Virtual Team Leadership
A Special Issue of the Journal:
International Journal of e-Collaboration

http://www.idea-group.com/

Guest editors:

Jerry Fjermestad, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Surinder Kahai, State University of New York at Binghamton

Bruce Avolio, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

IJeC editor:

Ned Kock, Texas A&M International University

Topics:

Virtual teams were almost unheard of a decade ago, but today they are an integral part of every organization. The recent “offshore outsourcing” trend and the growth of the Internet and similar globally linking technologies are major contributor to the increase in the use of virtual teams. Virtual teams are made up of people working on interdependent tasks and interacting largely via communication technology to achieve a common goal without concerns of time and space. Such teams carry out many critical functions, including information collection and dissemination, decision making, and implementation.

 

Virtual teams present new challenges to business leaders. Cultural, geographic, and time differences make it challenging for a leader to provide structure to followers, evaluate their performance, inspire and develop them, and enable them to identify with the organization. As Avolio, Kahai, and Dodge (2001) indicate, there are new frontiers rapidly opening focusing on what constitutes effective leadership in the information environment. Both the research community and organizations can benefit by examining the topic of leadership in virtual teams. Researchers and practitioners need to know the role of a virtual team’s “virtuality” in influencing leader-follower interactions and its effects on a leader’s and team’s performance. With this objective in mind, we welcome submissions that address the topic of virtual team leadership.  Examples of relevant topics also include (but are not limited to):

 

  • Experiments and field studies on virtual team leadership
  • Meta-analysis of virtual team leadership
  • How to develop effective leadership in virtual teams
  • The impact of cultural differences on virtual team performance
  • Theory and construct development of the role of leaders in virtual teams
  • Models and frameworks on virtual team leadership
  • The effect of technology on virtual team leadership (experiments/cases and studies)
  • Emergent leadership in virtual teams
  • Experiments and case studies comparing leadership styles in virtual teams
  • Virtual leadership productivity and measurement (i.e. communication quantity, frequency, patterns)
  • Measures of leader-follower interactions
  • The role of leadership in knowledge development and sharing in virtual leadership
  • Case studies of leadership in virtual project teams
  • Studies comparing leadership in virtual teams to leadership in face-to-face teams
  • Leadership and trust in virtual teams
  • Team composition issues and its interaction with leadership in virtual teams
  • Cross-cultural issues associated with virtual team leadership
  • Issues related to the presence of multiple leaders in virtual teams
  • Leadership failures in virtual teams
  • Shared leadership in virtual teams

                                     

Important dates:

Below are tentative dates for all the main steps involved in the production and publication of the Special Issue:

 

·        July 1, 2005:

All submissions are due to the guest editors.

·         September 1, 2005:

Decisions and review comments are sent to authors.

·        December, 2005:

Revised and resubmitted manuscripts are sent back out for review.

·        January 1, 2006:

Final decision letters are sent to authors.

·        February1, 2006:

Final revised manuscripts are due to Editor.

·        April 1, 2006

Special Issue goes to Idea Group for publication.

·        May 1, 2006:

Proofs go to authors.

·        July 1, 2006:

Special Issue is published.

 

Submission guidelines:

All submissions must be in English, and should represent the original work of the authors. Improved versions of papers previously published in conference proceedings are welcome, provided that no copyright limitations exist. Submissions must be made electronically via e-mail to Jerry Fjermestad or Surinder Kahai (address below). The manuscript should be included as an attachment in MS Word format.

 

Jerry Fjermestad: fjermestad@adm.njit.edu

Surinder Kahai: kahai@binghamton.edu

 

 

Manuscripts should be between 4000 and 6000 words in length. Submissions should include the following:

 

(a) On the subject of the e-mail message: the text “Manuscript submission” followed by the title of the manuscript being submitted. Please do not include any character (@#$%^&, etc) in the title.

 

(b) On the body of the e-mail message, for each author: Name, university/organization affiliation, e-mail, mailing address, phone/fax numbers. Please indicate who the contact person is for the submission.

 

(c) On the paper: Submission title, an abstract of the submission, the main body of the submission, references and/or bibliography.

 

Please do not include the name of the authors or any information that would allow for their identification on the paper. Reviews will be blind.

 

All paper submissions and the submission review process will be managed through e-mail. The receipt of submissions will be quickly confirmed by e-mail. Submitted manuscripts must be written in the APA (American Psychological Association) editorial style. References should relate only to material cited within the manuscript and be listed in alphabetical order, including the author's name, complete title of the cited work, title of the source, volume, issue, year of publication, and pages cited. Please do not include any abbreviations.

 

Information on camera-ready copy preparation will be provided to submitting authors upon acceptance.

 

About the guest editors:

 

Jerry Fjermestad is an associate professor in the School of Management at NJIT.  He received his B.A. in chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University, an M.S. in operations research from Polytechnic University, an M.B.A in operations management from Iona College and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University in management information systems.  Jerry has taught courses on management information systems, decision support systems, systems analysis and design, electronic commerce, data warehousing, and graduate seminars in information systems.  His current research interests are in collaborative technology, decision support systems, data warehousing, electronic commerce, global information systems, customer relationship management, and enterprise information systems.  Jerry has published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Group Decision and Negotiation, the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Information and Management, Decision Support Systems, Logistics Information Management, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management and the Proceedings of Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.  Jerry has also been a special issue editor for the International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Group Decision and Negotiation, and Logistics Information Management, and is currently doing a monograph with Dr. Nicholas Romano on Customer Relationship Management: Advances and Issues in Advances in Management Information Systems.

 

 

Surinder Kahai

Surinder S. Kahai is an Associate Professor of MIS and Fellow of the Center for Leadership Studies at SUNY-Binghamton.  He has a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Surinder researches computer-mediated communication, leadership in electronic groups, and IS leadership. His research has been published in journals including Decision Sciences, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Information Systems, Leadership Quarterly, and Personnel Psychology. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of IEEE-TEM and the International Journal of Electronic Collaboration. He co-edited a Special Issue of Organizational Dynamics on e-leadership.

 

Bruce J. Avolio, Ph.D.

Clifton Chair in Leadership, College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Director, Gallup Leadership Institute, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Dr. Avolio has an international reputation as a researcher and practitioner in leadership. He has consulted with public and private organizations in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. His research and consulting includes work with the militaries of the United States of America, Singapore, Sweden, Finland, Israel, and South Africa.

Avolio has published five books and more than 95 articles on leadership. His books include Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead (Elsevier Science, 2002), Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations (Sage Publications, 1999), and Developing Potential Across a Full Range of Leadership: Cases on Transactional and Transformational Leadership (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000). His newest books are Leadership Development in Balance: Made/Born (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, February 2005) and The High Impact Leader:  Moments that Matter to Authentic Leadership Development. (McGraw-Hill expected Fall 2005).

Avolio is currently the chair of the OB Division of the Academy of Management. He also serves on the following editorial board: Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behavior and The Leadership Quarterly.