Defining E‐leadership as Competence in ICT‐Mediated Communications: An Exploratory Assessment

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12980
• Author: Montgomery Van Wart,Cheol Liu,XiaoHu Wang,Alexandru V. Roman,Soonhee Kim,Alma McCarthy
• Date: 01 November 2019
• Published date: 01 November 2019

Def‌ining E-leadership as Competence in ICT-Mediated Communications: An Exploratory Assessment 853

Abstract: While many aspects of the dramatic shifts caused by digital government have made enormous progress, the

leadership of those who serve the public via electronic means has yet to take a significant step forward. This article

addresses three questions: How significant has e-leadership become? What are the challenges in trying to create a

more comprehensive model of defining and measuring e-leadership? And, based on current knowledge, what skill

and behavioral elements are candidates for a concrete e-leadership model? The authors develop and test an original

model that focuses on e-leadership as a competence in virtual communications (i.e., the use of ICT-mediated

communications) and the digital opportunities and challenges that are created. The results provide strong support for

the proposed model. The article concludes with a discussion of a future agenda for e-leadership research that can be

developed in a manner that is fruitful for theory and practitioners.

Evidence for Practice

• Leadership is as much virtual as it is face-to-face today; e-leadership is an important and distinctive ability in

organizational management that can lead to more effective organizational functioning.

• An effective e-leader communicates clearly, provides adequate social interaction, and demonstrates

technological know-how through and within virtual environments.

• In the long term, effective e-leadership builds responsible teams, sets effective accountability processes,

inspires change, and develops trust virtually.

• E-leadership is a set of technology-mediated social influencing processes intended to change attitudes,

feelings, thinking, behavior, and performance within organizations.

• Six competencies lead to effective e-leadership: e-communication, e-social skills, e-change skills, e-team skills,

e-tech savvy, and e-trustworthiness.

The dramatic effects that information and

communications technology (ICT) and

its adoption have on organizations and

individuals operating within them have long been

acknowledged in both the public and private

sectors (e.g., DeSanctis and Poole 1994; Hilbert

and Lopez 2011; Jaques 1951; Lee and Reed 2015;

Mergel and Bretschneider 2013; Orlikowski 1992;

Trist and Bamforth 1951). Indeed, technology can

restructure organizations at the micro and macro levels

(Karippacheril et al. 2016; Susskind and Susskind

2015). Similar effects can be noted at the individual

level, as technology reforms how individuals learn

and interact with their external environments (e.g.,

Grossman and Vella 2014; Stokols et al. 2009;

Ting Yong and Gates 2014). While technology’s

transformational potential has always been recognized,

perhaps at no point in history has the impact of

technology at the individual level and up to entire

organizational behavioral routines been as pronounced

as it has now become. To this extent, leadership “in

this context demands new understanding and new

skills in addition to old understanding and skills. Most

organizational leaders have yet to understand what

this new context is and what it means for leadership”

(Kahai 2013, 63). The impact of technology on

organizational behavior and leadership has been

highlighted as a gap in the public administration

literature as well (Van Wart 2013, 562).

Yet, somewhat surprisingly given the current

condition, the topic of e-leadership (focusing on the

leadership of those carrying out the mission of the

organization) has received limited scholarly attention.

Examining the fledging e-leadership literature, one

sees that beyond the macro-theoretical proposal by

Avolio, Kahai, and Dodge (2000), there has been very

limited work to construct a substantive framework for

action (Avolio et al. 2014). We acknowledge that the

literature on electronic government (e-government)

and digital governance has provided a variety

of insights related to government transparency,

Alexandru V. Roman

Montgomery Van Wart

California State University, San Bernardino

XiaoHu Wang

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Cheol Liu

Soonhee Kim

KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea

Alma McCarthy

National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Defining E-leadership as Competence in ICT-Mediated

Communications: An Exploratory Assessment

Research Article

XiaoHu Wang is professor of public management

at City University of Hong Kong. He researches ways

to motivate public sector leaders to take effective

actions. He is also an expert on government finance.

E-mail: xwang1989@gmail.com

Montgomery Van Wart is professor at

California State University, San Bernardino, and

visiting research scholar at the National University

of Ireland, Galway. He has written six books on

administrative and business leadership, including a

third edition of

Leadership in Public Organization:

An Introduction

. He has published numerous

articles in

Public Administration Review

and other

leading journals on leadership and other topics.

He is currently conducting research on media

selection theory.

E-mail: mvanwart@csusb.edu

Alexandru V. Roman is professor in the

Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public

Administration, California State University, San

Bernardino. He is also director of the Research

Institute for Public Management and Governance.

E-mail: aroman@csusb.edu

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 6, pp. 853–866. © 2018 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12980.

Cheol Liu is assistant professor at the KDI School

of Public Policy and Management, South Korea. His

research focuses on the fiscal health of governments,

budget systems and processes, and revenue

administration. He has special interest in corruption

and public finance. He extends his research interest

into the fields of e-leadership, e-governance, and

e-management.

E-mail: cliu@kdischool.ac.kr

Soonhee Kim is professor at the KDI School of

Public Policy and Management, South Korea. Her

research focuses on public management, human

resource management, leadership development, and

digital government.

E-mail: soonheekim@kdischool.ac.kr

Alma McCarthy is professor of public

sector management and head of the Discipline

of Management at the National University of

Ireland, Galway. Her research has been published

in the

International Journal of Human Resource

Management, Human Resource Management

Review, Advances in Developing Human Resources,

and the

Journal of Managerial Psychology,

as well

as four books. She recently served as elected chair of

the Irish Academy of Management.

E-mail: alma.mccarthy@nuigalway.ie