| Material Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Preliminary Pages
5.46 Mb
Category : F - Regular work, i.e., it has no patentable invention or creation, the author does not wish for personal publication, there is no confidential information.
Access Permission : Open Access