Throughout this course, students have been focusing on a specific topic, collected articles and dissertations about related studies, composed a research question and subquestions, and designed a plan for collecting and analyzing data for the research study using a particular methodology.

 The goal of this assignment is to develop a draft of a full qualitative research proposal. The research proposal should be at least 15 pages (but not more than 25 pages), double-spaced, not including your title page, abstract, Appendix, and references page, and should contain the following sections:

1. A title page
2. Abstract
3. Rationale/Problem Statement: Explain your topic. Make a case for why this topic is important to you or your specialization area, etc. State your Research Problem.
4. Research Questions: Conclude your discussion of your research topic by identifying specific research question(s) and possibly sub-questions.
5. Literature Review: a minimum of four pages on 5-7 articles or edited book chapters, plus at least two dissertations: Your literature review should justify your study. Information should be drawn from appropriate sources, such as professional journals, books, and dissertations. Information gathered from literature sources must be appropriately cited, following APA guidelines. Provide a synthesized literature review on your topic making the case for why this study will add knowledge that will “fill a hole in the literature.”
6. Research Methodology: Describe what research methodology you are proposing to answer your research questions and why it is an appropriate method. In addition, include the following as a description of your research plan:

   Participant Selection: If applicable, describe the site of the data collection. Explain who your participants will be and what method you will use to select them. Be as specific as possible as if you were giving directions to someone on how to choose and obtain the participants. Include instructions on how to get informed consent from the participants.
   Data Collection: Discuss how you will collect the data (interviews, observations, documents, etc.). Tell what sort of questions you will ask (for interviews) or what you will look for (for observations) and why that will help you answer your research questions. Include the interview protocol (if applicable) including how to conduct interviews for your study and what questions will be asked in an Appendix.
   Data Analysis: Provide a description of how you plan to code and/or analyze the data.

7. Methods of achieving validity: No research project is perfect. But how are you assuring that your study is as valid as possible?
8. Potential Ethical Problems: Could your participants be harmed by your research, either in carrying it out or affecting society after it is finished? Who are the audiences for your research, and do they have “objective” concerns for the practical implications and policy recommendations that you make? Address these and other possibly relevant questions of ethics.
9. Limitations: No research covers everything. What are the obvious limitations to your study? What will not be “proven” though your study?
10. References Page: The references page should be formatted according to APA style.
11. Appendix of your data collection protocol.

Content Criteria Total: 20/20

Content includes all elements of the Research Proposal as indicated in the instructions.

Content includes at least 15 pages, not including the Title page, Abstract, and References page.

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Week Three: Research Question and Methodology

Jane Doe

The University of Arizona Global Campus

RES7410: Research Design & Methods Qualitative (QAC2107A)

Dr. John Smith

March 1, 2021

Week Three: Research Question and Methodology

Transformational leadership is important in the current workplace since it ensures employees are motivated to have better performance. Idealized influence is imperative as it connects employees with employers to create better work environments. Inspirational motivation is a consideration in any workplace environment as it ensures leaders get to connect with their employees to achieve organizational objectives. Intellectual simulation is a requirement of leaders to ensure they connect with their employees even in virtual environments. Virtual workplaces have been common in the past few months as businesses ensure continuity. This paper will showcase a qualitative research methodology that creates effective knowledge into the topic of transformational leadership.

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

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/
.

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Week Five: Analyzing Interview Data

Jane Doe

The University of Arizona Global Campus

RES7410: Research Design & Methods Qualitative (QAC2107A)

Dr. James Bond

March 15, 2021

Week Five: Analyzing Interview Data

Transformational leadership is important in the current workplace since it ensures employees are motivated to have better performance. Idealized influence is imperative as it connects employees with employers to create better work environments. Inspirational motivation is a consideration in any workplace environment as it ensures leaders get to connect with their employees to achieve organizational objectives. Intellectual simulation is a requirement of leaders to ensure they connect with their employees even in virtual environments. Virtual workplaces have been common in the past few months as businesses ensure continuity. This paper will showcase an interview data analysis on the topic of how transformational leaders have changed during virtual teams using computer-mandated communication methods. There are two main approaches to qualitative analysis: inductive and deductive. For this topic, the narrative analysis will be used. This type of qualitative data analysis will highlight important content that will best resonate with the readers of this study.

