Successful Communication in Virtual Teams and the Role of the Virtual Team Leader

2011 ◽  
pp. 353-366
Author(s):  
Jamie S. Switzer
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
The World

The world now lives and works in cyberspace. Often, organizations have their people perform functional tasks by working in virtual teams, where members use technology to cooperate across geographic and organizational boundaries. As the use of virtual teams in the workforce becomes more prevalent, those involved must have the knowledge to communicate efficiently and effectively, especially the virtual team leaders. This chapter provides a general overview of virtual teams and virtual team leadership, and discusses specific communication strategies and competencies necessary for virtual team leaders to be effective and successful communicators.

Successful Communication in Virtual Teams and the Role of the Virtual Team Leader

2011 ◽  
pp. 39-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie S. Switzer
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
The World

The world now lives and works in cyberspace. Often, organizations have their people perform functional tasks by working in virtual teams, where members use technology to cooperate across geographic and organizational boundaries. As the use of virtual teams in the workforce becomes more prevalent, those involved must have the knowledge to communicate efficiently and effectively, especially the virtual team leaders. This chapter provides a general overview of virtual teams and virtual team leadership, and discusses specific communication strategies and competencies necessary for virtual team leaders to be effective and successful communicators.

Managing Virtual Teams: Strategies for Team Leaders

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Lyons ◽  
Heather A. Priest ◽  
Jessica L. Wildman ◽  
Eduardo Salas ◽  
David Carnegie
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Support Tools ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
Collaborative Support ◽  
And Training

Organizations' increasing use of virtual teams has emphasized the importance of effective virtual team leadership. Yet the distribution of team members complicates typical leader functions, such as supervision and support, which the leader must now perform through technology. In this article, we present 10 strategies for managing virtual teams, focusing on the role of technology and training. Our hope is that these strategies will inform designers and guide them in developing collaborative support tools and procedures for these tools and in designing training for the use of these tools.

Getting Things Done, Virtually! - The Role of Virtual Team Leadership in Virtual Team Effectiveness

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Jude Ashmi E
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Effectiveness ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
Effective Performance ◽  
Traditional Work

A virtual team’s success depends on the team's effectiveness. Accomplishing such a team’s effectiveness is far more difficult when compared with traditional work teams. This article is a result of an exploratory study of the role of leadership in virtual teams. Virtual teams’ leadership is seemingly situational and supervisory, depending on the task. This study reveals that (1) individual virtual team members act as leaders based on the specific requirements for getting things done, (2) classifies virtual team leadership under supervisory and facilitating leadership, (3) suggests that both leadership roles are essential for virtual team effectiveness and functioning and (4) recommends exploration of leadership-oriented communication competency, shared understanding and virtual team citizenship behaviour as these are required for the effective performance of a virtual team.

The impact of emergent virtual leadership competencies on team effectiveness

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Ziek ◽  
Stacy Smulowitz
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Team Effectiveness ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Leadership Competencies ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
The Impact

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.

Leader-Facilitated Relationship Building in Virtual Teams

2011 ◽  
pp. 2390-2395
Author(s):  
David J. Pauleen
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
Product Launches

How do virtual team leaders assess and respond to boundary crossing issues when building relationships with virtual team members? Virtual teams are a new phenomenon, defined as groups of people working on a common task or project from distributed locations using information and communications technology (ICT). With rapid advances in ICT allowing alternatives to face-to-face communication, virtual teams are playing an increasingly important role in organizations. Due to their global coverage, virtual teams are often assigned critical organizational tasks such as multinational product launches, negotiating global mergers and acquisitions, and managing strategic alliances (Maznevski & Chudoba, 2000). Their use, however, has outpaced the understanding of their unique dynamics and characteristics (Cramton & Webber, 2000). Virtual team leadership remains one of the least understood and most poorly supported elements in virtual teams. Virtual team leaders are often the nexus of a virtual team, facilitating communications, establishing team processes, and taking responsibility for task completion (Duarte & Tennant- Snyder, 1999), and doing so across multiple boundaries. Recent research (Kayworth & Leidner, 2001-2002) has begun to look at virtual leadership issues and suggests that the trend toward virtual work groups necessitates further inquiry into the role and nature of virtual team leadership. This article begins by briefly looking at the key concepts of virtual team leadership, relationship building and boundary crossing. Then, drawing upon the author’s research, it examines the complexity inherent in building relationship across boundaries, and concludes with suggestions on how virtual team leaders can mediate this complexity.

Collaborative Approach to Successful Virtual Team Leadership

2017 ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Ellis ◽  
Eric Kisling
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Social Loafing ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Travel Costs ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership ◽  
Specific Project

Due to the changing nature of organizations to meet decreased travel budgets, a globalized economic recession, and increased travel costs, multicultural virtual teams are rapidly growing (Hardin, Looney, Fuller, & Schechtman, 2013). Virtual teams are dynamic typically constructed for a specific project or task-focused group. Based on collaborative principles using state-of-the-art communication technology to support collaboration, virtual teams are often faced with several challenges: distance, time, technology, culture, trust, leadership, and social loafing, which can occur when group performance is less than the sum of the individual's efforts (Robbins, 1995). Einstein and Scott (2001) consider social loafing a result of team members putting forth less effort than they would on an individual assignment/task, leading to discourse and loss of synergy. This chapter describes best practices utilizing experiential learning activities for students on virtual teams can enable students to learn, practice, and hone their virtual team skills to be effective workers in the 21st century workplace.

