Abstract
Building on behavioural leadership theory and structuration theory, we present a two-order theory of leadership. It describes four classes of first-order leadership behaviours (task coordination, substantive task contribution, group maintenance and boundary spanning) and defines second-order leadership as behaviour that influences changes in the structure that guides group action. We argue that second-order leadership is enabled by first-order leadership and is therefore action embedded and grounded in processes that define the social identity of the group. We propose that effective virtual teams will exhibit a paradoxical combination of shared, distributed first-order leadership complemented by strong, concentrated, and centralized second-order leadership. We conclude by suggesting future research that might be conducted to test and further elaborate our theory.
This research was partially supported by NSF Grants 04–14468 and 05–27457. Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the First International Conference on Open Source Systems, Genova, Italy and the IFIP Working Group 8.2 Oasis Workshop. The authors acknowledge the contributions of Hala Annabi, Chengetai Masango and James Howison.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D.L. Duarte and N. T. Snyder, Mastering Virtual Teams (2nd ed) (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2001).
C.C. Manz and H. P. Sims, Jr., Leading Workers to Lead Themselves: The External Leadership of Self-managing Work Teams, Administrative Science Quarterly 32, 106–128(1987).
M.B. Watson-Manheim, K. M. Chudoba, and K. Crowston, Discontinuities and Continuities: A New Way to Understand Virtual Work, Information, Technology and People 15(3), 191–209 (2002).
D.J. Armstrong and P. Cole, Managing Distance and Differences in Geographically Distributed Work Groups, in: Distributed Work, edited by P. Hinds and S. Kiesler (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002), pp. 167–186.
E. Carmel and R. Agarwal, Tactical Approaches for Alleviating Distance in Global Software Development, IEEE Software (March/April), 22–29 (2001).
R.E. Kraut, C. Steinfield, A. P. Chan, B. Butler, and A. Hoag, Coordination and Virtualization: The Role of Electronic Networks and Personal Relationships, Organization Science 10(6), 722–740 (1999).
W.F. Cascio and S. Shurygailo, E-leadership and Virtual Teams, Organizational Dynamics 31(4), 363–376 (2003).
I. Zigurs, Leadership in Virtual Teams: Oxymoron or Opportunity?, Organizational Dynamics 31(4), 339–351 (2003).
J.L. Berdahl, Gender and Leadership in Work Groups: Six Alternative Models, Leadership Quarterly 7(1), 21–40 (1996).
B.M. Bass, Bass & Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership (Free Press, New York, ed. 3rd, 1990).
G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, ed. 5th, 2002).
Y. Yoo and M. Alavi, Emergent Leadership in Virtual Teams: What Do Emergent Leaders Do?, Information and Organization 14, 27–58 (2004).
C.L. Pearce and J. A. Conger, Eds., Shared Leadership: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003), pp.
P. Gronn, Distributed Leadership as a Unit of Analysis, The Leadership Quarterly 13(4), 423–451 (2002).
J.K. Fletcher and K. Kaufer, Shared Leadership: Paradox and Possibility, in: Shared Leadership: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership, edited by C. L. Pearce and J. A. Conger (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003), pp. 21–47.
J.D. Houghton, C. P. Neck and C. C. Manz, Self-leadership and Superleadership, in: Shared Leadership: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership, edited by C. L. Pearce and J. A. Conger (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003), pp. 123–140.
N. Misiolek and R. Heckman, Patterns of Emergent Leadership in Virtual Teams, in: Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2005), (Big Island, HI, 2005).
D.G. Ancona and D. F. Caldwell, Beyond Task and Maintenance: Defining External Functions in Groups, Group and Organization Studies 13, 468–494 (1988).
G. Piccoli, A. Powell, and B. Ives, Virtual Teams: Team Control Structure, Work Processes, and Team Effectiveness, Information, Technology & People 17(4), 359–379 (2004).
K.L. Tyran, C. K. Tyran, and M. Shepherd, Exploring Emergent Leadership in Virtual Teams, in: Virtual Teams That Work: Creating Conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness, edited by C. B. Gibbon and S. G. Cohen (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2003), pp. 183–195.
