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

I think we think that the communication is trying to give you a different answer them number one, and number six are just I mean, you can answer I would think that obviously, any kind of relationship you have is going to be based upon communication, you know that quite a few apps and different types of programs now that to increase the communication between employees and supervision, and even leaders and role models, etc. However, you can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink.

AA 12:08

would you like to elaborate on some of those resources?

Devon 12:15

You know, email is always the tried and true.

Devon 12:19

Outside of email, you would have Skype and there's a, I’m sure hundreds of other platforms that basically do the same thing which transmit audio and video. I think. I think once again, I you know, no matter how you approach it, especially with a transfer, transformational leadership style, he you're, you're depending on your actions to help motivate and achieve a specific goal. So, you will have to be very specific on how to relay that information to the workforce at the same time, relaying it without becoming overburden.

AA 13:40

All right, and this is the final question.

AA 13:44

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

Devon 13:59

While I would imagine the leaders that learn to adapt and utilize the different tools that are available in the virtual workplace, I think will be the most successful and achieving whatever goals they have set for that company or for their division or mean this goes on and on. I think if ....I think a good leader is always somewhat prepared for the want to say inevitable, I rather say prepared for The Unexpected, absolutely, whether it be just any kind of contingency plan. and I think in today's world, society is society is also blessed. In other words, I've been blessed with their, they're blessed to have the tools at their fingertips, because I can't imagine if this was say 1990 and we're going through the same issue. I would imagine the outcome and the leadership style would be muster.

AA 15:53

Okay.

AA 15:55

Well, this concludes the interview session. Do you have any additional comments or questions for me?

Devon 16:03

No, thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Interview B

AA 0:02

Ready,

AA 0:03

I will give you the green light in just a moment. Good evening, my name is AA, I am enrolled at the University of Arizona Global Campus. I am in the PhD program for organizational leadership with an emphasis and diversity and inclusion. And today I'm just going to do a brief interview asking you about some questions about transformational leadership style, and how that leadership style has been affected in the virtual workplace that we've faced in the last year dealing with a pandemic. So, to nstart off, would you like to state your name and your profession?

Marilyn 0:47

Marilyn Norfleet, I site manager for an adult education program. I retired from Brandon Williams, a tobacco Corporation where I worked in international operations for 20 years. And now I'm working in my passion area, which is education.

AA 1:08

Nice to meet you, Marilyn. And thank you for that lovely introduction. And thank you for your 20 years of service in the workforce. So, I'm sure you have a lot of experience to share with us today. Did you have any questions before we got started?

Marilyn 1:23

No. All right,

AA 1:25

great. So, the first question I'm going to ask is, how does the virtual workplace affect the transformational leadership style?

Marilyn 1:36

I think virtual workplace affects the transformational leadership style in that being a transformational leader, you tend to want to lead by example. And so, when you don't see a sermon, it's kind of hard. So, your employees don't get to see you in action. So, it's more difficult, I believe, to be a transformational leaders when your employees don't seek birthday.

AA 2:13

We'll move on to the second question. How can businesses operate using computer mediated methods?

Marilyn 2:22

Now when you say computer mediated are you saying? How can we explain that?

AA 2:32

Okay, so-In the business world, obviously, you know, you have to deal with grievances, different mediation methods on arbitration, possibly dealing with coworkers not getting along in the workplace, like toxic work environments. Do you think business can operate using just the computer alone as a mediated method to kind of how can they address these issues, if they're having those still having those issues between employees?

Marilyn 3:05

I think that this would make it more difficult to do. Because just last week, I had employees who did not get along, we had some difficulties in what I like to do is to call one employee and then get their story, and you know, get their side of what happens. And once we do that, then I can assess the situation and then perhaps, get them in there together. If

Marilyn 3:35

I believe that they will be able to get in a room and look and speak comfortably. You must use a computer and you know virtual, I think it's a lot less power is very personable, as if you were one on one with the person. I think it's going to be more difficult using the computer than if you were in a face-to-face environment.

