Due 3/22 by 11PM (EST) APA format 15-25 pages *Previous Week's Papers Included in the attachments for reference*

This paper will justify the reasons why transformational leadership is important in the workforce, especially during a time where virtual work has become the normalcy for many organizations. It is imperative to apply a suitable research methodology to ensure proper insight into the topic of virtual workplaces. There is a relationship between leadership style and the outcome of employees in any type of environment. It is necessary to conduct research related to the types of outcomes of people and their behaviors that relate to business activities.

The inspiration for the proposed research is due to the current environment whereby thousands of employees have been forced to shift to online operations. For instance, 71% of Americans have been forced to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and its effects on businesses (Parker et al., 2020). Employees have been forced to transform their activities to ensure they earn a living regardless of environmental issues. In this regard, leaders have had to transform their styles to suit the current environment. Companies require transformational leaders to promote growth regardless of any environmental factors (Anthony & Schwartz, 2017). This qualitative research methodology will assess the relationship between all factors to determine how virtual environments can receive appropriate outcomes with transformational leaders.

Research Questions and Justification for the Research

Research Questions

The topic of transformational leadership will be studied using the following research questions:

Q 1: How Does the Virtual Workplace Affect the Transformational Leadership Style?

Q 2: How can businesses operate using computer mediated methods?

Q 3: How does the virtual workplace ensure profits when people connect over different geographical areas?

Q 4: How can leaders provide e-leadership to ensure connection with all members of a workforce?

Q 5: How do employees in a virtual environment connect to transformational leadership and apply proper behavioral patterns?

Q 6: How are the concepts of interpersonal relationships in virtual workplaces connected to the type of transformational leadership style?

Q 7: How are transformational leadership outcomes affected by the type of virtual workplace environment?

The research will primarily focus on information related to project management, business, information technology, virtual communication, and performance of teams. The information for this paper will gather data from the qualitative documents created within the last five years to promote suitability for the current environment. The qualitative research method is important for this study since it performs market research that creates accurate data related to social and behavioral aspects (Behling, 2019).

Justification for Research

Information technology has transformed all communication methods in the current environment. Many workplaces have adopted the technological means of communication and virtual operations since they are faster and more accurate. Computer-mediated communication is effective since it provides communication in many platforms such as online and virtual platforms. Employees have communicated and performed activities on the online platforms to ensure their outcomes are suitable for business continuity and creation of profits for companies. In this regard, transformational leadership is critical since it provides an effective method of effective communication for virtual environments.

Communication and technology are critical components in virtual environments since they ensure outcomes of each employee match their leaders’ expectations (Harris-Briggs, 2018). Access to internet-enabled computers is important since it ensures all employees can perform job-related duties and tasks. Remote access of organizational platforms is critical since it provides the capability of enhancing outcomes and connection to business environments. Employees can perform duties even when they are not on organizations’ premises. It is possible to ensure business continuity in this way. The proposed research will provide insight into how transformational leadership promotes the outcomes of employees in the virtual environments.

Research Methodology

The qualitative research methodology is effective in this study since it will be possible to perform qualitative data collection from sources that are non-numeric. This is essential in the study of transformational leadership because the concept is connected to the behaviors of people in professional environments. It would be feasible to assess how people connect with the type of style that leaders use. The research questions will reveal answers using a qualitative research methodology, meaning it will be possible to study the interviews, observations, record keeping, case studies, and textual analysis to create the comprehension of how transformational leadership is connected to virtual work environments.

Qualitative research methodology will be applicable in the study since it provides a method of comprehending how data collection is applicable in the study of leadership (Behling, 2019). The research technique is applicable in the topic of transformational leadership since human employees and leaders are the direct source of information. It would be possible to acquire information through interviews of employees using virtual modes of communication. Interviews are effective since they promote insight into how employees are affected by the types of activities surrounding them. The proposal for the research is to ensure employees that are connected to the remote systems explain how their activities have gotten affected.

Observations are important since they provide the research topic with clear insight into how e-leadership influences employees in the proper way. The proposal is to observe employees’ activities in the virtual environments to determine how they connect with organizational outcomes. It would be possible to create a clear comprehension of duties that employees perform in the virtual environments and how they differ with similar duties in physical environments. Overreliance on a single source of data would be scrapped out since it would be possible to ensure employees activities are discovered even when they are forced to change their normal routines. Observation would be possible once informed consent is acquired since the person conducting the qualitative research will build a relationship with participants and ensure accurate outcomes.

Case studies would be applicable in this research project since they offer effective textual analysis. There are common methods of explaining how employees’ behaviors change due to the types of environment. It is imperative to use the approach of case studies since employees’ behaviors often change depending on the types of environments they are exposed to. For instance, Stadtlander et al., (2017) conducted a case study that studied how employee behaviors transformed while on online platforms. The study analyzed various people and the demographics include male and female employees within the age range of 30 to 71. The employees were selected as they performed full time and part time at their workplaces. This case study reveals that work environments on online platforms require collaboration between employees, leaders, and the type of environment the people are exposed to.