S.L. Jarvenpaa and D. E. Leidner, Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams, Organization Science 10(6), 791–815 (1999).
A.T. Pescosolido, Emergent Leaders as Managers of Group Emotion, Leadership Quarterly 13, 583–599 (2002).
R.K. Hart and P. L. McLeod, Rethinking Team Building in Geographically Dispersed Teams: One Message at a Time, Organizational Dynamics 31(4), 352–361 (2003).
A. Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (University of California, Berkeley, 1984).
S.R. Barley, Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from the Observation of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments, Administrative Sciences Quarterly 31, 78–109 (1986).
S. Sarker, F. Lau, and S. Sahay, Using an Adapted Grounded Theory Approach for Inductive Theory Building About Virtual Team Development, DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems 32(1), 38–56 (2001).
S.R. Barley and P. S. Tolbert, Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links Between Action and Institution, Organization Studies 18(1), 93–117 (1997).
W.J. Orlikowski, Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations, Organization Science 11(4), 404–428 (Jul–Aug, 2000).
E.W. Stein and B. Vandenbosch, Organizational Learning During Advanced System Development: Opportunities and Obstacles, Journal of Management Information Systems 13(2), 115–136(1996).
D. Dougherty, Interpretive Barriers to Successful Product Innovation in Large Firms, Organization Science 3(2), 179–202 (1992).
Y. Sarason, A Model of Organizational Transformation: The Incorporation of Organizational Identity into a Structuration Theory Framework, Academy of Management Journal (Best papers proceedings), 47–51 (1995).
I. Askehave and J. M. Swales, Genre Identification and Communicative Purpose: A Problem and a Possible Solution, Applied Linguistics 22(2), 195–212 (2001).
C. Argyris and D. A. Schön, Organizational Learning (Addison-Wesley, London, 1978).
P. Watzlawick, J. Weakland, and R. Fisch, Change: Principles, Problem Formulation and Problem Resolution (Norton, New York, 1974).
S.L. Brown and K. Eisenhardt, M., The Art of Continuous Change: Linking Complexity Theory and Time-paced Evolution in Relentlessly Shifting Organizations, Administrative Sciences Quarterly 42(1), 1–34 (1997).
R.F. Bales, A Set of Categories for the Analysis of Small Group Interaction, American Sociological Review 15(2), 257–263 (1950).
R.M. Grant, Toward a Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm, Strategic Management Journal 17(Winter), 109–122 (1996).
K. Crowston, K. Wei, Q. Li, U.Y. Eseryel, and J. Howison, Coordination of Free/Libre Open Source Software development, paper presented at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2005), Las Vegas, NV, USA 2005.
T.R. Kayworth and D. E. Leidner, Leadership Effectiveness in Global Virtual Teams, Journal of Management Information Systems 18(3), 7–40 (2002).
J.C. Turner, Explaining the Nature of Power: A Three Process Theory, European Journal of Social Psychology 35, 1–22 (2005).
E.H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership (Josey-Bass, San Francisco, 1987).
J.A. Cannon-Bowers and E. Salas, Shared Mental Models in Expert Decision Making, in: Individual and Group Decision Making, edited by N. J. Castellan (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, 1993), pp. 221–246.
R. Heckman et al., Emergent Decision-making Practices in Technology-supported Self-organizing Distributed Teams, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2006), (Milwaukee, WI, 10–13 Dec, 2006).
K.C. Kellogg, W. J. Orlikowski, and J. Yates, Life in the Trading Zone: Structuring Coordination Across Boundaries in Postbureaucratic Organizations, Organization Science 17(1), 22–44 (2006).
K. Crowston and J. Howison, The Social Structure of Free and Open Source Software Development, First Monday 10(2) (2005).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Heckman, R., Crowston, K., Misiolek, N. (2007). A Structurational Perspective on Leadership in Virtual Teams. In: Crowston, K., Sieber, S., Wynn, E. (eds) Virtuality and Virtualization. IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, vol 236. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73025-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73025-7_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-73024-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-73025-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)Springer Nature Proceedings Computer Science
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
