Seyyed Ali Akbar Afjahi; Vahid Khashei Varnamkhasti; Hamed Dehghanan; Artimass Massveh Mobarakeh
Abstract
In today’s society, important human interactions takes place through information technology, and this requires a reconstruction of leadership concept. The purpose of this study is to provide a model for virtual leadership. This study is fundamental in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of ...
Read More
In today’s society, important human interactions takes place through information technology, and this requires a reconstruction of leadership concept. The purpose of this study is to provide a model for virtual leadership. This study is fundamental in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of data collection. In order to conduct this research, the multi-grounded theory method has been used, which is a combination of grounded theory and meta-synthesis. Based on set criteria, 32 researches were selected and the relevant codes were identified. In addition, 15 academic scholars in the field of leadership and communication were interviewed. These scholars were selected by theoretical sampling method and data analyzed in the form of grounded theory. As a result, the following concepts and categories were extracted: emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, continuous learning, resilience, electronic charisma, empathy and originality (personal traits); Adaptability, openness to experience, risk-taking, social and criticism (personality traits); Digital writing skills, digital literacy, audience recognition, persuasion, personal branding and social networking (communication skills); and Electronic trust building, change management, remote penetration, cognitive ,empowerment and interpersonal skills were identified as behavioral skills. The findings of this study can help guide people in cyberspace who interact with their followers through electronic media.IntroductionThe new virtual environment and communications due to technologies bring new meaning to leadership. Revising some aspects of leadership in a virtual environment is necessary. In this context, virtual leadership is a new kind where leaders mediate human interaction through information and communication technology (Freeman,2017:1-2). Similar to leadership in face-to-face contexts, virtual leadership can be transmitted via traits, behaviors, cognitions, and affect. Each of these mechanisms provides unique ways for leadership influence to be transmitted and received by others and offers implications for virtual leadership theory. Keep in mind that virtual leadership is part of the broader domain of science and practice of leadership, which must be examined coherently (Torre & sarti,2020:5).It should be noted that research on virtual leadership is at an early stage. Regarding Reichers and Scheider’s three-stage concept development model, which includes introduction/elaboration, evaluation/augmentation, and consolidation/accommodation, the study of virtual leadership is at the introduction/elaboration stage. In addition, the concept of virtual leadership often examines the dominant concepts in leadership by focusing on the existing theories of leadership. Although leadership goals have not changed, virtual leaders pursue the achievement of goals through people and in a virtual environment, which in turn has changed the traditional leader-follower relationship. Considering the above explanations and existing research gaps, we intend to investigate the characteristics and skills of virtual leaders.Materials and MethodsAlmost half of the research conducted in this field is based on the content analysis of articles, and the existing literature in the field of virtual leadership that specifically introduces virtual leadership through empirical studies is relatively rare. In this article, by using the method of multi-grounded theory and using the opinions of experts, the characteristics and skills of virtual leadership have been investigated. For this purpose, articles, books, reliable foreign and domestic websites were reviewed. Finally, 175 researches and texts related to the topic were identified. In the second step, documents were qualitatively reviewed. After considering the filters, 32 studies were finally selected to enter the meta synthesis stage. The retrieved articles were evaluated in terms of content quality. The third step in meta synthesis is the analysis and integration of qualitative findings. In this step, the extracted codes have been converted into concepts, and concepts into categories. The basis of the classification of these codes is built on the similarity of different codes with each other. In the next step, extracted concepts and categories are included in the interview. At this stage, in order to collect data, interviews were conducted with academic experts and researchers in the field of leadership and communication, especially in the virtual field, who were selected by theoretical sampling method. After completing the first interview, the analysis process began and finally the virtual leadership pattern was designed.Discussion and ResultsA detailed review of the selected studies led to the extraction of 47 codes and the review of the interviewees' opinions led to the identification of 67 codes. After combining the codes obtained from the meta synthesis stage and the grounded theory, different categories were linked to each other and to the central variable. Finally, based on the analysis, 4 main categories, 24 concepts and 73 signs were obtained. The following concepts and categories were extracted in the result: Emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, continuous learning, resilience, electronic charisma, digital empathy and originality as categories related to personal traits; Adaptability, openness to experience, risk-taking, social and criticism as categories related to personality traits; Digital writing skills, digital literacy, audience recognition, persuasion, personal branding and social networking as categories related to communication skills; and Electronic trust building, electronic change management, remote penetration, cognitive,empowerment and interpersonal skills were identified as categories related to behavioral skills ConclusionsThe pervasive features of information and communication technology have penetrated more strongly in the relationship between leaders and followers in the recent decades.one of the questions raised is that when relationships are formed based on network interactions, how does leadership change? In this regard, leaders, researchers and management theorists have concentrated on the “How” and the “What” but have neglected the “Who”. On the other hand, the studies have focused on some general competencies of virtual leaders and so far a comprehensive classification of the traits and skills required for virtual leadership has not been provided. The main goal of this research is to identify the characteristics and skills of virtual leadership, and for this purpose, Multi-Grounded Theory have been used. The focus of this theory is related to its various sources of knowledge and information. This type of information is both for the creation of the theory and a guarantee for its validity.The research results show that although there is still a belief in the importance of traditional leadership qualities, there is a recognition that amplification of various elements is needed as technology is integrated into the context.
