Virtual Team Leadership: Perspectives From the Field

AbstrAct The purpose of this study was to improve the understanding of virtual team leadership occurring within existing virtual teams in a range of organizations. Qualitative data were collected through comprehensive interviews with nine virtual team leaders and members from six different organizations. A semi-structured interview format was used to elicit extensive information about effective and ineffective virtual team leadership behaviours. Content analysis was used to code the interview transcripts and detailed notes obtained from these interviews. Two independent raters categorized results into themes and sub-themes. These results provide real-world examples and recommendations above and beyond what can be learned from BLOCKINsimulated BLOCKINlaboratory BLOCKINexperiments. BLOCKINThe BLOCKINfour BLOCKINmost BLOCKINimportant BLOCKINoverarching BLOCKINfindings BLOCKINare BLOCKINdescribed BLOCKINusing the following headings: 1) Leadership critical in virtual teams, 2) Virtual team meeting effectiveness, 3) BLOCKINPersonalizing BLOCKINvirtual BLOCKINteamwork, BLOCKINand BLOCKIN4) BLOCKINLearning BLOCKINto BLOCKINeffectively BLOCKINuse BLOCKINdifferent BLOCKINmedia. BLOCKINThese BLOCKINfindings represent BLOCKINthe BLOCKINmost BLOCKINsignificant BLOCKINand BLOCKINpertinent BLOCKINresults BLOCKINfrom BLOCKINthis BLOCKINqualitative BLOCKINdata BLOCKINand BLOCKINprovide BLOCKINdirection BLOCKINfor future research, as well as practical recommendations for leaders and members of virtual teams.