Preparing technical communication students for their role in the information economy: client-based virtual team collaboration between Irish and US students

Effective leadership is crucial to the success of global virtual teams. Team leaders have many responsibilities and face many challenges. Leaders must provide structure for team members and find ways to personalize virtual work relationships. Often, leaders of virtual teams are also charged with the responsibility of media selection and of helping team members adapt to the technologies being used for virtual collaboration. Studies of leadership can be roughly divided into two categories: 1) studies that examine the behaviors of practitioners charged with leading virtual teams in the workplace; and 2) research conducted with students participating in virtual team projects. This study examines a client-based virtual team collaboration between students at the University of Limerick (UL) in Limerick, Ireland and students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida, USA. This paper focuses on our analysis of designated and emergent leaders during the project.