Leadership Assignment: Article Review On Managing Virtual Teams

Question

Task: Task
Your leadership assignmenttask is to read two prescribed journal articles on the overall theme of different leadership approaches to effectively lead virtual teams. Discuss the key points and main arguments in the two articles in relation to broader leadership theories and concepts, and extend your discussion by explaining the application of relevant theories and concepts to your own professional experience.

Procedures
Read the following journal articles on leadership:
Chamorro-Premuzic, T, Wade, M & Jordan, J 2018, 'As AI makes more decisions, the nature of leadership will change', Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, pp. 1-5.

Smith, M, Van Oosten, E &Boyatzis, RE 2020, 'The best managers balance analytical and emotional intelligence', Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, pp. 2-6.
As a first step, identify the main ideas and arguments put forward in both articles related to the overall theme. Then, use the following questions as a guide to help you draft your writing. Use these questions as a guide and do not use them as headings in your response:

What arguments do the authors raise in relation to the overall theme
Explain to what extent you (dis)agree with what the authors are saying Use examples to justify your answer. Discuss the specific ideas and arguments that resonate with your own professional experience and workplace contexts. Support your explanations/examples with links to other relevant theory/research/models from your wider reading. How could/would you apply the theory/research/model in the role of leader to improve your practical leadership capabilities

Answer

1. Background Of Leadership Assignment
In this modern business environment, the concept of “Virtual Team” has become an essential element for most of the organisations. Virtual team is referred to such a team or group of employees, who work collaboratively and communicate by utilising different types of digital tools. A virtual team or its members can be presented in a same place or may work remotely(Krumm et al., 2016). In this regard, the following study will be discussing how managers or leaders use their leadership traits to manage virtual teams. In order to do so, the study will consist of different ideas and approaches of leadership which will be taken from 2 different articles.The first article, named, “The Best Managers Balance Analytical and Emotional Intelligence” written by Melvin Smith, Ellen Van Oosten and Richard E. Boyatzis discussed the approach of an effective manager or leader within an organisation. The role of an effective leader helps in maintaining the analytical procedures’ balance. The appropriate utilisation of “Emotional Intelligence” by the leaders helps in improving the outcome of the organisations, as well as managing the virtual teams. On the other hand, the second selected article, named, “As AI Makes More Decisions, the Nature of Leadership Will Change”, written by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Michael Wade and Jenifer Jordan discussed the role of “Artificical Intelligence (AI)”and how because of AI, the nature of leadership will be changing. It has been identified that virtual teams are different from traditional teams; however, an effective leader should also provide equal opportunity, commitment and responsibility towards the virtual teams besides their traditional physical teams. In this regard, how different leadership approaches effectively lead virtual teams will be discussed in this overall study.

2. Discussion
Discussion based on “The Best Managers Balance Analytical and Emotional Intelligence”
Virtual team has started to become a significant element for most of the organisations, and many researchers have indicated that the sudden outbreak of “COVID-19” pandemic is the reason for which almost every organisation is working with virtual team. When this pandemic started to spread across the world, large numbers of cities around the globe declared lockdown (Chag, Chaudhury and Saldanha, 2020). Because of the lockdown, all the organisations shut down their businesses as they were not able to make business from the physical stores, and thus, as an alternative, organisations started business by employing virtual teams, who could communicate with the customers and interact with them regarding organisational products by using digital tools or platforms (Kloneket al., 2021). However, for the leaders it becomes critical to manage organisations’ finances, crisis because of the lockdown, as well as the employees as the workforce was not physically present within the organisations. Such a scenario is related to some theories that are interconnected with thesituational leadership approaches. According to Smith, Van Oosten and Boyatzis (2020), an emotional attitude of democratic leadership style-based leaders or managers helps virtual teams and individual employees emotionally and mentally. According to the viewpoints of different market experts, in such difficult circumstances when management techniques cannot be derived from any kind of previously witnessed analogous circumstances, democratic leadership becomes essential in such situations. The strategy allows virtual employees' comments, as well as suggestions from various hierarchical positions to participate to the recovery of organisation's performance, along with productivity.

On the other hand, According to Fuller, Vician and Brown, (2016), fundamental importance is projected to be delivered throughout the domains of anxiety, requirements, as well as worries expressed by virtual employees facing pandemic-related difficulties and challenges. It is a primary task of both managers or organisational leaders within the workplace to maximise the mental awareness of the virtual team members and activate different areas of the brain in order to identify a significant, as well as successful solution to both the existing and potential issues. In order to build a collaboratively ideal system for the virtual employees, the leaders' understanding and emotions at workplace require a response on views and options of the employees (Quisenberry, 2018). The capability of neural network models to co-ordinate with empathic systems as a baseline conditioned response in order to active crisis reduction standards enhances both analytical, along with technical abilities, through which the leaders can manage their virtual teams even from a distant location. The workplace setting and its overall climate is extremely conducive to the suppression of interest zones. This is considered as the process of thinking slowly but steadily that raises the cognitive probabilities of qualitative observations.

