Can leadership compensate for deficient inclusiveness in global virtual teams?

• Author: Charlotte Jonasson,Jakob Lauring
• Date: 01 July 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12184
• Published date: 01 July 2018

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Can leadership compensate for deficient

inclusiveness in global virtual teams?

Jakob Lauring

1

|Charlotte Jonasson

2

1

Department of Management, Aarhus

University, Denmark

2

Department of Psychology and Behavioral

Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark

Correspondence

Jakob Lauring, Department of Management,

Aarhus University, Fuglsangsalle 4, 8210

Aarhus V, Denmark.

Email: Jala@mgmt.au.dk

Abstract

Although the number of global virtual teams has been growing

rapidly, it is still a great challenge to achieve internal collaboration

across geographic, cultural, and linguistic barriers. Two factors that

have been identified to improve productivity are inclusive group

attitudes in the team and the right leadership from the team leader.

Although there are strong indications that each of these concepts

would have a favourable effect on team member performance, we

set out to explore how they function in combination. More specifi-

cally, we hypothesise that inspirational motivation from a team

leader can compensate for a lack of inclusive group attitudes in

the form of team openness to language diversity. We also predict

the positive effects of “inspirational motivation”leadership to be

stronger than those of the “management by exception”style of

leadership. Using responses from 174 team members and their 23

team leaders in the research and development department of a

Danish manufacturing organisation, we confirm our hypotheses.

This provides clear guidelines for HRM interventions in organisa-

tions using global virtual teams.

KEYWORDS

diversity, globalvirtual teams, inclusive group attitudes, inspirational

motivation leadership, language, transformational leadership

1|INTRODUCTION

A central element in managing human resources is to create a work environment where motivated employees strive to

do their best to advance organisational performance (Kuvaas, Dysvik, & Buch, 2014). Although this was traditionally a

concern of a more or less detached specialist HRM function, activities have gradually been devolved to line managers

and supervisors closer to the operations (Bos‐Nehles, van Riemsdijk, & Kees, 2013; Gilbert & Winne, 2015; Purcell &

Hutchinson, 2007).

The use of line managers in HRM activities has been argued to set a “softer”and more people‐oriented course

emphasising leadership, culture, communication, and motivation (Cook, Mackenzie, & Forde, 2016; Thornhill &

Received: 10 May 2016 Revised: 6 December 2017 Accepted: 9 December 2017

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12184

392 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Hum Resour Manag J. 2018;28:392–409.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj

Saunders, 1998). Using this approach, line managers play a vital role in aligning the efforts of their team members

with centrally formulated HRM initiatives (Gilbert & Winne, 2015). The more people‐oriented style of line managers

has to a great extent influenced perceptions on how to mobilise and manage performance in global virtual

teams where direct contact is rarely possible (Harvey, Novicevic, & Garrison, 2004). In this context, the team

leader is an example of a line manager that makes HRM come to life through appraising, developing, involving,

and communicating over a geographical, cultural, and linguistic distance (Cardy & Miller, 2015; Scott &

Wildman, 2015).

Although a growing body of virtual team literature is emerging, there are few studies assessing the role of

leadership in virtual teams that are also globally dispersed (see, however, Davis & Bryant, 2003). With regard to

domestic virtual teams, Dionne, Yammarino, Atwater, and Spangler (2004) have argued that inspirational motivation

leadership can, in particular, support virtual teamwork outcomes by creating shared goals and thus facilitate a sense

of direction. Purvanova and Bono (2009) similarly argue that this type of leadership strengthens the use of

communication to motivate team members to reach a common goal. This is very important in virtual teams where

interaction is less natural due to the dependence on technology‐mediated communication. The technology‐based

interaction often leaves team members feeling more distant and anonymous (Hambley, O'Neill, & Kline, 2007; Hoyt

& Blascovich, 2003) as well as confused and without a clear sense of purpose (Harvey et al., 2004). Accordingly,

inspirational motivation leadership may be particularly useful in virtual teams given the difficulty of developing a

collective sense of direction at a distance.

Apart from leadership, group functioning is described as central for teams (Homan & Greer, 2013). This is

because teamwork is characterised by team member interdependence. Therefore, internal communication among

team members will often assist in clarifying the shared goals and organising the ensuing task execution (Mohr,

Young, & Burgess, 2012). For this to work well, the group needs to be socially coherent with inclusive attitudes that

allow individuals to work as a team (Brahm & Kunze, 2012; Homan & Greer, 2013). Such inclusive attitudes, how-

ever, will be less attainable when work groups are highly culturally and linguistically diverse as is the case for global

teams. For example, negative emotions, rather than inclusive group attitudes, have been found to result from

differences related to culture and language among team members in multinational teams (Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt,

& Jonsen, 2010; Tenzer & Pudelko, 2015). In essence, global virtual teamwork involves greater physical distance

and less natural communication (due to the nature of virtual teams) as well as difficulties achieving inclusive group

attitudes resulting from linguistic and cultural heterogeneity (due to the nature of working globally; Davis & Bryant,

2003; Homan & Greer, 2013; Shin, Kim, Lee, & Bian, 2012). These conditions pose novel challenges to the role of

team leaders in managing human resources. They also make leadership particularly important in global virtual teams

because one cannot expect the group to manage internal communication under such circumstances. It is therefore

more relevant to focus on the role of the leader making up for poor group dynamics rather than the other way

around.

Although other inclusive group attitudes (e.g., openness to cultural differences) are also important, the central

role of language in a global virtual team has been emphasised (Hinds, Neeley, & Cramton, 2014; Klitmøller,

Schneider, & Jonsen, 2015). This can be related to such teams having to communicate mainly via different electronic

media (e.g., videoconference, telephone, and email) rather than through direct face‐to‐face interaction. It has therefore

been argued that the virtual environment reduces the significance of culture while increasing the role of language

(Shachaf, 2008). Hence, using different languages becomes a great concern in this environment as no translational

cue from physical interaction can be registered. For example, Tenzer and Pudelko (2016) found that language created

collaboration difficulties in multilingual virtual teams that were not found in monolingual virtual teams. Also, Lauring

and Klitmøller (2015) found that language‐based collaboration problems increased when teamwork took place in a

virtual context compared to face‐to‐face interaction. We therefore see openness to language diversity as central to

teamwork in a global virtual setting.

Although both inspirational motivation leadership and openness to language diversity may have constructive

effects on team member performance, it is unknown how they work in combination. To gain a greater understanding

LAURING AND JONASSON 393