The research methodology will also apply textual analysis as a tool of gaining insight into how employees in the past have reacted to organizational activities. There are articles online which create comprehension of how employees react to the types of environments. It will be possible to study the websites and articles and assess how online platforms have promoted the increase in knowledge of leaders. Textual analysis is effective since it provides comprehension of how people understand communication methods in any environment (Allen, 2017). The texts that will get studied will create proper comprehension of transformational leadership and its effect on employee productivity. The leadership style of transformational leadership would get assessed in connection to how existent texts provide knowledge into the topics of online work environment.

After the data collection period, it will be possible to perform qualitative data analysis using documents that have gotten published after the unique qualitative data collection methods get conducted. This paper will perform qualitative data analysis on documents available online since they offer accurate and suitable data. Text analysis is the main method that will get applied in this paper since it provides insight into all concepts involved in the research topic.

Research Plan

Participant Selection

The proposed research would require selection of participants in different geographical areas to determine how they get affected by the mode of communication and existent leaders. The participants applicable in this case are people that have shifted from face-to-face operations to virtual environments. The persons are suitable since they would have gotten used to physical operations. The transformation to virtual environments is bound to create constraints to employees who are used to a certain method of working. The participants would get selected from work companies that have gotten affected by Covid-19. It would be possible to find such people in the current environment since Covid-19 has affected every individual on the planet in different ways.

The proposed selection process is to find persons in the local environment that have gotten affected by Covid-19 in terms of employment. The process is to post a picture on social media since many individuals in the current environment use social media daily. There are “2.74 billion monthly active users” on social media (Tankovska, 2021). This means the platform would be effective in selecting participants for the research. A poster will get created and provide information related to the research where employees who have been affected by virtual workplaces will provide their personal experiences. Potential research participants would be asked to take part in the research only after they provide informed consent. This consideration is important since it ensures the participants would not complain about the research process. A Google form would be created once the poster gets posted to acquire the details of participants. Since the research is based on online work environments, acquisition of information using online methods is suitable since it provides familiar method of communication. The participants would provide required knowledge even when they do not connect physically with the person conducting the research. The Google forms used in the initial research process would be suitable in acquiring information of the participants that would be suitable in the research process.

Data Collection

As suggested above, the data collection method for this research would be textual analysis, case studies, interviews, and observations. The interview would include questions that would ask participants how their mental aspects have gotten affected due to virtual workplaces. The transformation from physical environments to virtual environments is bound to affect employees. The questions for the research would be closed ended to acquire direct information related to the research topic. The closed ended questions would seek information related to how employees have adapted to technological methods of communication and work performance. The questions would also seek information related to how transformational leadership is a consideration when dealing with employees in a virtual environment

Observation would be an applicable research technique since it would be possible to assess employees that have provided informed consent as they perform work related duties. Observation provides holistic understanding since it is possible to assess how employees deal with environmental factors in the virtual environments.

Appendix

Interview Guide Template

1. Invitation and Briefing

2. Setting the stage

3. Welcome

4. Questions to ask

· How does online working affect your mental status?

· How do you feel about continuing to work online even when normal operations resume?

· How does your home environment affect how you perform at work?

· What is the effect of virtual work on your salary?

5. Candidate questions

· Which questions do you have about the research?

· How do you feel about the research institution?

· Do you have any questions about the hiring process using online platforms?

6. Wrapping up

7. Scoring

References

Allen, M. (2017). The sage encyclopedia of communication research methods (Vols. 1-4). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc doi: 10.4135/9781483381411

Anthony, S. D. & Schwartz, E. I. (2017). What the Best Transformational Leaders Do. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do .

Behling, C. J. (2019). Project success in virtual projects: A qualitative study of leadership behaviors (Order No. 22583087). Available from ProQuest Central. (2284212999). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/dissertations-theses/project-success-virtual-projects-qualitative/docview/2284212999/se-2?accountid=32521

Harris-Briggs, N. (2018). 7 Advantages of Technology in Business Communication. Retrieved 28 February 2021 from https://www.avocor.com/blog/7-advantages-of-technology-in-business-communication/ .

Parker, K., Horowitz, J. M. & Minkin, R. (2020). How the Coronavirus Outbreak Has – and Hasn’t – Changed the Way Americans Work. Retrieved 1 March 2021 from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/12/09/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-and-hasnt-changed-the-way-americans-work/

Stadtlander, L., Sickel, A., La Civita, L., & Giles, M. (2017). Home as Workplace: A Qualitative Case Study of Online Faculty Using Photovoice. Journal of Educational Research & Practice, 7(1), 45–59.

Tankovska, H. (2021). Global social networks ranked by number of users 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2021 from https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ .