The roles of leaders in virtual working environment

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to understand the benefits and challenges of working virtually and the essential roles of leaders in the virtual working environment. The world is changing rapidly leading to the new trend of working, so-called remote working. Working virtually may cause some challenges, communication for example, which need the effective responses of a good leader. Therefore, understanding deeply the positive and negative sides of working remotely and the roles of leaders in an effective virtual organisation are no doubt a necessity. The qualitative research is chosen as the study methodology to collect empirical data. The semi-structured interviews with some leaders in the company case was implemented based on the theoretical knowledge to evaluate the practical nature. The literature review proposes theories and concepts related to the study theme, virtual teams, and virtual leader. The references are mainly from books, reports, previous researches, journals and statistics from the internet, for example, some figures about the enlargement of the virtual working trend. The results found are the combination of theories explored and the conducted empirical research. It highlights the benefits of cultural diversity and the cost-savings while reveals some challenges in communication parts and data security of the virtual organisation.