Understanding Trust in Virtual Teams Through Leadership Digital Competency in AI-Enabled Workplaces: A Conceptual Framework

This study develops a theoretical model explaining the role of leadership digital competence (LDC) in virtual teams. The rapid digital transformation and the increasing trend of remote working have made virtual teams an important organizational structure. But they also create big challenges for coordination, communication, and trust between people. Previous research has focused on personal and technological factors in virtual team effectiveness, but has paid little attention to the influence of digital leadership on psychological processes and team interactions. Based on the Input - Process - Output (IPO) framework, this study proposes four key relationship; (1) LDC positively influences psychological safety; (2) LDC positively influences knowledge sharing; (3) LDC, psychological safety, and knowledge sharing positively influence trust in virtual teams; and (4) perceived virtually moderates these relationships, impacting the strength of LDC’s influence on psychological safety and knowledge sharing. The proposed framework extends existing virtual team research by conceptualizing LDC as a critical leadership input that impacts key processes in teams and thus provides a more complete account of how leadership affects virtual team effectiveness, beyond individual and technological perspectives. In practical terms, the proposed model provides a base for the development of LDC to establish trust, encourage knowledge sharing, and improve team performance in digital working environments.