Minding the gap : A study of aspects that influencesvirtual leadership

Abstract: In order to meet this growing demand of globalization, business relationships are growing   moreand more virtual, with people having little or no face-to-face contact and instead resorting to the use of information communication technology (ICT) for daily interactions. In order for companies to remain successful they need to adapt their way of working to the increasing multi- nationality, virtual complexity of organizations today. Therefore, this study has focused on investigating what aspects that can influence virtual leadership, in this complex context. This has been done by performing a case study at one multinational organization that employs virtual leadership. Overall the results indicate that there are many aspects that may influence the practice of virtual leadership. The nature of trust in virtual work from this study coincided with much of previous research in the field, as well as the importance of communication and presence. It was also found that change and uncertainty in the organization could negatively influence virtual leadership while an open organization culture could positively influence it. Culture was found to influence virtual communication, and virtual leadership to some extent. The most important find was that the perception of virtual leadership varied greatly when addressing the project manager or the personnel manager. One of the biggest conclusions drawn from the result of the study was the importance of educating people in virtual communication  and leadership, as not knowing the nature of virtual communication may lead to a negative perception of it.