There are certain methods that effective organisational leaders have demonstrated their ability in order to determine how to overcome repercussions throughout difficulties that are covered throughout this article. It is feasible to achieve a proper equilibrium by being aware of the prevailing neural network systems. In a tempestuous situation, both managers and leaders must spread out work throughout the responsible personnel of the organisations (Lasso-Rodriguez and Winkler, 2020). The activity and technique of concentration makes it simpler to use full attention while remaining fully conscious. There are certain situations wherein the managers or the leaders are supposed to be vigilant and attentive at all the times. The survey questionnaires that have been utilised in order to know about the level of emotional intelligence that both leaders and managers possess in context to responsibility indicate a variety of psychological setups. The article also defines if they are interested in tangible data or are searching for a complete explanation. The researchers attempt to delve deeply into their mental structure, which represents their opportunity to utilise emotional consistency in order to achieve effective and progressive results.

In this article, Smith, Van Oosten and Boyatzis (2020) have described that a greater amount of emotional intelligence can be utilised in an excessive manner when both the managers and the organisations’ leaders will illustrate a progressive mindset and effective ability to make decisions and to make innovative solutions. Whenever objective relationships are created parallel to the cognitive process only then anything can be recognised as appropriate or inappropriate. The intellectual networking ability of both managers and the organisational leaders is dependent on various circumstances and conditions, such as crisis, difficulty, and objective fulfilment. The situation-oriented tasks also disclose if the organisational people or the virtual teams are capable of extracting an adequate proportion of empathic networks or not. The length of time period that both the traditional and virtual workers spend while using analytical abilities in order to stimulate emotional, as well as empathetic networks in order to discover the best answer has been investigated throughout this article.

The realistic balancing represented by the leaders around different organisation allow management to choose its strategy. Recognising the amount of efficiency involved throughout the network balancing knowledge that certain characteristics like transparency of intents are achievable is important for identifying the range of effectiveness involved throughout the network balancing reality. According to Inceogluet al. (2018), concerns of motivation as well as ability to address conflicts enable leaders' motives to be evaluated inside the organisations. The ability of the leaders to communicate as well as the ability of leaders to make decisions determines whether truthfulness prevails around the company or not. It is excessively essential to have a perceptive analyst being a leader in order to realistically recognise particular regions of workplace difficulty. In addition, emotional quotients such as empathy as well as perseverance encourage and assist virtual employees, along with the virtual teams' morale and productivity, which must be maximised properly in order to acquire productive results. It is feasible to develop appropriate resolutions for flawless solutions under such two conditions. This post succeeds in encapsulating the need for a healthy proportion of both practical and sensitive approaches by utilising emotional intelligence to the best of abilities.

Discussion based on “As AI Makes More Decisions, the Nature of Leadership Will Change”
A distinct and innovative perspective on leadership is attempted to be concentrated by following a pathway with the help of the second article into a critical analytical assessment. Organisational design, as well as the structure of the organisations are changing as a result of technical advancements and advances in enhanced smart thinking. Artificial Intelligence is both a boon and a burden, just as every remarkable discovery comes with its own set of drawbacks. According to Temper et al. (2018), technological advancement is viewed as a direct competitor to human practise and engagement in organisations. Artificial intelligence started to rule over smart operative system as technological reliance, which becomes more indulgent. It not only facilitates and speeds up mechanical labour processes, but it also improves the range of decision-making effectiveness as well as many other higher cognitive capacities formerly thought to be limited to humans solely. Artificial Intelligence (AI) allows for the enhancement and development of goal across the board in all organisational functions. As a result, it becomes a powerful and efficient human intelligence substitute.

Leadership theories, along with the leadership models seek to have a dependable authoritative leader who can expertly manage momentary adversity, employ inventive as well as compassionate techniques to keep work flowing smoothly throughout the organisation. According to Udom (2017), the "Trait Theory of Leadership" searches for the leaders' personality traits, behavioural inclinations, and mindsets which encourage the entire virtual workforce in order to manage performance within the firm. Common aspirations must be practised and understood by all employees of the organisation in order to achieve successful and effective goals across the organisation. The firm's main objective may be accomplished through the employment of behaviour, attributes, and mindsets. According to Chamorro-Premuzic, Wade and Jordan (2018), in comparison to human intelligence, artificial intelligence is subjected to a diversified approach when it comes to being extensively assessed and questioned on incapability dimensions. Noponen (2019) opined that the change from hard to soft elements forming a leadership role is unique to the period of artificial intelligence. Personality qualities, according to research, largely determine behaviours such as interest, emotional maturity, and openness to experience. The capacity for thinking is commenced underneath the benchmarking metric in order to develop a prediction model of leadership effectiveness. At the same time that there are risks associated with AI's involvement, there are also gains associated with its successful application. Flexibility, modesty, ongoing involvement, and ambition are some of the distinguishing characteristic features. This appears to be a case of incorporating an agile leadership style. New changes are being monitored followed by the Humility, where leaders must adopt AI mechanisms to seek knowledgeable results regardless of corporate structures. Also, artificial intelligence relies on a data-driven method to perform. This necessitates a degree of reliance on supportive resources in order to operate and provide uncompromised outcomes.