AA 4:07

Absolutely. Thank you for that. Okay, moving on to question number three. How does the virtual workplace ensure profits when people connect over different geographical areas?

Marilyn 4:23

Well, being in the field that I'm in now, the field of education app profits, is based on enrollment. Received of completion of work. So therefore, it's working out say, in my area, face to face right now would be a better means of communication for the students then virtually. We do not get nearly as much work done. Virtually as we would if we were face to face So in the education arena dealing with the students that we use, it's much better to have face to our numbers are certainly down this year because of COVID. Because our environment is virtual right now. And our students learn better in a face-to-face environment.

AA 5:19

Okay, thank you.

AA 5:22

Excuse me.

AA 5:23

We're on Question number four. Now, how can leaders provide a leadership to ensure connection with all members of a workforce?

Marilyn 5:34

I think we can provide a leadership by having workshops which we do on a regular basis, we provide every Monday and excuse me, every Tuesday, we have our meet our FYI, choosing meetings, just to be sure that we keep the communication open between the employer and leadership, you definitely want to make sure that everyone is on board and that one is really enough the same piece of paper per se, and that they know what's going on. I think it's very important when you are in a leadership position that the people who you are responsible for, are, know what's going on

AA 6:31

to question number five, how do employees in a virtual environment, connect to transformational leadership, and apply proper behavioral patterns?

Again, that thing that your employees know, and they say, you have to keep them informed, you have to know let them know what's expected, you have to keep them informed, you have to rush, you have to be an example you have to motivate them, we do little things to motivate him like instructor of the mountain, who get the most level completions for the mob and you have to keep the lines of communication open. You just do in this virtual environment; you must do you have to go above board in order for your employees to feel that things are as close to normal as possible in this new. I just know what I’ve felt during my time working virtually and trying to keep it all together.

AA 7:35

Okay. Question number six? How are the concepts of interpersonal relationships? in virtual workplaces connected to the type of transformational leadership style?

Marilyn 7:52

Are the concepts of interpersonal relationships?

AA 7:57

So, like how, how your employees interact with each other as far as you know, the communication skills? So those are those interpersonal skills, like being a people, people person and outgoing? You know, it's hard to kind of show those skills over a virtual environment, work environment, but how these interpersonal relationships and these skills, virtually working, how they connected to the type of transformational leadership style, like, how can a transformational leader connect with those? And, you know, how can they connect their skills together? I guess virtually is what I'm trying to ask them. Sorry, I'm going to have to maybe ask my instructor well how to reword that question. But I think I'm trying to just say how to, to bring the interpersonal skills to the virtual workforce opposed to, you know, it's easy to do when you're face to face because there's interaction with other human beings. But how do you think we can bring that same interpersonal skills? virtually, how can we bring that to the virtual workforce?

Marilyn 9:10

I think what we can probably do with some of it is to group people at what I do sometimes, is if I have a strong instructor and a weak instructor, then I will add that strong instructor to help the weak instructor out to help them get their enrollment to help them get their completions. So then, we would I would do groups of people to come in together and maybe come up with some ideas of how we can make things better. And of course, we do virtually luncheons and the virtual get together and things and then the meetings and I was at supper, my instructors lead groups and stuff. So, because this brings out their leadership qualities and you know, give them an opportunity to, just to speak in and means that now just all about meetings, you know, we talk about what's going on with your family and we celebrate your good times. And then if something's going on, then we'd get together and we then come to a conclusion or something. So, we make sure that we don't let those things that we're used to seeing face to face, not get lost in, in the virtual world.

AA 10:38

Okay, so great answer. Thank you for that. And now, I have a final question. So, question number seven. How are transformational leadership outcomes affected by the type of virtual workplace environment?

Marilyn 10:54

AA 12:41

Thank you. Well, this really concludes my interview session for today. Or did you have any additional comments or questions for me?

Marilyn 12:51

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the interview process and looking forward to some of your results from the interviews.

