Virtual Leadership: Key Factors for Its Analysis and Management

Abstract

The development of information and communication technology (ICT), as well as the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, have encouraged the adoption of nonconventional schemes of work based on virtuality. In this context, leadership becomes one of the main challenges to organizations and teams. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors related to virtual leadership and to propose a scheme for analysing and managing teams in virtuality. After a systematic literature review, the main results suggest that leadership in virtual environments should be considered as a shared phenomenon and that the key factors with the greatest impact on virtual leadership are communication, trust, and team cohesion. The paper highlights and characterises these factors, as well as the actions that should be taken to manage them. As a major contribution, a four-phase scheme is proposed for the analysis and management of leadership in virtuality. Finally, three future lines of research are suggested.