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An examination of soft skills in the virtual workplace

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An examination of soft skills in the virtual workplace

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An Examination of Soft Skills in the Virtual Workplace
by
Shamit Patel

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

August 2021

© Copyright by Shamit Patel 2021
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Shamit Patel e certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Dr. Ellen Leggett
Dr. Anthony Maddox
Dr. Briana Hinga, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2021
iv
Abstract
This study sought to evaluate how participants of AGL & Associates utilized soft skills,
particularly self-regulation and collaboration, in a virtual workplace using a qualitative approach
by surveying 11 participants within the organization as well as an autoethnographic approach
which allowed the researcher to leverage company documents, observations, and a personal
narrative given his role at the organization being studied as the founder and managing director.
The qualitative data was analyzed using the gap analysis model of Clark and Estes (2008).
Results indicated that participants had the knowledge to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual
setting through demonstrated clarity-seeking behavior, willingness and ability to humanize as
well as being able to manage technology. Results also indicated that participants also had the
motivation to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual setting through the value of maximizing
efficiency, developing professionally, as well as having the self-efficacy to collaborate
confidently. The organization also provided support to utilize these skills through three cultural
models which were the culture of growth mindset, the culture of focus, and a “hands off, trust
on” management model. However, certain challenges were identified as it relates to motivation
and the organization which are discussed along with an implementation plan to address these
challenges.
v
Dedication
To my late mother, Daksha Patel, I have never seen someone as happy as you when I was
accepted into this program. It breaks my heart that you lost your life during a 7-month battle
during the program and were not able to celebrate this moment of my successful completion. I
know how much this meant to you and you are the number one reason why I pursued this degree.
I would not be here if it was not for your sacrifices, work ethic, and unconditional love. You are
the kindest person I know and the hardest worker I have ever met. These are attributes of yours
that I take great pride in embodying.

To my late father, Yashavant Patel, I will never forget the day where I was just starting my
undergraduate studies and you broke down in tears because you could not help me pay for it due
to your paralysis. I hope you know what you did for me was so much greater. Every ounce of
wisdom you shared with me about life did not go unheard and are lessons I will carry on forever.
Your fearlessness, ambition, wisdom and selflessness are attributes that I embody every day and
are what led me to this accomplishment.

Mom and Dad, your sacrifice to uproot your lives to America, leaving everything behind in India
to give our family a better life and more opportunity is what led me here. You took a risk with no
money in your pocket and endured decades of hardship for your children and this is what
allowed me to pursue the highest level of education. This work is dedicated to you to honor your
legacy and your impact on my life. Thank you for everything. I love you both with all my heart.
This one’s for you.

vi
Acknowledgements
This milestone is very personal to me and one that comes with a heavy heart. For all of those who
supported me along the way, not only in the past two years, but for the past 31, thank you. There
are certain individuals who I’d like to explicitly express my deepest gratitude.
Family
First and foremost, my late parents, Daksha and Yashavant Patel. Thank you for instilling
the value of education into me and sacrificing everything for me to have achieved this goal.
To my brother and sister-in-law, Samir and Krupa Patel, thank you for giving me the
confidence to not let anything deter me from this milestone. You always gave me the support,
resources, and confidence that I needed to navigate through this process. Sharing this success with
you is special to me and something I could not have achieved without you. We did it!
To my sister and brother-in-law, Shivangi and Krupesh Derashri, thank you for always
being supportive, loving and caring through this journey. Life hasn’t been kind to us, but we have
always stuck together throughout.
To Premal, Bhavan, and Krunali, you have been the greatest support system a person can
ask for over recent years. No matter what I was going through or what I needed, you were always
there for me. I am forever thankful to have had you in my life throughout this process.
To Sanjay, Nayana, Anish, Angelika, Mehul, Anisha, Vijay, Bela, Kinal, Niral
Rajendrakumar, Nutan, and Ranjan, you have all taken such great care of me after my parents
passed away. Thank you for being in my life and sharing this achievement with me.
To my nieces and nephews, Anushka, Sahar, Deyvin, Rayva, Ishaan, and Hailee, thank
you for being in my life and helping me further solidify the importance of educating our future. I
can’t wait to see all of the great things you will do in this world.
vii
I’d like to specifically acknowledge Anushka. From the days you wouldn’t let me leave
the house to see you grow up into a great student and a big sister has been beautiful. I appreciate
how thoughtful of a person you have grown up to be, your love to help others, and the admiration
you’ve showed me. Thank you for being a major source of my inspiration to help others grow.
I’d also like to specifically acknowledge Deyvin. Your intelligence, curiosity,
kindheartedness and enthusiasm are inspiring. Your respect and admiration for me has led me to
become a better person and to be viewed as a role model by you is such a blessing. I look forward
to more great times together and hearing your vision for the future. Thank you for being you.
Friends
To Prateek Vijay, thank you for always guiding me academically ever since high school. I
was lost in terms of what I wanted to do with my life when we met but your guidance throughout
our time at Rutgers helped me go higher and push further. Thank you for showing me how to
build my future. I attribute much of my success to your mentorship and our friendship.
To Shivam Shirolawala, thank you for always challenging me to be better and all of the
brainstorming we would do about business and life since high school. I love how we have always
challenged each other and competed with one another for the past decade. It has led us to success.
To Sakib Salim, thank you for giving me a new perspective on the world and for building
my confidence during our early years in high school and college. Our time together was cut short,
but you have made a tremendous impact on my life. Rest in peace.
To Meghan Szymansky, thank you for sharing the past two years with me through my
most difficult times. You have always been unconditionally loving, kind and supportive. You
have helped me evolve into a better man by teaching me to take care of myself as well as show
more love to those around me. I am forever thankful for you and your parents, Nancy and Joseph.
viii
To Manan, Rajeev, Pratik, Shitij, Rushi, Debparna, Matt, Vishal, Aksam, Arjun, Haaris,
Krishna, Avinash, Sid, Prejesh, Neil, Pranit, and Venkat, thank you for acknowledging my
lifelong goal to get a doctorate degree, for believing in me, and for all of the great times we’ve
had over the years traveling the world together. You have become my best friends, expanded my
thinking and been a source of joy for the past decade.
Academically
To Dr. Briana Hinga, thank you for guiding me through this dissertation journey and
always looking out for what was best for me, personally. I have had my fair share of obstacles
through this process and you have been incredibly supportive and encouraging throughout. It has
been a great privilege to have worked with you through this dissertation process.
To Dr. Ellen Leggett, thank you for being a mentor for me for the six years. It is an honor
to have had you on my committee and to learn from you for all of these years.
To Dr. Anthony Maddox, thank you for being the most influential teacher in my life. I
have great respect for the way you have shaped my thinking over the past two years.
To Dr. Mark Robison, Dr. Sabrina Chong, and Rossier faculty, thank you for what you
have taught me and for being patient with me during my personal challenges during this program.
To Dr. Vanessa Ault, thank you for encouraging me to apply to this program in the first
place! I will never forget our phone call that ultimately led to this moment.
To Dr. Prosper Godonoo, thank you for helping me understand the importance of
education. Our time together at Rutgers University and your emphasis on education is what led
me here.
To Cohort 8, thank you for sharing this journey with me. I have never been a part of a
group as intelligent, diverse, and elite as this one. Learning from each of you has been a gift.
ix
Professionally
To James Hughes, you have been an excellent business partner and close friend over the
years. Thank you for helping me launch AGL, insisting that I join this program, and for helping
me push through the finish line.
To past and current AGL & Associates contractors, employees and clients, thank you for
participating in the work that we have done and for believing in me as a leader. I look forward to
seeing what we continue to accomplish in our future.
To Daniel Shiels, our time working together has always been exciting and inspiring. We
always dreamt big and worked as change agents for organizations. Thank you for believing in my
ability to grow organizations. It has been an adventurous four years working together.
To Kris MacDermant, thank you for giving me the appropriate approvals and time off
during our time at Medidata to pursue this degree. You are an exceptional source of support.
To Yavor Djonev, thank you for changing the way I look at work and the world. You
taught me to not work for money, but for passion and to make an impact. In addition, sailing the
Mediterranean Sea and exploring so many countries with you has given me great perspective.
To Adam Grant, it has been amazing to watch you thrive in a career of
Industrial/Organizational Psychology. During the formative years of determining the path of my
career, I looked to you for inspiration. Thank you for the knowledge you share with the world.
To my hero, Elon Musk, thank you for showing me that anything is possible. Your work
ethic, selflessness, leadership, and desire to advance civilization has been incredibly inspiring for
me and has reshaped my ambitions for the future. My life’s work will also strive for greater
collective enlightenment, through the power of technology and education.

