Investigating the Perceived of E-Leadership Style Change and Its Consequence in Virtual Context

The main purpose of this study was to test the prescriptions for virtual leadership and leadership style change, based on the situational leadership theory. This study first manipulated virtual leadership by using email in accordance with transformational and transactional leadership theory. Then, this study investigated the possibility of changing leadership style and examined its effects on leadership effectiveness. This research employed a 2x2x2 factorial experiment design to investigate the impacts of virtual leadership style (transformational vs. transactional), leadership style change (transformational to transactional/ transactional to transformational/ pure transformational/ pure transactional), and control mechanism (process-oriented vs. outcome-oriented) on leadership effectiveness. 130 undergraduate students served as virtual team members that were required to use a Web-based group decision support system to support their teamwork. The results indicated that perception of transformational or transactional leadership style and leadership change was significantly stronger in accord with the assigned situation. Further evidence revealed that the interaction effect of leadership style change and control mechanism on leadership effectiveness were also significant. Corresponding to the situational leadership theory, the leadership matched with control mechanism led to higher leadership effectiveness relative to the mismatched condition. This research yield important inferences regarding the situational leadership in virtual context. The suggestions and contributions of this study as well as the managerial implications are also presented.