Context Matters

Abstract

Managers are increasingly required to lead individuals they rarely, if ever, see, but most leadership research still assumes frequent face-to-face interaction. To explore these relationships, the authors used a web-based survey ( n = 402) and structural equation modeling techniques to determine the fit of a proposed model of leadership in both remote and proximal environments. The authors used four previously identified contextual elements: perceptions of control, prior knowledge of leader, unplanned communication, and regularly scheduled communication with leader. The findings suggest that in the remote environment, perceptions of transformational leadership mediate the relationship between these elements and individual outcomes. The same model does not fit the proximal environment, suggesting that being managed proximally differs significantly from being managed remotely and that this difference resides in the context.