Leadership In Virtual Teams Research Articles

Role of Leadership in a Virtual Team Project

Global organizations are using virtual teamwork to improve performance. Because virtual teams are distantly apart, organizations depend on information technology tools to collaborate and increase productivity. Additionally, organizations face leadership challenges due to the cultural mix and dispersion of virtual team members. Developing relationship by using technology to inspire and motivate individuals has become the new organizational paradigm. Understanding the impact of technology in driving leader-follower relationship is essential for the advancement of virtual teamwork. This paper explores the role of leadership in virtual teams by reviewing the literature on leadership and collaboration in virtual teams. Increased understanding of cultural influence on decision making can help organizations gain competitive advantage.

Physician leadership in e-health? A systematic literature review.

Purpose This paper aims to systematically review the literature on roles of physicians in virtual teams (VTs) delivering healthcare for effective "physician e-leadership" (PeL) and implementation of e-health. Design/methodology/approach The analyzed studies were retrieved with explicit keywords and criteria, including snowball sampling. They were synthesized with existing theoretical models on VT research, healthcare team competencies and medical leadership. Findings Six domains for further PeL inquiry are delineated: resources, task processes, socio-emotional processes, leadership in VTs, virtual physician-patient relationship and change management. We show that, to date, PeL studies on socio-technical dynamics and their consequences on e-health are found underrepresented in the health literature; i.e. no single empirical, theoretic or conceptual study with a focus on PeL in virtual healthcare work was identified. Research limitations/implications E-health practices could benefit from organization-behavioral type of research for discerning effective physicians' roles and inter-professional relations and their (so far) seemingly modest but potent impact on e-health developments. Practical implications Although best practices in e-health care have already been identified, this paper shows that physicians' roles in e-health initiatives have not yet received any in-depth study. This raises questions such as are physicians not yet sufficiently involved in e-health? If so, what (dis)advantages may this have for current e-health investments and how can they best become involved in (leading) e-health applications' design and implementation in the field? Originality/value If effective medical leadership is being deployed, e-health effectiveness may be enhanced; this new proposition needs urgent empirical scrutiny.

Emergent leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel investigation of individual communication and team dispersion antecedents

While considerable research has been conducted on understanding why individuals are perceived as leaders in traditional work contexts, much less is known about how individual difference variables influence leader perceptions in a virtual environment. In this study, we examine this issue by investigating the effects of two communication-related constructs (communication apprehension [CA] and text-based communication ability [TBCA]) on leadership emergence in virtual teams. We also examine how leadership emergence is affected by team dispersion: specifically, overall team configuration and dyadic team member co-location. Predicated on adaptive structuration theory (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994), we propose a theoretical model that outlines the effects of the individual difference attributes and team dispersion variables on leadership emergence. Results of an experiment testing the model with 84 four-person teams of varying levels of team member dispersion suggest that CA and TBCA have significant relationships with leadership emergence, as well as team configuration and team member co-location.

Informal Virtual Mentoring for Team Leaders and Members

The Problem Leaders and members of virtual teams do not always have the opportunity to seek training and development to overcome the challenges of being culturally and geographically distant, nor the serendipitous exchanges afforded by proximity to work associates who might provide mentoring for personal or professional guidance. How then might organizations and human resource development (HRD) professionals foster relationships that are supportive in nature, considered critical for many outcomes associated with individual and leadership development and virtual team success? The Solution Drawing on the theoretical perspective that communication is constitutive of social, psychological and organizational realities, a conceptual model was developed through an interpretive study. The model highlights how informal developmental relationships emerge, what type of communication constitutes these relationships, and the impact they have on leaders and members of virtual work teams. The Stakeholders The results of this study have implications for leaders and members who work virtually and for HRD professionals seeking strategies to create and improve informal developmental relationships through the medium of virtual work team communication. Opportunities exist for researchers to explore the effectiveness and outcomes of building developmental relationships in virtual contexts.

Self Determination Theory to Explain Charismatic Leadership in Virtual Teams: Proposing an Integrated Model

The goal of this paper is to review the concept of Charismatic Leadership in virtual teams within the self- determination framework and develop a model to explain how charismatic leadership caused self-determined behaviors. Since virtual context is reasonable for self-determined behavior, it is assumed that, charismatic leadership in virtual teams promotes autonomous motivation in followers and finally leads self-determined behavior by way of satisfying follower need for autonomy, need for competence and need for relatedness. The objective of this paper is to widening the understanding of charismatic leadership in a different context (i.e. in virtual teams) with the supplement of best validated theory of motivation. The implication of this paper provides theoretical explanation of effects of charismatic leadership from the perspective of Self Determination Theory (SDT) which will be a novel interpretation to both these theories. Additionally this investigation raises understanding of motivational effects of charismatic leadership in the virtual context.

