The impact of emergent virtual leadership competencies on team effectiveness

Abstract

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.

Impactful Leadership Traits of Virtual Leaders in Higher Education

“…Without the aid of a physical presence and the cues associated with face-to-face interactions, leaders must find a way to demonstrate a strong virtual presence (Avolio, Sosik, Kahai, & Baker, 2014), as well as be agreeable to update and modify their managerial and interpersonal communication skills for the virtual workplace. Virtual leaders can directly impact outcomes by applying self-management behaviors associated with: (a) establishing specific, challenging, and mutually accepted goals; (b) monitoring, evaluating, and providing feedback to members and teams; (c) coordinating and synchronizing activities, information and tasks; and (d) establishing task assignments, roles and balancing workloads among members (Ziek & Smulowitz, 2014). While self-management and assessment by the virtual leader is paramount, the dynamics of working in a virtual team are more complex than working alone in a remote setting, and can present issues of professional isolation and exclusion in the workplace (Vega, Anderson, & Kaplan, 2015).…”

The Nature of Relationships in e-Internships: A Matter of the Psychological Contract, Communication and Relational Investment

“…These characteristics may also help to differentiate between the types of settings that present more compared to fewer opportunities for skill development. Our paper thus makes a contribution by addressing knowledge gaps in three different areas by (a) exploring the role of technology and (b) the role of supervisors to facilitate contract development, thus (c) expanding the work on psychological contracts, virtual leadership (Schmidt, 2014;Ziek & Smulowitz, 2014), and technology in virtual settings such as e-internships.…”

Assessing the Correlation Between Organizational Competency Development and Learning Activities & Programs - An Investigation of the Kenyan Private Sector

“…The organization leaders, managers, and supervisors alone cannot lead or drive a firm in the right direction without collaborating with the employees. Ziek and Smulowitz's study on managerial efficiency established that the best model describing team effectiveness encompasses creativity, teamwork, open communication skills, and collaborative organizational culture [36].…”