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PurposeAs business is becoming more global, virtual teams are getting increasingly prevalent. The purpose of this paper is to examine virtual team effectiveness by taking a deeper look at the Virtual World Teams (VWTs) of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs).Design/methodology/approachThe paper investigates the effects of leaders’ emotional intelligence and transformational leadership on virtual team effectiveness, including three sub-factors of team effectiveness: team performance, viability and team member satisfaction. In addition, the indirect effect of emotional intelligence on team effectiveness via transformational leadership was examined. In total, 500 MMOG players that belonged in virtual world teams participated in the study. Hypotheses were tested through a series of multiple linear regression analyses, and one-way ANOVA tests were used to explore the impact of gender on the key factors of team effectiveness.FindingsThe analysis revealed a significant predictive relationship between perceived leader emotional intelligence and virtual team effectiveness sub-factors, mediated by transformational leadership behavior. Further analysis revealed gender differences in players’ perceptions of their leader emotional intelligence, transformational leadership and virtual team effectiveness.Practical implicationsThis paper adds to the literature by revealing important predictors of virtual team effectiveness. These findings suggest implications for research and practice in the fields of Human Resources (HR), Human Resource Development (HRD) and training programs for e-leaders. The results of the analysis based on gender differences also have theoretical and managerial implications.Originality/valueThe study provides evidence that transformational leadership mediates the relationship between leaders’ emotional intelligence and team effectiveness in a virtual team.

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Web-based and Internet technologies are constantly being developed, evolving new ways of working, teaching, and learning for a broader range of professional and social groups. In a landscape of technology innovations, teacher professional development should try to capitalize on modern internet-based tools and services, better known as Web 2.0 and virtual worlds, in an effort to meet the increasing lifelong learning needs of pre-and in-service teachers. In this paper we suggest using the Second Life MUVE for teaching role-playing instruction to practitioners. After designing and implementing a 3D virtual learning environment in Second Life according to cognitive apprenticeship methods, we taught role-playing instruction to fifteen primary and secondary school teacher educators, using as a case scenario a rhapsody from Homer's Odyssey. We applied qualitative research methods to investigate the effect of role-playing on affective, behavioral and cognitive engagement of our participants. Our exploratory study indicated that learning role-playing instruction in a virtual learning environment has positive impact on learning engagement.

Over the years, an explosive growth in the use of virtual teams in organizations has been noticed. However, the individual and team factors that result in the team effectiveness of a virtual team still remain unclear. The purpose of the paper is to try to comprehend how virtual teams work better, by shedding light on the Virtual World Teams of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. A framework based on the input‐process‐output model was used to test the relationships between leader emotional intelligence, task interdependence, cooperative group norms, social capital, team cohesion, transformational leadership, and team effectiveness in virtual teams, from a multilevel perspective. Structural equations modeling (N = 500) revealed that leader emotional intelligence is positively related to transformational leadership, which in turn is associated with virtual team effectiveness. Moreover, a significant relation between task interdependence, cooperative group norms, social capital, team cohesion, and virtual team effectiveness was revealed. In addition, task interdependence seemed to also be related to team satisfaction, a subfactor of virtual team effectiveness. Finally, team cohesion has a partially mediating role between transformational leadership perceived at the team level and virtual team effectiveness. The study provides useful insights for leaders and human resource development professionals interested in designing effective virtual teams.

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