The role of E-leadership in ICT utilization: a project management perspective.

Covid 19 presents a great challenge and opportunity for remote working, highlighting the need for electronically-mediated leadership in team tasks and performance. What is the role of leadership in improving utilization of information communication technologies (ICTs) in teamwork? Framed within the e-leadership and project management literature and employing a longitudinal field observation method over 8 months that involves 52 subjects and 172 observations, this study finds that (1) first, strong leaders employ a consistent and high-level use of ICTs throughout the whole process of group work, especially at the planning and closing stages of a project. (2) Second, strong leaders alternate the use of various ICTs to match specific tasks at different phases of the project. Two media platforms-team discussion forum and document sharing- stand out as the most important for strong leaders to build trust and execute tasks. (3) Finally, in a project management setting with a group of transient members with clearly-defined tasks and time-sensitive responsibilities, trust-building is a continual and highly significant leadership responsibility that precedes other leadership responsibilities. Trust is built largely through alternating the use of two rich ICT media (discussion forum and instant messaging) with two lean ICT media (document sharing and presentation display). These findings highlight a significant role of e-leadership in organizations which see the emergence of ICTs especially during crises like Covid 19. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10799-021-00354-4.

‘Digitalized’ Competences. A Crucial Challenge beyond Digital Competences / Las competencias "digitalizadas". Un reto crucial más allá de las competencias digitales

Today’s societies are experiencing a digitalization that is transforming organizations and jobs. Scholars, practitioners, and policy makers tend to focus on digital competences as a way to adapt the general population and workers to the technological revolution, enhance competitiveness and employability, and reduce social exclusion. It is important to develop “digital competences”, but we propose that this strategy only provides a partial view of the necessary capabilities. To achieve a more complete picture, “digitalized competences” should also be considered, that is, non-digital competences that are transformed through the intervention of digital technologies. Increasingly, jobs in which purely digital skills are not core elements change dramatically when they incorporate digital objects and processes. This change forces workers and professionals to perform traditional tasks in a very different way. It is likely that the shift from non-digital to digitalized competences involves a more pervasive transformation for organizations, jobs, and workers than pure digital competences. With this in mind, this article has two main objectives. First, we provide a definition of digitalized competences, linked to job transformation. Second, we use a typology of competences (professional, core cognitive, transversal, and leadership) and some cases to illustrate this change.(AU)

La sociedad actual experimenta un proceso de digitalización que está transformando las organizaciones y puestos de trabajo. Investigadores, profesionales y desarrolladores de políticas tienden a focalizar el reto de esa transformación en las competencias digitales cuando plantean la necesidad de preparar a la población general y a los trabajadores para esa revolución tecnológica, potenciar la competitividad y empleabilidad y reducir la exclusión social. Es importante desarrollar las competencias digitales, pero esta estrategia solo proporciona una visión parcial de las capacidades necesarias. Para conseguir una visión más completa se debe considerar las “competencias digitalizadas”, es decir aquellas competencias no digitales que se transforman por la introducción de las tecnologías digitales. De forma creciente, los trabajos en los que las competencias puramente digitales no son el elemento nuclear cambian de forma dramática cuando incorporan objetos y procesos digitales. Estos cambios empujan a los trabajadores y profesionales a desempeñar las tareas tradicionales de formas muy diferentes. Es probable que el cambio de las competencias no digitales a las digitalizadas implique una transformación más importante para las organizaciones, los puestos y los trabajadores que la derivada de la incorporación de las competencias puramente digitales. En este contexto, el artículo se plantea dos objetivos principales: primero, ofrecer una definición de las competencias digitalizadas vinculada a la transformación de los puestos de trabajo y segundo, el uso de una tipología de competencias (profesionales, cognitivas nucleares, transversales y de liderazgo) presentando casos que ilustren estos cambios.(AU)

Reimagining e-leadership for reconfigured virtual teams due to Covid-19.

Driven by an unexpected transition into virtual working worldwide as a result of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, in this paper, we examine the extent to which existing knowledge from the literature on virtual teams (VTs) spanning two decades can be used to inform how leadership can be exercised in the Covid-19 'new normal', involving 'reconfigured' VTs which have both similarities with, and differences from, earlier VTs. Drawing on existing literature on VTs pre-Covid-19, we explore what current (and future) VTs might look like and what this means for leadership in this new context with an emphasis on how leadership, or e-leadership, can be exercised to help the leaders of traditional, physically collocated teams that had to transition into VTs. These new e-leaders need to come to grips with a variety of new challenges in order to create high-performing and sustainable VTs. Following a semi-systematic, state-of-the-art literature review, we: (a) identify key themes and explain with a theoretical model how existing knowledge can lead to new insights for newly transitioned e-leaders; (b) discuss what future information systems (IS) researchers should focus on given the reconfiguration and new characteristics of VTs in the Covid-19 context; and (c) 'translate' the findings of our synthesis of the existing literature into prescriptive advice that can be used to inform practitioners.