x
I came to the conclusion that we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human
consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. Really, the only thing that
makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” – Elon Musk

xi
Table of Contents
Dedication .................................................................................................................................. v
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... xiiii
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... xiv
Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1
Background of the Problem ............................................................................................. 2
Importance of Addressing the Problem .......................................................................... 11
Organizational Context and Mission .............................................................................. 12
Organizational Performance Goal.................................................................................. 13
Description of Stakeholder Groups ................................................................................ 13
Stakeholder Groups for this Study ................................................................................. 15
Purpose of the Study and Questions .............................................................................. 15
Conceptual and Methodological Framework ................................................................. 16
Definitions .................................................................................................................... 17
Organization of the Study .............................................................................................. 18
Chapter Two: Literature Review ............................................................................................... 19
The Business Case Behind Soft Skills ........................................................................... 19
Factors that Impact Virtual Collaboration ...................................................................... 27
Stakeholder Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational Influences .............................. 31
Chapter Three: Methods ........................................................................................................... 42
Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 42
Participating Stakeholders ............................................................................................. 42
Data Collection and Instrumentation ............................................................................. 43
Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 47
xii
Credibility and Trustworthiness..................................................................................... 49
Ethics ............................................................................................................................ 50
Limitations and Delimitations ....................................................................................... 52
Chapter Four: Results and Findings .......................................................................................... 54
Participating Stakeholders ............................................................................................. 55
Knowledge Results and Findings................................................................................... 58
Motivation Results and Findings ................................................................................... 70
Organization Results and Findings ................................................................................ 83
Summary of Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization Influences ............................... 96
Chapter Five: Recommendations, Implementation, and Evaluation ......................................... 102
Review of Findings ..................................................................................................... 103
Solutions and Implementation Plan ............................................................................. 106
Evaluation Plan ........................................................................................................... 108
Suggestions for Future Research ................................................................................. 115
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 116
References .............................................................................................................................. 119
Appendix A: Interview Protocol ............................................................................................. 132
Appendix B: Narrative Inquiry ............................................................................................... 133

xiii
List of Tables
Table 1: Assumed Knowledge Influences 35
Table 2: Assumed Motivation Influences 38
Table 3: Assumed Organizational Influences 41
Table 4: Demographics of Potential Participants 56
Table 5: Observation Participants 57
Table 6: Implementation and Evaluation Plan 112

xiv
List of Figures
Figure 1: Stakeholders Performance Goals 14

1

Chapter One: Introduction
Over the past 50 years, technology has rapidly changed the way businesses operate, with
one of the most noticeable ways being that it has enabled 82% of the workforce to work virtually
at least some of the time in 2020 (Brenan, 2020). The primary driver of this transition was the
recent COVID-19 pandemic of. Although remote work existed prior to COVID-19, this
pandemic has perpetuated this idea by forcing employees to work remotely to promote social
distancing to mitigate the risk of exposure. As businesses prepare for a post-COVID-19 world,
evidence suggests that the idea of working remotely will continue to expand even after the
impact of the disease begins to diminish as 74% of CFOs expect to move on-site employees
remote post-COVID-19 (Gartner, 2020). This transition has already proved to be challenging as
75% of the American workforce has felt less connected and 60% has felt less informed due to the
recent transition to virtual work in a recent study conducted by Engine Insights (Business Wire,
2020), both of which impact the well-being and effectiveness of an employee. This virtual
element to the evolving workplace calls for a new set of soft skills, tailored specifically for this
new virtual workplace such as establishing rules of engagement and building and maintaining
trust (Larson & Makarius, 2018).
The idea of soft skills has generated much recognition as a valuable skillset for the
workplace and despite having many definitions, has two major components, according to Cimatti
(2015). The first is self-oriented, or intrapersonal, skills which refer to what a person must
understand and develop about themselves. The second is interpersonal skills which refer to what
a person must understand and develop about relating with other people. When considering the
interaction between the new age of work powered by technology and the rise of importance of
soft skills in the workplace, the combination presents unique challenges to employees when it
2

comes to maintaining quality collaboration with others virtually (interpersonal) and managing
technology-based distractions while completing tasks (intrapersonal) (Bugeja, 2007; Cameron &
Webster, 2005).
Given the variance in definitions and perceptions of soft skills, this dissertation narrowed
its focus on exploring two particular soft skills in a virtual workplace: technology-based
collaboration and self-regulation. Collaboration-related challenges in a virtual workplace stem
from poor communication due to a lack of context available in virtual settings such as a lack of
tone in written correspondence and a lack of visual reactions to what one has said during phone
calls (Ferrazzi, 2013). The second challenge of technology-based distractions has been
researched by Kim et al. (2015) which demonstrated that employees spend anywhere from three
hours a week up to two and a half hours per day cyberloafing (using the internet for non-work
activities) impacting their ability to self-regulate and stay on task. Furthermore, a recent study
showed that more than a third of millennials and Gen Z (36%) spend two hours or more checking
their smartphones during the workday (Udemy, 2018). Understanding how these skills need to be
adjusted for a virtual workplace has significant implications as it relates to helping employees
and employers more effectively transition to a remote working environment which would benefit
the employee’s well-being as well as the productivity of the organization.
Background of the Problem
The new age of work has been primarily driven through the rapid advancements and
adoption of technology. The modern Information Age was sparked by the development of the
internet by the Department of Defense in the 1970s, which was later made available for
commercial purposes in the 1990s. Corporations adapted to the new technology and began to
create websites to sell products (USHistory.org, 2020). Additionally, a new form of
3

communication, electronic mail (also known as email) was introduced allowing users to
communicate within minutes, regardless of distance (USHistory.org, 2020). IBM revolutionized
business by creating the personal computer, which quickly gained widespread corporate
adoption. This was followed by portable devices such as laptops and smartphones in later
decades (Computer History Museum, n.d.). This rapid evolution and adoption of technology can
be demonstrated by growth rates such as;
- smartphone adoption by U.S. adults in 2011 at 35% increasing to 81% in 2019 (Pew
Research Center, 2019a)
- tablet adoption by U.S. adults in 2009 at 3% increasing to 52% in 2019 (Pew Research
Center, 2019b).
With these advancements and adoptions comes an evolution of how people work and collaborate
with one another, emphasizing the importance of technology-based collaboration and self-
regulation needed to thrive in the virtual workplace.
The Evolution of Work
Businesses have historically been confined to physical office spaces and face-to-face
interactions, but due to rapid advancements of technology, this is no longer the case. The current
state of work offers flexibility in the way which we work due to the possibly of working
remotely, allowing teams to collaborate across time zones and cultures. However, this dynamic
and unique working environment comes with both benefits and challenges. The impact of virtual
transformation in business is described by Gene Marks, President of the Marks Group (2014):
I’m virtual. Twenty years ago we had an office with computers on desks and a phone
system. Today we don’t. We closed that down years ago and everyone works from their
homes. All of our applications are managed by someone else. Our phone system is
4

hosted. I pay every month for all my services. My people are Skyping, chatting and using
online collaboration tools to share files and data, track projects and invoices, submit
expenses and just to get work done. None of this was possible back then. I’m not saying
it’s the greatest setup in the world or that Yahoo’s Marissa Meyer would agree, but it’s
definitely kept my overhead low.
As Marks suggested, this evolution comes with benefits such cost effectiveness and
efficiency. Furthermore, these efficiencies in cost and operations have made it easier for
entrepreneurs to start businesses. This is supported by the fact that 69% of all U.S. entrepreneurs
started their businesses from home in 2013 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2012).
Businesses starting from homes at this rate introduces a new era of work which relies more
heavily on Internet of Things (IoT) and less on traditional office settings and face-to-face
interactions; Microsoft’s IoT Signals report (2019) estimates that 94% of businesses will be
using IoT by the end of 2021.
With this evolution comes challenges for employees as well. A recent study conducted by
RW
3
LLC (2016) found that these challenges included colleagues who do not participate, pace of
decision making, time required to make decisions, different role expectations held by team
members, and follow-through of team members, all of which are specifically collaboration-
related challenges. There are additional self-regulation challenges for employees. The first is
computer-based distractions, such as spending time on non-work-related sites and checking
social media and email (Mark et al., 2017). The second is mobile-based, as 60% of users in a
recent study stated that they could not go more than an hour without checking their phones for
messages and email (Lookout Mobile Security, 2012). As the above suggests, the evolution of
5