Conducting Interviews
In qualitative research there are many ways to gather data. Interviewing when doing qualitative research is generally unstructured and open-ended (Harris-Briggs, 2018). Recording and transcribing interviews is among the best methodologies in order to avoid inaccurate data and also avoiding loss of any vital data. The interviewees chosen for this interview was conducted over the phone. Both interviewees received a copy of all of the questions that would be asked, and the answers were recorded my me. I used a recorder on my laptop to capture the phone conversation. I kept the phone on speakerphone in hopes to not miss interpret any of the data. The next step was transcribing the interviews of each individual.

Questions for Interview
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?
Q 8: Any additional comments or questions for me?

Transcripts of Interviews

Interview A

AA 0:04
My name is AA, I’m enrolled at the University of Arizona Global Campus. I’m enrolled in a Ph. D. program for organizational leadership with a specialization in diversity and inclusion.
AA 0:21
Today, I’m just going to be asking you a few questions about transformational leaders. And the virtual workforce. If you don’t understand anything, I’m asking, please stop me and start off, I’m just going to give you a background on what a transformational leader is.
AA 0:38
and see if you can relate or if you know someone that’s a transformational leader, if you are yourself or transformational leader,
AA 0:47
these type of leaders are people that can be self managed without a whole lot of not a whole lot of supervision. Who can just take control of your unit, your organization without any kind of guidance. Keeping their ego in check, not hot tempered, you know, they’re interested, and perceptive to new ideas in the workplace, any kind of change that comes up within a workspace workplace, and they just kind of, you know, take care of their employees. The best they know how are you familiar with this type of leadership style?
Devon 1:28
Yes, I am.
AA 1:36
Just for the record, could you please state your first name, you don’t have to state your last name. And we’ll go ahead and get started with the questions.
Devon 1:45
My name is Devon. How you doing? Nice to meet you.
AA 1:48
Nice to meet you too. Thanks. Okay. So the very first question I want to ask you today is, how does the virtual work workplace affect the transformational leadership style? Like? Do you think that what I just described to you is about a transformational leader? Do you think that working virtually now has an effect on that type of leader?
Devon 2:10
Absolutely. I mean, I think most people usually adapt to what they see. And any kind of leadership is going to have to put some sort of, usually a roadmap in front of the people just show exactly where he’s from ago. And it’s kind of hard to do that when you’re at home. You don’t have to get to see and hear and almost feel so to speak. But is it not? I can’t say that it’s impossible to do. Obviously, during a pandemic, we’ve had some businesses thrive. And I think a lot of that is due to the leadership.
AA 3:01
Next question, how can businesses operate using just computer mediated methods only?
Devon 3:11
I think the majority of businesses will learn to adapt to the customer base, obviously, that customer is what pays the bills. So, I think that works for the majority of the businesses, but there are some businesses where you really can’t replace the one on one, I think any computer assistance that you can add into your business model is usually something that helps to increase productivity. Increased quality.
AA 3:56
Okay, thank you.
AA 3:59
Next question is how does the virtual work workplace ensure profits when people connect over different geographical areas?
Devon 4:14
Sure, profits when people connect over different geographical areas, so I can different locations or how other the agency or the organization ensure that they’re still meeting their financial demands and sales or profit, profitability?
AA 4:35
You know, for example, DLA, your agency/organization is at 100% telework capacity. And so how are they still meeting the customer demand?
Devon 4:46
Do you so by profit, you don’t necessarily mean monetary value? I’m not necessarily a bit I mean, what do you think when you think of profit I think of monetary, monetary value. And the reason why the question is got me a little confused, because I would assume that the profits that you’re getting based upon geographical would wouldn’t change, just based on the delivery of your product. I don’t know if that’s a good answer.
AA 5:29
I think that’s a great answer.
AA 5:32
Yeah, I mean, this, you know, with this is my first time interviewing in this capacity for qualitative research. And so this is something I’m learning from. So, you know, I’ll let my instructor give me feedback on how to better either eliminate that question or how to better ask that question.