AA 13:04

Well, thank you, I will keep you posted on the feedback I received from my instructor and let you know the final project is due next week, the final research so your answers will be utilized in the final research. It will be a transcribed copy, not the word not vocal recording of the recording itself. But just want to thank you for your time today. And I really appreciate everything that you all the information you provided. Your personal experiences as leader. Sounds like you're a transformational leader yourself. So, this was nice to sit down with you today and get this information, get this kind of feedback- I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Marilyn 13:44

You're welcome.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Plan of Analysis

For the interviews, I set a plan to record each interview for 10-15 minutes. I only have seven questions, which I calculated a response taking anywhere between one- two minutes per question. I tried organizing the questions in a way that would really organize my data. I wanted to gain the insight of my interviewee as understand what they were trying to tell me through their own experiences (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As far as the type of audience I targeted, I chose Devon because he was a federal employee that has worked from home prior to the pandemic and 100% telework for the past year. Marilyn was targeted because she is an educator, and I was curious of some of the challenges she is facing as a leader in her career, as they continue to alter schedules between being in the office and teleworking.

List of Codes

Coding is a popular technique in qualitative analysis for condensing data into

identifiable topics (Maietta et al., 2018). The codes needed to be applied in my interviews included emotions, beliefs, and actions- these codes were deductive. Defining deductive codes is important because it records the point of departure and which codes were part of my understanding before data collection started. As a result, I think I was able to code for the who, what, where, and when of the data analysis of my questions.

An example from Marilyn’s transcript depicts her emotions, beliefs and actions:

Marilyn 6:46

“Again, that thing that your employees know, and they say, you have to keep them informed, you have to know let them know what's expected, you have to keep them informed, you have to rush, you have to be an example you have to motivate them, we do little things to motivate him like instructor of the mountain, who get the most level completions for the mob and you have to keep the lines of communication open. You just do in this virtual environment; you must do you have to go above board in order for your employees to feel that things are as close to normal as possible in this new. I just know what I’ve felt during my time working virtually and trying to keep it all together.”

Thick Description

Hennink et al. (2011) explains that a thick description includes details around looking for the meaning on an individual basis, not looking for cultural norms. Ponterotto (2006) further identified that thick description provided context to envision current behaviors and anticipate future behaviors. Devon mentioned the below statement about leading a horse to the water…” obviously, he wasn’t talking about actual horses. He was speaking of the employees that aren’t maintaining an open dialogue of communication their leaders- and how they can’t be trained to do so at this point.

Marilyn referenced some of her own employees that were “fit for the job” not in a physical sense, but that they were more dedicated in keeping the students engaged because of how they interacted with students. She stated that they were “outgoing jumpy and bouncy,” which I could imagine this just meant that they were interactive compared to older employees who are not use to the virtual learning platform. The excerpts are listed below:

Devon 11:20

“ I think we think that the communication is trying to give you a different answer them number one, and number six are just I mean, you can answer I would think that obviously, any kind of relationship you have is going to be based upon communication, you know that quite a few apps and different types of programs now that to increase the communication between employees and supervision, and even leaders and role models, etc. However, you can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink.”

Marilyn 10:54

I think if you're not carefully that there will be a negative effect in transformational leadership in the virtual workplace environment. Because that it can be such a cold and callous thing. As far as virtual is concerned, if you're just in a computer all day, you're sitting there. And I noticed that when my instructors, I think this is kind of a prime example of when I go and monitor my instructor’s classrooms on Blackboard. I have some instructors who just seem to be fit for the role- they're outgoing jumpy and bouncy, keeping their students engaged. But I noticed that the more mature and I have to say older instructors are used to the paper pencil well-hidden writing on the board. And, and that kind of thing. They are not as the younger instructors who are used to this. And so therefore, I see that my old instructors are losing the enrollment in the students are not staying in their class or not able to keep them motivated to stay in the class because they write nasty and outgoing to keep a class motivated. So, I think if you're not carefully, you would definitely it would definitely be negative, there would be a negative downturn as far as the virtual workplace. No one likes a negative Nancy.

References