Conclusion
The theoretical analysis presented in our study contemplates that more businesses will
attempt to embark on or enhance the use of VTs. Noting that the widespread practice
of VTs has brought a paradigm shift in business thinking and also that such practices
are predicted to grow in the future, it is reasonable to foresee managers attempting to
apply the notions of leadership capabilities in managing VTs. This paper contributes
to a growing body of literature in three broad ways. First, the paper explicates the
leadership capabilities by examining available literature on transactional and
transformational leadership. The capabilities are categorized into cognitive, social, and
behavioral types. Second, these capabilities are related to the various phases of VT
stages. We expect this linking will help the academic community of organizational
behavior and strategy theorists, as well as practitioners of business. Researchers will
find the analysis helpful in understanding and theorizing on VTs and other firm level
strategic moves that involve leadership. Business leaders will find the depicted
relations helpful in determining leadership capability requirements for recruiting
virtual leaders and training future leaders to develop these capabilities. Finally, the
paper extends current knowledge in organizational leadership and strategizing for
competitive advantage through the practice of virtual work.
Being one of the early attempts in linking VTs with leadership, we are aware that
our conceptualization of the proposed relations is not without limitations. For example,
it needs to be clarified what other leadership theories, other than transactional and
transformational, can enrich our understanding of VT leadership. In this paper, we
have used transactional and transformational leadership theories only to recognize
specific leadership capabilities. A second limitation is the conceptualization of three
capability categories. To what extent are these distinct and how much do they overlap,
needs to be clarified. A third area of limitation relates to the capability-virtual stage
linkage as enshrined in the five propositions. Exactly how strong are these relations? It
is obvious that these and other related queries can be addressed not only through
better theorizing but also by empirical testing of the propositions presented in the
paper. We reiterate our hopes of witnessing more in-depth examination of these
theoretical relationships that will provide us with a deeper understanding of VT