Communication Abilities of Leaders in the Virtual World

Today’s electronic world offers advantages to capitalize on leadership communication. With a majority of colleges offering online classes and organizations increasingly using virtual commuting the effectiveness of leadership and communication has not been studied to a sufficient level. Such online mediums have the power to transform environments as messages spread faster and quicker than ever before. Research has highlighted how leadership communication styles and implicit language is perceived by employees and students in virtual communication. 

According to Hoyt and Blascovich (2003) transformational leadership has a significant impact on online groups. The same leadership methodology in real life applies in the virtual world as the same basic mechanics apply. Such leaders are able to encourage new ways of thinking, are able to adjust their leadership style to the situation, and can help people imagine a vision. 

No amount of communication ability can change the fundamentals of leadership. However, there does appear to be a natural connection between the transformational style and the virtual world. Such leaders are charismatic, arouse enthusiasm, loyalty, and trust (Schermerhorn, 2002). People sense their style even in the virtual world as pieces and bits of it make their way across the airwaves. 

Such leadership can be seen as the following (Avolio, Bass, & Jung (1999):

• 1.)    Idealized Influence-role models
• 2.)    Inspirational Motivation-Give meaning to others.
• 3.)    Intellectual Stimulation-Be creative and question old beliefs.
• 4.)    Individualized Consideration-Concerned with individual needs.

Virtual communication is an enhancement to previous methods of communication. The differences lay in the amount of information a person may receive over the virtual airways versus in person. Such interactive technology is a major boost over the one way communication abilities of the television. People can now respond, vote, tweet, text and use other methods of furthering the network of the messages giving greater influence to the leader.

The nature of communication and the focus of the messaging are very important in creating effective group leadership. A study of teenagers using virtual communication found that those who referred to the group goals above themselves had a greater following (Cassell, Huffaker, Tversky, & Ferriman, 2006). This helps highlight the concept that effective leadership is more about “what” versus “who”. “What” is the message and solution while “who” is the communicative ability of the individual.  

Chanel-Expansion Theory describes how leaders ability to connect with followers in ever expanding new ways that develop new methods of communicating. The messages in virtual communication create implicit coding that is picked up by followers once they have developed appropriate cognitive schemas of the speaker (Carlisle & Phillips, 1984). In other words, once the follower understands the communication style of the leader and begins to follow their messages they can tune into implicit messaging. 

A study conducted by Salter, et. al. (2010) tested the influence of follower personality on the assessment of the leader in a virtual classroom. In the study 306 participants filled out two surveys providing for 612 total responses. The first survey assessed viewer impression of a leader (Leader 1) who used transformational language while the second survey assessed viewer impression of a leader (Leader 2) who used less transformational language. 

Results: 

-Viewers depicted Leader 1 to be more transformational than Leader 2.

-There were slight differences between males and females in the assessment.

-Females found language to be less passive and more charged.

-Those with conscientious personalities may find additional transformational messages than those who were not.

Analysis for Virtual Communication:

The language used within organizations impacts the perceptions of employees. Certain types of employees will be attracted to different types of leadership styles. Once employees have some familiarity with the style of a leader they will begin to pick up on subtle cues and language uses in order to determine additional meaning. Women and sensitive types pick up on language cues much more easily and readily than many males or non-sensitive types. This may be one reason why women are more turned off by certain kinds of messages when compared to males. Virtual organizations and marketing experts should be aware of the type of language they are using so as to either improve organizational efficiency through proper communication or attract the right customers to their organization. Virtual professors should be aware of their language use so as to not thwart engagement and motivation with students.

Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(4), 441–462.

Carlisle & Phillips, D. (1984). The effects of enthusiasm training on selected teacher and student behaviors in pre-service physical education teachers. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 4(1), 164–175.

Cassell, J., Huffaker, D., Tversky, D., & Ferriman, K. (2006). The language of online leadership: Gender and youth engagement on the Internet. Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 436–449.

Hoyt, C. (2003). Transformational and transactional leadership in virtual and physical environments. Small Group Research, 34 (6). 

Salter, C., Green, M., Duncan, P. Berre, A. & Torti, C. (2010). Journal of Leadership Studies, 4 (2).

