Operationalizing the definition of e-leadership: identifying the elements of e-leadership
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852316681446 |
| Author | Alexandru Roman,XiaoHu Wang,Montgomery Van Wart,Cheol Liu |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2019, Vol. 85(1) 80–97
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852316681446
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Operationalizing the
definition of e-leadership:
identifying the elements of
e-leadership
Montgomery Van Wart
Professor, California State University San Bernardino, USA
Alexandru Roman
Associate Professor, California State University San Bernardino, USA
XiaoHu Wang
Professor, City University, Hong Kong, China
Cheol Liu
Assistant Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management,
Sejong, South Korea
Abstract
The effects of the ongoing digital revolution have been profound and have been studied in
many contextssuch as government interactionwith the public (e-participation)and admin-
istrativestructures (e-administration). However, the studyof how the digital revolution has
changed leaders’ interactions with followers via information and communication technol-
ogies (ICTs) has been modest, and the theory building in organizational studies andpublic
administration has been, for the most part, nonexistent. A major reason for this lack of
progress is the inability to produce an operational definition of e-leadership that spans
telework,team, and enterprise settings.The article examines an exploratory casestudy to
propose an operational definition based on six factors (or broad e-competencies) for e-
leadership. Research limitations and future research opportunities are discussed.
Points for practitioners
.E-leadership, technology-mediated leadership, has become critically important for
leaders at all levels, both inside and outside of the organization.
Corresponding author:
Montgomery Van Wart, PhD,Professor, California State University San Bernardino, 5500 University Parkway,
San Bernardino, CA 92506, USA.
Email: mvanwart@csusb.edu
.E-leadership is as much about blending technologies and traditional communication
as it is about simply using more ICT-mediated communication.
.While there is a lot of consistency in the types of leadership skills needed in trad-
itional and virtual environments, they are not the same and the differences are
critical to success and failure.
.The areas in which competence in e-skills were most important included: e-com-
munication, e-social skills, e-team building, e-change management, e-technology
skills, and e-trustworthiness.
Keywords
administrative leadership, e-skills, ICTs and government, leadership, public sector leadership
The effects of the ongoing digital revolution, leading to the age of information in
which we now live, has been well documented i n terms of technology and people
(e.g. Grossman and Vella, 2014; Hilbert and Lopez, 2011; Yong and Gates, 2014).
Studies of the effects on governments have been plentiful in examining govern-
ment–citizen interactions via websites, social media, services delivered through the
internet, and so on (e.g. Allen and Seaman, 2015; Holzer et al., 2014; Norris and
Moon, 2005). So, too, has the study of the effects of administrative operations and
structures (Moon et al., 2014). Not only are these topics addressed in mainstream
public administration journals, but at least half a dozen new journals have emerged
that focus specifically on information and technology. However, the discussion of
how leadershi p has been affected b y the digital rev olution in admini strative setting s
has been curiously absent. There are at least three major reasons why electronically
mediated leadership—e-leadership—is important to understand and study.
First, skills in various types of communications are normally ranked at the top
of leadership lists in public agencies (see Van Wart, 2011: 294–295), with oral
communication often first. Therefore, the revolution in communications that has
continued to intensify as new technologies merge and children are raised with
complex technology from birth is of enormous impact to leaders. One effect of
the communication revolution has been the proliferation of new communication
tools from which to choose, the ease of communication, and the challenge of
communication overload and the ‘‘constant contact’’ (Avolio et al., 2014).
A second reason for the importance of e-leadership is the change in organiza-
tional patterns facilitated by the digital revolution. The rise of teams, telework, and
distributed leadership patterns relies heavily on expedited electronic communica-
tion which leaders must master, manage, and coordinate. So important are
ICT-mediated methods to new management forms that they are frequently called
‘‘collaboration tools’’ (Anthopoulos et al., 2007).
A third reason for the importance of e-leadership is the change in management,
and thus leadership, itself. The technical requirements have increased at all levels
for leaders who are expected to be competent with new information and
Van Wart et al. 81
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