With the digitalization and flattening of organizational management structures, the emergence of leadership has become increasingly pivotal in enhancing operational efficacy. Consequently, investigating the mechanisms underlying leadership emergence in online work teams has become a key focus in contemporary management practices. Online interaction behaviors can shape relationships among team members and influence perceptions of leadership. Employees may adopt specific interaction styles to exert leader-like influence, thereby facilitating leadership emergence. Among these behaviors, Paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs) are among the most common forms of online interaction, shaping intra-team social structures and power dynamics. Drawing from the N-adyic interaction perspective, this study examines the relationship between PDAs and leadership emergence. Using a round-robin design, data were collected at two time points from 68 teams comprising 262 members, resulting in 654 dyadic samples. The data were analyzed using a social relations model and multilevel response surface analysis. The findings are as follows: (1) The congruence of PDAs between team members positively influences relational power; (2) As PDAs between team members increase, their congruence exerts a stronger positive influence on relational power, surpassing a critical threshold and accelerating growth; (3) PDAs congruence influences leadership emergence by affecting relational power. This study extends theoretical understanding of leadership emergence and provides empirical evidence on how employees can utilize digital media to enhance leadership emergence in online environments.
