Distanced LeadershipDr. Stacey Connaughton

Department of Communication

Director, Student Leadership Development Institute

Rutgers University

Degrees and Types

Degrees of distance– Dispersed teams

Different types of distanced work– Telecommuting– Virtual teams– Remote teams

Morristown

Brazil Malaysia

China Ireland

Opportunities & Challenges

Reduce Costs Serve International

Customers/Clients Integrate Global

Talent

Time Zone Differences

Varied Communication Norms

Language differences Limited face-to-face

contact

Advantages of Geographically Proximate Offices

(Davenport & Pearlson, 1998)

Frequent and Unplanned Communication Immediate Access to People Direct Access to Information Opportunities to Build Relationships

Leadership Theories

Kotter (1981)– Plan, monitor, assess, evaluate

Bass & Avolio (1992)– Transformational leadership

Goleman (1998)– Emotional Intelligence

Empirical Questions Arise

Can we employ the same leadership theories in a distanced work setting?

Do we need new theories of leadership to account for distanced work settings?

Are there important differences in the way that leadership gets done in a distanced setting vs. a face-to-face/proximate setting?

The Distance Manager (Fisher & Fisher, 2001)

Mastering Virtual Teams (Duarte & Snyder, 1999)

Virtual Teams (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997)

Vinettes

Issues more pronounced in distanced teams than in co-located ones

Virtual teams may form for a limited time Geographical dispersion makes establishing

the conditions for effective interactions and leadership more complex– Identification (Connaughton & Daly, 2003)– Trust (Jarvenpaa, Knoll, & Leidner, 1998)– Cross-cultural communication (Cascio &

Shurygailo, 2003)

“Leading from Afar: Strategies for Effectively Leading Virtual Teams” by S. L. Connaughton & J. A. Daly; published inVirtual Collaborative Teams: Process, Technologies, & Practice (S. H. Godar & S. P. Ferris, Eds.)

“Leading from Afar…”

Semi-structured long interviews 21 leaders with global responsibilities

– 14 from a high-tech company located in SW– 19 males; 2 females

Interviews on site and over distance 13 testable propositions emerged

1. Face-to-face communication is critical

Why should a leader use face-to-face communication? When?

“I need to see what contexts they work in. I think that in order to be accepted, I need to show my willingness to come on their turf. I do a lot of teleconferencing. But there’s nothing that replaces face-to-face.”

2. Personalization Matters

Use brief narratives– Why?

Be personal– “The frequent interactions with people you have here

[at headquarters] are often attributed to trust. And over distance you have a complete void there. So you are missing one of your fundamental tools. Somehow you’ve got to overcome that. And that’s where the one-on-one calls come in…”

--What can you do with your interaction to make it more personal?

3. Over-Communicate

“It is easy to under-communicate outside of your immediate sphere of contact everyday. And that means that people feel lost and disconnected. When they hear about something that everyone back here [headquarters] knew for weeks was coming and nobody told them they feel they have wasted time, effort, and personal investment.”

3. cont’d

Use at least 2 media for important messages Inform people at the same time

– Why should you avoid informing local team members before distanced ones?

Establish a mechanism for info exchange– Electronic newsletter– Internal website– Internal electronic bulletin board

4. Discipline is key to distanced leadership

Preparation for meetings Less supervision Deadlines are real Continually update

5. Develop expectations and ground rules about communication…from

the start

6. Meeting management is critical

Articulate norms for meeting prep and execution– “What we would do to make communication

more effective is we would come up with half a dozen issues before hand. Each of us would so some pre-work to make the telephone call more productive rather than just leaving it up for grabs.”

Ensure that meetings are regularly and publicly scheduled

7. Cultural nuances matter

What sorts of national cultural differences might distanced leaders encounter?

Attend to communication style

Sensitivity to international members’ sense of time

8. Media Choices and Access Matter

--which media are used

--access to equal media

--remember the “small” things…

9. Overcome the challenge of multiple leaders

A functional head, a team leader, and a country or regional director….Who is the “real” boss? Who should I listen to?

10. Two Stages to Distanced Leadership

“Distanced versus Proximate Teams: The relationships among perceived communicative behaviors of leaders

and employee satisfaction”

S. L. Connaughton & J. A. Daly

“Distanced vs. Proximate…”

What makes employees who are geographically separated from their managers satisfied with their jobs and their relationship with their managers?

Communicative properties (frequency, clarity, and feedback)

Relational aspects of communication (perceived equity, information adequacy, task vs. non-task messages, and accessibility)

Job satisfaction and satisfaction with manager

Findings

Communicative properties & relational aspects of communication are significantly and positively correlated with both job and manager satisfaction in distanced and proximate settings.

In distanced settings, frequency of communication with managers, information equity, and manager’s attentiveness are more important than they are in proximate settings

People co-located with managers reported a significantly greater tendency to have early meetings with managers than those at a distance.

The manager making early visits to remote sites was positively and significantly related to job satisfaction and manager satisfaction.

Individuals working from afar were more satisfied with their jobs than those working proximate to their managers.

Accessibility was a significant predictor of satisfaction with manager in the distanced group; actual physical distance was not a significant predictor.

Future Directions

Rise of geographically dispersed ad hoc teams that are assembled for short-term projects

The increasing use of contractors and consultants who do not have loyalty to the organization—how do you manage them from afar?

Trends in international customer service—how do organizations effectively serve and lead customers from afar?

“Leading from a distance is an absolute necessity in our industry. It will be that way in more and more industries. It is a hard skill. People who have never done it don’t even recognize it as a separate skill. You’ll say, ‘Well, you don’t have any worldwide experience’ and they’ll say, ‘Well, what’s worldwide experience expect putting me in a worldwide job?’ There are just so many aspects that people don’t understand.”

Distanced Leadership