Abstract:

In recent years many professionals, across all types of organizations and business sectors, are increasingly involved in remote models of work and collaboration. This transformation is supported by the widespread adoption of information and communication technologies that allow organizations to implement more flexible models of work that build on the advantages of digital collaboration. Likewise, we have witnessed a remarkable evolution in digital literacy standards and a growing emphasis on the importance of developing digital competencies. However, despite the undeniable achievements and upskill in technical competencies that allow individuals and organizations to move toward digital processes, important gaps persist in regard to the development of other, complementary, transversal competencies that are required to effectively coordinate the work and promote collaboration in remote teams, namely e-leadership. The leadership role needs to adapt from a predominately face-to-face context to remote work environments that create new challenges in what concerns communication and engagement of team members. For leaders, and e-leaders, communication is an essential competence since it is a vehicle of inspiration and motivation to the team, and plays a key role in conveying vision, establishing trust, settling disputes, and promoting cooperation. Employee engagement, performance, and satisfaction can all be increased through effective communication. This article characterizes the challenges of communication that emerge in leadership in remote work contexts. The study builds on the qualitative data analysis of the results of 10 focus groups conducted with 60 leaders, in six European countries, in the scope of the European project E(U) Leaders. The result reveals that in remote working environments, communication competencies are a cross-cutting issue to effectively communicate vision and culture, and goals, to build relationships among the team, and to inspire action. The article offers insights about e-leadership practices, ad technology tactics experimented by managers to improve communication effectiveness in remote teams.

Keywords:

E-leadership, competencies, communication.