As an example, the case study of Nestle can be discussed. Here Nestle company has been taken into consideration for an extensive reversion monitoring activity. By analysing the case study of Nestle company, it has been observed that a large number of virtual team work for the company, which helps in increasing the sales of Nestle. It has also been identified that both the virtual team members and virtual teams have acquired an immense benefit from the organisational success. Here, the leaders and their leadership traits play a tremendous role in managing virtual teams within Nestle.

From the overall study, I have learnt that the role of leaders and their leadership style is excessively essential for improving the workforce, as well as managing virtual teams. As virtual teams do not present physically; thus, leaders take additional care to manage them. This helped me to understand that both physical and virtual teams should be maintained emotionally. All of them should be provided equal opportunity to share their perspectives with each other. Also, I have learnt that emotional attachment with the employees helps in increasing the motivation level among the team members, which equally improves the sales and assists leaders to acquire a productive outcome. When I will be selected as a leader in my future organisation, I will be following these effective leadership styles and leadership approaches to manage my team members and to improve their skills and productivity.

3. Conclusion
Between AI Technology and humanity, the ability to have a visionary concept must be characterised by rapid technological improvement. By utilising business strategy disruption, a higher level of transparency is ensured, with the crucial role being to rely on the less transparency and more productive outcomes. Short-term objectives must be fulfilled through the organisational transformational process for organisational transformation to occur. The level of participation is crucial in distinguishing between AI as well as human leadership. Leaders who use an agile strategy keep consistently engaged by adhering to team commitments and conquering obstacles. Thus, Artificial Intelligence can be effectively engaged through the use of digital tools while managing the virtual teams. Soft abilities, along with smart technologies have become a comparison foundation for evaluating achievements throughout the workplace setting between Artificial Intelligence and human leaders as a result of the drastic transition towards leadership era.

References
Chag, J., Chaudhury, S. and Saldanha, D., 2020. Economic and psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdown: Strategies to combat the crisis. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 29(2), p.362.
Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Wade, M., and Jordan, J. (2018). As AI makes more decisions, the nature of leadership will change. Harvard Business Review, 1, 2-7. https://hbr.org/2018/01/as-ai-makes-more-decisions-the-nature-of-leadership-will-change Fuller, R.M., Vician, C.M. and Brown, S.A., 2016. Longitudinal effects of computer-mediated communication anxiety on interaction in virtual teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 59(3), pp.166-185.
Inceoglu, I., Thomas, G., Chu, C., Plans, D. and Gerbasi, A., 2018. Leadership behavior and employee well-being: An integrated review and a future research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(1), pp.179-202. Klonek, F.E., Kanse, L., Wee, S., Runneboom, C. and Parker, S.K., 2021. Did the COVID-19 lock-down make us better at working in virtual teams. Leadership assignmentSmall Group Research, p.10464964211008991.
Krumm, S., Kanthak, J., Hartmann, K. and Hertel, G., 2016. What does it take to be a virtual team player The knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics required in virtual teams. Human Performance, 29(2), pp.123-142. Lasso-Rodriguez, G. and Winkler, K., 2020. Hyperautomation to fulfil jobs rather than executing tasks: the BPM manager robot vs human case. Rom. J. Inf. Technol. Autom. Control, 30, pp.7-22.
Noponen, N., 2019. Impact of artificial intelligence on management. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 24(2).

Quisenberry, W., 2018. Exploring how emotional intelligence contributes to virtual teams: Interpretive analysis of a phenomenological study. European Scientific Journal, 14(5), pp.19-36.
Smith, M., Van Oosten, E. and Boyatzis, R.E., 2020. The best managers balance analytical and emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Review. https://membership.amavic.com.au/files/
The%20best%20managers%20balance%20analytical%20and%20emotional%20intelligence_HBR%202020.pdf
Temper, L., Walter, M., Rodriguez, I., Kothari, A. and Turhan, E., 2018. A perspective on radical transformations to sustainability: resistances, movements and alternatives. Sustainability Science, 13(3), pp.747-764.
Udom, A.O., 2017. Virtual Team Success: The Impact of Leadership Style and Project Management Experience (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).