To lead from a distance : Virtual Leadership

In a world that is getting more and more globalized and dependent of the progress within the sphere of technology, there is a need for organizations to keep up with this development. Virtual Teams are a developing area, where there is a strive and a consistent desire to evolve and reach a higher level of efficiency. There is also a development when it comes to communication and is a consequence of a world that is increasingly globalized, and creating global competition is facilitated by a wider use of information and communication technology This leads to higher demands on the Virtual Leader in order to make sure that the team reaches its full potential, and being able to tackle the challenges that comes with leading an in a Virtual Environment. Since it is a subject that is still going through a phase of evolution, there is a knowledge gap in both a theoretical and practical view. The creation of Virtual Teams and the Virtual Leader encounters several aggravating challenges compared to traditionally collocated teams. There is a need for a clear definition of a Virtual Leader as well how to handle upcoming challenges. This study suggests a suitable definition for a Virtual Leader, where the result was drawn from a literature review and qualitative data from ten different companies and twenty respondents. A connection is drawn to the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation model (FIRO) made by Will Schutz in 1958. The main objectives of a leader are still the same, it is rather the context that has changed, and therefore an expansion of the model is presented. This reinforces the purpose of this study which is to investigate how a Virtual Leader can overcome the aforementioned challenges and ensure that everyone in the team are heading in the same direction.