BUS603: Managing People

The literature clearly indicates the leader-centeredness of all four characteristics of digital leadership, while little or no mention is given to the role of digital followers in the digital age. However, what is intriguing is that the digital environment, as a new organizational structure, abolishes the traditional hierarchical structures and relationships between static and positional leaders and followers by turning them into fluid leader-followers and authentic humans. Additionally, definitions and concepts of digital leadership seem to equally apply to those who lead and those who follow in virtual organizations. For instance, to overcome the challenges and paradoxes of e-leadership, such as the individual vs. the community, swiftness vs. mindfulness, top-down vs. grassroots, micro vs. macro perspectives, and flexible vs. steady, Pulley and Sessa suggest that people in organizations ought to participate in leadership at all levels. This means that digital leadership (and followership) is and should be everyone's business, not just the positional leader of the organization.

Furthermore, Annunzio seems to advocate for inter-generational collaborations between e-leaders among Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers to sustain the traditional structures of corporate America. As seen above, the digitization has already created a shared platform for intergenerational collaboration because digital immigrants (often employers) will always need the support of digital natives (often employees) to transform organizations to meet the challenges of the digital age.

There is a significant and growing body of literature on followership, multiple-role identities, and process-based, distributed, "shared," "collective," "collaborative," "relational," and "co-" leadership that are more follower-inclusive and relational-based, including inclusive and adapted leadership. They will be considered below as alternative approaches to leader-followership in the digital age. These models seem to best apply to virtual and cyber situations that organizations and communities face in today's digital age.