Leading Virtually: Adapting Leadership for a Remote World

The rise of virtual work has transformed the way leaders interact with their teams. Face-to-face interactions are decreasing, replaced by technology-mediated communication. This shift requires a new understanding of leadership, focusing on how to effectively support followers in virtual environments.

Defining Virtual Leadership

Virtual leadership refers to contexts where leaders and followers are physically separated and primarily interact through technology like email, instant messaging, and video conferencing.

We adopt three key assumptions about virtual leadership:

• It operates on multiple levels, impacting individuals and teams.
• It is best understood through a functional perspective, emphasizing the behaviors leaders need to adopt to support followers.
• It exists along a continuum of virtuality, ranging from fully co-located to fully virtual, including hybrid arrangements.

A Functional Approach to Virtual Leadership

Instead of focusing on specific leadership styles, our review synthesizes findings based on functional leadership theory, which posits that a leader's role is to meet the needs of their followers to improve work outcomes. We highlight five key functions that are particularly important in virtual settings:

• Encourage Self-Management: Empowering followers to contribute to the leadership process and manage their own performance is crucial when face-to-face interaction is limited. This involves fostering autonomy, allowing participation in decision-making, and providing necessary support.
• Define Mission and Establish Expectations and Goals: Providing a clear purpose and direction is essential in virtual environments where geographic dispersion and electronic communication can hinder shared understanding. A clear mission fosters a common identity and ensures self-directed efforts align with organizational goals.
• Support the Social Climate: Building positive interpersonal interactions and attending to follower well-being is vital when reduced social cues and less proximity can create uncertainty and undermine social bonds. This involves fostering strong relationships and addressing potential issues like isolation and work-life conflict.
• Facilitate the Use of Technology: Helping followers effectively use technology to improve virtual interactions is paramount in technology-dependent environments. This includes establishing the technology infrastructure, setting norms for technology use, and adapting technology as needed.

Contingencies of Virtual Leadership

The effectiveness of these leadership functions can be influenced by various factors:

• Task Characteristics: Task complexity and interdependence can impact the effectiveness of leadership behaviors. Leaders who encourage self-management may be better suited for complex task environments.
• Communication Features: Frequency and planning of communication between leaders and followers are important. Frequent, planned communication can strengthen the effects of leadership.
• Individual and Team Characteristics: Follower regulatory focus, team member anonymity, and team type can also shape the effectiveness of leadership functions.

Future Research Directions

We identify several key areas for future research:

• Broadening the Scope of Leadership Functions: Exploring additional leadership functions beyond the core five, such as monitoring, managing team boundaries, and providing feedback.
• Examining Leadership in Hybrid Environments: Understanding the unique challenges and redefined leadership functions in hybrid work models that blend physical and virtual environments.
• Reaching Consensus on Virtuality: Developing a more unified conceptualization of virtuality, including its dimensions and subdimensions, to better integrate research findings.
• Addressing Cross-Cultural Issues: Investigating the challenges virtual leaders face when followers span cultural boundaries and how to overcome them.

Implications for Managerial Practice

Organizations should ensure leaders are aware of the challenges of virtual leadership and possess the necessary skills. Training programs can equip leaders and followers with the skills to navigate virtual environments. Organizations should also provide appropriate technology infrastructure and guidelines for its use.

Leaders should foster follower autonomy, communicate a compelling vision, facilitate regular interactions, and model inclusive participation and work-life boundary management. Followers should regulate their own behavior, proactively manage work-life boundaries, and take an active role in communicating with leaders and coworkers.

Conclusion

Leading virtually requires adapting traditional leadership approaches to meet the unique challenges of remote work. By focusing on key leadership functions, understanding contingencies, and addressing future research directions, leaders and organizations can navigate the complexities of virtual environments and foster successful outcomes.

This research is extracted from the full-length paper titled “Leading Virtually,” published in the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior.