Influence at a Distance: Leadership in Global Virtual Teams

Leading global teams

“…In their study, teams that were more geographically dispersed had more positive perceptions about inspirational leadership, commitment to the team and team trust (Joshi et al, 2009). Similarly Davis and Bryant (2003) found that transformational leadership had positive effects on global virtual team outcomes, whereas laissez-faire leadership and team outcomes displayed a negative relationship. As Davis and Bryant put it, the leader must lead with ''both the head and the heart'' (2003, p. 319).…”

“…But this is not as simple as it sounds, because GVT members often rely on team leaders to provide direction and inspiration from a distance. GVT leaders must possess excellent asynchronous communication skills, and must be especially effective in synchronous and face-to-face communication since there are often limited opportunities for such interaction (Davis & Bryant, 2003). GVT leaders should also be technologically savvy and possess an ability to match the technology to the specific requirements of the team and its tasks (e.g., rich versus lean communication media); they must be engaging, culturally sensitive and approachable, by communicating frequently with all members (Davis & Bryant, 2003;Jonsen et al, in press;Zigurs, 2002).…”

“…GVT leaders must possess excellent asynchronous communication skills, and must be especially effective in synchronous and face-to-face communication since there are often limited opportunities for such interaction (Davis & Bryant, 2003). GVT leaders should also be technologically savvy and possess an ability to match the technology to the specific requirements of the team and its tasks (e.g., rich versus lean communication media); they must be engaging, culturally sensitive and approachable, by communicating frequently with all members (Davis & Bryant, 2003;Jonsen et al, in press;Zigurs, 2002). Although there is much literature about the challenges of working in GVTs there is very little empirical research on actually leading GVTs (Joshi & Lazarova, 2005;Jonsen et al, in press;Malhotra et al, 2007).…”

“…There were generally few respondents from countries other than the U.S.A., and statistical tests were not conducted to ascertain any meaningful cross-national differences. Davis and Bryant (2003) conducted interviews with 68 global virtual team members and leaders (all managers in MNEs located in Asia and Europe) and identified several competencies that leaders of GVTs must possess including that GVT leaders must engage in boundary spanning activities.…”

“…We have chosen to focus specifically on national cultural heterogeneity, a salient characteristic of global teams, as nationality has been found to override other demographic and tenure-based categorizations in such teams (Butler, 2006;Earley & Mosakowski, 2000) and with respect to leadership (Zander & Romani, 2004). Our knowledge about leading global teams is still limited (Davis & Bryant, 2003;Joshi & Lazarova, 2005), but since teams are multicultural in composition and virtual in action they stand at the crossroads of two literature streamsmulticultural team research and virtual team research (Steers, Sanchez-Runde, & Nardon, 2010).…”