Communication situation and positioning in virtual meetings - rhetorical implications for interpersonal management communication

Based on student reflections on participation in an on-line course, this paper seeks to illuminate some of the situational conditions and participation strategies during virtual meetings. Technology prevents participants to act at meetings as usual under physical circumstances. Instead mediated meetings allow participants to apply alternative strategies for self-representation and participation in the virtual room. Video-based on-line meetings, for instance, invites participants to position themselves visually based on a specific selection of background and surroundings, such as an office, a living room or just a plain white wall. Seen from a rhetorical perspective, the communication situation in a virtual meeting consists of all the participants’ individual frameworks on a screen which must converge into a context suitable for interpersonal communication, interaction and collaboration. It is argued, that virtual leadership must respond to the situation with rhetorical sensitivity by corresponding attentively and carefully to the conditions, positions and experiences of the particular followers in order to evoke their responsiveness and build commitment.