Leadership emergence in face-to-face and virtual teams: A multi-level model with agent-based simulations, quasi-experimental and experimental tests

With leadership as a major predictor of team performance in both face-to-face and virtual teams, research on differences in leadership emergence in these contexts seems warranted. We offer a multi-level model analyzing the roles of degree of team virtuality and density of social network ties as boundary conditions on leadership emergence, viewed as a fundamentally social-cognitive process. Using agent-based modeling and simulations, our results suggest that virtuality moderates the relationships between cognitive ability, extraversion, and self-efficacy (as independent variables) and leadership emergence (as dependent variable); and density of network ties serves as a moderator for the associations of cognitive ability and self-efficacy with leadership emergence. Subsequent quasi-experimental and experimental tests support the role of density of network ties as a moderator for the association of extraversion with leadership emergence. Implications of these findings and future paths for research bridging the fields of leadership, team virtuality and social networks are discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.