Emotional intelligence and leadership strategies in global virtual teams

Hook

Global virtual teams have been described as being valuable but “fraught with problems,” (Gordon, 2017, p. 1). Many of the issues confounding virtual teams are not technological issues such as network security but rather, are related to social and psychological factors. The failure of virtual teams to achieve stated goals may be due to any number of challenges, ranging from the lack of face-to-face interaction that provides the nonverbal communication context (Quisenberry, 2018) to the different means by which each member of the team uses or interacts with the technology and with team members (German, 2017). Global virtual teams are instrumental, necessitating further research into how to formally improve their operations via improvements to leadership models or to the actual technological instruments used to facilitate communication.

Anchor

Recent literature has been abundant on virtual teams and how to make them more effective. Quisenberry (2018) demonstrates the importance of emotional intelligence to highly functioning virtual teams. This research can be used to underscore the importance of providing emotional intelligence skills training to all employees who become members of virtual teams and especially to group leaders. Likewise, German (2017) found that emotional intelligence is strongly correlated with factors that lead to high virtual team performance including trust and the generation of the self-confidence needed to work independently. Gordon (2017) shows how the same types of leadership strategies used in face-to-face teams do not transfer easily to the virtual environment, noting how roles and tasks both need to be adapted to encourage greater empathy and emotional intelligence. As the literature on emotional intelligence as a key variable on virtual teams becomes more robust, some research like that of Orta-Castanon, Urbina-Coronado, Ahuett-Garza, et al (2018) demonstrate how the technologies used in virtual environments can itself be changed to facilitate emotionally intelligent communications. Likewise, Malcondo da Cruz, Moriya-Huzita & Feltrim (2018) show how technology and user experiences impact the development of trust on virtual teams.

General Business Problem

The general business problem is how to make virtual teams more predictable as well as more effective, offering leaders specific strategies they can employ when recruiting team members, forming the team and creating its virtual culture, and mobilizing the team to achieve its goals. Specifically, the problems that need to be addressed with regards to improving virtual teams are related to communication and to how to stimulate emotionally intelligent interactions in spite of the lack of face-to-face interactions. For example, Quisenberry (2018) found “those with higher emotional quotients can potentially improve project success,” (p. 1). German (2017) focuses on leadership traits, and how they translate to the virtual team environment. The literature is clear on the fact that virtual teams both do and do not share elements in common with face-to-face teams. Face-to-face teams and virtual teams are both besieged by issues related to miscommunication, diversity, and a lack of trust. The virtual environment can resolve some of the issues extant on face-to-face teams via the technology itself.

Specific Business Problem

Based on a review of the literature on virtual teams over the past two years, organizations need to focus on how virtual team leaders can empower their group members via specific training exercises as well as a user experience that is conducive to trust building and mutual respect (German, 2017; Gordon, 2017; Dillespie, de Jong, Williamson, et al, 2017; Quisenberry, 2018). Virtual teams fail to achieve their goals when there is a lack of trust among group members, and that lack of trust is often related to the ways group members interact, how questions are fielded and responded to, and how emotions are conveyed without the benefit of nonverbal cues (Malcondo da Cruz, Moriya-Huzita & Feltrim, 2018; Orta-Castanon, Urbina-Coronado, Ahuett-Garza, et al, 2018).