work presents unique interpersonal (collaboration) and intrapersonal (self-regulation) challenges
to remote workers.
This evolution of the workplace driven by electronic technology is still very much in its
infancy, when considering the fact that businesses have been around for 3000 years but the
integration of electronic technology into business has only been around for about 50 (Allen et al.,
2017). Furthermore, technology-based collaboration and communication has been
unacknowledged by organizational researchers while being positioned as a product of ongoing
human interactions and interpretations in the workplace (Orlikowski, 2009). This evolution of
work brings implications to employee well-being and productivity which requires focus and
attention to better understand how to optimize self-regulation and collaboration in virtual
settings.
The Impact of Technology for Employees
Zuboff (1985) suggested that technology provides employees advantages in two primary
ways: automating and informating. Automating refers to technology completing certain tasks on
the behalf of the employee, while informating refers to technology organizing, summarizing, and
analyzing information on the behalf of employees. These benefits provide employees an
advantage when it comes to automating tasks and processing more information faster. However,
understanding how to most effectively work with technology requires further research attention.
For instance, a self-regulation perspective indicates that smart devices can become a
source of distraction resulting in reduced productivity. One study found that 77% of the
participants studied reported that they experienced distractions caused by smartphones in group
contexts (Ko et al., 2016). Similarly, Mark et al. (2017) conducted a study where they blocked
several non-work-related websites on employees’ computers and found that participants reported
6

a higher level of perceived productivity, increased focus, and lower cognitive load. These studies
demonstrate a need for employees to be made aware of technology-based distractions as well as
to exercise self-regulation from these potential distractions while working.
Additionally, technology brings new obstacles when it comes to virtual collaboration
such as increased opportunities for miscommunication and greater difficulty establishing trust
with global/virtual teammates. Digital communication such as text messages, emails, and instant
messages has created a new form of language through the lack of in-person cues and an addition
of emojis (Alshenqeeti, 2016). One example of this would be how the use of emojis have been
found to have an extensive amount of variability in how people perceive them during
communication both in terms of sentiments and semantics leading to significant potential for
miscommunication (Miller, Thebault-Spieker et al., 2016; Miller, Kluver et al., 2017). In
reference to establishing trust, Yusof and Zakaria (2012) suggested that trust building is more
challenging for globalized virtual teams than it is for those in a collocated work setting due to
diverse cultural backgrounds of team members. In addition to these examples of
miscommunication and the importance of demonstrating trust in a virtual setting, Thurlow
(2018) suggests that language is going through a digital discourse through electronic forms of
communication where it is becoming metadiscursive, metrolingual, multimodal and a
technologizing resource suggesting that digital communication requires dedicated focus and
understanding. For these reasons, understanding how to improve communication and establish
trust are critical to organizational performance in virtual work environments.
The Impact of Remote Work and Technology on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity
When considering remote work, technology, and the physical separation between
employees, there is a significantly favorable impact on equity. One study led by Ford et al.
7

(2019) showed that remote work can foster a more inclusive work environment. While they were
specifically referring to transgender developers, their three takeaways can be generalized for
other marginalized communities as well. The first takeaway was identity disclosure as
participants stated that they had an advantage to control how they shared their professional
identity across virtual platforms which led to a means of security. The second was economically
stable work as one participant, Angelica Ross, stated: “Technology has totally leveled the playing
field for someone like me. I can get on the internet and watch tutorials. I have the drive to spend
five hours a day to teach myself a skill.”. Lastly, the final takeaway was that it gave them the
autonomy to disengage and re-engage as tech workers were able to simply disengage by closing
their computer when faced with uncomfortable situations like harassment. Another study focused
on gender equity found that telecommuting may also shrink the gender gap in childcare if both
parents are telecommuting and working full-time jobs (Lyttelton et al., 2020).
In addition to how employees feel, it is important to consider how organizations feel
about this topic. From a business perspective, Hunt et al. (2018) released a report reinforcing the
link between diversity and company financial performance with suggestions on how
organizations can craft better inclusion strategies for a competitive edge. Additionally, Canty
(2020) said the following on the topic:
As a Black woman leading a company that has operated fully remote for more than 12
years, I’ve seen many of the benefits remote work has on diversity and recognize the
opportunity remote work provides to improve workplace practices… Remote work
creates the opportunity to build strong thought diversity across levels, functions, and
teams. Candidates bring diverse perspectives from being in different locations, as well as
coming from diverse backgrounds. These perspectives are important across not only
8

working teams or management but in key roles that impact company practices such as
human resources, finance, and tech. Building these types of teams and integrating
diversity across key roles are factors in the positive impact on company performance.
Given the importance that has been placed on diversity and inclusion from business leaders such
as Canty (2020) and McKinsey and Company (2018) and given how remote work offers to
improve equity on an employee level as well, the combination of these trends presents a
favorable future to develop a greater sense of equity in the workplace. This further emphasizes
the importance for examining soft skills and how they must be adapted for a virtual workplace as
organizations continue to virtualize their operations and improve their diversity and inclusion
initiatives.
The Relationship Between Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Emotional Intelligence
Given that this dissertation focused on soft skills, it was important to differentiate and
discuss the relationship between hard skills, soft skills, and emotional intelligence. Hard skills,
like soft skills have many definitions. For the purpose of this dissertation, the definition found in
the literature of Sopa et al. (2020) was used. In their study, hard skills are defined as cognitive,
influenced by intellectual quotient, or IQ (Fan et al., 2017; Kenayathulla et al., 2019;
Muhammad et al., 2019; Tsotsotso et al., 2017), related to technical aspects to perform several
tasks at work (Rainsbury et al., 2002), are skills that describe explicit behaviors which can
produce something that is visible and direct, and skills can be assessed from technical and
practical tests. Essentially, they refer to skills that include counting, analyzing, designing,
comprehensive knowledge, modeling and critical thinking (Sopa et al., 2020).
Conversely, soft skills are knowledge that is in the human mind, very personal, and are
rooted in actions, experiences which include idealism, values and emotions (Agyemang &
9

Boateng, 2019; Asbari et al., 2019; Boske & Osanloo, 2015; Chen et al., 2018; Hartley, 2018;
Holford, 2018; Kawamura, 2016; Khoshorour & Gilaninia, 2018; Pérez-Fuillerat, 2018; Zebal et
al., 2019). These are skills that focus on the person, their intrapersonal skills, and their
interpersonal skills. The difference between hard skills and soft skills are that hard skills are
functional skills which can be used to complete technical or procedural tasks while soft skills
focus on a person’s ability to manage themselves and their relationship with others. While hard
skills and soft skills seem to be opposite sets of skills, they are beginning to converge with the
integration of technology in the workplace as many technical tasks (or those based on hard skills)
are beginning to become automated with the assistance of technology.
Lastly, emotional intelligence is a type of intelligence that involves the ability to monitor
one’s own and other’s emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide
one’s thinking and actions (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). The scope of this type of intelligence
consists of verbal and nonverbal appraisal and expression of emotion, the regulation of emotion
in the self and others, and the utilization of emotional content in problem solving (Mayer &
Salovey, 1993). Given the personal nature of emotional intelligence, it falls under the category of
soft skills and has been identified as an important driver for leadership effectiveness. Srivastava
(2013) found that leaders have a direct influence on the culture of their organization’s work
environment, as well as a direct influence on HR functions of the organization such as increasing
the emotional intelligence of organizational members. This includes identifying talent, delegating
roles and resolving conflict amicably. Because of this, having emotional intelligence as a leader
can boost organizational performance. While this study will analyze soft skills of a particular
organization, it will also consist of an autoethnography to focus on this idea of emotional
10