Seyed Ali Akbar Afjei; Mehdi Yazdanshenas; Fatemeh zargaran khouzani
Abstract
Banking industry is one of the most important service provider industries in Iran. Given the crucial role of human resources and employee behavior in Quality Management Services, the aim of this study is to survey the impact of perceived organizational support, psychological empowerment and leader-member ...
Read More
Banking industry is one of the most important service provider industries in Iran. Given the crucial role of human resources and employee behavior in Quality Management Services, the aim of this study is to survey the impact of perceived organizational support, psychological empowerment and leader-member exchange on organizational commitment and its consequences on the quality of service in the banking industry. This is descriptive, correlational and practical study. Statistical population is all of employees of pasarged bank branches in Tehran and its customers. By Clustering method, 322 employees have been selected and by simple random sampling 322 customers were selected. In this paper Eisenberger perceived organizational support questionnaire, Spreitzer psychological empowerment questionnaire, Liden & Maslyn LMX questionnaire, Allen & Meyer organizational commitment questionnaire and Parasuraman SERVQUAL questionnaire have been used for data gathering. For analyzing data Lisrel and SPSS softwares were used. Results showed that POS, PE and LMX affect OC and have relationship with QOS. A suggestion in human resource development strategies in order to compete in the service sector of the banking industry is that manager should pay more attention to the factors affecting organizational commitment, that is not only creating a reward system. Success of a bank in attracting customers and maintaining them depended on the service that employees provide to customers, hence, the role of employees and their organizational behavior is highlight and providing services quality is one of challenges in organizational behavior and human resources field and is related to organizational commitment, Leadership, perceived of organizational support and psychological empowerment of employees.
Seyyed Ali Akbar Afjahi; Zahra Alizadeh far
Abstract
Employer brand is an image of organization as ‘the great place to work’ and aims to have positive impact on current and future employees in order to attract and retain employees with high potential. If employee has a positive attitude towards organization and employers, they will be attracted ...
Read More
Employer brand is an image of organization as ‘the great place to work’ and aims to have positive impact on current and future employees in order to attract and retain employees with high potential. If employee has a positive attitude towards organization and employers, they will be attracted to the organization and remained there. Therefore, this thesis examines the relationship between the perception of employer brand and job attitude. The purpose of this thesis, according to collected information and data analysis is descriptive – correlation. The Statistics population is 400 headquarters experts of the Export Development Bank of Iran. Empirical data has been selected from 112 people as a sample. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha and completed by these people. Data analysis was performed through structural equation modelling and software, the results have showed that the model is a good fit and all hypotheses have been confirmed. As a result, we can say that the perception of the employer brand has a positive and significant relation with job attitudes
Seyyed Ali Akbar Afjei; Neda Rezaee Abyaneh
Volume 22, Issue 70 , July 2013, , Pages 231-247
Abstract
Considering the importance of learning organization and readiness for change, current study has been done to examine the relationship between organizational learning and readiness for change according to the dimensions of learning organization in the insurance industry. The statistical population for ...
Read More
Considering the importance of learning organization and readiness for change, current study has been done to examine the relationship between organizational learning and readiness for change according to the dimensions of learning organization in the insurance industry. The statistical population for this study is private insurance companies in Iran. 110 managers of these companies were selected as the case study. To collect data, Watkins`s and Marsick`s DLOQ (dimensions of the learning organization questionnaires), and also Dunham`s et al questionnaire were used. To test hypothesis with regard to the questionnaire data, Test Kolmogorov-Smirnov, T-test student, structural equations test were used. Findings suggest that there is organizational learning culture in insurance companies, so that different dimensions of organizational learning in insurance companies are above average. Considering the total results of hypothesis tests and also with regard to the standard regression coefficient, it can be argued that the relationship between organizational learning and readiness for change in private insurance companies is not in good condition, particularly in relation to the dimension of promote inquiry and dialogue, which is one of the important dimensions of the model