Building trust in the leader of virtual work teams

In recent years, due to the development of new technologies, virtual work teams have arisen as a new organizational form that offers businesses greater flexibility and adaptability in coping with new market challenges. The departments that manage high value-added projects are more susceptible to implementing virtual teams; the area of marketing and market research being one of them. However, the peculiarities of these teams present a real challenge for building trust within the team, with trust being one of the key factors for their success. Accordingly, this study considers various antecedent factors of trust toward leaders of virtual teams grouped in two blocks: the physical attributes (attractiveness) and the behavioral characteristics (justice and empathy) of the leader. Furthermore, the paper discusses how leadership style (transactional or transformational) can moderate the relationships between some of the previously mentioned variables. The results suggest a greater capacity for attractive, empathetic and just leaders to build trust. These results have interesting implications for management which are discussed along with the principle lines of future research.

Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams: Contingencies of Collective Team Leadership in Virtual Teams

Virtual teams work together over geographical distances to achieve interdependent organizational goals. The use of virtual teams has increased rapidly, due to factors such as globalization, organizations’ need for rapid product development and innovation, distributive expertise of employees, and improved networking and collaboration technologies that support e-collaboration (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003; Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp, & Gilson, 2008). With the proliferation of the use of virtual teams, the question has arisen regarding how to best manage virtual teams. In spite of advantages of virtual teams, scholars have argued that team management and leadership is more difficult in virtual teams than in co-located teams. Geographic dispersion in virtual teams results in lower co-presence of leaders and team members and virtual team leaders having less ability to monitor their teams, less influence and information about the team’s situation and team processes and team dynamics, thus hindering the management of the team in general. Because of these challenges, researchers have suggested that leadership in virtual teams should be distributed among team members and performed through shared leadership. Currently, however, little knowledge exists regarding what important antecedents, mediators and moderators and outcomes of shared leadership in virtual teams are. In drawing from a contingency framework approach, the papers in this symposium discuss critical predictors, moderators and processes that can positively influence the emergence of shared leadership, and ultimately impact virtual team effectiveness and performance. The papers provide both unique and important extensions to existing research knowledge and theory as well as needed guidance to managers regarding the development of shared leadership in virtual teams Team Member Personality Composition as Antecedents of Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams Presenter: Julia E. Hoch; California State U., Northridge Shared Leadership: Investigating the Contingency Factors Influencing Virtual Team Effectiveness Presenter: Julia Eisenberg; Pace U. Presenter: Jennifer Gibbs; Rutgers U. Presenter: Niclas Erhardt; U. of Maine

E-leadership effectiveness in virtual teams: motivating language perspective

Purpose– Virtual teams are becoming a norm in current knowledge-based society and offer a wide range of organizational benefits. This paper aims to investigate the effects of leaders’ motivating language (ML) and feedback approach on virtual team members’ creativity performance.Design/methodology/approach– A 2×2 with pre-test and post-test experimental design was employed to explore how to stimulate virtual team members’ creativity performance using a group decision support system.Findings– The results show that leaders’ ML and feedback approach via e-mail instructions have different interaction effects on members’ creativity and idea generation performance. Team members receiving direction-giving instructions generate more ideas under the demanding feedback approach and team member receiving instructions with more empathetic language exhibit higher creativity performance under the encouraging feedback approach.Research limitations/implications– Shortcomings of virtual environment and leadership remain the major factors influencing such findings. Since the results are also restrained by the functionality of the utilized software tool, tools for virtual teams are recommended to include features that can support the effective use of team leaders’ motivational language.Social implications– Virtual team leaders should provide proper guidance to members using understanding and empathetic wording approach. For task-oriented work, leaders should consider giving more specific instructions and provide constant feedback for completed work. For creative work, leaders should give positive encouragement as feedback or even challenge team members to stimulate their creativity. Additionally, facilitation rules can be set up in advance so that the intelligent agent can timely send out follow-up instructions/feedback.Originality/value– The gained insights beneficially help tool developers for virtual teams build/enhance their tools based on the need of team leaders. This paper also usefully offers important implications regarding how to motivate virtual team members’ creative thinking.

The impact of emergent virtual leadership competencies on team effectiveness

Purpose– The research on virtual team leadership does well to describe the skills that are needed to guide and direct effective teams. However, what is presupposed in the previous research is that virtual teams have assigned leaders. That is, leaders were either management, appointed by management or were chosen by the team itself. Yet in today's global economy not all virtual teams have assigned leaders, instead many virtual team leaders emerge on their own to direct the group's actions. The purpose of this paper is to examine which emergent leadership competencies most impact virtual team effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach– This is a mixed method study where both a participant survey and content analysis of actual participant messages are used to determine the competencies of emergent virtual team leaders. The research participants for the current study were required to work in assigned teams on organizational case analyses. At the end of each case, teams presented their solutions in the form of final recommendations designed to fix the problem present in the case.Findings– Results indicate that not only do leaders emerge in virtual teams, but in most cases multiple leaders emerge. Results also show that the model that best describes team effectiveness includes the competencies of asking questions, cognitive and creative ability and vision setting.Originality/value– The contribution of the current study is that it extends the research on emergent virtual team leadership by introducing the idea that this type of leadership is often a collective action among individuals. It also advances a model of emergent virtual team leadership as a practice of communication. The better emergent virtual team leaders are at communicating to team members the more effective the team will be in completing tasks and projects, which in turn can lead to a more effectively functioning business unit.

Leading Effective Global Virtual Teams: The Consequences of Methods of Communication

This paper explores the relationship between communication and team effectiveness within the context of global virtual teams, arguing that a range of communication methods may impact upon the team’s effectiveness. To explore this relationship empirically, we present a key informant insights based on the activities deployed by a participant in a global team. The paper reports on the team’s effectiveness, their communication strategies and the team’s psychological traits: trust, shared understanding and co-operation. Findings from the pattern matching analysis indicate that the limited range of communication methods available to a global virtual team was not a major contributing factor to a team’s effectiveness. The paper offers communication/management techniques that could be beneficial to the global virtual team leader in facilitating team effectiveness, highlighting some issues surrounding the level of dispersion within teams that could be further explored in future research.

A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis Of Leadership Behaviors and Virtual Teams Performance

In this study, we critically review extant virtual team leadership research and identify important future research directions for advancing knowledge in this area. Based on our review, we also deri...

Relationship building in virtual teams: A leadership behavioral complexity perspective

E-leadership has emerged in virtual team literature as an important determinant of relationship building. However, the way e-leaders develop high quality relationship between virtual team members is little understood. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key roles that enable virtual team leaders to build high-quality exchanges with their team members. We draw on the behavioral complexity theory to analyze the roles played by e-leaders, which help them to develop effective leader-member exchanges (LMX). We draw up a research model to explain how e-leaders build cooperative and collaborative relationships through social-related and work-related activities. We then test the research model using a large survey of 193 virtual team members. Our findings show that, except for internal process roles (coordination and monitoring), open systems roles, roles of rational pursuit of goals and human relation roles have a significant positive effect on LMX.

Leadership Constraints

This research focused on the question: What leadership constraints contribute to the complexity of the working environment faced by global virtual team leaders and how do those leadership constraints impact the behavior of leaders when they are trying to meet team member expectations? This qualitative study of a high performing team within a multinational corporation (MNC) identified four constraints facing leaders: virtuality, globalization, the domestic workplace, and the matrix organizational structure. These constraints and their interactions contributed to the complexity that leaders faced when attempting to influence followers. While work/life roles have changed dramatically for leaders, team member expectations remain rooted in the past.

"Perceived Differences, Team Empowerment and Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams"

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have facilitated the use of virtual teams. The use of virtual teams allows organizations to assemble individuals with different backgrounds and experiences to address complex problems irrespective of their geographic location. However, diversity can present new challenges for virtual teams. In addition, virtual teams are often assumed to operate under some type of shared leadership. Yet we know very little about the impacts of perceived differences and shared leadership in virtual teams despite their importance. To address these issues, this paper presents a research model that proposes that perceptions of differences reduce the willingness of virtual team members to engage in shared leadership by reducing team empowerment. To empirically test the proposed model a cross-sectional study was conducted involving 44 virtual teams. Results generally support the research and the implications are discussed.

Interaction Effect of Leadership and Communication Media on Feedback Positivity in Virtual Teams

Technology and contextual factors may moderate the effects of leadership in virtual teams. We conducted an experiment to study the effect of leadership styles on feedback positivity in small, ad hoc teams performing a decision-making task using a virtual world or instant messaging. We also examined the relationship of feedback positivity to team outcomes, including satisfaction, social presence, cohesion, group efficacy, consensus, decision quality, and task time. Leadership style interacted with communication medium to influence feedback positivity. Relative to transactional leadership, transformational leadership led to greater feedback positivity in the instant messaging condition but had no effect in the virtual world condition. Greater feedback positivity was positively associated with social presence, discussion satisfaction, cohesion, group efficacy, and task time, but was negatively associated with decision quality.

