Leadership and the New Public Management Active and Passive Leadership in Virtual Collaboration Networks

The tasks of leadership in large, multi-divisional organizations have always been complex, but new computer-mediated technologies for communication and information sharing offer promise to improve internal coordination and collaboration. Organization-wide platforms such as intranets and portals as well as personalized communication channels such as email, blogs and wikis are touted as making important contributions to managing and self-organizing. But what are the roles for leaders in initiating these new technologies and maintaining or adapting them over time? How do leader roles in creating platform technologies differ from those for personalized channel communications? By comparing results of interviews in 2002 and 2007 at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency we see the evolution of computer-based communication and information sharing technologies and the differences in effective leadership roles and styles over time and across technologies. 1 Professor Regan is currently serving as a Program Director in the Science and Society Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the research for this paper was supported during her time at the NSF. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not those of the National Science Foundation.