LEADERSHIP AND VIRTUAL TEAM MANAGEMENTIn today’s economy, forming virtual teams are not only efficient and saves cost, but also very effective and help promote an organization’s vision.
With reference to research conducted over the years, employees who work in different location, but on similar tasks with one goal in mind are able to work more effectively and are equally (if not more) task oriented. (Malhotra et. al. 2007: 60).
Bass (2015) define the positive leadership in terms of the ability of the positive attitude of a leader like motivation, trust disciplines, on the follower in order to achieve successful organizational change. The need to supervise employees have both positive and negative potentials, as it determines the success of the organization as well as impact the employees will have on change, demands, control and environmental support (Harris &Kacmar, 2006).TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGELeaders have the capability in instilling motivation and boosting trust and confidence in their employees.
These positive attitude of leaders is called transformational Leadership. Harris & Kacmar (2011) define the positive leadership in terms of the ability of the positive attitude of a leader like motivation, trust disciplines, on the follower in order to achieve successful organizational change, impact demand, control and environmental support.The role of transformational leaders in the change process in an organization is their hallmark of incorporating from a personal discipline system, trust and loyalty in employees and improving on their sense of identity via communication. Though the relationship between transformational leadership may have complete difference, from a personal point of view, they appear quite similar when its industry related (Banerji & Krishnan, 2000). Leadership Functions in Virtual Team ManagementStrong Interpersonal Skills and Exceptional CommunicationYears of research undertaken by Kouzes (2015) on the introvert and extrovert personality types go ahead to prove that extrovert people are more likely to succeed in virtual environment and are extremely active, as compared to the introverts. This is due to the fact that, extroverts are super active in communication and despite their location, they are always finding modes of bringing virtual teams together Frequent communication in a virtual environment is extremely vital and a good I.T leader needs to possess the skill of an extrovert to always Liase out information with his team members.
Takes InitiativeVirtual team management is quite time consuming and it is up to the leader to effectively manage time to get tasks done with little or no supervision. Priorities need to be put in place, right decisions needs to be made and every task geared towards the goal. Technologies used should be well structured, in order to prevent micromanagement at every advantage. Conclusions:According to Hesselbein and Cohen (2011), Organizations whose transformational leadership are mostly inherited by young leaders, especially via virtual tasks are mostly highly competitive as these leaders take time in learning new approaches by combining the four I’s and become effective to the business world as well as have the capabilities in achieving success in the most difficult organizational change process. Bales (2013) REFERENCES• James M. Kouzes and Barry Z.
Posner, The Leadership Challenge: How to Get Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2015, p.123.• Robert J. House, “A 1976 Theory of Charismatic Leadership,” in J. G.
Hunt and L.L.Larson (Eds.
), Leadership: The Cutting Edge (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois, 1977), pp.189-207.• (PDF) Managing and Leading Change through…
. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320516417_Managing_and_Leading_Change_through_Transformational_Leadership_Insights_into_Success_Code accessed Jul 25 2018.
