Wenn es kritisch wird: Führung in virtuellen Teambesprechungen

Current discussions about contemporary forms of work in the office and work organization in general focus on the one hand on the increased use of digital communication technology, and on the other on the dismantling of formal hierarchies and the expansion of self-organized teams.There is no question that such mediatized teams need leadership. This circumstance, however, poses a difficulty for conventional leadership research, which is primarily oriented toward formal, hierarchical positions: How can leadership be observed if it remains unclear from whom it emanates? The article proposes an alternative that describes leadership as a social process. After all, it is notable that in the relevant publications on leadership it remains unclear how leadership actually occurs. This study provides initial evidence for this by observing the extent to which leadership is required in virtual team meetings. For this purpose, a sequential understanding of leadership, which defines leadership as “situationally successful exertion of influence at critical moments,” is taken as a basis and empirically investigated for the first time. The result is a first classification of critical moments that can serve as a foundation for future research.