Ambassadorial leadership - A pilot study of a model for leading virtual teams

Existing models of leadership have been built on the assumption of face-to-face interaction, cultural homogeneity, and hierarchical organizational structures. We introduce a new model, Ambassadorial Leadership, which recognizes that different behaviors are needed for leading globally distributed virtual teams. The behaviors include those that are characteristic of an Ambassador who must be culturally sensitive, able to span boundaries created by geography and functional background, and able to help build a collective identity for the virtual team. We conducted a pilot study to examine the model and to compare our model to the transformational leadership factors. The results showed good discriminant and convergent validity as well as some indication that the new model adds some complementary dimensions to the trans formational leadership model.