Virtual Teams

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jamie S. Switzer ◽  
Ralph V. Switzer
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Leadership Practices Inventory ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Leadership Model ◽  
Exemplary Leadership ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Five Practices

As the use of virtual teams becomes increasingly more common in all types of organizations, those involved must have the knowledge to operate efficiently and collaboratively and communicate effectively, particularly the virtual team leaders. Virtual teams will not succeed without strong leadership. Many traditional leadership principles apply to virtual teams, but virtual team leaders have additional challenges. This chapter examines the role of virtual team leaders and determines what characteristics and behaviors are exemplified by those leaders, using an instrument developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) identifies five practices and behaviors of successful leaders. Additionally, embedded in the “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership” model are behaviors that serve as the basis for learning to lead, called “The Ten Commitments of Leadership.”

Virtual Team Leadership, Operation, and Technology Deployment

2022 ◽  
pp. 165-181
Author(s):  
Anatoli Quade
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Team Members ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership

The COVID-19 situation has shown many leaders that their face-to-face meetings leadership style may well now be a thing of the past. Tech-savvy companies are now deploying new technologies to support the creation and leadership of virtual teams, working remotely in different locations around the globe. This presents a range of new challenges for both project leaders and team members, who must now adopt new ways of working. Using an inductive approach based on an analysis of relevant literature, online surveys, and in-depth interviews with project leaders and other practitioners, this chapter examines the transitioning to virtual team leadership and operation, identifies critical success factors, and discusses the facilitating role of new technologies. An operational model (V-CORPS) to guide the building and operation of virtual teams is developed and explained with the aim of increasing the flexibility and efficiency of virtual project teams and establishing a checklist of action points for team building and leading.

scholarly journals Analysis of competencies for effective virtual team leadership in building successful organisations

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 696-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nnamdi Stanley Maduka ◽  
Helen Edwards ◽  
David Greenwood ◽  
Allan Osborne ◽  
Solomon Olusola Babatunde
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Effective Leadership ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Leadership Competencies ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Virtual Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership

Purpose Global competition and advances in technology have enhanced the growing trend of virtual teams in order to execute business strategies. Thus, understanding the competencies needed for virtual leadership effectiveness is essential and vital to organisational success. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the required competencies for virtual team leadership and its effectiveness in an organisation. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted case study methodology to undertake an exploratory study of a manufacturing organisation. Using a questionnaire that was designed following a focussed literature review to identify the specific virtual leadership competencies, structured interviews were conducted face-to-face with 14 respondents from two major virtual team groups. The interviews were designed to elucidate the opinions and perceptions of virtual team members with respect to selected characteristics of their virtual team leaders (VTLs). The responses obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Findings The study identified the competencies required for effective leadership in virtual teams in order to achieve the organisational project success. The performance of the two VTLs in the organisation was then assessed in the light of these identified competencies. The study also identified transformational leaders as important to be considered when selecting VTLs because they are known to achieve high-performing team. However, the study found that considering the virtual leadership competencies, the two VTLs were found to have not, on the whole, performed well because they are lacking in some of the leadership competencies required for effective leadership in a virtual team and this has led to their organisation not achieving the required success in virtual teams. Practical implications The study has implications for organisations’ virtual team project leaders. The identification of specific leadership competencies for virtual team leadership will enable organisations to be more informed when looking for effective leaders in their virtual teams in order to achieve high-performing virtual teams, which will lead to organisational growth and success. The study is expected to enhance the success rate of any typical organisation using virtual teams. Originality/value The study would be highly beneficial to both the potential and current stakeholder organisations considering virtual teams to execute business strategies. This study has also added to the body of knowledge by further exploring the leadership competencies needed for virtual teams.

Mediating Complexity

Virtual Teams ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 255-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Pauleen ◽  
Lalita Rajasingham
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Interpersonal Dynamics ◽  
Team Members

Virtual teams are playing an increasingly important role in organizations. However, virtual teams’ increasing team member interaction beyond traditional organizational boundaries has outpaced our understanding of their interpersonal dynamics and unique communication characteristics. Research shows that the development of interpersonal and group communications between team members is an important factor in effective working relationships; however, little research has been done on the effects of crossing organizational, cultural, and time and distance boundaries on relationship building in virtual teams. This chapter reports on a field study of New Zealand-based virtual team leaders working with boundary spanning virtual teams. From a team leaders’ perspective, boundary-crossing issues (organizational, cultural, language, time and distance) can affect relationship building in many important ways. These effects are explored and the implications for practice and research are also discussed.

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