Virtual Leadership: Managing Remote Working in the New Normal Era

Abstract

The extensive and growing population of remote workers has left traditional leaders with many challenges managing a team remotely, and virtual leadership has been introduced as a remote management style. The increasing use of workplace surveillance technology in organisations has resulted in considerable debate over the years. This qualitative study aimed to explore virtual leadership in practice and investigate the potential of using workplace surveillance technology to support effective virtual leadership. The results of the research will provide an answer to the following question: “How can workplace surveillance technology support virtual leadership in the new normal era?”.
Existing research suggests that there is no single theory for virtual leadership and that more research should be conducted. The use of workplace surveillance technology lacks practical evidence and does not keep pace with continual change, vast technological advancements, and expectations by followers for transparency. The methodology used for this research consists of ten in-depth interviews with leaders and followers from the same organisation within three different sectors. Interviews were conducted utilising a semi-structured interview format. They produced data based on the lived experiences of virtual leadership and participants' views on workplace surveillance technology relating to whether virtual leaders could become more effective by implementing that.
The findings of this research supported that there is not a single virtual leadership style, and continual change was recognised as an ongoing theme. Acceptance of change, adaptability, and personal attention were necessary for successful virtual leaders. The participants indicated that they saw some potential in using workplace surveillance technology for virtual leaders under certain conditions. The research has found that threats to using sensitive data information should be considered before deployment. When considering the needs and threats, participants argued that this could result in more effective virtual leadership depending on how virtual leaders act upon the information being gathered. Therefore, it is recommended to consider the threat that there is not a standard design of workplace surveillance technology and the potential of this technology is context-specific. Additional research should be conducted to evaluate virtual leadership, in general, to understand motivations and barriers to widespread adoption regardless of the use of workplace surveillance technology. Further research should be conducted on the operational and practical issues surrounding workplace surveillance technology in virtual work environments.