Teamführung im digitalen Zeitalter: Perspektiven auf Technologien und Implikationen für die Teamführung

Was sind die Implikationen von digitalen Technologien und digitalen Arbeitsumgebungen für das Führungshandeln in Teams? Ein Forschungsbericht unterscheidet vier Perspektiven und liefert zwölf Empfehlungen.

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Sabine Seufert hat mich kürzlich auf einen interessanten Artikel in der Zeitschrift “Leadership Quarterly” aufmerksam gemacht: “Leading teams in the digital age: Four perspectives on technology and what they mean for leading teams” von L. Larson und L. DeChurch, zwei Kommunikationswissenschaftlerinnen an der Northwestern University, USA.

Die Autorinnen fassen den Startpunkt für ihre Arbeit wie folgt zusammen:

In order to more concretely understand the leadership implications of technologies, we reviewed the research on team leadership as it relates to digital technology. In doing so, we identified four perspectives on the role of technology in teams. These four perspectives are depicted in [Abb. 1] along with an approximate timeline of when we started to see research reflective of each technology view. Each of these views makes a distinct core assertion about the role of leadership in supporting teamwork.

Larson / DeChurch 2020

Die vier Perspektiven können wie folgt formuliert werden:

• Digitale Technologie als Kontext (bzw. begrenzende Rahmenbedingung) für Teamarbeit und Teamführung
  Beispiel: Gezielte Nutzung von digitalen Werkzeugen zur Kompensation des fehlenden Austauschs face-to-face;
• Digitale Technologie als Quelle von Praktiken des Arbeits- und Führungshandelns
  Beispiel: Nutzung der Optionen digitaler Technologien für emergentes (informelles) Führungshandeln in der Moderation von Online-Communities;
• Digitale Technologie als Medium bzw. als Auslöser für die Entstehung und Entwicklung von Teams
  Beispiel: Digitale Redaktions- oder Content-Management-Systeme als Kristallisationspunkte für die Entwicklung von informellen Arbeitsgruppen;
• Digitale Technologie als (gleichberechtigte) Team-Kolleg:in
  Beispiel: Zusammenarbeit und Führungshandeln in gemischten Teams, bestehend aus Menschen und Robotern bzw. Software-Agenten.

Larson / DeChurch stellen diese vier verschiedenen Perspektiven in den Kontext der Technologie-Entwicklung in den letzten 30-40 Jahren:

Aus ihrer umfangreichen Analyse von Forschungsliteratur zu leiten Larson und DeChurch dann insgesamt 12 Schlüsse für das Handeln von Führungskräften ab:

Technology as team context
#1. Team leaders need to compensate for the challenges that virtual teams face in developing functional affective and cognitive states and enacting team processes, challenges that are created by virtual collaboration (remote communication through digital tools, diversity, etc.).
#2. Shared leadership forms are better than vertical forms for helping virtual teams develop functional affective and cognitive states and enact team processes.

Technology as sociomaterial team practices
#3. Team leaders can shape technology practices in order to foster the development of functional affective and cognitive states and enactment of team processes.
#4. Team technology practices can shape the emergence of team leadership structures, and the stability versus fluidity of team leadership structures.

Technology as team creation medium
#5. Team leaders can use team formation technologies in order to foster the development of functional affective and cognitive states and enactment of team processes.
#6. Digital technologies used during team formation can serve a team leadership role by fostering the development of functional affective and cognitive states and enactment of team processes.
#7. Team leaders can use team formation technologies to manage team boundaries both during team formation, determining who’s on the team, and also during subsequent team phases through the periodic reevaluation of team membership.
#8. Digital technologies can shape the leadership structures that emerge in teams.
#9. Team members’ actions and interactions during team formation within digital technologies can play a role in who emerges as a team leader.

Technology as a teammate
#10. Team leaders need to foster functional affective and cognitive states and behavioral processes among human and synthetic team members so that human-agent teams can perform effectively.
#11. Team leaders need to ensure that team members have a shared understanding of the limits of technology and when control needs to be taken back by human team members.
#12. Team members’ interactions with synthetic teammates can play a role in shaping who emerges as a leader, and the overall leadership structure that emerges in human-agent teams.

Larson / DeChurch 2020

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Larson, Lindsay; DeChurch, Leslie (2020): Leading Teams in the Digital Age: Four Perspectives on Technology and What They Mean for Leading Teams. In: The Leadership Quarterly 31 (1), S. 101377. DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.101377.