intelligence and a leader’s impact on organizational effectiveness with the use of emotional
intelligence.
Soft Skills Required for the Future of Work
A report by McKinsey Global Institute projecting future necessary work skills reported
that as machines take over easily automated tasks, such as physical labor and technological
automation, human employees will need to shift their skills sets to focus on the social and
emotional aspects of work (Manyika, Lund, et al., 2017). These emotional and social (soft) skills
have many definitions but at the most basic level comprise of both self-oriented skills, which
refer to what a person must understand and develop about themselves, and interpersonal
elements, which refer to what a person must understand and develop about relating with other
people (Cimatti, 2015). More specifically, soft skills include two types of traits: intrapersonal
and interpersonal (Cimatti, 2015; Matteson et al., 2016). Intrapersonal skills include self-
management, ethics, cognitive ability, and entrepreneurial ability. Interpersonal skills include
empathy, understanding human behavior, the ability to perceive emotions, sensitivity, and
understanding, leadership, communication, and persuasion. Together, these skills are an integral
part of employee effectiveness and well-being. Because there is such a wide range of what soft
skills can encompass, this dissertation utilizes Cimatti’s (2015) definition of interpersonal and
intrapersonal skills and focuses on collaboration (interpersonal) and self-regulation
(intrapersonal).
However, as the research above suggested, these soft skills require a modified approach
in a new era dominated by technology. Demonstrating collaboration and self-regulation in a
virtual work environment is conceptually different compared to an in-office work environment.
In one aspect, the elimination of the physical presence of others impacts interpersonal soft skills
11

as employees must now communicate with others through virtual means. In the other aspect, the
elimination of a traditional office setting creates variations and autonomy, which allows for
employees to determine the environment in which they work – these decisions are non-trivial and
can impact their intrapersonal soft skills. Applying and adjusting the collaboration and self-
regulation skills stated above to a virtual work environment require considerations and
education. Employees need to gain understanding the pitfalls of technology-based distractions
and learning how to collaborate effectively through digital means.
Importance of Addressing the Problem
Addressing this problem of rightsizing soft skills for a virtual workplace is important as
technology is changing the landscape of work and is advancing at a rapid pace. These
advancements threaten to dehumanize the workplace through a reduced quality of
communication through technology-based platforms such as instant messaging (Cameron &
Webster, 2005). They also threaten to prevent companies from realizing their true performance
potential as mobile technology has been shown to impact both visual and cognitive processes
(Stavrinos et al., 2018). Both of these unintended consequences are costly when considering
productivity and well-being. Becoming aware of these consequences in the workplace is the first
step to understanding what soft skills are necessary to become an effective virtual organization.
If this problem of rightsizing soft skills for a virtual workplace can be addressed, it will
help close the gap for the job requirements of the future as suggested by the World Economic
Forum (2020). In their recent report, they predict an increasing demand for general and soft skills
across emerging professional sectors, namely: AI, engineering and cloud computing, people and
culture, product development, sales/marketing/content, care economy, and green economy. This
research will allow job seekers to seek adequate training to learn these skills which will allow
12

them to be more competitive in the job market. Similarly, this research will allow employers to
refine their recruiting practices and hire the most capable talent. Collectively, addressing this
problem will boost organizational performance and create a more competitive labor market on a
global scale which can offer great benefits to the economy and for equity. Refined soft skill
training can give struggling nations an opportunity to be more competitive in the job market
which in turn can boost their economy. Learning these refined collaboration and self-regulation
skills can increase equitable access to career advancement and business opportunities for people
across the world.
Organizational Context and Mission
To examine virtual work best practices in collaboration and self-regulation, the
organization I have evaluated is AGL & Associates (AGL), a management consulting firm with
no physical locations and employees spread out across the United States. Its mission is to
leverage behavioral science and technology to deliver data-driven consulting with speed and
precision (AGL & Associates, n.d.). This is done primarily through three means, performing
employee engagement consults, conducting market research and providing learning and
development services to optimize how to work in virtual settings.
Their organizational design comprises of a virtual workforce where each individual in the
organization is tasked to collaborate on tasks, projects, and strategy across state borders. Most
collaboration is done through phone calls, text messages, WebEx, UberConference,
GoToMeeting, G-Suite and other digital collaboration tools. This evaluation sought to
understand how AGL employees self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment and
across time zones. Assessing their self-regulation and collaboration skills here will help inform
where they are performing well and where they are not as it pertains to adjusting these skills for a
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virtual work environment. By better understanding where their key strengths and weaknesses are
in this area will help AGL & Associates reach their performance goal of offering consulting
services to startups to create an effective virtual culture leveraging the soft skills mentioned
above.
Organizational Performance Goal
The organizational performance goal for AGL was to leverage their virtual culture and
collaboration experiences to offer a new line of consulting services focused on creating an
effective virtual culture for startups around the world. Evaluating how individuals within the
organization adapt their self-regulation and collaboration skills to a virtual work environment
will help inform the design of this new line of consulting. This goal was chosen as it is
hypothesized that there is a fundamental difference in collaboration and self-regulation in office
environments and face-to-face interactions compared to virtual environments/interactions and
that there are actions that can be taken to improve the virtual workplace for employees. To
measure this goal, the findings of this research have informed AGL to put together a business
plan to offer these services to startups and launch the new line of consulting work.
Description of Stakeholder Groups
The two stakeholder groups for this study were the managing director and the AGL team,
for a total of 21 participants. These stakeholder groups comprised of the organization as a whole
and are critical in reaching the organizational performance goal. The managing director’s role is
to build and manage the AGL team, serve as the primary point of contact for client
communication, build and maintain partnerships, perform strategic planning to grow the
business, all while maintaining the vision of the organization. Their performance makes a
significant contribution to the organizational goal because they oversee all major business
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processes of the firm including strategic planning for new initiatives such as the organization’s
performance goal.
The second stakeholder group for this study was the AGL team who serves both front and
back office functions. This team consists of data science, sales, operations, legal, finance, and
human resources. While each role varies in terms of day-to-day responsibilities, they have all
work for a virtual organization in which they are required to collaborate both with one another
and with clients, while also being required to complete their work in a self-regulated manner.
Rather than separating them into multiple stakeholders based on departments or client-facing
requirements, this dissertation evaluated the team as a whole to generate a holistic view of how
the AGL team self-regulates and collaborates virtually.

Figure 1
Stakeholders Performance Goals
Organizational mission
To leverage behavioral science and technology to deliver data-driven consulting with speed and
precision.
Organizational goal
To leverage their virtual culture and collaboration experiences to offer a new line of consulting
services focused on creating an effective virtual culture for startups around the world.
Stakeholder Group 1
AGL team
Stakeholder Group 2
managing director
By December 2020, the AGL team will
document collaboration and self-
regulation best practices and challenges
they face.
By December 2020, the managing director will
conduct an autoethnography utilizing document
analysis, narrative inquiry and observations to
extract what about AGL & Associates fosters
an effective virtual workplace.

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Stakeholder Groups for this Study
A complete analysis was performed for this study including both stakeholder groups, the
AGL team and the managing director. The first reason both groups have been chosen was to
develop a deeper understanding on what gaps currently exist in the AGL team’s collaboration
and self-regulation competencies as they relate to a virtual environment. This second reason was
to develop a first-hand understanding of the managing director (also founder) and analyze the
culture that has been created as a result of their intentions and work. The first objective was to
gather an understanding from the team to see where they experience most challenges in
collaboration in comparison to traditional face-to-face interactions. The second objective was to
gather an understanding from the team to see where they experience most challenges when it
comes to self-regulation when completing their work in a virtual workplace. The third objective
was to gather an understanding from the managing director on the vision that started this
business and their analysis of the culture that has been created as a result. Together, these three
pieces provided insight to what it takes to develop a successful virtual workplace. The findings
will ultimately be leveraged to determine how to build out the new consulting line of services for
AGL, which is to assist startups to create a successful virtual culture.
Purpose of the Study and Questions
The purpose of this study was to conduct two primary forms of analysis. The first was a
gap analysis to examine the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences involved in
effectively demonstrating collaboration and self-regulation in a virtual workplace. The second
was an autoethnography to examine documents, observations, and narrative inquiry from the
managing director. Utilizing both forms of analysis will inform AGL in regard to how to build
out the new line of consulting services focused on creating an effective virtual culture for
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startups around the world. The analysis included generating a list of possible or assumed
influences on performance that were examined systematically to focus on actual or validated
influences on performance as well examining the managing director’s analysis on the culture that
has been created since the company was founded. The questions guiding this study were:
• What is AGL’s existing knowledge regarding self-regulation and collaboration best
practices in a virtual workplace?
• What is AGL’s motivation to apply self-regulation and collaboration competencies in a
virtual workplace to communicate with clients and complete tasks more effectively?
• How is the organization preparing the team to develop the self-regulation and
collaboration skills in a virtual workplace at AGL & Associates?
Conceptual and Methodological Framework
This evaluation model used two conceptual frameworks. The first framework was derived
from the gap analysis model developed by Clark and Estes (2008). This model is a systematic,
analytical method that helps to clarify organizational goals and identify the gap between the
actual performance level and the preferred performance level within an organization. The second
framework was derived from the autoethnography model, where the primary purposes include
speaking against or providing alternatives to dominant cultural scripts, stories and stereotypes,
articulating insider knowledge of a cultural experience, describing moments of everyday
experience that cannot be captured through more traditional research methods, and to create texts
that are accessible to larger audiences, primary audiences outside of academic settings (Adams et
al., 2017; Boylorn, 2014; Crawford, 1996). Both methodological frameworks for this study are
qualitative research designs which aimed to measure the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences of the AGL team. These results informed policies on how to self-
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regulate and collaborate in a virtual workplace and help to better understand how AGL &
Associates promotes/inhibits these behaviors for their team from the perspective of the managing
director. Research-based solutions were recommended and evaluated in a comprehensive
manner.
Definitions
Collaboration: to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual
endeavor (Merriam-Webster, n.d.)
Interpersonal skills: traits you rely on when you interact and communicate with others
(Indeed, 2020).
Intrapersonal skills all about self-awareness and controlling your own attitudes and inner
processes (Matter & Tai, 2019).
Self-regulation: the act or condition or an instance of regulating oneself or itself: such as
control or supervision from within instead of by an external authority (Merriam-Webster, n.d.)
Soft skills: self-oriented skills which refer to what a person must understand and develop
about themselves and interpersonal elements which refer to what a person must understand and
develop about relating with other people (Cimatti, 2016).
Virtual workplace: A workplace that has multiple locations, but not necessarily the same
all the time, as business is done over email, mail, internet and video. Employees within the
company communicate with each other through such technology, as well as the staff
communicating with their clients/customers (BusinessDictionary.com, n.d.).
Within-phone interruptions: When attention has been shifted to the smartphone for one
purpose (e.g., by virtue of a specific notification source) and users then engage in a chain of
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subsequent task-unrelated acts on the smartphone, thereby extending the period of disruption
(Wilmer et al., 2017).
Organization of the Study
Five chapters were used to organize this study. This chapter provided the reader with key
concepts and terminology commonly found in a discussion associated with technology-based
collaboration and self-regulation in a virtual work environment. The organization’s mission,
goals, and stakeholders, as well as the initial concepts of gap analysis and autoethnography were
introduced. Chapter Two provides a review of current literature surrounding the scope of the
study, including definitions, business value, and training methodologies for soft skills while also
discussing what characteristics comprise of high-performing virtual teams. It will also discuss
the gap in research as it specifically relates to how collaboration and self-regulation must be
adapted when applied to a virtual workplace. Chapter Three details the methodology for
selecting participants, data collection, choice of participants and data analysis. In Chapter Four,
the results of the data analysis are presented. Chapter Five provides research-based solutions for
closing the validated gaps as well as an implementation and evaluation plan for identified
solutions.

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Chapter Two: Literature Review
The following chapter contains a literature review providing background into the
dissertation topic in greater detail. First, a business case is created for the importance of soft
skills in a working environment. This section includes formally defining soft skills in the context
of this dissertation, understanding the business value of soft skills, and describing a research-
driven approach towards developing soft skills. Next is a review of factors to consider in
collaboration which are different in a virtual environment compared to a physical environment.
These factors include trust, affect, culture, and technological tools. Lastly, the knowledge,
motivation, and organization of the stakeholders in this study are reviewed.
The Business Case Behind Soft Skills
Rapid advances in technology are transforming the workplace. A recent McKinsey
Global Institute report (Manyika et al., 2017) suggested that 51% of activities in the economy
such as physical activities and data collection and processing are susceptible for automation
reducing the overall demand for employees. Technology has found ways to reduce time and
effort on many tasks, but with it comes a growing demand for a specific skill set in the
workplace: soft skills. However, soft skills are very difficult to define and operationalize. This
ambiguity reflects a demand in the literature for greater attention on theory development and
application evaluation. The following review will serve to create a business case for soft skills by
defining what soft skills are in the context of this dissertation, discussing what value they bring
to the workplace and employees, and addressing how leaders can create educational programs to
develop them.
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Defining Soft Skills
Matteson et al. (2016) conducted a literature review to explore the definitions of soft
skills for the purpose of clarifying and strengthening librarians’ understanding and development
of soft skills. Separately, Cimatti (2015) assessed the overall literature to define, develop, and
assess soft skills and their role for the quality of organizations. Both studies demonstrated the
wide variety in how researchers have historically defined and evaluated soft skills. These
multifaceted traits cover many domains and although there are differences among them, two
predominant frameworks emerged: intrapersonal skills and interpersonal skills. For the purpose
of this study, these two frameworks will be the foundation for analysis of soft skills.
Intrapersonal
Intrapersonal skills deal entirely with the individual. Several sub-dimensions of
intrapersonal skills have been identified: judgement, positive attitude, motivation, mindfulness,
critical thinking, analytical ability, continuous learning, integrity, courtesy, professionalism,
punctuality, organizational skills, flexibility, adaptability, work ethic, self-efficacy, honesty,
creativity, ability to work under pressure, resilience, optimism, attention to detail, and maturity
(Matteson et al., 2016; Cimatti, 2015). Furthermore, Lass (Wellness Orbit, 2020) emphasized the
importance of intrapersonal skills as they relate to mental wellness which is defined as an
optimum inner functioning and effective use of our innate potentials. Mental wellness
implications include: purposeful attention, embracing change and the unknown, initiative,
creativity, inner motivation, having insights, awareness of emotions, self-management and more.
This dissertation will maintain its focus on only one element of intrapersonal skills in a virtual
workplace, which is self-regulation.

