Purpose: The research on virtual
team leadership does well to describe the skills that are needed to
guide and direct effective teams. However, what is presupposed in the
previous research is that virtual teams have assigned leaders. That is,
leaders were either management, appointed by management or were chosen
by the team itself. Yet in today's global economy not all virtual teams
have assigned leaders, instead many virtual team leaders emerge on their
own to direct the group's actions. The purpose of this paper is to
examine which emergent leadership competencies most impact virtual team
effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: This is a mixed method study
where both a participant survey and content analysis of actual
participant messages are used to determine the competencies of emergent
virtual team leaders. The research participants for the current study
were required to work in assigned teams on organizational case analyses.
At the end of each case, teams presented their solutions in the form of
final recommendations designed to fix the problem present in the case.
Findings: Results indicate that not only do leaders emerge in virtual
teams, but in most cases multiple leaders emerge. Results also show that
the model that best describes team effectiveness includes the
competencies of asking questions, cognitive and creative ability and
vision setting. Originality/value: The contribution of the current study
is that it extends the research on emergent virtual team leadership by
introducing the idea that this type of leadership is often a collective
action among individuals. It also advances a model of emergent virtual
team leadership as a practice of communication. The better emergent
virtual team leaders are at communicating to team members the more
effective the team will be in completing tasks and projects, which in
turn can lead to a more effectively functioning business unit. © Emerald
Group Publishing Limited.

Communication; Emergent Leadership; Virtual teams