Abstract
The field of organizational behavior defines leadership as “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals” (Capella, 2005, p. 294). Leadership styles have been well studied and researched. Early leadership studies were developed using traditional, co-located work arrangements in mind. Later studies expanded to include traditional project team environments. In the current business environment, however, nontraditional virtual work arrangements are becoming more popular. Virtual project teams are increasing in business today and will continue to become more common in the future (Martins, Gilson, & Maynard, 2004). Managing nontraditional work involving virtual teams is becoming a necessity in the current business environment. The type of leadership emanagers must demonstrate for successful virtual team management is different from traditional project team management (Konradt & Hoch, 2007). Understanding appropriate leadership styles for virtual project teams and the transition toward new leadership styles is an important part of managing human resources in organizations and successful virtual project management. Emerging e-leadership roles and management concepts for virtual teams include multiple leadership models, and their application is an important part of our evolving virtual organizational behavior.
TopBackground
Introductory Definitions
Virtual teams reflect the ever-increasing non-traditional work environments of the 21st century, with members collaborating from geographically distant locations (Lee, 2009). Ariss, Nykodym and Cole-Laramore (2002) define virtual teams as a group of skilled individuals who “communicate via computer, phone, fax and video-conference” (p. 22). Virtual teams involve individuals who are geographically distributed and use technology to communicate and produce results (Duarte & Snyder, 1999).
The term e-leadership describes leadership in today’s nontraditional virtual business environment. The need for e-leadership in virtual project teams has become increasingly relevant as businesses move toward more non-traditional work. Virtual project teams are increasing in business today, and understanding e-leadership styles of virtual teams is an important part of e-business. E-leadership styles for virtual project team managers may be different from traditional project team managers, and how they might be different is still an emerging study. E-leadership styles is an expanding topic for developing the knowledge and practices necessary to determine the most effective leadership styles for virtual project managers.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Situational Leadership: Leading by developing and adopting different styles or behaviors as necessary
Transformational Leadership: Leading by inspiring followers to work
Contingency Style Leadership: Leading by matching the leadership style to the situation
Empowerment Leadership: Leading by allowing self-managed work teams to take on the responsibilities of traditional management
Transactional Leadership: Leading by motivating followers to complete goals by clearly identifying roles and setting vision
E-Leadership: The term e-leadership describes leadership in today’s non-traditional virtual business environment.
Virtual Team: Virtual teams are groups of skilled individuals collaborating from geographically distant locations and linked by technology that communicate electronically to achieve the goals of a project or work together on solving problems.
Control-related Leadership: Leading motivating, providing role clarity, setting clear goals and priorities, and by giving good directions to complete tasks