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Interpersonal
The next framework focuses on interpersonal ability. Given the many dimensions of
interpersonal ability, it can be broken down into two frameworks which are the ability to
understand others and the ability to work with others. When it comes to understanding others,
Matteson et al. (2016) and Cimatti (2015) focused on two primary areas: emotional intelligence
and the ability to empathize. The literature has identified several traits that belong to this
category, including: empathy, understanding human behavior, the ability to perceive emotions,
sensitivity, understanding, and listening.
Working with others requires interactions that one has with their superiors, subordinates,
coworkers, clients, and peers. Matteson et al. (2016) and Cimatti (2015) listed several traits
which belong to this category including: ability to communicate value, collaboration, giving
clear feedback, resolving conflicts, sociability, cooperation, presentation skills, persuasion skills,
customer service orientation, project management skills, managing people, networking, and
negotiation. Interpersonal skills have proven to be an important element for the career of
employees and for organizations alike. For instance, SIS Research (2009) found that poor
communications were costing businesses approximately $36,000 per worker per year. This
finding was based on the time workers had to spend to fix communication pain points including
inefficient coordination, waiting for information, unwanted communications, customer
complaints, and barriers to collaboration. For these reasons, this dissertation will maintain its
focus on one element of interpersonal skills in the virtual workplace, which is collaboration.
Business Value of Soft Skills
The shift from an industrial economy to an information society and an office economy
means that many jobs now place an emphasis on integrity, communication, and flexibility (Zehr,
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1998). Advanced technology and automation have found ways to create efficiencies around
many tasks which ultimately reduces the gap between competing organizations (Skidelsky,
2019). In this more saturated and competitive landscape, one important way to differentiate one
company from the next is the development of its people. The importance of good human
resource practices to achieving financial goals and enhancing business performance has been
well documented (Darwish et al., 2013). Robles (2012) demonstrated how important soft skills
are becoming in business settings through his research in surveying executives to understand
what are the top 10 soft skills that are most needed in today’s workplace. Based on their
responses, the three areas where soft skills are most important in business settings are for a
person’s general employability, working interdependently, and their importance in revenue
generating activities (Robles, 2012).
General Employability
Soft skills are valuable on the individual level when it comes to employability. One
study found that 75% of long-term job success depends on people skills, while only 25%
depends on technical knowledge (Klaus, 2010). Hendarman and Cantner (2018) found that soft
skills are also related to individual innovativeness. From an entry-level perspective, employers’
rate soft skills as number one in importance for entry-level success on the job (Willhelm, 2004).
These studies suggest that soft skills predict success on the job and innovation which make those
with strong soft skills more employable.
Working Interdependently
One element of most jobs across industries and departments is the requirement to work
effectively with others, even if the role or industry itself is technical in nature and requires hard
skills. Joseph, Ang, Chang, and Slaughter (2010) supported this claim through their research in
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assessing soft skills in IT professionals. The study originated from their concept that there is a
growing awareness that technical skills alone are in insufficient for success in IT because of the
distributed and complex workplace in today’s dynamic. They suggested that working in IT now
requires soft skills to manage employees and outsourced third parties (who are often offshore).
Through developing and administering the SSIT (SoftSkills for IT) instrument, they found that
experienced IT professionals scored higher in managing relationships with subordinates and
peers than novices. With the assumption that soft skills can be taught on the job through
experience, this difference demonstrates the value in the role soft skills play when it comes to
working with others.
Client-Facing Activity
One of the most important elements of any business is servicing current clients and
bringing in new ones. Additionally, one of the core competencies of soft skills can be thought of
as people skills, or the combination of the ability to understand and work with others. People
skills are the foundation of good customer service (Evenson, 1999). Joseph et al. (2010) and
Robles (2012) both linked the importance of soft skills to client-facing work. Robles (2012)
concluded that one of four major categories students should learn in school regarding soft skills
are essential customer service skills. Joseph et al. (2010) described how end users are the most
frequently emphasized in the IT profession and that maintaining a productive relationship with
users is a critical element of an IT professional’s job. To support this claim, their study also
found that experienced IT professionals scored higher on the SSIT than novices when it came to
managing relationships with clients and users.
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Developing Soft Skills
Given the ambiguity regarding the definition and operationalization of soft skills, creating
educational programs to develop them can be just as challenging. Given the intangible nature of
soft skills, there has been speculation that these skills are innate. Conversely, Hager et al.’s
(2000) research investigated this and found that soft skills can be improved upon through
experience and practice which raises interest around how to effectively develop soft skill
educational programs. When designing an educational program, there are a few factors that need
to be considered; content structure, delivery method, and how to measure success.
Content Structure
Szilard et al. (2018) investigated the needs and methods for soft skill development in the
information and communication technology (ICT) sector for micro-companies. Among other
findings, they discussed the importance of “knowledge-pills” which focus on the importance of
keeping each lesson or session to be kept between 20–45 minutes to complement the short
attention spans and busy schedules of ICT specialists. This finding can be generalized to other
business settings as well given the importance of making productive use of time for all
businesses. This idea of developing soft skills in smaller chunks is effective as it requires taking
in less technical information compared to hard skills. Instead, it focuses on learning behaviors
through internalization and application.
Delivery Method
When considering delivery methods for soft skill development, two considerations
reviewed below are where should one teach soft skills and through what mediums should
trainings be delivered. In regard to the ‘where,’ Shakir (2009) evaluated the Malayisan Institute
of Higher Learning’s framework on how to best implement these skills in a university setting.
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This included a stand-alone model in which a formal course is developed, embedding it into
current courses, two indirect models based on emphasizing soft skills in extracurricular activities
and in community events, a formal model through seminars, workshops, and conferences, and a
“finishing school model” where students who lack these skills can develop them in a school-
based setting at the end of the semester or college career. Shakir (2009) concluded that
development is most effective when interwoven into current course content due to several gaps
found in competing models primarily based on the student’s motivation and an increased
likelihood for mass-adoption.
While Shakir’s (2009) work demonstrated where to integrate soft skill development
education, another important question is through which medium. Wallace and Clariana (2000)
conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of online instruction in compared a traditional
classroom environment. What they found was that online instruction was at least as effective as
the traditional classroom setting as no significant differences were found between the two groups
in this experimental study. Furthermore, those who were frequent computer users benefited most
from online delivery. Given that the average adult in the United States spends approximately 3
hours per day on a smartphone alone (Wurmser, 2019), this further supports the idea of
effectiveness of an online delivery model for soft skill development education.
Additional evidence supports an online based delivery for soft skill education as well.
Szilard et al. (2018) hypothesized that e-learning sources are the most suitable platform to learn
soft skills while also advising to combine e-learning with face-to-face interaction. Furthermore,
their research found that the following characteristics should be included in soft skill
development educational programs: mobile device compatibility, adaptive learning, multiple
formats (text, video) of content, focused on performance-based outcomes, tailored to the pace of
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the student, easy to use, access, and understand material, options to include co-learning with
others through live workshops, accessible library of material, ability to interact with facilitator
for questions and feedback, and delivered in small chunks but over a long-term period.
Based on both studies, the major elements of delivery include taking a hybrid approach
which focuses on bite-sized e-learning content coupled with live sessions to practice with others
while receiving feedback. Additionally, it should be integrated into a current setting rather than
creating a new course to learn it. One example of this would be to add it routine meetings and/or
training sessions in business settings.
Measuring Success
Another challenge related to the ambiguity is that it is difficult to measure progress.
Business leaders would agree that soft skills must be quantifiable and measured in returns, with
the benefit translated to the bottom line (Onisk, 2011) which makes understanding measurement
imperative. To better understand how to measure success of soft skills, Brown (2018) evaluated
the efficacy of an online graduate program that specifically taught mindfulness, dialogue,
collaboration, and communication skills through two styles of measurement: the grades on the
cumulative portfolio project and a follow-up survey within two years of graduation.
Additionally, the follow-up survey consisted of both an extrinsic and intrinsic evaluation.
Brown (2018) found that 91% students who graduated from this course either reported a salary
increase and/or promotion within two years of graduation, and the alumni overall scored high in
self-efficacy, job satisfaction and locus of control. Generalizing these findings, measuring
success for the development of soft skills should focus on cumulative assignments to confirm
mastery of these skillsets but also a follow-up to understand long-term implications of the
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program by measuring both extrinsic factors such as salary and intrinsic factors such as self-
efficacy.
Conclusion
As the research suggested, soft skills are an important component of business
performance both on the individual and organizational level. Whether if it is for one’s
employability, effectively working interdependently, or for client-facing activities, these
frameworks of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills are an important driver for success.
Business leaders can develop soft skills through educational programs that focus on “knowledge
pills” delivered through a hybrid learning model including both online and face-to-face settings.
While these soft skills have many characteristics, this dissertation maintains its focus on two
particular characteristics: self-regulation and collaboration.
Factors that Impact Virtual Collaboration
The second section focuses on factors that impact collaboration in virtual work settings.
These factors are important to understand as one element of this dissertation will focus on
collaboration in a virtual setting. These factors include trust between coworkers, demonstrating
affect in a virtual environment, navigating through cultural differences, and understanding and
determining which tools to utilize for collaboration. The following literature review explores
several studies of recent years to gain a better understanding of how these factors impact
effectiveness in a virtual workplace.
Trust
One fundamental element of teamwork in any setting is the element of trust, which is
defined as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on
the expectation that the latter will perform a particular action important to the trustor irrespective
28

of the ability to monitor or control the other party” (Mayer et al., 1995). Given that the context of
virtual settings does not allow for the same trust-building scenarios as face-to-face settings as
body language and other non-verbal cues are difficult to detect, evaluating how virtual settings
impact trust is an important factor when evaluating effectiveness.
Hoonakker et al. (2017) examined the differences of trust in a virtual setting compared to
a face-to-face setting in the healthcare space. They studied how the characteristics of virtual
intensive care unit (ICU) nurses differed from bedside nurses working for the same organization.
Results showed that although virtual ICU nurses’ perception of trust in the ICU they monitor
were moderately high, there was a considerable amount of variation when compared to face-to-
face meetings by bedside nurses. In addition, they found that bedside nurses who had more years
of experience trusted virtual ICU nurses less than those with less experience, suggesting that
experience is also a factor to consider when evaluating trust in a virtual setting (Hoonakker et al.,
2017).
While that study evaluated levels of trust between on-site employees and virtual
employees, Cheng et al. (2016) investigated trust in a different setting; semi-virtual collaboration
groups in a school setting. This study was more focused on demonstrating the importance of
individual trust as it relates to performance. What they found was that students’ level of trust was
positively correlated to their performance and that the semi-virtual environment established trust
amongst classmates. Consequently, this study provides insight to the value of a semi-virtual
environment by offering face-to-face interaction as well as virtual interaction. This is particularly
useful when evaluating AGL’s effectiveness as it rarely offers face-to-face interactions between
virtual coworkers.
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Affect
One difference between virtual collaboration and face-to-face interactions is the
emotional component of working together, which is referred to here as affect. Affect reflects
people’s positive or negative emotions or feelings, such as un/happiness, in/security, and
dis/satisfaction (Vinagre & Corral Esteban, 2018). Vinagre and Corral Esteban (2018) explored
how virtual intercultural Spanish and English students use evaluative language to build rapport
and encourage collaboration. Their analysis found that those who used affective language
emphasized the interpersonal quality of interactions which led them to be evaluated positively by
virtual classmates. The positivity of the exchange led affective language to be an essential factor
during collaboration.
Chae (2016) also evaluated affect in virtual collaboration environments by investigating
the effects of cognitive-based and affective-based trust networks on employee creative
performance in virtual settings. This study found that cognitive-based trust was a key driver for
creativity while affective-based trust was a key driver for collaboration in virtual teams. Because
affect is not commonly part of a virtual interaction, this study demonstrates the importance for
virtual teams to consciously work towards demonstrating an affective sense of relationship
closeness in order to collaborate effectively.
Culture
As organizations continue to build virtual teams in the workplace that span countries,
cultures, and time zones, understanding the impact that cultural norms have on virtual teams is
an important component of evaluating virtual collaboration effectiveness. Cheng et al. (2016)
investigated a key driver of virtual collaboration (trust) in multicultural and unicultural teams.
After surveying 144 participants and interviewing 64, they found that there is a significant
30

difference between these two groups. They reported that trust in multicultural groups showed
instability and kept decreasing over time, primarily due to the differing languages, values, and
habitual behaviors of each culture. They also found that the two most important drivers of
building and maintaining trust across both groups were developing a well-designed collaboration
process and clear tasks for each person to minimize the cultural ambiguity that may exist.
Lippert and Dulewicz (2018) tested a model of what would produce a profile of high-
performing global virtual teams (GVT) by measuring the constructs of trustworthiness,
commitment, communication characteristics, and cross-cultural communication style. They
found that these five constructs explained 75.7% of the variance in performance: greater
benevolence, competence, integrity, risk aversion, committed to project goals when it came to
trustworthiness and commitment. For communication characteristics, GVTs were more likely to
use language appropriate to their relational status, refrain from talking too much at any one time,
take responsibility for the perceptions they form of others and make an effort to show their
affiliation to the other person. Lastly, and perhaps the most interesting, is cross-cultural
communication styles. Rather than one specific style, high-performing teams were most adaptive
between high and low context communication styles based on the culture they were
communicating to, suggesting the importance of cultural awareness and adaptability (Lippert &
Dulewicz, 2018).
Tools
The last concept that will be covered are the tools utilized in virtual collaboration.
Because there are many possibilities of what tools to utilize and how to utilize them most
effectively, it is important to understand what tools lead to the greatest organizational
performance. Zhang et al. (2018) conducted a literature review to develop a conceptual
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framework when considering which tools to use during virtual collaboration. This framework is
based on three categories: tool usability, task-fit, and team connectivity. Tool usability refers to
identifying a collaboration tool that the team would find most usable. Task-fit requires a match
between technology characteristics to task characteristics. Team connectivity refers to how well
connected a virtual team is for task coordination. Rather than identifying certain tools to suggest,
this review suggests that the tools selected are highly contingent on the task, team, and
organization (Zhang et al., 2018).
Diving deeper into how to utilize a conferencing tool most effectively, Hassell and
Cotton (2017) studied effectiveness of video-mediated interactions based on whether or not
individuals in the meeting could see themselves in the virtual conference room. The results
showed that teams performed significantly better when individuals could not see their own feeds.
Individuals also reported more satisfied when they could not see their own feed.
Summary
When it came to evaluating the effectiveness of virtual collaboration, the four concepts
covered above provided insight to some of the differences one should consider when operating in
a virtual team environment. Although many of the studies cited discuss the importance of trust,
this review highlighted other aspects to consider such as demonstrating affect, embracing
cultural differences, creating a standardized process to execute on projects, while selecting the
best fitting tools for the tasks and teams that will be using them. This dissertation considered
these factors when evaluating virtual collaboration at AGL & Associates.
Stakeholder Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational Influences
The following section reviews the literature that focuses on knowledge-related influences
that are pertinent to the achievement of AGL’s goal to offer a new line of consulting services
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focused on creating an effective virtual culture for startups around the world. The specific
stakeholder competency explored by this study is the AGL team’s ability to demonstrate
effective self-regulation and collaboration in the context of a virtual work environment. The
purpose of examining knowledge is directly related to the evaluation model, based on the gap
analysis with a Knowledge/Motivation/Organization framework as developed by Clark and Estes
(2008).
Knowledge and Skills
There are four major types of knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural, and
metacognitive (Rueda, 2011). Factual knowledge refers to knowing specific facts. Conceptual
knowledge refers to more complex knowledge such as theories or generalizations. Procedural
knowledge refers to the knowledge of how to do something. Lastly, metacognitive knowledge
refers to the awareness of one’s own cognition. It is important to differentiate between the
different types of knowledge because they are all needed for effective performance. A
comprehensive understanding of stakeholder knowledge in order to identify both assets and gaps
and ultimately, support stakeholder performance, requires an exploration of the different types of
knowledge.
Knowledge of the Specific Situations in Which to use Each Communication Software Tool
The first knowledge influence was the AGL team’s knowledge of when to use each
communication software tool which falls under conceptual knowledge. Research has
demonstrated that this knowledge plays a significant role when it comes to engagement and
effectiveness of virtual meetings. Paz (2020) studied communication implications for virtual
teams and found that organizations have different communication needs and cultures which
suggest that determining which tools to use are largely based on the organization. Additionally,
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Paz (2020) discovered that overall, communication software tools increased a sense of belonging
and help with facilitation of communication for remote employees regardless of the tool used.
Although it may vary from organization to organization, understanding which
communication software tool is appropriate for which setting/task has proven to be important.
Cho et al. (2019) found that when an employee felt overloaded with information and system
features based on a communication platform, it increased role ambiguity and role conflict, which
ultimately led to significant increases in burnout, suggesting that it is important that employees
know which tools to use in which settings to maximize collaboration effectiveness and minimize
overload. Because of these implications, this study will explore the conceptual knowledge and
awareness the AGL team has when it comes to effectively implementing self-regulation and
collaboration in the context of a virtual work environment.
Ability to Effectively Collaborate With Virtual Coworkers and Clients
The second knowledge influence was the AGL team’s knowledge about how to
effectively communicate with virtual coworkers and clients. This knowledge can be categorized
as procedural. Working together virtually has notable differences when compared to working
together in person due to the absence of human presence. Based on existing literature, the three
major considerations in the context of virtual collaboration are developing trust, demonstrating
affect, and understanding cultural differences as noted in the earlier literature review. Cheng et
al. (2017) investigated trust in semi-virtual collaboration groups in a school setting and found
that communicating trust was positively correlated with effective performance outcomes.
Additionally, Vinagre and Esteban (2018) explored affect through understanding how students
used evaluative language to build rapport and encourage collaboration in a virtual setting. The
data demonstrated that those who used affective language such as communicating happiness,
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security, and satisfaction (p. 345) were evaluated positively by their virtual classmates,
suggesting that communicating this level of affect is key for collaboration. Lastly, Cheng et al.
(2016) investigated the impact cultural norms can have on virtual teams. Data demonstrated that
there was a significant difference between multicultural and unicultural teams in that
multicultural groups showed instability and their performance decreased over time due to
differing languages, values, and habitual behaviors of each culture.
This finding demonstrated a pressing need for the development of soft skills in virtual
work environments particularly across cultures as multicultural settings show a greater risk for
instability and poor performance due to cultural miscommunication. Virtual soft skills can bridge
this gap as findings suggest that a well-designed collaboration process and clear communication
of expectations and tasks are ways to minimize cultural ambiguity. This study explores how well
AGL approaches their collaboration process and communicates expectations based on the
feedback of their staff.
Awareness of Distractibility by Smart Devices
As metacognitive knowledge, the third knowledge influence was the AGL team’s
awareness of how often they are distracted by their smart devices. Because working virtually
makes individuals heavily reliant on their devices, understanding the pitfalls of misuse and being
distracted by the devices is important to understand. Specifically, research indicated that
technological distractions can take a toll on productivity. Mark et al. (2017) demonstrated that
when management blocked several non-work-related websites on employees’ computers, they
found that participants reported a higher level of perceived productivity, increased focus, and
lower cognitive load. Additionally, Ko et al. (2016) found that 77% of participants they studied
reported that they experienced distractions caused by smartphones in group contexts. This study
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will explore how well the AGL team self-regulates when it comes to managing their
distractibility by smart devices. Table 1 summarizes the knowledge influences and labels the
knowledge type each fall under.

