1744
Virtual Communities and E-Business Management
interaction, while at the same time opening the
way to alternative lines of business. Further-
more, there is a need to examine in more detail
the application of virtual community marketing
VWUDWHJLHVDLPHGDWVSHFL¿FVHFWRUV3DUWLFXODUO\
interesting here is the use of virtual communities
in political marketing strategies. Finally, it would
be useful to analyze in more detail the role of
virtual communities in corporate environments,
such as CRM systems.
CONCLUSION
In this article we have proposed the virtual com-
munity as a useful ingredient of a successful
e-business strategy. Virtual communities have a
VWURQJLQÀXHQFHRQVWUDWHJLFSODQQLQJGXHWRWKH
fact that they offer a new form a communication,
serve as a source of strategic information, generate
barriers to prevent the entry of new competitors,
increase consumer security and trust, facilitate the
development of relationship marketing strategies,
and may became a source of incomes and new
clients. Nevertheless, the success of these strate-
gies is dependent upon the monitoring of trends,
such as helping self-management by minimizing
FRQWURORQWKHJURXSG\QDPLFGH¿QLQJUROHVRU
using suitable technologies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to express their gratitude for the
¿QDQFLDOVXSSRUWUHFHLYHGIURPWKH0LQLVWU\RI

Education and Science and the Aragón Govern-
ment (S-46; PM34) and Telefónica.
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KEY TERMS
Bluetooth: Wireless telecommunications sys-
tem which provides a way to connect and exchange

information between devices like personal digital
assistants (PDAs) or mobile phones.
Community: Social network whose members
are characterized by a common interest, similar
behaviors, and a sense of moral responsibility.
CRM (Customer Relationship Manage-
ment): Systems with technological tools related
to the implementation of relationship marketing
strategies.
i-Mode: A wireless Internet service for i-mode
mobile phones using http protocol.
Relationship Marketing: Marketing activities
and strategies related to the creation, maintenance,
and development of successful relationships.
UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunica-
tions System): One of the third-generation (3G)
mobile phone technologies. This technology pro-
vides the mobile phone access to several services,
such as videoconference.
Virtual Community: Community that uses
the new communications technologies (e.g., the
1747
Virtual Communities and E-Business Management
Internet) to maintain and develop social interac-
tions.
Wi-Fi:6KRUW IRUZLUHOHVV ¿GHOLW\´D VHWRI
product compatibility standards for wireless local
area networks (WLANs).
ENDNOTES
1

In this respect we may say that establish-
ing control mechanisms on how members
relate to each other is not very advisable.
In fact, the use of a certain communication
system cannot be imposed. Secondly, some
freedom in the contents of conversations
and messages should be granted. Obvi-
ously, any contents that may be offensive
for the company or other members should
be screened, but excessive control is not
recommended. The community itself will
create its own internal rules and will reject
those participants who do not provide any
value. In fact, it might be interesting to create
a space where the members are free to talk
about anything they want to, even though
it has nothing to do with the community’s
primary aim. It is also advisable to publish
on the Web site the community’s conduct
UXOHVDVVRRQDVWKH\DUHGH¿QHG
2
Some possible roles are: (a) social weavers:
individuals who introduce new members to
the community; (b) moderator: a respected
member who channels the debates into a
suitable direction and regulates conversa-
tions; (c) knowledge manager: a member
who evaluates and searches for useful
resources for the community; (d) opinion
OHDGHU D UHVSHFWHG PHPEHU ZKR GH¿QHV