Devon 5:50
I’m trying to think of a situation where just your geographical location will make a determination and your profits based upon brick and mortar versus telework.
Unknown Speaker 6:08
And outside of outside of bars and strip clubs, I mean, that’s, I can’t really think of. Okay, you know, I mean, brick and mortar stores, your if your product is hands-on and requires you to actually hold a product in hand. Okay, that’s hard to do from home.
AA 6:47
Absolutely. Gotcha. Sorry. No worries. Alright. So the next question number four, how can leaders provide a leadership to ensure connection with all members of the workforce, I think the biggest thing that any leader can do right now is obviously to continue to relate his workforce vision, but to also especially in a time like this to, to show more of a human side than of a leadership side to understand that.
Devon 7:18
Now that we are at home and a lot of things have changed, you know, it is still keeping to keep an eye on your people like surely they they’re taking you step to take breaks, even though you’re at home, you know, you still need your vacation time, you still need your peace and everything else, you know, and I would hope that if, if nothing else, that good leader would focus not only on the bottom line and the direction but to make sure that his people are going to make it through any kind of some transitional stage like this.
AA 8:04
Okay, thank you.
AA 8:08
Question number five, how do employees in a virtual environment connect to transformational leadership and apply proper behavior patterns?
AA 8:21
You have a question in front of you. I would think that as far as applying proper behavior patterns,
Devon 8:27
Again this is similar to question number one… whatever information that is being portrayed or being disseminated throughout the workplace throughout the work face or face the workspace with the employees. I think that’s going to be the determining factor on how you go forward and with direction that your employees are going to actually give you know if you again, back to the old the previous statement, you know if the only thing that comes from leadership and management and a time when they expecting so much from the employees is: Work, work, work Money, money, money, then you know, you’re creating a toxic environment.
Devon 9:32
But if they portray the right things through virtual means. I think it will the employees that are involved will continue to strive to work well.
AA 9:52
Ready, question number six. How are the concepts of interpersonal relationships embodied?
Devon 10:00
Show workplaces connected to the type of transformational leadership, leadership style. However, the concepts of interpersonal relationships and virtual workplaces connected to the type of transformational leadership style.
Devon 10:24
You need me to elaborate on this question some more.
AA 10:26
Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for your feedback.
AA 10:30
Okay, so concepts of interpersonal relationships. So like your people skills in the workspace, if you think about being in the office, as opposed to being at home, so how those relationships inside the office or in virtual workspaces connected toa transformational leader, as we talked about the in the beginning. So how was the connection with the people skills of your employees?
AA 10:59
If you were a transformational leader? What’s the connection? Do you see that the focus or connection or any concepts of interpersonal skills that you share in their office and how they related virtually now?

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.
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?

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.
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
I think if you are 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 fitful, they’re out 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.
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
Harris-Briggs, N. (2018). 7 Advantages of Technology in Business Communication. Retrieved 28 February 2021 from

7 Advantages of Technology in Business Communication

Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2011). Qualitative research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Maietta, R., Hamilton, A., Swartout, K., & Petruzzelli, J. (2018). ResearchTalk’s Qualitative Data Analysis Camp. Carrboro, NC. Retrieved from http://www.researchtalk.com/qualitative-data-analysis-camp-april-2018/
Merriam, S. B. & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation (4th ed). Jossey-Bass.
Ponterotto, J. G. (2006). Brief note on the origins, evolution, and meaning of the qualitative research concept thick description. The qualitative report, 11(3), 538-549.