There has been a rise in remote and virtual employees over the last 10 years with roughly 20-30 million Americans working remotely at least 1 day each week. This growth in virtual employees increases business and organizations' dependency on technology and on effective strategies to lead virtual teams. Grounded in transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this explanatory case study was to explore strategies e-leaders use in leading virtual teams effectively. The study population comprised a virtual company headquartered in the United States. The data included semistructured interviews with e-leaders with at least 1 year of experience in leading successful virtual teams, an analysis of technological tools, and a review of company documentation. Thematic analysis was conducted on the data collected via tool analysis. Three themes emerged from the analysis: focusing on results-based performance, enabling communications and collaborations through the right technologies, and investing in building and modeling the company's culture. The study's implications for positive social change include the potential to provide similar organizations with effective strategies to train their e-leaders in developing and leading more successful virtual teams. Additionally, using virtual teams can enable firms to lower direct and indirect green gashouse emissions by using fewer resources at worksites and to reduce carbon dioxide through decreased travel.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:waldenu.edu/oai:scholarworks.waldenu.edu:dissertations-4627 |
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Creators | Freeman, Catherine Muir |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | Walden University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies |
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