Virtual leadership and organisational change

This Work explores leadership virtualisation in organisational contexts and argues that virtual leaders can perform transformational leadership functions. Using the Virtual Leader Construct, it is argued that virtual leaders are more than mere organisational mouthpieces and do indeed perform leadership functions - functions that are translated from corporate leaders to the aforementioned virtual leaders. It is discussed how virtualised leadership enhances leaders¿ effectiveness in handling organisational change through the use of transformational attributes, which are enabled the more these leaders are virtualised. An example from the fast-food chain industry is proposed to critically analyse the ideas being put forward. More precisely, it is elucidated how, at McDonald¿s, transformational virtualised leadership best suited the company¿s turnaround strategy, implemented to recover from a time of crisis.