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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Organ. Psychol.
Sec. Performance and Development
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/forgp.2024.1499248
This article is part of the Research Topic Implications of Remote Work on Worker's Performance View all 3 articles

Overcoming Virtual Distance: A Systematic Review of Leadership Competencies for Managing Performance in Telework

Provisionally accepted
Felipe Bravo-Duarte Felipe Bravo-Duarte Núria Tordera Núria Tordera *Isabel Rodríguez Isabel Rodríguez
  • Research Institute of Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development and Quality of Working Life [IDOCAL], University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Leadership in organizations is facing important challenges related to technological and social developments. The widespread use of teleworking and remote work requires organizations to identify and develop leadership competencies adapted to this work context. This structured literature review explores empirical evidence on theleadership competencies that facilitate telework and how they contribute to achieving high levels of performance in teleworkers.We analyzed 22 quantitative and 15 qualitative empirical articles (2000-2024) following PRISMA guidelines. We selected only research that concentrates on specific leadership competencies.The review shows that competencies oriented to decrease operational and social distance at work are positively related to individual and team task performance in organizations. There is some evidence of the relationship of those competencies with other dimensions of performance such as innovative performance or OCB. Leaders' digital communication emerges as the foremost competency, along with goal management, support and empowerment. To some extent, mechanisms such as trust, autonomy, and media usage have been found as intervening mechanisms. Moderators such as teleworkers' self-management and geographical distance have been identified.Discussion: Substantial gaps in the literature were identified, including the lack of longitudinal studies, limited research on contextual/adaptive performance, and lack of attention to adapting leadership competencies to digital settings. The findings provide guidelines for leadership training and development interventions tailored to telework, considering that traditional leadership competencies may need adaptation for telework and consider specific issues in this context.

    Keywords: Telework, Remote work, Virtual work, Leadership, competencies, performance, Systematic review

    Received: 20 Sep 2024; Accepted: 11 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bravo-Duarte, Tordera and Rodríguez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Núria Tordera, Research Institute of Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development and Quality of Working Life [IDOCAL], University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.