The Effects of Leader-Member Exchange on Member Performance in Virtual World Teams

Understanding the role of leadership in virtual world teams may help shed light on how to manage synchronous and highly interdependent work activities. Based upon leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, we propose that the relationship between a leader and a team member (LMX) influences 1) the degree to which a team member is allocated resources by the leader (empowerment and group assignments), 2) the degree to which a team member develops relational resources with the team (trust, obligation, norms, and identification), and 3) the extent to which a team member receives or develops resources results in higher levels of individual performance. Our findings from a longitudinal field study of one large virtual world team in the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) EverQuest suggest that the leader member relationship does impact members’ allocation and development of resources, and that it’s not just the quantity of members’ resources, but also the type of member resources, that has a direct influence on performance. Our findings also indicate that the influence of the leader-member relationship on member performance is fully mediated by the allocation and development of resources. Surprisingly, there was no relationship between LMX, trust, and performance, which suggests that trust may not be as vital in virtual teams where everyone’s actions are visible. Lastly, the findings suggest that building relational capital to facilitate the transformation from self to collective interest may be an effective leadership tactic when managing large virtual teams or social collectives.

A Literature Review on Challenges of Virtual Team's Leadership

Virtual teams have emerged seeing that the world has become extremely compound and technological. In this paper, author attempted to address main challenges of virtual team especially in leadership. In this review, it is distinguished that having proper communications and trust between team members can obtain consistent success and reach team goals. A leader in virtual organization should converge all of team elements because of the lack of sound communication among members. Identifying and applying appropriate team leading strategies for a virtual condition will not only raise the value of organizational productivity but will also positively influence on the quality of trust and culture of virtual team members. Keywords: virtual team, leadership, trust, communication.

Digital Mastery

With support from the research literature, this paper argues that to lead effectively in a virtual environment, the leaders of virtual teams need relationship building, technical, and leadership skills, as well as the ability to defuse the frustrations of virtual team members. Relationship building skills include the ability to establish trust, embrace diversity, skill in fostering a team spirit, and motivating team members. Technical skills include the ability to use video conferencing software, instant messaging, e-mail, virtual worlds, avatars, and communication skills. Leadership skills needed by leaders in virtual environments include emotional intelligence, the ability to create an open and supportive environment, and to lead by example.

The interaction effects of leadership style and team type on team effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to explore interation effects of leadership styles and team type on team effectiveness. 216 experimental participants were assigned to each experimental conditions according to 2 (type of team: face to face team vs. virtual team) × 3(leadership styles: transformational leadership vs. transactional leadership vs. laissez-faire leadership) factorial experimental design. As 7 participants were excepted because of incredible behaviors during experiment, finally data obtained from 209 participants were statistically analysed. 6 confederates played role as one leader's style according the script described leader's behavior in face to face team or virtual team. The results of 2-way ANOVA, the interaction effect of team type and leadership styles on the team effectiveness was statistically significant. Level of task effectiveness and team satisfaction of transformational leadership in virtual team were higher than other conditions. Thus, These results implied that transformational leadership will be superior than other leadership styles among various type virtual work teams in 21th century as a knowledge based society. The meaning of this study was to use the laboratory experimental design for examining differential effects of leadership styles in the face to face team and virtual team. Finally limitations of this study and tasks for future study were discussed.

The Interaction Effects of Leadership Style and Team Type on team Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to explore interation effects of leadership styles and team type on team effectiveness. 216 experimental participants were assigned to each experimental conditions according to 2 (type of team: face to face team vs. virtual team) × 3(leadership styles: transformational leadership vs. transactional leadership vs. laissez-faire leadership) factorial experimental design. As 7 participants were excepted because of incredible behaviors during experiment, finally data obtained from 209 participants were statistically analysed. 6 confederates played role as one leader's style according the script described leader's behavior in face to face team or virtual team. The results of 2-way ANOVA, the interaction effect of team type and leadership styles on the team effectiveness was statistically significant. Level of task effectiveness and team satisfaction of transformational leadership in virtual team were higher than other conditions. Thus, These results implied that transformational leadership will be superior than other leadership styles among various type virtual work teams in 21th century as a knowledge based society. The meaning of this study was to use the laboratory experimental design for examining differential effects of leadership styles in the face to face team and virtual team. Finally limitations of this study and tasks for future study were discussed.