Subgroup Formation in Diverse Virtual Teams: The Moderating Role of Identity Leadership.

Background: As today's organizations are becoming increasingly globalized and adding the impetus to a more remote form of working due to the present COVID-19 pandemic, new ways of collaboration-like virtual teams-have gained importance. In the present study, we aim to investigate how virtual team outcomes are linked to perceived diversity and subgroup formation and attempt to gain some initial insight into the role of the social identity approach to leadership in virtual teams. Method: In the present cross-sectional study, a total of 102 virtual team members participated in an online survey measuring perceived diversity, identity leadership, subgroup formation, perceived performance, and team satisfaction, to examine the factors moderating the relationship between perceived diversity and subgroup formation as well as between perceived diversity and team performance and satisfaction. Results: Moderation analysis revealed that perceived diversity had a negative influence on performance ratings when subgroups were highly perceived to be present, but not if subgroup formation was rated as low. The relationship between perceived diversity and team satisfaction was not moderated by perceived subgroup formation. Furthermore, identity leadership was found to be positively related to team satisfaction and perceived performance, while subjective diversity was negatively associated with both team outcomes. Identity leadership moderated the relationship between perceived diversity and subgroup formation, in that high levels of identity leadership weakened the positive relationship. Conclusion: This study provides first evidence to the importance of the team leader's role as a manager of a shared social identity in virtual teams where perceived differences can lead to subgroup splits, as identity leaders may hinder the emergence of subgroups in virtual teams.

Social Media e-Leadership Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Higher Education.

Leadership in the age of digital transformation is facing new challenges. We observed such a case when the global coronavirus pandemic took over our lives. Leaders of Higher Education Institutions were given a unique opportunity to leverage their online presence for managing this crisis. Hence, by the means of descriptive statistics, we studied the social media accounts of 216 leaders of business schools to learn about the practices they adopted from March 2020 to March 2021. Our findings show that in this group no universal strategy of communication can be stipulated, however, some patterns are visible in different world regions.

E-Leadership and Teleworking in Times of COVID-19 and Beyond: What We Know and Where Do We Go.

Suddenly, COVID-19 has changed the world and the way people work. Companies had to accelerate something they knew was imminent in the future, but not immediate and extremely humongous. This situation poses a huge challenge for companies to survive and thrive in this complex business environment and for employees, who must adapt to this new way of working. An effective e-leadership, which promotes companies' adaptability, is needed. This study investigates the existing knowledge on teleworking and e-leadership; and analyzes the supposed challenges. The literature review shows that companies with effective e-leadership can view teleworking as an opportunity. It is advantageous for not only companies' productivity but also the environment and people who work remotely. However, a traditional or no leadership can result in some risks. Thriving in remote work environments implies that managers must adjust the companies' structure, making them less hierarchical, and developing new abilities to establish a strong and trustworthy relationship with their employees to maintain their competitiveness, while retaining a genuine concern for their employees' well-being. Similarly, successful e-leadership must be able to consolidate and lead effective virtual teams to accomplish organizational goals. This study contributes to the literature and leaders during the pandemic.

The "Way" Toward E-leadership: Some Evidence From the Field.

Recently, leadership literature has faced the challenge of dealing with a growing pervasive diffusion of information and communication technologies that are deeply changing relationships among workers. Consequently, leadership is continuing to develop through the support of these technologies. This emerging phenomenon has been labeled e-leadership, and it has been studied with the objective of understanding the differences it exhibits from traditional leadership. Our research seeks to examine whether enterprises, which use leadership as an important "tool" to manage workers as effectively as possible, are conscious of this evolution, whether their behavior is supportive of the related needs, and how they are organizing themselves to face the problems and opportunities arising in this new context. The present study involved 15 Italian companies. Through in-depth interviews based on face-to-face meetings using a semi-structured questionnaire with enterprises' representatives, we explored the extent of these changes. We developed the analysis across two points in time in order to verify if a change was observable with regard to the way these enterprises considered and managed e-leadership. It was also possible to enhance the role of the technologies themselves in leadership, which in the same period has seen a rapid evolution toward mobile and social developments. Our results help to illuminate that, on the one hand, awareness with regard to e-leadership has increased and, on the other hand, the pervasiveness of technologies is playing a relevant role in the change of leadership together with renewed attention toward soft competencies. We identify four different typologies of e-leadership, which summarize different ways of conceptualizing it, and indicate their main features. We should add that this topic is becoming extremely relevant because of the critical crises organizations are now facing (such as the COVID-19 emergency we are experiencing at the present time) and the urgency of adopting e-instruments, which seem now to be the main path to managing the present situation and the aftermath it inevitably will have. Despite this research being carried out before such an event has happened, we believe that its results may further enrich the current lively debate.

