Self Determination Theory to Explain Charismatic Leadership in Virtual Teams: Proposing an Integrated Model

The goal of this paper is to review the concept of Charismatic Leadership in virtual teams within the self- determination framework and develop a model to explain how charismatic leadership caused self-determined behaviors. Since virtual context is reasonable for self-determined behavior, it is assumed that, charismatic leadership in virtual teams promotes autonomous motivation in followers and finally leads self-determined behavior by way of satisfying follower need for autonomy, need for competence and need for relatedness. The objective of this paper is to widening the understanding of charismatic leadership in a different context (i.e. in virtual teams) with the supplement of best validated theory of motivation. The implication of this paper provides theoretical explanation of effects of charismatic leadership from the perspective of Self Determination Theory (SDT) which will be a novel interpretation to both these theories. Additionally this investigation raises understanding of motivational effects of charismatic leadership in the virtual context.