Leadership and Performance in Virtual Teams: Exploring Brokerage in Electronic Communication

This article explores the structural foundations of leadership and performance in virtual project teams. In an experimental business case, the article demonstrates the effect of structural brokerage in team communication on leadership and team performance. This research suggests that social roles as well as the acknowledgement of leadership and performance are conditional to the way individuals and teams relate to their environment. It supports structural hole theory in that leaders and a winner team achieved the highest values of flow betweenness and network efficiency. Strategically, managers of virtual knowledge networks should focus their attention not only on the qualifications of individuals, but also on communication structures within their work groups.