LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS IN HYBRID AND VIRTUAL WORK ENVIRONMENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36563/w5z1jn91Keywords:
adaptive leadership, distributed leadership, psychological safety, hybrid work, IMOI frameworkAbstract
The permanent normalization of hybrid and remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed organizational leadership practice. This systematic literature review (SLR), conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines (Page et al., 2021), synthesizes 30 peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2026 to examine leadership effectiveness in hybrid and virtual work environments. Three research questions guide the review: (1) how distributed, shared, and adaptive leadership models influence team cohesion and organizational commitment; (2) what digital communication practices and HR mechanisms sustain psychological safety and engagement in non-colocated teams; and (3) how leader emotional expressivity and relational practices shape employee well-being and performance in digitally mediated contexts. An original Integrative Input–Mediator–Output–Input (IMOI) Conceptual Framework is proposed, grounded in Ilgen et al. (2005). Findings demonstrate that adaptive, transformational, and shared leadership outperform hierarchical models; communication cadence and psychological safety sustain cultural cohesion at distance; and leader emotional expressivity is a measurable lever of team performance in video-mediated environments.
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