97-097
LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE IN VIRTUAL TEAM ENVIRONMENTS
Maryam Alavi and Youngjin Yoo
This paper reports an exploratory field study examining leadership
emergence in a virtual team environment. Traditional models of leadership
emergence have identified task-related contribution, speaking behavior, and
power orientation as key predictors of leadership emergence in face-to-face
environments. In the proposed model of leadership emergence in virtual
team environments, we argued that an individual’s skill in using electronic
communication technology and the use of the technology would become
important predictors of leadership emergence, while the role of speaking
behavior in predicting leadership emergence would be diminishing in virtual
team environments. The proposed model was tested using a data set
collected from twenty-eight virtual teams working over a period of ten
weeks. Our data support the proposed model of leadership emergence in
virtual team environments. Implications for future research in leadership
emergence and practice are provided.
GM
26 pages
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