Authentic leadership in virtual leading : the ever-growing importance of emotional intelligence in leadership positions

Abstract

As remote and hybrid work models have seemingly come to stay, and traditional work environment has undergone drastic changes so too must leading change. Working from home has brought with it plethora of positives that employees and even employers are at this point reluctant to give up, but with them many negative effects have made themselves known.

This study approaches remote working and virtual leading from the point of their biggest apparent problems and explains what academic world currently suggests as a solution, that being simply applying emotional intelligence and being an authentic person as a leader, and in doing so attempts to slightly further a subject currently still on its academic growth period.

Authentic leadership from its roots to its current state was explained and in-depth interviews with experienced virtual leaders in Finnish tech field were conducted to find out whether methods that could be called authentic leading have naturally emerged and are currently in use.

The results, while limited by the size of the study, further suggested authentic leadership to be an excellent theory with which to start approaching the world of virtual leading, as the leading philosophy currently in use by the interviewees echoed the values suggested in the literature review part of the study and heavily emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence in virtual leading.