BUS603: Managing People

The digitization of information on history, arts, science, business, health, and other subjects through information and communication technologies (ICT) has fundamentally transformed humans' way of life. New virtual environments have been formed for socialization and work through the World Wide Web and social media. As a result, digitalization has caused the emergence of virtual organizations as new work environments, called e-environments, new patterns of leadership, called e-leadership, and new boundaries for leader-follower relationships. Additionally, as traditional organizations increase their online presence, the roles, responsibilities, functions, and behaviors of followers and leaders are changing. The traditional gap between leaders and followers of the industrial era, leaders doing leadership and followers doing followership, does not exist anymore. Followers seem to act and behave as leaders in the virtual world. Conversely, the power dynamics between leaders and followers are changing due to distant and remote interactions. The digital platform seems to foster interdependent collaboration and has swiped away some of the organizational power and privileges from leaders and empowered and emboldened followers to lead.

The following contextual factors have contributed to the change of power dynamics between leaders and followers in virtual organizations.

First, physical reality has been replaced by virtual reality. What is real has become a philosophical debate in the digital age. Leadership attributes based on one's physical appearance (e.g., physical strengths, manner and mannerism, age, race, gender, etc). have less meaning in the leadership process than before.

Second, human interactions have moved from face-to-face to electronic communication. This has impacted the way traditional business and education is conducted. Virtual classrooms and workplaces have become the new norms for the digital age.

Third, digitization and automation have eliminated numerous managerial positions in today's digital economy. Virtual company workers nowadays need less managerial and direct supervision. The 40-hour workweek and most HR ethical conduct policies for face-to-face interactions do not apply to virtual organizations anymore. As a result, business relationships between leaders and followers have changed from top-down, or vertically influenced, to horizontal mutual collaborations and interactions.

Fourth, the era of scientific management, of "I am my job," has yielded to rapidly changing and evolving multi-tasking and collaborative job descriptions. Today's employees are expected to use multiple skills for multiple tasks to remain competitive in the job market. For instance, as the coal and fossil fuel industries are being replaced by new alternative energy enterprises, coal miners are expected to develop new technical and soft skills to be able to perform jobs that are available in today's digital economy.

Fifth, the replacement of the physical with digital interactions between leaders and followers in organizations has created new challenges for both parties. Holland et al., who examined electronic leadership challenges in healthcare organizations, have learned that global virtual leaders and teams face challenges such as isolation, confusion, language barriers, cultural differences, and technological breakdowns. They seem to echo Antonakis and Atwater, who found that leader distance affects leadership outcome. Furthermore, a study conducted by Howell et al. showed that physical distance negatively moderates the relationship between transformational leaders and followers' performance in a business unit.

Sixth, the roles and functional differences between organizational leaders and followers in virtual organizations have become blurrier. Nowadays, followers have opportunities to lead, and leaders are challenged to follow their supervisors, followers, and the constantly growing organizational policies and procedures in the workplace.

Seventh, digital natives and digital immigrants seem to speak different languages and represent different cultures. As a result, the worldview and communication gap between these generations has created new intergenerational tensions and challenges in the current digital age.

Above-mentioned seven contextual factors not only changed power dynamics between leaders and followers but also disrupted the "business as usual" mindset in organizations by created a discontinuity gap between the traditional and contemporary leadership understanding and practice. This disruptive phenomenon in mathematics is known as "jump discontinuity" within piecewise functions. Figure 1 below is an example of a function that is discontinuous at x = a, because there is a gap between L and M.

Figure 1.

A jump discontinuity in piecewise function.

Both ends of the functional lines have limitations and different values.

$\operatorname{Lim} f(x)=L$ and $\operatorname{Lim} f(x)=M$ $\qquad$ $\mathrm{E}_{1}$

$\mathrm{x} \rightarrow \mathrm{a}^{-} \mathrm{x} \rightarrow \mathrm{a}^{+}$  $\qquad$    $\mathrm{E}_{2}$

The discontinuity of Lim f(x) = L may represent the traditional leadership function, while Lim f(x) = M - the contemporary leadership in the digital age. To make the traditional leadership L and the contemporary leadership M work as a continuous function, the L-M gap must be bridged. See the use of the discontinuity gap in 9.1. Application of LFT model to Digital Leader-Followership.