Virtual Leadership at Distance Education Teams

Abstract

Globalization being one of the most popular terms of recent years is considered as a factor changing the operation styles of the companies. Companies and universities opened up to the world with the globalization and as a result of it, they had the opportunity of being a world brand. Now, some companies have affiliated companies in almost every country. Well, if we think about time and place difference how do these companies lead the affiliated companies in various locations of the world? This question resulted in the new leadership approach, virtual leadership. The process of distance learning beginning with newspaper advertisement appears as virtual learning now. A number of companies and universities provide distance learning classes and in-service training in virtual platform via Internet. These trainings provided independently from time and space are conducted in a country and worldwide sometimes. If we consider individuals in different time and environments as virtual teams, dealing with these virtual teams is the duty of virtual leader. The purpose of this study is to examine virtual leadership perception of distance learning teams. Three trivets are in question for distance learning teams. The first one is the academicians lecturing the second one is the students and the third one is coordinator and technical support team. Perceptions of virtual leader of the said three groups were examined individually in this study. The major findings are about who the virtual leader is and what properties virtual leader should bear. The virtual leader is, anyone inside the team for academicians, manager for technical support team and teacher for students. The most important ability for virtual leader is communication skills. In this study, there are different perspectives about virtual leader and leadership at distance education teams.

Leadership in Virtual Organizations: Influence on Workplace Engagement

“…According to Kuscu and Hasan (2016), companies and universities have opened to the world, and because of globalization, many have developed a world-wide presence, reputation, and global brand. Many companies and universities now provide distance learning programs with classes and in-service training in virtual platform via the Internet.…”

“…Many believe virtual leadership is simply management in another context, not understanding the nuances that exist between it and face-to-face leadership. However, it is necessary to consider a virtual leader differently from conventional leaders (Kuscu and Hasan 2016). Kuscu and Hasan (2016) found that virtual environments were more challenging to leaders, since they are free-flowing, and it is more difficult to monitor environments in which organizational loyalty level varies.…”

Building Effective Virtual Learning Teams Through Enhanced Team Processes

“…Training to develop proficiency with virtual communication channels to perform tasks and facilitate social interactions is an essential provision for effective virtual teamwork (Topchyan, 2015). One specific challenge to virtual team leaders is to manage the team processes through electronically mediated interactions (Hu, 2015;Kuscu & Arslan, 2016;Topchyan, 2015). It was found that in the online learning environment, team leaders can effectively facilitate team-based activities by utilizing some higher-context communication such as video-conferencing, for instance, AdobeConnect, Blackboard Collaborate, and Cisco WebEx, to build personal and working relationships with team members (Hu, 2015).…”

“…The creation and development of social interactions and personal relationships among team members is needed for enhancing working relationships, motivating students, and promoting student's creativity, productivity, and learning (Pauleen, & Pak, 2001;Tseng & Ku, 2011;Williams et al, 2006). In the online classrooms, team-based activities for collaboration can also raise motivation, retention rates, student satisfaction, and academic performance as students' interactions increase (Hu, 2015;Kuscu & Arslan, 2016;Williams et al, 2006). Through learner-to-learner interactions, team members complete major projects collaboratively in the team-based activities.…”

“…Moreover, virtual learning teams support learner engagement in meaningful contexts, thereby increasing learning ownership (Makani et al, 2016). This interactive knowledge-building process stimulates a community of practice as an alternative means for the creation of knowledge and encourages team members to grow as mature and satisfied learners (Kabilan et al, 2011;Kuscu, & Arslan, 2016). Owing to a rich treasury of exchanging ideas, team members as mature learners assist others in solving problems with their unique contributions (Lee et al, 2009).…”