Leadership Roles and Issues in Partially Distributed Teams

1. Leadership Roles and Issues in Partially Distributed Teams Linda Plotnick Rosalie Ocker Starr Roxanne Hiltz Mary Beth Rosson Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

2. Agenda • Overview of Partially Distributed Teams (PDTs) • Overview of Leadership Roles • Study of Leadership in PDTs • Qualitative analysis results • Quantitative analysis results • Conclusions • Contributions • Limitations • Future Research Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

3. Partially Distributed Teams • Hybrid teams that combine characteristics of virtual and traditional teams • At least one subgroup is collocated and meets face-to-face • At least two subgroups are dispersed and collaborate primarily by electronic communication Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

4. Leadership Roles (Quinn 1988) • Producer • Motivates members to reach goals and improve production; • Director • Sets objectives, establishes rules and policies, and clarifies expectations; • Coordinator • Sets schedules, handles crisis, and addresses logistical and technical issues; Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

5. Leadership Roles (Quinn 1988) • Monitor • Monitors the team and its activities to check for compliance with rules and meeting objectives; • Facilitator • Works to build cohesion and collaboration, and manages interpersonal conflict; • Mentor • Develops people in a helpful and considerate way; Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

6. Leadership Roles (Quinn 1988) • Innovator • Pays attention to environmental changes and responds to them with action; • Broker • Coordinates and negotiates with people outside of his or her group to obtain needed resources. Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

7. A Study of Partially Distributed Teams • Study of leadership roles in PDTs conducted in the spring of 2007 • Varied leadership configuration • Centralized • One team leader; no subgroup leaders • Hierarchical • One team leader; one subgroup leader per subgroup • Decentralized • No team leader; one subgroup leader per subgroup Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

8. Leadership Configurations Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

9. Research Questions • Are roles enacted by leaders in traditional and fully distributed virtual teams also enacted by leaders in PDTs? • Does the leadership configuration of a team affect which roles are enacted by its leaders? • Does leadership configuration affect perceptions of team and/or subgroup performance? • Are there differences between team leaders and subgroup leaders in PDTs? Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

10. The Study • 145 undergraduates • PDTs comprised of two subgroups each • Members of a given subgroup were from the same class in the same university • Subgroup size – 4 to 6 members each • Task – to develop functional requirements for an emergency response system for a specified country Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

11. The Study • Leaders were selected by team/subgroup members • Communication and collaboration – customized wiki • Communication not restricted to the wiki • Face-to-face for subgroup communication • Voluntary participation in experimental instruments Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

12. Instruments • Personal Reflections • Weekly • Wrote about their experiences from the preceding week Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

13. Instruments • Post survey • Items pertaining to the Quinn (1988) roles • Leadership encouragement of communication and working together between and within subgroups • Team/ subgroup performance • Efficiency • Quality • Creativity • Adherence to schedule • Coordination between subgroups • Communication between subgroups Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

14. Summary of Results - Qualitative • Leadership roles are salient to team members • Leadership condition may influence the enactment of these roles • More reports of role enactment in the Centralized condition • Emergent leadership behaviors influence selection of leaders Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

15. Summary of Results - Quantitative • Role enactment did not vary by leadership condition • Leaders encourage communication and working together more within their subgroups than between subgroups • Subgroup leader role enactments are more related to performance and more so to subgroup performance than to team performance Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

16. Conclusions • Roles identified in the traditional and virtual team literature are enacted by partially distributed team leaders • There are real differences between subgroup and team leader behaviors • Leaders focus more on within subgroup interaction than between subgroup interaction Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

17. Contributions • Contributes to the understanding of leadership in partially distributed teams • Validating scale reliability of the measures used of leadership role enactment for partially distributed teams Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

18. Limitations • Small number of respondents • Student subjects • May not have experience with leadership • Single coder coded the personal reflections • Wiki transcripts not coded Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

19. Future Research • Large scale study ongoing • One week orientations added • Train use of the wiki • Raise awareness of challenges of working in partially distributed teams • Disseminate information about leadership responsibilities • Future large scale studies will also vary distance (geographic distance, time zone, and culture) • Future field studies Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz

20. Leadership Roles and Issues in Partially Distributed Teams • Thank you Questions? Festschrift 2007 for Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz