Computer-Mediated Leadership: Deficits, Hypercharisma, and the Hidden Power of Social Identity**

Zusammenfassung

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This paper sketches a theory of computer-mediated leadership, drawing on research on computer-mediated communication (CMC) and leadership. The forecast it makes for computer-mediated forms of leadership is mixed. Leadership interactions that focus on the personal and dyadic level are predicted to be deficient under conditions of CMC as compared with face-to-face interaction. Two notable exceptions are identified. If message or task equivocality is low, CMC can be more efficient than face-to-face interaction. The second exception concerns attributions of charisma: For leaders who present themselves skilfully and strategically in CMC, followers' impressions are hypothesised to become accentuated or hypercharismatic. The above effects are all hypothesised to occur under conditions of high salience of the personal identities of both leader and follower. If, however, the leader and follower belong to the same salient and positively evaluated group, the effects of CMC are hypothesised to be positive. These effects are a direct result of integrating the SIDE-theory of computer-mediated communication and Hogg's social identity theory of leadership.

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Auszug

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Computer-Mediated Leadership: Deficits, Hypercharisma, and the Hidden Power of Social Identity**

Introduction

Despite an initial 'Virtuality Frenzy' in the mid-1980s to late 1990s, during which the advent of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) in organisations was touted as a precursor to increased organisational democratisation, decentralisation and overall efficiency, fully non-hierarchical, boundary-less, or even virtual organisations are still rare (e.g. Dutton 1999). However, what can be stated with certainty is that firms are now acquiring more virtual characteristics than they had in the past (e.g. DeSanctis/Monge 1999). The use of a computer for communication purposes in general, and email communication in particular, has become an integral part of organisational communication across a broad range of sectors. Both theory and practical experience suggest that these developments do not render leaders obsolete, but on the contrary pose a fundamental challenge to conventional conceptions of what leadership is (see Avolio/Kahai/Dodge 2000).

It therefore seems surprising that theories of computer-mediated leadership are rare. Although research in organisational and social psychology, as well as in information systems, has looked in some detail at computer-mediated communication (CMC), and although leadership has for some time been an immensely popular topic in organisational psychology, these two streams of research have so far remained quite distinct. Theoretical and empirical work on the likely consequences of CMC for management and leadership is still patchy (Dodge/Webb/Christ 1999; Fjermestad/Hiltz 1998). Avolio, Kahai, and Dodge (2000) have suggested a nomological framework for the understanding of 'e-leadership', a concept that is for all practical purposes identical to what we label computer-mediated leadership. The reason for our preferring the term 'computer-mediated leadership' is that we want to highlight the relevance of research on computer-mediated communication (CMC) and at the same time avoid confusion with a notion of e-leadership as a more global process that is aimed at general organisational effectiveness and necessarily involves a complete restructuring of an organisation (Annunzio 2001; Kissler 2001; Mills 2000), or as the leadership of a whole industry in an age of electronic commerce (e.g., Shulman 2001). The framework suggested by Avolio et al. (2000) draws on DeSanctis and Poole's (1994) Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), which is in turn grounded in Gicldens' (1979) structuration ...

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