Schermerhorn, J. (2002). Management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Transformational Leadership Encourages Innovative Workplaces

Leadership requires the ability to not only develop new organizational functions to meet market needs but also develop employee empowerment to create higher levels of synergistic energy. When leadership creates innovation, an organization continues to develop, invent, produce, and overcome market challenges. Transformational leadership are seen as influential, inspirational, motivational and humanistic (Avolio & Bass, 2002) and have the highest chance of create great levels of change. The article below will highlight the nature of transformational leadership and its impact on innovation within the modern workplace.

It is beneficial to understand what innovation looks like within the workplace. Innovative work consists of 1.) Recognition of the problem, 2.) idea generation, 3.) promotion, and 4.) realization (Janseen, 2000). Solving problems in the organization creates higher levels of performance. The larger the problem the more difficult it is people to become “tuned in” to the issues. Thus, the components are often recognized in idea generation, the concept is then promoted through concerted effort and finally a realization of the solution is found once all the components have been understood and connected.

In terms of leadership, such activities and behaviors are promoted within the workplace. This includes the ability to think freely about concepts, experiment and fail. Yet before employees will be able to use their intellectual capacities, they should be prepared through higher skill development (Janssen, 2000). When skills meet tacit and implicit management approval, the atmosphere can become more conducive to change. Such change has the ability to create internal corporate entrepreneurship that seeks to promote the self through organizational achievement (Sharma & Chrisman, 1999). 

The transformational leadership style appears to be one of the most advantageous management styles to encourage innovative work behavior among subordinates (Janssen, 2002). As a runner up to the transformation style in developing an innovative workplace is the transactional leadership style. Such leaders focus on setting objectives, monitoring and controlling outcomes (Avolio & Bass, 2002). Each style promotes a level of accountability of results but does not overly control the work process.

The best leaders are like farmers who sprinkle their workers with inspiration and motivation through self-development. They assist their subordinates through their performance, abilities, and individual qualities by using motivational inspiration that seeks improvement (Bass & Avio, 1990).  When leaders take the preferred transformational leadership style, they have been found through research to increase work unit effectiveness by using innovation development (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). This encouraging style furthers the development of higher levels of personal achievement. 

Modern companies are not the only place that transformational leadership and innovation are helpful. Governmental agencies, colleges, and schools are also in need of change and hedging of human capital. Such transformational leadership have been found to improve innovative work behavior in school, colleges and universities (Abbas, 2010). At a time when universities have become expensive and under the spotlight it is the transformational style and the employees’ abilities that make a difference in their continued viability. 

To highlight the point of transformational leaderships strength over other leadership styles a study conducted of 100 bank managers in Pakistan found how effective the leadership styles of transformational, transactional, and Laissez fair styles were in developing workplace innovation. The study used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire at both public and private financial institutions. It was found that transformational leadership was the strongest in fostering innovation while transactional leadership ran a distant second place (Khan, Aslam,& Rias, 2012. The laissez faire style was not correlated strongly with innovation. Thus, transformational leadership was better suited to fostering new ideas and problem solving on an organizational (Bass & Avolio, 2000). 

There are many components that work to create the most effective and innovative workplaces. However, leadership sets the tone of the workforce by encouraging the development of human capacities. Other leadership styles have some limitations through their behavioral modeling and control mechanisms that limit the potential of employees. Innovation requires a level of free thinking, environmental scanning, and experimentation that is difficult to achieve if strict procedures or control based mechanisms are used heavily. 

Abbas, G. (2010). Relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior in educational institutions (Unpublished MS Thesis). Department of Psychology, International Islamic University, Islamabad.

Avolio, B., & Bass, B.(2002). Developing potential across a full range of leadership: Cases on transactional and transformational leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bass, B., & Avolio, B. (1990). Multifactor leadership development: Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.

Janssen, O. (2002). Transformationeel leiderschap en innovatief werkgedrag van medewerkers: een kwestie van benaderbaarheid van de leider. Gedrag and Organisatie, 15, 275-293.

Judge, T., & Piccolo, R. (2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 755-768.

Khan, M., Aslam, N. & Rias, M. (2012). Leadership Styles as Predictors of Innovative Work Behavior. Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9 (2). 

Sharma, P., & Chrisman, J. (1999). Toward a reconciliation of the definitional issues in the field of corporate entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 23(3), 11-27.