I provide a comprehensive working definition of electronic leadership (e-leadership), highlighting its unique characteristics and the challenges it addresses in today’s digital landscape. Then, I evaluate the theory’s diverse applications, drawing comparisons to other leadership theories such as transformational and transactional leadership, to illustrate how e-leadership adapts to technological advancements and fosters effective communication in virtual environments. This exploration not only underscores the relevance of e-leadership in the modern workplace but also emphasizes its potential to drive innovation and collaboration among geographically dispersed teams.
Introduction to E-leadership
E-leadership is a theory that emerged in 2001, yet it is still considered new, or even incomplete (Avolio et al., 2016). Right now, much of the e-leadership research centers around advanced information technology (AIT), which is what mediates electronic leadership (Avolio et al., 2016). In this section, I discuss the definition and a few advantages and disadvantages to using AIT.
Defining E-leadership
Avolio et al. (2016) define e-leadership as “a social influence process embedded in both proximal and distal contexts mediated by AIT that can produce a change in attitudes, feelings, thinking, behavior, and performance” (p. 200). Garcia (2020) discussed the impact of the digital revolution on organizations and their leaders. E-leadership is about how leaders manage and influence their followers and organization virtually.
AIT Communication
The positive side. Within and through an electronic dimension, leaders face new challenges of communication. AIT obviously multiplies the pathways, speeds, frequency, and overall efficiency of communication lines available for use by leaders and followers of an organization. Pathways such as email and instant messaging, combined with the ubiquity of mobile devices, keep lines open between the individual and their employer. This breaks through productivity barriers such as time and limits to feedback flows (Avolio et al., 2016).
The negative side. On the other hand, Avolio et al. (2016) pointed out unrestrained forms of communication could also easily lead to burnout. Morgan (2016) said capabilities of mobility transform the idea of one’s place of work into one’s presence anywhere. Stress and burnout is an expected results of the inability to keep work at their physical place of work.
E-leaders are challenged by their own access to AIT’s many paths of transmission to group members. The stress-inducing persistence of online communication is not the only challenge for leaders. Darics (2020) found that e-leaders need a myriad of skills to manage miscommunications online, team conflicts, and establishing and maintaining a team identity and vision.
Comparing E-leadership to Authentic Leadership and Ethical Leadership
I do not think e-leadership theory is a stand-alone approach to leadership as much as it is another dimension to any and all leadership approaches. E-leadership theory complicates the ideas of authentic and ethical leadership. The ethical e-leader is held more accountable, while the authentic e-leader must battle the conundrum of being a digitally real. In both cases of ethics and authenticity, e-leadership theory highlights the stark transparency of leader behavior online (Avolio et al., 2016).
Ethical leadership. Followers are empowered by the organization’s information and the tight monitoring of the leaders. Therefore, followers are better able to hold leaders accountable for their ethics. In the matter of ethics, AIT holds leaders more accountable through making more data and leader dealings public. Additionally, the implications of e-leadership span new topics. Social media is one such topic. E-leadership theory explores the ethical standards a leader should maintain on her own social media account. Also, e-leaders must decide the ethical standard of viewing other group members’ social media accounts. Employees are entitled to a certain level of privacy and may feel it is being violated (Avolio et al., 2016, p. 206). At the same time, leaders could wrestle with the ethics of what to do with an employee who posts negative remarks about the organization.
Authentic leadership. Moreover, with AIT provides followers with the ability to closely scrutinize the leader’s level of authenticity. In turn, e-leaders “face greater pressures to be authentic” (Avolio et al., 2016, p. 205). Regardless of a leader’s ability to convey their authenticity in reality, coming across as authentic when in a virtual landscape seems inherently more difficult. For example, as emails are becoming the preferred form of mass communication between leaders and group members, the problems of tone, lack of body language, and organic conversation increase in impact (Darics, 2020).
Practical Application of E-leadership Through Gamification
E-leaders provide e-learning to their employees. The advantages of using e-learning entail easier and wider access to the trainings, maintaining consistency of training, and training that has the chance to be more engaging (Cordie & Lin, 2018). E-leaders do well to recognize the power of gamification in training employees, which makes learning for game-like thus engaging and effective (Avolio et al., 2016). As an instructional coach, I see the possibilities of gamification offer for the professional development of teachers with its use of e-badges. E-leadership theory recognizes the stimulating feature of digital gamification as a means for learning (Avolio et al., 2016).
Conclusion
E-leadership theory acknowledges the interwoven relationship of leadership and AIT. In the e-revolution, electronic communication and virtual teams are reshaping leadership.
References
Avolio, B. J., Sosik, J. J., Kahai, S. S., & Baker, B. (2016). E-leadership: Re-examining transformations in leadership source and transmission. In G. R. Hickman (Ed.), Leading Organizations: Perspectives for a new era (3rd ed.) (pp. 197-227). Sage Publication.
Cordie, L., & Lin, X. (2018). The E‐Revolution in Higher Education: E‐Learning and E‐Leaders. Journal of Leadership Studies, 12(3), 76–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21602
Darics, E. (2020). E-Leadership or “How to be boss in instant messaging?” The role of nonverbal communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 57(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488416685068
Garcia, I. (2020). e-Leadership: A bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning, 13(1), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v13i1.12341
Morgan, J. [Jacob Morgan]. (2016, September 15). The 5 trends shaping the future of work [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=LrhmHbDLM8o&feature=emb_logo
Jordan Tate 