Virtual Leadership

Author(s):  
Christian Graham ◽  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Brian Doore

This chapter is an updated review of the results of a study completed in 2015 on leadership's impact on virtual team effectiveness and the quality of the completed virtual team project. Findings in 2015 suggested that leadership style and virtual team effectiveness did predict project quality, and specific leadership styles had a negative relationship with virtual team effectiveness. After summarizing the results of the studies purpose, methodology, and findings, the chapter concludes with a literature review of virtual team's leadership research between 2015 and present. It provides a discussion on the relationship between the previous studies' findings and what has been found since with recommendations on future research on shared leadership and relationship building in virtual teams.

Author(s):  
Christian Graham ◽  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Brian Doore

This chapter is an updated review of the results of a study completed in 2015 on leadership's impact on virtual team effectiveness and the quality of the completed virtual team project. Findings in 2015 suggested that leadership style and virtual team effectiveness did predict project quality, and specific leadership styles had a negative relationship with virtual team effectiveness. After summarizing the results of the studies purpose, methodology, and findings, the chapter concludes with a literature review of virtual team's leadership research between 2015 and present. It provides a discussion on the relationship between the previous studies' findings and what has been found since with recommendations on future research on shared leadership and relationship building in virtual teams.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Matt Graham ◽  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Brian Doore

The successful completion of information systems projects is already a difficult process that many times ends with projects failing to meet the information systems requirements. These requirements typically center on completing projects that perform the way initially envisioned, and delivering completed projects on time and within budget. Pressures around communication and leadership style are now compounded by the use of virtual teams. The goal of this study was to determine whether or not technical proficiency in the project-based skills, facility with database management systems development, and greater technical proficiency in coping within the virtual environment contributed to the development of greater virtual team effectiveness. This study targeted millennial students at the Maine Business School who were assigned to virtual teams tasked with developing a database management system within a virtual environment. Findings suggest that increased proficiencies in project skills will contribute to greater team effectiveness and more importantly, increased proficiencies within the virtual environment will contribute to greater virtual team effectiveness. These findings have implications for business educators and by natural extension, business practitioners as they suggest that training students and workers how to communicate, collaborate, exchange ideas, and share information better within virtual environments will improve virtual team effectiveness which should translate into greater virtual teams project outcomes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-58
Author(s):  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Christian Graham ◽  
Brian Doore

This article examines how commitment among individuals involved in a short term, virtual team projects influence the quality of the project outcome. Results indicate that forced and habitual commitment types had a negative impact on virtual team project quality but found no evidence of the hypothesized positive influences of affective, normative or economic commitment. Findings suggest that commitment in virtual teams, particularly those virtual teams that engage in short term projects, may not exert the influence observed in co-located teams involved in longer duration projects. Further, forced and habitual commitment may actually be destructive. As such, the findings of this study suggest that for project quality to be achieved, other forces may be necessary.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Matt Graham ◽  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Brian Doore

The development of information systems is a difficult process that often ends in failing to meet the project's initial goals. Typical outcomes for information systems development projects include delivering promised products & services on time and within budget. These pressures are now compounded by the use of virtual teams that present a new set of challenges related to the cohesion, organization, and functioning of the team process. Specifically, virtual teams must contend with problems in team formation, the organizational environment in which the team operates, and the technology used for collaboration and communication. As more organizations use virtual teams, these problems present real and pressing obstacles to the successful completion of database systems development. The goal of the study was to determine whether leadership type, transformational, transactional, or management-by-exception was significantly related to leadership effectiveness in a virtual team tasked with developing a database management system. This study targeted millennial students at the Maine Business School who were assigned to virtual teams tasked with developing a database management system. Specifically, this study sought to answer three hypotheses: 1) what is the effect of leadership type, as self-reported through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire on the quality of completed team projects?; 2) What is the impact of type of leadership on virtual team effectiveness as measured by the Virtual Teams Survey?; and, 3) Are there interactions between leadership style and virtual team effectiveness on the quality and uniqueness of the completed team project? Findings suggest leadership style and virtual team effectiveness did predict project quality, Transformational and Management-by-exception leadership styles had a negative relationship with virtual team effectiveness. Findings further suggest that Transactional leadership style influenced project quality directly, while transformational and management-by-exception styles influenced project quality indirectly through their direct influence on virtual team effectiveness. These findings suggest that traditionally effective leadership types do not work well for Millennial Generation teams in virtual environments


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Caya ◽  
Mark Mortensen ◽  
Alain Pinsonneault

Virtual teams have been researched intensely in the last ten years and there is a growing body of literature on the topic. At this point, the authors need an integrative theory-driven framework through which they can conceptualize the notion of virtual teams and organize and make sense of prior research. This can help them better understand what drives virtual team dynamics and ultimately effectiveness and can guide future research on the topic. Drawing on models of team effectiveness and emergent processes and states, the authors developed a framework for understanding virtual team dynamics. They then use this framework to review and synthesize one hundred and twenty-one empirical studies of virtual teams published since 1990. The authors analyzed the direct and indirect antecedents of virtual team effectiveness and identify key gaps in both their knowledge of, and approach to studying, virtual teams. They outlined areas for future research and discuss, the implications for the authors’ paper for practice and for the study of virtual and traditional teams.


