Leadership challenges and the development of best practices in national virtual information technology team environments.

摘要

The qualitative phenomenological study explored the challenges and the development of best practices of virtual information technology (IT) team leadership through the in-depth lived experiences and perspectives of 10 national virtual team (NVT) leaders with one or more years of face-to-face and virtual leadership experience within the information technology (IT) industry in the United States. Ten major themes emerged: (a) differences exist between leading ITNVTs versus other virtual teams, (b) some leaders and employees are unfit to work virtually, (c) mentorship and/or training is beneficial to ITNVT leaders, (d) organizational training on virtual teams is beneficial, (e) virtual leadership is more challenging than traditional, face-to-face leadership, (f) IT background for ITNVT leaders is beneficial, (g) virtual work can have a psychological impact on ITNVT members, (h) communication skills are essential for ITNVTs, (i) establishing face-to-face contact in ITNVTs is beneficial, and (j) transformational leadership works well in an ITNVT environment. Recommendations for leaders include (a) providing awareness for non-virtual members of an organization, (b) hiring slowly to hire the right people, (c) incorporating mentorship and/or training for virtual team leaders and members, (d) developing business processes for the virtual team, and (e) developing guidelines for virtual communication.