ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理科学进展 ›› 2024, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (6): 886-907.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2024.00886

• 研究构想 • 上一篇    下一篇

见字如面:虚拟沟通风格对领导力涌现的影响

汤一鹏1, 樊为1, 张晓1, 王淑红1, 熊善阔2, 蒲小萍3   

  1. 1中南财经政法大学工商管理学院, 武汉 430073;
    2暨南大学管理学院, 广州 510632;
    3武汉理工大学管理学院, 武汉 430070
  • 收稿日期:2023-09-02 出版日期:2024-06-15 发布日期:2024-04-07
  • 通讯作者: 樊为, E-mail: fanwei202106@163.com
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目(72272151, 72101195)资助

The effect of virtual communication styles on leadership emergence

TANG Yipeng1, FAN Wei1, ZHANG Xiao1, WANG Shuhong1, XIONG Shankuo2, PU Xiaoping3   

  1. 1School of Business Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China;
    2School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China;
    3School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
  • Received:2023-09-02 Online:2024-06-15 Published:2024-04-07

摘要: 随着企业运营数智化和管理平台化, 员工涌现的领导力逐渐成为支撑组织的关键力量。因此, 线上工作情境中领导力涌现机制成为当前亟待探明的问题。领导力涌现的研究目前主要在传统情境中进行探讨。然而, 线上情境与传统情境存在显著差异, 互动沟通方式大相径庭。本研究因此从虚拟沟通风格的视角分析线上工作团队中的领导力涌现机制。本研究首先采用扎根理论的方式探索虚拟沟通中具有领导力内涵的特征, 基于沟通风格的结构理论将这些特征区分为虚拟沟通的身份特征、渠道特征和互动特征。然后, 本文基于领导者身份构建理论分析身份系统特征、采用以模式为导向的方法探讨渠道特征、从社会网络视角刻画互动特征, 研究这些特征在线上工作团队中影响领导力涌现的作用机制。本研究拓展了领导力涌现的理论内涵, 并为企业如何善用数字媒介进行有效管理沟通提供了科学的依据。

关键词: 领导力涌现, 虚拟沟通风格, 身份特征, 渠道特征, 互动特征

Abstract: With the digitalization and flattening of management in organizations, leadership emergence has gradually become a critical force supporting organizational operations. Exploring the mechanisms of leadership emergence within online work teams has become an urgent necessity in current management practices. Existing research extensively investigates leadership emergence mechanisms in traditional contexts, exploring which personality traits contribute to leadership emergence from trait perspective. However, the spatial and temporal dispersion and technology-dependent of online work situations make it difficult for individual trait factors to exert their influence, virtual communication style becomes the most likely feature to influence leadership emergence in online working situations. This study therefore analyzes the mechanism of leadership emergence in online work teams from the perspective of virtual communication styles. This study first explores the characteristics of virtual communication with leadership connotation through implicit leadership theory, describes the key features of virtual communication style in identity system, channel system and interaction system according to the three systematic constructs of communication style, and attempts to build a more systematic and complete theoretical framework through four closely related studies with progressive content.
First, based on the framework of implicit leadership theory, this study proposes that the virtual communication style with leadership connotation refers to the characteristics of the leader prototype in online interaction. The three-system theoretical framework of communication style points out that communication style presents different characteristics in identity system, channel system and interaction system. Therefore, this study proposes that virtual communication style with leadership connotations is a multidimensional conceptualization that presents key features in the identity system, channel system, and interaction system of communication. In order to further verify the leadership connotation contained in these virtual communication styles, this study further proposes that team members can use these virtual communication styles to enhance their social status facilitate relationship building. In addition, this study suggests that the effects of virtual communication are largely influenced by offline interactions, and suggests that the level of underlying trust in a work team and the matching of a team member's virtual and face-to-face communication styles affect the status and leadership emergence of that member by influencing the expectations of other team members towards that member.
Second, based on the theory of leader identity construction, this study explores how employees establish their leader identity in virtual communication. The establishment of a leader's identity occurs through the interpersonal process of a potential leader's assertion of his or her leader identity and the recognition of his or her leader identity by potential followers. This study suggests that employees may allow other team members to identify more with their leadership identity through a virtual communication style with leadership connotations and gain more recognition when making leader identity declarations.
Third, this study adopts a pattern-oriented approach to explore the impact of employees' virtual communication channel choice patterns on leadership emergence. In the online work context, employees can use a variety of channels and ways to communicate virtually, such as adding friends, building group chats, voice messages, and video conferencing. This study concludes that there are qualitative and quantitative differences in an employee's virtual communication channel choice patterns. The virtual communication channel choice patterns presented by this member when communicating with different objects have quantitative differences and qualitative similarities, and the virtual communication channel choice pattern will affect the member's task leadership behavior and social leadership behavior, shaping other members' perceptions of that member and influencing the process of his or her leadership emergence.
Fourth, this study uses a social network perspective to analyze the impact of virtual communication styles on leadership emergence. There are two analytical perspectives of social network modeling, static and dynamic; the static theoretical perspective focuses on analyzing the structural characteristics of the social network and the position of the individual within the network, while the dynamic perspective attempts to explore the changes that occur in the social network. On the static side, virtual communication styles may influence the structural characteristics of team members' social networks and thus affect leadership emergence, which is moderated by the activeness of virtual communication. On the dynamic side, the social network perspective suggests that the process of leadership emergence is viewed as a process of leadership ties building and disappearing, and that virtual communication styles (including: virtual communication initiation, activation, and silence, etc.) are likely to influence changes in leadership ties, and then affect the dynamic process of leadership emergence between initiators and participants.
This study contributes to the literature on leadership emergence by constructing a new and systematic theoretical framework to understand the impact of virtual communication styles on leadership emergence. It also provides a scientific basis for enterprises to make good use of digital media to effectively manage communication.

Key words: leadership emergence, virtual communication style, identity characteristics, channel characteristics, interaction characteristics

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