Suling Zhang

Bridging the gap between traditional leadership theories and virtual team leadership

This paper identifies the paucity of theoretical development in virtual team leadership research and proposes that virtual team leadership research can be more rigorous and enriched by applying traditional leadership theories, specifically, leadership traits theory and contingency theory. Existing virtual team leadership research regarding these two theories is reviewed and limitations are discussed. Four contingencies which characterise virtual team context are identified including physical distance, communicational distance, organisational distance and cultural distance. Three important leadership traits in virtual team context are discussed: communication competency, environmental alertness, and influence power. This paper calls for a hybrid approach in virtual team leadership research. The implications of the four virtual team contingencies on these leadership traits are presented and research propositions are raised. A conceptual model is presented based on the propositions.

Occurrence and Effects of Leader Delegation in Virtual Software Teams

Virtual teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about what constitutes effective virtual software team leadership, in particular, the amount of leader delegation that is appropriate in a virtual software-development environment. This study investigates virtual software team leader delegation and explores the impact of delegation strategies on virtual team performance mediated by team motivation, team flexibility and team satisfaction with the team leader. This research is a report of a pilot study run on student teams carried out to refine and test the research constructs and research model for a larger study run in corporations. The study found that virtual team leaders delegate more to competent virtual teams and that such delegation is positively correlated with team member satisfaction with their leader and with team member motivation. Overall, the work provides important information for software-based organizations interested in developing virtual team leadership skills.

Leadership Styles in Virtual Team Context: Limitations, Solutions and Propositions

This paper analyzes previous empirical investigations on leadership style in virtual team context. Inconsistencies were found in the prior studies: oversimplified comparison of transformational and transactional leadership and treating the two leadership styles as polar constructs. To overcome these drawbacks, approaching transformational and transactional behavior combinations at behavior component level is suggested. Also, specific propositions are raised about the effects of leadership behavior combinations under three important yet ignored contextual factors: media richness of communication technology, goal-frustrating events and leader-follower gender. This paper provides useful guidance for future virtual team leadership research as well as for organizations interested in developing virtual team leadership.

Delegation in Virtual Team: the Moderating Effects of Team Maturity and Team Distance

Virtual teams are becoming an important work structure in software development projects. However, a number of issues arise due to the complexity and newness of the virtual team context. One such issue relates to when and how team leaders should delegate authority and responsibility to the team. Previous studies have yielded conflicting results. This work aims to answer this question about delegation by investigating the moderating effects of team maturity and team distance on the relationship between leader delegation and team outcomes. A research model and specific propositions are presented. This paper provides useful insights for future virtual team leadership research and for organizations interested in developing virtual team leadership

Information "bridging" in a global organization

This paper describes an interview study investigating the collaborative information-seeking and sharing practices of a global software testing team. A site located in Europe was used as a temporal bridge to help in managing time zome differences between the US, China and India, All sites utilized this bridge for critical, synchronous information seeking. Interviews suggest that bridging can be a taxing job and that the success of the bridging arragement depended upon an intricate balance of temporal, infrastructure and cultural factors.

Instant Messaging in Global Software Teams

Instant Messaging IM has been strictly forbidden in some companies as an unproductive use of time and exists in others via unsanctioned employee actions without explicit approval or directive from upper management. This paper examines a set of globally distributed software teams in a company that has explicitly installed and integrated IM capabilities with its collaboration management tools. Through a set of semi-structured interviews and the application of adaptive structuration theory, this study finds that because of the unique characteristics of global software development, IM is a highly useful tool for maintaining team cohesiveness and supporting team communication. Although the study finds strong support for the value of IM, it also identifies that the time distributed nature of the work, the informality of the medium as it interacts with different cultures and the productivity loss from IMs interruptive nature are problematic. A set of recommendations is made to address these problems. The paper concludes that IM is a useful tool for global software development and its advantages outweigh its problems.

Occurrence and Effects of Leader Delegation in Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about what constitutes effective virtual team leadership, in particular, what amount of leader delegation is appropriate in a virtual environment? This study investigates virtual team leader delegation and explores the impact of delegation strategies on virtual team performance mediated by team motivation, team flexibility and team satisfaction with the team leader The research is a report of a pilot study run on student teams carried out to refine and test the research constructs and research model. The study found that virtual team leaders delegate more to competent virtual teams and that delegation is positively correlated with team member satisfaction with their leader and with team member motivation. This work provides important knowledge for software-based organizations interested in developing virtual team leadership skills.

How Urgent is Urgent? The Impact of Culturally-Based Temporal Perceptions on Virtual Teams

In this poster, we present the results from a survey and interviews conducted on global software teams working in Ireland, the US, China and India. Our survey and semi-structured interviews investigated the effect of culturally-based time differences between non-collocated team members. An analysis of the survey data found that differences in temporal urgency, that is, the general sense a person has that time is running short and one has to hurry, significantly lowered the communication quality of teams which, in turn, negatively affected both the trust and satisfaction of the team members. The follow-up interviews corroborated these results and provided a picture of cultures with a high sense of urgency working more effectively with each other. Overall, our work suggests that although virtual team members belong to a single corporate culture, there is an overriding influence of their nation’s sense of time which affects cross-cultural interactions

Delegation in Global Software Teams: Leading or Managing?

Global teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about how to handle the conflicting roles a global software team manager should play when delegating. This study investigated delegation practices in global software teams. It was found that global software team managers delegate more like a manager than a leader by delegating primarily to competent remote team members. In this paper, we explore the reasons behind such practices and offer suggestions on how to improve delegation decisions in global software teams.

A tale of two teams: success and failure in virtual team meetings

Interaction between two teams with the same team leader and with similar size and goals moved from weekly face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings because of the temporary displacement of the team leader to a time zone six hours ahead of the rest of the team. One team focused primarily on software development and the second team on developing and testing a research instrument. The Software Team floundered through multiple different meeting arrangements and eventually agreed to disperse until the leader returned to the same time zone. In contrast, the Research Instrument Team kept a single meeting time that was set before it moved to virtual gatherings, and continued to be an active and productive team. This paper explores what factors led to this divergence in team success and concludes that the implicit temporal structures entraining the members of the Software Team coupled with an inability to repair member unhappiness and an unequal dispersion of skill sets among virtual and co-located members led to one teams eventual shutdown.