Author(s):  
Victoria L. Claypoole ◽  
Alexis R. Neigel ◽  
James L. Szalma

Observation is a common occurrence within the workplace, and can often manifest as either peer-to-peer monitoring or supervisor-to-peer monitoring. To date, there is a limited body of research that describes changes in performance due to either a positive or negative relationship between supervisors and employees. The present study reports qualitative data on supervisor-to-employee relationships and how the quality of the relationship can alter human performance. The results indicated that relationship with a supervisor was related to perceived performance under direct observation. Women were more likely to report a positive relationship with their supervisor, yet also indicated a negative emotion toward being monitored. These results are important in understanding how supervisor presence influences individual performance when completing job-specific tasks. The implications for future research are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Dixon

Purpose Research suggests that teaming routines facilitate learning in teams. This paper identifies and details how specific teaming routines, implemented in a virtual team, support its continual learning. The study’s focus was to generate authentic and descriptive accounts of the interviewees’ experiences with virtual teaming routines. Design/methodology/approach This case study gathered concrete, practical and context-dependent knowledge about virtual teaming routines in a specific environment. The main source of data was narrative expert interviews with working members of the team. Findings This study illustrates how a mix of face-to-face and virtual routines can ensure organizational learning in virtual teams. Research limitations/implications This case study is limited to one virtual team in the information industry. Future research could build on this research to study virtual teams in other industries. Practical implications This research offers specific examples of teaming routines that managers of virtual teams might adapt in managing their own teams. Social implications Given that the use of virtual teams is a growing phenomenon, understanding how to help those teams learn effectively is a critical issue. Originality/value This case study extends the research on teaming routines to virtual teams.


2017 ◽  
pp. 687-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Carlson ◽  
Dawn S. Carlson ◽  
Emily M. Hunter ◽  
Randal L. Vaughn ◽  
Joey F. George

The work of virtual teams is increasingly important to today's organizations, work that is accomplished predominantly via computer-mediated communication. The authors investigate the moderating role of experience with instant messaging on the team interpersonal processes (cohesion and openness) to team effectiveness relationship in virtual teams. Data were obtained from 365 virtual team members using survey methodology and analyzed using hierarchical moderated regression and multilevel analyses. They found that team cohesion has a main effect on team effectiveness. Team openness has a main effect and is moderated by experience with instant messaging, i.e., strengthens the relationship. Understanding the role of team interpersonal processes and the role of the communication media will allow managers to more effectively build virtual teams and provide effective training and support. Using the theoretical lens of channel expansion theory the authors expand theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge of this area.


Virtual Teams ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 160-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Sandy Staples ◽  
Ian K. Wong ◽  
Ann Frances Cameron

The purpose of this chapter is to improve the understanding of what makes virtual teams effective. This is done by identifying the best practices for individual team members, the best practices for leaders and sponsors of virtual teams, and the best practices for the organizations that the virtual teams are a part of. Best practices in these categories were identified from: (1) empirical evidence from case studies of six existing virtual teams; (2) the existing literature related to virtual teams; and, (3) traditional team (i.e., collocated) and telework literature. The chapter concludes with implications for organizations and potential research directions.


Author(s):  
Ying Chieh Liu

Although virtual teams have been widely utilized nowadays, social relationships are considered highly problematic within virtual teams. This study addresses social dimensions to provide suggestions for mangers to improve the performance and satisfaction of virtual teams. We build a model derived from a comprehensive literature review and conduct an experiment to validate it through Structural Equation Modeling. The results reveal: (1) communication has a direct positive impact on relationship building, but indirect positive effects on performance and satisfaction; (2) relationship building impacts directly with strong and positive impacts on cohesion and trust, but indirectly with strong impacts on performance and satisfaction ; (3) cohesion has a direct, strong and positive impact on performance but a strong indirect impact on satisfaction; (4) trust has a positive direct impact on performance but an indirect positive impact on satisfaction; (5) performance has a strong and positive impact on satisfaction. In addition, this study confirms that relationship building is a vital mediator in the social relationship model. Managerial implications and future research directions are identified.


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