Surinder Kahai is an Associate Professor of MIS and Fellow of the Center for Leadership Studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton.
He has a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay), an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
Surinder has an active research program on leadership in virtual teams, computer-mediated communication and learning, collaboration in virtual worlds, CIO leadership, and IT alignment. His research has been published in several journals including Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Group & Organization Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Information Systems, Leadership Quarterly, and Personnel Psychology. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of Group and Organization Management, IEEE-TEM, and the International Journal of e-Collaboration. He co-edited a Special Issue of Organizational Dynamics on e-leadership and a Special Issue of International Journal of e-Collaboration on Virtual Team Leadership.
Surinder has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Surinder has spoken on and consulted with several organizations in the U.S. and abroad on the topics of virtual team leadership, e-business, and IS-business alignment, and IS strategy and planning
If I think of you as a friend, then there’s about 50% likelihood that you don’t think of me likewise. That’s disturbing, isn’t it? Well, it should be. Good friendship is vital to our physical and emotional health. A Harvard study that spanned more than 75 years concluded that the single most important determinant of our well-being, including financial, is… Read more →
A little over a month ago, I had the opportunity to attend a talk at Cornell University by Brandon Stanton, the author of Humans of New York (HONY). A very eloquent speaker, Mr. Stanton kept his audience engaged with his stories of how he has interviewed thousands of people not only in New York City but across the world. What… Read more →
Many say or assume that leadership does not change in the digital age. The scant attention paid to technology in the leadership literature is a testimony to that. But, isn’t it hard to expect that with so much of our interactions and work occurring via technology, leadership would remain unchanged? Technology is changing the fundamental human processes that underlie leadership…. Read more →
What if I told you that leading others has just become harder? And that it will become increasingly challenging in the future? How we lead others effectively is not remaining constant. Ever-changing technology that is touching more and more of our lives is making sure of that. Leadership is all about how we influence others and motivate them to meet… Read more →
On my LinkedIn profile, I received a suggestion in response to one of my recent posts that I cover a particular configuration of virtual teams. In this configuration, the team leader is in one location and the rest of the team is in another. There is some research on the effects of different configurations or distributions of members of virtual… Read more →
In my previous post, I referred you to articles about how to lead virtual teams. As educators, we often assume that people lack knowledge and once it is imparted it will be used. But there is often a big gap between knowledge and translating it into action. This knowing-doing gap exists in leadership development as well. The field of training… Read more →
Talk to those who coach leaders and they will tell you that leading virtual teams continues to be challenging. The interesting thing is that that there is fair amount of relevant research that can benefit leaders. Unfortunately, such research never makes its way to the general public. We academics do a pretty good job conducting rigorous research but we are… Read more →
My two decades of research on leadership and information technology (IT) has led me to believe that people think that leadership is not affected by IT and, consequently, the way in which leadership has worked in traditional and formal settings would work online too. Or they may believe otherwise but they lack specifics and wish to know more. Finding a… Read more →
In my last post I argued that the Internet would not curb leader misbehavior. In today’s post I suggest that the Internet and, in general, the use of information technology (IT) may actually increase leader misconduct. The Internet and IT make misconduct easier and more tempting for organizational leaders. Harvard University administrators ordered a search of email accounts of resident… Read more →
We had gathered with some friends recently and our discussion veered towards the Donald Sterling case. Someone wondered if the strong backlash on the Internet would serve as a lesson for leaders and inhibit them from misbehaving in the future. During the age when a person’s every move is a click away from being posted on the Internet, are leaders… Read more →