Defining Leadership in Smart Working Contexts: A Concept Synthesis.

This paper begins by considering the importance of leadership to pursue behavioral, cultural, technological, and ethical aspirations of smart working practices in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of leadership in smart working contexts. We adopt a literary approach to the concept synthesis method with which to critically analyze and conceptually map a wide set of related notions of leadership that are connected with the evolutive dynamics of smart working approaches. According to the scope conditions of the research, the role of leadership emerges with the purpose of changing behaviors, creating shared meanings, and integrating physical and technology-mediated interactions in smart working environments. With this in mind, the iterative integration of smart working and leadership literature has gradually begun to detect and classify the main characteristics of leadership in smart working contexts in terms of leadership antecedents, attributes, and outcomes. The interpretative synthesis results in an overarching conceptualization of "leading in smart working contexts" that depicts leadership as a naturally emerging phenomenon that combines agile logics and change management practices to align interests at different levels of the organization. These premises lead to the alleged "triple-win" configuration of smart working approaches. While encouraging in-depth discussion about the facilitative and performative function of leadership in smart working contexts, this study contributes to advancing knowledge on what "being a smart leader" actually means, and how to operatively apply this notion in smart working contexts. Together, the concept delineation and the operational definition of "smart leadership" offer important insights for both managerial action and future directions of research.

The Role of Leadership in a Digitalized World: A Review.

Digital technology has changed organizations in an irreversible way. Like the movable type printing accelerated the evolution of our history, digitalization is shaping organizations, work environment and processes, creating new challenges leaders have to face. Social science scholars have been trying to understand this multifaceted phenomenon, however, findings have accumulated in a fragmented and dispersed fashion across different disciplines, and do not seem to converge within a clear picture. To overcome this shortcoming in the literature and foster clarity and alignment in the academic debate, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of studies on leadership and digitalization, identifying patterns of thought and findings across various social science disciplines, such as management and psychology. It clarifies key definitions and ideas, highlighting the main theories and findings drawn by scholars. Further, it identifies categories that group papers according to the macro level of analysis (e-leadership and organization, digital tools, ethical issues, and social movements), and micro level of analysis (the role of C-level managers, leader's skills in the digital age, practices for leading virtual teams). Main findings show leaders are key actors in the development of a digital culture: they need to create relationships with multiple and scattered stakeholders, and focus on enabling collaborative processes in complex settings, while attending to pressing ethical concerns. With this research, we contribute to advance theoretically the debate about digital transformation and leadership, offering an extensive and systematic review, and identifying key future research opportunities to advance knowledge in this field.

Perspectives of nurse managers on information communication technology and e-Leadership.

AIM: We sought nurse managers' perspectives on challenges and opportunities with technology and how it may influence communication and leadership. BACKGROUND: e-Leadership is a conceptual framework used to understand and teach organisational leaders about the application of technology to leadership. Technology is integral to leadership, yet little is understood about how nurse managers may use this technology and how they negotiate the complexity of the multiple communication systems currently in use. METHODS: Sixteen nurse managers from individual hospitals within a large US healthcare system participated in qualitative open-ended interviews and focus groups. RESULTS: Four themes emerged from the qualitative data regarding the nurse managers' perspectives of e-Leadership and their use of information and communication technologies: (a) Can't live without it, (b) Too much, too many, (c) Poor onboarding education and (d) Difficulty maintaining virtual relationships. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Effective and safe patient care is dependent on multiple technology applications that require significant knowledge and practice. Nursing leadership may consider the need for more supported mentorship, and engaging programs to educate nurse managers about the dozens of applications required to effectively manage and lead. For technology to be used to its full potential it should be designed with nursing involvement.