Leadership has been recognized to have a big influence on global virtual team (GVT) success, but the influence of the organizational context on GVT leaders' possibilities to succeed in leading GVTs in the team's different lifecycle stages has been omitted. In this study, which was conducted as a qualitative multiple case study, we identified five factors of organizational support which influence these possibilities: the way in which the GVT is created, the purpose for which the GVT is created, the availability of funding for the GVT, the amount of control over the GVT's ways of working, and the way the GVT is being ended. In addition, we provide a model which consists of organizational support and GVT leaders' skills and which could guide future research on GVT leadership.