Rethinking leadership in remote work: evidence for limited effects of leadership styles and communication media on remote work satisfaction

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Purpose This study examines whether leadership styles (i.e. transformational, servant, and exploitative) predict remote work satisfaction and whether these relationships are moderated by communication media richness. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 753 remote working German employees (µ = 41.6 years) were analyzed using multiple regression, moderation, and exploratory ANOVA. Findings Leadership styles explained a trivial share of variance in remote work satisfaction and showed no significant direct or moderating effects. Communication media did not moderate these relationships, and media richness was not associated with satisfaction across low, medium, or high levels. Exploratory analyses indicated weak and inconsistent patterns, including slight positive associations for transformational leadership and servant leadership under high media richness and negative patterns for exploitative leadership; however, these effects were not robust. Overall, results provide limited evidence for associations between leadership styles, communication media, and remote work satisfaction. Originality/value Findings indicate that established leadership styles have limited explanatory power for remote work satisfaction in digitally mediated environments. This supports a boundary-condition perspective, suggesting that reduced social presence, fewer nonverbal cues, and asynchronous communication may attenuate the observable impact of leadership behaviours on remote work satisfaction.

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