Servant Leadership & Virtual Teams
Tara McKinney
Western Governor’s University
Servant Leadership & Virtual Teams
There are a great many theories that involve leadership. They vary in scope and in relevance depending on a company’s culture, goals, and human capital. There is an ever-growing population that now work from home, separate from the teams they work with daily. As working virtually becomes more prevalent for companies, leadership styles must be applied to make a geographically disparate team cohesive and functional. Servant Leadership Theory would be most effective with virtual teams because it fosters a sense of community, values ethical behavior and empowers employees.
Community
The needs of virtual teams differ from that of …show more content…
On a virtual team, it is easy to become intangible. In this way, the servant leader is the catalyst to humanize a team based in cyberspace. This is necessary to ensure ethical behavior. Employees who work from home can feel a sense of anonymity, that no one is watching. This anonymity may allow individuals to behave in ways counter to an in-person interaction. It has been widely studied that individuals are more likely to lie online. This trend does not find an exemption at the workplace (Rockmann & Northcraft, 2006). Servant leadership, as discussed above, is to lead by example. This means the manager must act ethically and in transparency.
Ethical behavior is a major tenet of the Servant Leadership Theory (Parris & Peachey, 2013). This behavior is influenced on the team by the leader. To this end, decisions by the servant leader need set the overall tone. Research regarding servant leadership supports that leaders who display ethical behavior create ethically minded employees. The study included a multifaceted view of the ethical work environment and how leaders display ethical behavior. Sales associates who believe they are working in a just, fair environment behave in ethical sales practices (Jaramillo, Bande, & Varela,
Tara McKinney
Western Governor’s University
Servant Leadership & Virtual Teams
There are a great many theories that involve leadership. They vary in scope and in relevance depending on a company’s culture, goals, and human capital. There is an ever-growing population that now work from home, separate from the teams they work with daily. As working virtually becomes more prevalent for companies, leadership styles must be applied to make a geographically disparate team cohesive and functional. Servant Leadership Theory would be most effective with virtual teams because it fosters a sense of community, values ethical behavior and empowers employees.
Community
The needs of virtual teams differ from that of …show more content…
On a virtual team, it is easy to become intangible. In this way, the servant leader is the catalyst to humanize a team based in cyberspace. This is necessary to ensure ethical behavior. Employees who work from home can feel a sense of anonymity, that no one is watching. This anonymity may allow individuals to behave in ways counter to an in-person interaction. It has been widely studied that individuals are more likely to lie online. This trend does not find an exemption at the workplace (Rockmann & Northcraft, 2006). Servant leadership, as discussed above, is to lead by example. This means the manager must act ethically and in transparency.
Ethical behavior is a major tenet of the Servant Leadership Theory (Parris & Peachey, 2013). This behavior is influenced on the team by the leader. To this end, decisions by the servant leader need set the overall tone. Research regarding servant leadership supports that leaders who display ethical behavior create ethically minded employees. The study included a multifaceted view of the ethical work environment and how leaders display ethical behavior. Sales associates who believe they are working in a just, fair environment behave in ethical sales practices (Jaramillo, Bande, & Varela,