the community’s ideological tendencies
(establishing a system of scoring the mem-
bers’ comments is an interesting possibility
IRUWKHJURXSWRGH¿QHZKRLVDOHDGHUDQG
who is not); and (e) instigator: a member
who, voluntarily and respectfully, proposes
controversial discussion topics, thus encour-
aging participation.
This work was previously published in Encyclopedia of E-Commerce, E-Government, and Mobile Commerce, edited by M.
Khosrow-Pour, pp. 1163-1168, copyright 2006 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).
1748
Copyright © 2009, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Chapter 6.2
Concepts and Challenges of
E-Leadership
Krista J. Crawford-Mathis
Capella University, USA
INTRODUCTION
Technology increasingly allows one to work
from anywhere, altering the mode and style of
communication. Videoconferencing, online col-
laboration software, cell phones, e-mail, Wi-Fi,
and other technological tools are contributing to a
growing number of virtual companies and teams.
Some larger companies have made portions of
their workforce virtual, allowing employees to
simply work out of their homes. These changes
in work force dynamics require additional skill
sets for leaders. What follows is a description of
e-leadership and the unique leadership challenges

DVVRFLDWHGZLWKWKLV¿HOG
BACKGROUND
(OHDGHUVKLSKDVEHHQGH¿QHGDVDVRFLDOLQÀX-
ence process mediated by technology to produce
a change in attitudes, feelings, thinking, behavior,
and/or performance with individuals, groups,
and/or organizations (Avolio, Kahai, & Dodge,
$PRUHDQHFGRWDOGH¿QLWLRQLVSURYLGHGE\
Chan (2002), where e-leadership means challeng-
ing the accepted belief that running a business
means bringing the staff under one roof from
9-to-5 every day; measuring success differently
WKDQLQWKHSDVWDQG¿QGLQJQHZZD\VWREHD
leader, new ways to motivate when you do not
see every employee everyday.
E-leadership can include one-on-one, to one-
on-many interactions within and across large
units and organizations. It has been suggested
that technology will become so ingrained in busi-
ness practice that soon it will not occur to anyone
WR DGG DQ ³H´ LQ IURQW RI WKH ZRUG OHDGHUVKLS
However, organizations are currently struggling
with integrating technology into the management
process. This is further complicated by the steep
technology learning curve that many employees
face (Avolio et al., 2001).
1749
Concepts and Challenges of E-Leadership
E-LEADERSHIP
Often, e-leaders have two employee populations

they serve. E-leaders have to balance relationships
ZLWK ³RQOLQH´ YHUVXV IDFHWRIDFH IROORZHUV $
VLPSOH³,¶OOJHWEDFNWR\RX´WRDQHHPSOR\HH¶V
idea without accompanying verbal cues may be
alienating. Frequent communication may offset
the lack of non-verbal cues (Avolio & Kahai, 2003).
Several factors impact the quality of e-leadership
including the degree of face-to-face interaction,
media richness, and team composition.
Face-to-Face
Examining the level of face-to-face interaction
associated with e-leadership, Hart and McLeod
(2003) categorized the content of communication
exchanges between 126 pairs of teammates. The
communications were divided into task oriented
and social-emotional categories. Summarizing the
¿QGLQJVWKHVWXG\LQGLFDWHGWKDWOHDGHUVVKRXOG
encourage a variety of task-related communication
to foster closer relationships in geographically
dispersed teams. Leaders must provide virtual
team members with a reason to work together,
by promoting interdependence and reliance on
one another, by taking such steps as dividing
members by tasks or assigning mentoring duties.
Hart and McLeod (2003) conclude that the results
are consistent with a growing body of research
that close personal relationships are possible in
virtual settings. Leaders can aid in fostering these
relationships.
Media Richness

In addition to the level of face-to-face interaction,
media richness plays a role in the quality of e-
leadership and subordinate relationships. Media
richness refers to the capacity of the technology
to provide immediate feedback, the number of
cues and channels used for the personalization of
messages, and the language variety. In the context
of e-leadership, media richness becomes a key
factor of interaction (Avolio et al., 2001).
E-leaders have many opportunities, or chan-
nels, to be in touch with stakeholders. For example,
anonymously clicking into either an employee
or a customer related chat room may provide
information needed for a same day global tele-
conference. Leaders need to learn the vividness
and interactivity of media to make their presence
felt in a positive way (Avolio et al., 2001).
In a study involving online youth and language
style, emergent leaders demonstrated collabora-
tion, sociability, and persuasiveness in the absence
of face-to-face interaction (Huffaker, Tversky, &
Ferriman, 2006). The adolescent talk may be an
index of what is to come in the future. A quick
look at a text messaging session between teenag-
ers shows that communication takes place in a
very truncated style. Given that the frequency of
messages, not length, was found to be important
for establishing closer relationships, the leader
of the future may be better able to form virtual
bonds.

Virtual Teams
A large portion of research on e-leadership has
involved virtual teams (Combe, 2006; Kerber &
Buono, 2004; Kikrman, Rosen, Tesluk, & Gibson,
2004; A survey of e-commerce, 2004). A virtual
team uses information technology and telecom-
munications to facilitate collaboration between
geographically dispersed members who work
on the same project. A virtual team can consist
of other workers outside of an organization but
is usually made up of employees working for
the same company (Combe, 2006). E-teams and
traditional teams share many characteristics; what
distinguishes e-teams is their frequent geographic
dispersion and their time-limited mission or task.
E-leaders need to act as liaisons, set and convey
team directions, and coordinate team operations in
an environment of limited and mediated commu-
nication. The strain of dispersion requires e-team
1750
Concepts and Challenges of E-Leadership
leaders to devote attention to developing effective
interaction dynamics, including cohesion, trust,
and motivation (Zaccaro & Bader, 2003).
Virtual teams present unique leadership
challenges. Virtual team leaders have to balance
all of the traditional leadership challenges plus
barriers associated with working across distance
and time, cross cultural and language barriers,
and limited opportunities to identify common

values. In spite of these additional hurdles, few
¿UPVFXUUHQWO\SURYLGHWUDLQLQJVHVVLRQVWDUJHWHG
to virtual team leaders and members (Rosen,
Furst, & Blackburn, 2006).
Malhotra, Majchrzak, and Rosen (2007) identi-
¿HGVL[OHDGHUVKLSSUDFWLFHVRIHIIHFWLYHHWHDPV
(1) the establishment and maintenance of trust
through the use of communication technology;
(2) ensuring that diversity in the team is under-
stood, appreciated, and leveraged; (3) managing
virtual work-cycle and meetings; (4) monitoring
team progress using technology; (5) enhancing
external visibility of the team and members; and
HQVXULQJLQGLYLGXDOVEHQH¿WIURPSDUWLFLSDWLQJ
in virtual teams.
Perhaps the most important of these dynamics
is that of trust. Recognizing this, Lewicki and
Bunker (1996) developed a three stage model of
trust development. Stage one is calculus-based
WUXVW,WLV¿UVWIRXQGZKHQPHPEHUVFRPHWRJHWKHU
and recognize the gain from working with one
another. They learn how each other approaches
a problem and what skill set they offer the team,
leading to stage two or knowledge based trust.
The deepest form of trust is found in stage three,
LGHQWL¿FDWLRQEDVHGWUXVW7KLVRFFXUVZKHQ
members recognize that they share similar goals,
values, and intentions with other team members.
,GHQWL¿FDWLRQEDVHGWUXVWLVDVVXPHGWREHPRUH
important for e-teams because members are so

dispersed. Recent research has shown strong sup-
port for a new multidimensional measure of trust
suitable for testing the theory of trust development
(McAllister, Lewicki, & Chaturvedi, 2006).
E-leaders should stay on top of both task and
affective communications to ensure that team
members understand what they are required to
accomplish, while also being attentive to relational
problems. They should identify the team liaison,
the team direction setter, and the team operational
coordinator roles of the e-leader, creating what
the authors call the social capital of the team
(Zaccaro & Bader, 2003).
Virtual teams can have a tendency to share
less information about themselves, possibly due
WRWKHDUWL¿FLDOQDWXUHRIWKHHOHFWURQLFFKDQ-
nels. It is therefore essential for e-team leaders
to foster programs of team trust. Leaders of
QHZO\IRUPHGWHDPVVKRXOGUHTXLUH³RQOLQH´DQG
frequent interaction as quickly as possible. The
use of an electronic archive that records actions,
decisions, and roles will aid the participants in
determining how members make decisions and
perform their roles. Situations where there is a
loss of trust require e-leader intervention. If face-
to-face interaction is not possible then video and
audio conferencing should be explored (Zaccaro
& Bader, 2003).
Field studies of e-leadership have found that
YLUWXDOHQYLURQPHQWVDUHRIWHQQRWVLJQL¿FDQWO\

different than traditional ones. For example, what
happens early on in the formation of the leader-
ship of virtual teams predicts subsequent levels of
trust, satisfaction, and performance. In addition,
YLUWXDOWHDPVZKRVSHQWWKH¿UVWIHZRFFDVLRQV
of interaction identifying who is participating
in their team, clarifying their expectations, and
how they wanted to work together had higher
performance several months later. An additional
¿QGLQJLVH[LVWLQJQRUPVDUHLPSRUWHGLQWRQHZ
virtual groups (Avolio & Kahai, 2003).
Controlled experiments on e-leadership have
found that participative leadership may be more
suitable for generating solutions for a semi-struc-
tured or unstructured problem, whereas, directive
leadership may be more suitable for generating
solutions for a structured problem. A groupware’s
system of anonymity feature may substitute for
1751
Concepts and Challenges of E-Leadership
transformational leadership’s effect on promot-
LQJÀH[LELOLW\LQWKLQNLQJ,QDGGLWLRQWKHPRWL-
vational effect of transformational leadership is
enhanced by anonymity, for example, by getting
all members to work for the good of the group
(Avolio & Kahai, 2003).
,WFDQEHGLI¿FXOWWRHVWDEOLVKFORVHERQGVZKHQ
separated by time and space. The leader can play
DVLJQL¿FDQWUROHLQWKHGHYHORSPHQWRIUHODWLRQ-
ships in virtual teams. In a virtual relationship,

everyday messages, from the mundane to the im-
portant, represent the essence of the relationships
between team members. One study cites several
¿QGLQJV)LUVWWHDPVWKDWH[FKDQJHWDVNRULHQWHG
messages, as opposed to more personal oriented
messages, exhibited closer personal relationships.
Next, team members with stronger relationships
communicate more often, but with short mes-
VDJHV$QG¿QDOO\YLUWXDOWHDPPDWHVGHYHORS
and strengthen relationships by focusing on work
related challenges (Hart & McLeod, 2003).
9LUWXDOWHDPVFDQEHFODVVL¿HGE\IRXUFDWHJR-
ries: teleworkers, remote, matrixed teleworkers,
and matrixed remote teams. Each of these types
of teams have leadership challenges, including:
WKHGLI¿FXOW\RINHHSLQJWLJKWDQGORRVHFRQWUROV
on goal progression, promoting close cooperation
among teams to integrate deliverables, encourag-
ing and recognizing emergent leaders in virtual
teams, establishing and maintaining norms in
the team’s development, and establishing proper
boundaries between home and work. E-leaders
should think carefully about three key behaviors
within these categories: virtual collaborative
skills, virtual socializations skills, and virtual
communication (Avolio et al., 2001).
A unique aspect of e-leadership is that the
software employed by teams can take on a role,
including the role of the leader. Leaders in virtual
teams need to project some level of tele-presence

to be felt, and ultimately to be effective. Lead-
ers need to learn how to use the vividness and
interactivity of media to make their presence
felt in a positive way and to exercise appropriate
LQÀXHQFHWRPRYHWKHWHDPIRUZDUG/HDGHUVKLS
in virtual teams has to strike the right balance
EHWZHHQ SURFHVV ÀH[LELOLW\ DQG HQIRUFHPHQW
Finally, leadership in virtual teams is expressed
through technology, therefore leaders and team
members have to make sense of technology in
order to make the most of it (Zigurs, 2003).
FUTURE TRENDS
Organizations face many challenges associated
with the growth of virtual work environments,
including security, employee feelings of belong-
ingness, and organizational culture. Between
January and December 2005, the FTC received
over 685,000 consumer fraud and identity theft
complaints. Consumers reported losses from fraud
of more than $680 million, a small but growing
percentage of those complaints were related to
information stored by their employer (Federal
Trade Commission, 2006). Employees want to
feel that they and their personal information are
secure while enjoying personal time and perform-
ing work duties. The threat of cyber terrorism is
another security factor that leaders should attend
(Hoving, 2007).
Leaders of organizations will have to continue
to explore new ways of personalizing employees

work experiences, overcoming issues of space
and time. The resulting isolation associated with
working from home can result in increased con-
ÀLFWD QGD QDEVHQFHRIDIH HOLQJRIEHORQJL QJ QHVV
&RQÀLFWDULVHVLQDOOZRUNVHWWLQJVKRZHYHUWKH
hurdle of not being in the same room to address
FRQÀLFWUHTXLUHVWKDWFRPSDQLHVSURYLGHGLQFUHDV-
LQJYHQXHVIRUFRQÀLFWUHVROXWLRQ
Hoving (2007) summarizes the leadership
challenges associated with the rate of technol-
ogy invention by four categories: harnessing the
technology; providing business value, manag-
ing the resources, and executing the work. To
properly execute the work, attention should be
paid to factors supporting the corporate culture.
1752
Concepts and Challenges of E-Leadership
The expansion of the use of technology to lead
people and organizations is spotlighting a change
LQFRUSRUDWHFXOWXUHDIDFWRUWKDWLVGLI¿FXOWWR
measure (Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). Edgar
Schein posits that leadership in the future should
think like an anthropologist by: (1) acknowledg-
ing that to change culture you must thoroughly
understand the culture that created you; (2) being
aware that there is large variation among countries,
companies, and subgroups within companies; (3)
being culturally humble; and (4) cultures can not
be implemented, instead behaviors can be imposed
based on new values.

CONCLUSION
Presented here has been a very brief overview of
some of the unique challenges associated with e-
leadership. E-leaders have to master traditional
leadership skills under complex environments. As
organizations move through the next generation
of technological advancements, leaders will need
to both embrace and incorporate new techniques
to serve and manage stakeholders. Those involved
in the execution of the human resource function
w i l l n e e d t o e n s u r e t h a t e m p l oy e e s , n o m a t t e r t h e i r
location, are connected to the corporate culture,
and have the training and tools needed to perform
in the ever changing e-environment.
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KEY TERMS
E-Business:'H¿QHGEURDGO\DVDQ\EXVLQHVV
process that relies on an automated information
system.
E-Commerce: Consists of the buying and
selling of products or services over electronic

systems such as the Internet and other computer
networks.
E-Leadership:$VRFLDOLQÀXHQFHSURFHVV
mediated by technology to produce a change in
attitudes, feelings, thinking, behavior, and/or
performance with individuals, groups, and/or
organizations.
Groupware: Software that integrates work
on a single project by several concurrent users
at separated workstations.
Media Richness: Refers to the capacity of
the technology to provide immediate feedback,
the number of cues and channels used for the
personalization of messages, and the language
variety.
Virtual Team: Geographically dispersed
members who work on the same project through
the use of information technology and telecom-
munications to facilitate collaboration between
them.
This work was previously published in Encyclopedia of Human Resources Information Systems: Challenges in e-HRM, edited
by T. Torres-Coronas and M. Arias-Oliva, pp. 161-165, copyright 2009 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI
Global).