The use of virtual teams is prevalent in contemporary organizations. Researchers have examined the impact of different leadership styles (directive and supportive) on group dynamics and subordinates’ behaviors when used by formal leaders. Given the differential roles of directive and supportive leadership coupled with the challenges posed by a virtual team setting on collaboration, it is unclear whether these leadership styles engender leader emergence in highly fluid virtual teams. This study focuses on the interplay of directive and supportive leadership styles and interpersonal helping on leader emergence in highly fluid virtual teams. Our study participants were first-year business graduate students at a business college with geographically distributed campuses. The teams were charged with a project that was decision-making with a deadline. All the teams employed social media technologies as their predominant means to collaborate on their tasks. Surprisingly, our results indicate that a high directive with low supportive leadership enabled leader emergence. Further, highly directive and supportive leadership did not impact leader emergence. In addition, a highly directive leadership with high interpersonal helping has enabled leader emergence. These results indicate that a highly task-focused approach (directive leadership and interpersonal helping), rather than one that intertwines with relational elements (directive and supportive leadership), contributes to leader emergence in highly fluid virtual teams for a time-constrained task. It defies the notion that seemingly complementary leadership styles (directive and supportive) will result in leader emergence. This research underscores that careful consideration is required when combining leadership behaviors to emerge as a leader in highly fluid virtual teams.
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