This study aims to recognize how virtual teams should be coordinated and led in organizations that operate at multiple sites. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a literature review on previous research on virtual teams was implemented. Further, a qualitative study including interviews with leaders at different levels at Ericsson was conducted to gain empirical data on how leadership in virtual teams works. The interviews were semi-structured with the purpose of not directing the leaders towards only bringing up the challenges that emerged in the literature review but to also bring up new perspectives. The major challenges that virtual teams face, thus challenges that the leaders must somehow address, can be divided into three areas: communication, coordination and location. Concerning communication, it is important that leaders of virtual teams set the means for communications, define ground rules and make sure that the right kind of communication is used for the right purpose. Further, it is important to communicate more often than if the team would have been co-located and actively try to build trust and cohesion within the team by being transparent and honest. To meet face to face with the team members, especially in the beginning when the team is created, is important both for understanding (virtual communication becomes easier afterward) and for the building of trust and cohesion. In the area coordination it is important for the leader to clearly define the roles of each team member and how the roles as well as the team efforts contribute to a larger picture. There is no perfect distribution that is applicable to all virtual teams, each team must find their balance concerning how many team members that should be positioned at each site. In general, to push responsibilities down in the hierarchy is a suitable role structure for virtual teams. The location area includes challenges such as different languages, cultures and collaboration across different time zones. It is important to have an operative language that all team members understand and master. When creating a new team, it is important that the leader or the person creating it, is aware of how cultural differences impact, so that the challenges can be addressed properly, and the benefits of diversity as well as the expanded labor pool, can be utilized. Working across different time zones brings benefits such as more hours of the day can be used, but it also includes challenges, such as limited real-time communication. Thus, the optimal time overlap is difficult to define, but generally, leaders prefer involving fewer time zones and large time overlaps.

Producto de la pandemia, las empresas vienen experimentando grandes cambios a nivel de sus servicios, procesos, productos, donde el liderazgo en entornos virtuales se ha convertido en un elemento clave para la mejora y productividad. Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo determinar las competencias del líder virtual y su relación con el teletrabajo en el sector alimenticio de una empresa transnacional peruana durante el año 2021. Material y métodos: investigación descriptiva correlacional, transeccional de enfoque cuantitativo. Se aplicaron 2 cuestionarios validados con una confiabilidad de 0,921 para la variable “competencias del liderazgo virtual” y 0.885 para el teletrabajo aplicada a una población de 72 colaboradores elegidos aleatoriamente. Resultados: se encontró una correlación significativa entre las competencias del líder virtual y el teletrabajo. Conclusión: Debido al avance de la tecnología, urge incorporar el liderazgo virtual dentro de las organizaciones por la fuerza que ejerce éste en el personal. / As a result of the pandemic, companies have been experiencing major changes at the level of their services, processes, and products, where leadership in virtual environments has become a key element for improvement and productivity. The objective of this research was to determine the competencies of the virtual leader and their relationship with telecommuting in the food sector of a Peruvian transnational company during the year 2021. Material and methods: descriptive correlational, transactional research with a quantitative approach. Two validated questionnaires were applied with a reliability of 0.921 for the variable "virtual leadership skills" and 0.885 for telecommuting applied to a population of 72 randomly chosen employees. Results: a significant correlation was found between the competencies of the virtual leader and teleworking. Conclusion: Due to the advancement of technology, it is urgent to incorporate virtual leadership within organizations due to the force that it exerts on the staff. / Tesis