Table 1
Assumed Knowledge Influences
Assumed knowledge influence Knowledge type

AGL’s knowledge of the specific situations to use
each communication software tool.

Declarative (Factual)
AGL team’s knowledge of the impact of virtual soft
skills on communication effectiveness.

Declarative (Conceptual)

AGL’s knowledge of how to effectively
communicate with virtual coworkers.

Procedural

AGL team’s awareness of how often they are
distracted by their smart devices.

Metacognitive

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Motivation
Like knowledge, motivation is a key influence that impacts performance. Motivation
refers to the personal investment that an individual has in reaching a desired state or outcome
(Maehr & Meyer, 1997). Motivation is important because it influences the direction, intensity,
persistence, and quality of learning behaviors (Ambrose et al., 2010). Motivation is demonstrated
by three particular indices: choice, persistence, and mental effort (Seli & Dembo, 2019).
Underlying these motivated behaviors are psychological constructs such as self-efficacy, value
orientation, goal orientation and others. In this section, I will be reviewing literature that focuses
on motivation-related influences that are pertinent to the achievement of AGL’s goal to leverage
their virtual culture and collaboration experiences to offer a new line of consulting services
focused on creating an effective virtual culture for startups around the world. The specific
stakeholder competencies explored by this study was the AGL team’s ability to implement
effective self-regulation and collaboration techniques in the context of a virtual work
environment. The two underlying causes for these three indices explored by this study were task
value and self-efficacy. Table 2 summarizes the motivational influences and labels the
motivation type each fall under below.
Confidence in Their Ability to Effectively Communicate With Others Through Virtual
Medium
Self-efficacy refers to the evaluation one has about their abilities or skills to successfully
complete a specific task (Bandura, 1982, 2018). Self-efficacy theory was used in the study to
understand the AGL team’s confidence in their ability to effectively communicate with others
through virtual mediums. This includes both interacting with coworkers for collaboration and
clients for persuasion. If they had high self-efficacy in these areas, conversations with
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prospective clients would become more impactful and persuasive leading to AGL contracting
more projects, which is how AGL measures successful interactions with prospective clients.
Communicating through technology has demonstrated to be different when compared to in-
person communication. Cameron and Webster (2005) found that technology-based platforms
such as instant messaging have reduced the quality of communication. As communication
platforms such as GoToMeeting are heavily used by the AGL team, understanding their
confidence to maintain high-quality communication with their coworkers and clients was
essential in relation to their goal of implementing these soft skills to their virtual work
environment.
Value for Limiting Technological Distractions
Value orientations refers to the different reasons for engaging in tasks such as enjoyment,
usefulness, importance, and cost-benefit analysis (Seli & Dembo, 2019). Because one of the
goals of this study was to improve the productivity levels of the AGL team which will result in
potentially completing deliverables faster, the study is specifically examining the extrinsic value
the team has to limit technological distractions in effort to maximize their levels of productivity.
The benefits and consequences to limiting distractions directly relate to efficiency. The less
distraction a team member faces through technology, the more effective he or she can complete
their tasks, whether it be writing a report or performing data analysis, etc.
A recent study by Glass and Kang (2019) demonstrated that there is a link between
technology use and poor exam scores. Specifically, they conducted an experiment with a control
group who had no device during an exam versus experimental groups who had devices (further
split into one group that used them and the other one that did not). The control group with no
devices performed significantly better than both of the other groups. Translating this into the
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context of the AGL team, managing technology-based distractions may lead to maximizing
productivity. Table 2 summarizes the motivation influences and labels the motivation type each
fall under.

Table 2
Assumed Motivation Influences
Motivation construct Assumed motivation influence
Self-Efficacy AGL employees’ confidence in their ability to effectively
communicate with others through virtual mediums, including
both coworkers for collaboration and clients for persuasion.

Extrinsic value AGL employees’ value for limiting technological distractions to
maximize productivity

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Organizational Influences
Organizational influences play a key role in determining whether stakeholders can be
successful in performing their roles in an organization to achieve their goals. As suggested by
Gallimore and Goldenberg (2001), organizational influences can be categorized into two
divisions: models and settings where models refer to the values, beliefs, and attitudes that are
generally invisible and automated while settings refer to the visible and concrete manifestations
of cultural models. The organizational influences that were studied here culture of mindset,
culture of focus and intentionality and culture of “hands off, trust on” management as each
relates to self-regulation and collaboration. Table 3 summarizes the organizational influences and
labels the organization type each fall under below.
Culture of Growth Mindset
The culture of mindset stemmed from the work of Dweck (2008). In her book, Mindset,
Dweck discusses the differences of embodying a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. A fixed
mindset is described as one which suggests that characteristics of an individual such as
intelligence or communication are largely innate, leaving no room for them to grow or develop if
one is essentially not born with them. Alternatively, a growth mindset is described as one in
which these same characteristics are viewed as able to be developed over time with practice,
suggesting that the most important element is not whether or not one is born with an ability but
how much effort one puts towards building that ability. In regard to the stakeholders of AGL, the
firm considers fostering a growth mindset as one of the foundational pillars the firm is built on
(AGL & Associates, 2019) which is why it was important to explore how the team perceives this
cultural model in the context of their professional experience. Certain competencies that are
required for a growth mindset would include experimentation and innovation. This is a crucial
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cultural model as it relates to developing and embodying effective self-regulation and
collaboration skills in a virtual work environment.
Culture of Focus and Intentionality
The culture of focus and intentionality stems from the idea that excessive meetings can
take away from the development and efficiency of employees. Doodle’s (2019) State of
Meetings report found that 71% of professionals lose time every week due to unnecessary or
cancelled meetings. More specifically to a virtual work environment, 76% of the participants in
the same study indicated that they prefer face-to-face meetings, making it even more important
to minimize the use and necessity for meetings in a virtual work environment.
Along the same lines is the importance of intentionality. Team members of an
organization should understand and appreciate why they are asked to perform their tasks and
how the tasks align with the company mission and objectives as their understanding and
appreciation ultimately drives their engagement (Quantum Workplace, 2017). This was an
important cultural model to evaluate when considering both self-regulation and collaboration in a
virtual context as it encourages the AGL team to focus on the task at hand by minimizing
organizational distractions and elaborating on the “why” of the task.
Culture of “Hands Off, Trust On” Management
Management styles are a commonly discussed cultural setting with one particular style
that is frowned upon: micromanaging. Micromanaging has many definitions but is generally
thought of as a situation where a manager takes over a situation/task away from their employee
and manages their every activity and action due to their intense desire for success and even a
greater desire to avoid failure (Cangemi, 2000). A survey conducted by Cangemi (2000) found
that micromanaging damages employees by creating self-doubt, lowering self-esteem, suggesting
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a lack of trust, efficiency, and discourages independent thinking. Because of the many dangers
and pitfalls micromanaging brings particularly as it relates to the self-regulation and well-being
of an employee, this was a crucial cultural setting influence to examine in this study as it
explored how the AGL staff experiences management styles and their ability to self-regulate and
collaborate in a virtual workplace. Table 3 summarizes the organizational influences and labels
the organizational influence each fall under.

Table 3
Assumed Organizational Influences
Organizational influence category Assumed organizational influences
Cultural Model Influence 1 Culture of growth mindset – fostering a
growth mindset through experimentation
and innovation

Cultural Model Influence 2 Culture of focus – minimized use of meetings
and detailed description of how and why
tasks should be done

Cultural Setting Influence 1 Culture of management – “Hands off, trust on
model” – meet once a week to delegate
tasks and review work

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Chapter Three: Methods
The purpose of this study was to seek to understand how to self-regulate and collaborate
effectively in a virtual work environment and how AGL & Associates inhibits or promotes these
behaviors. For this study, I took a multi-faceted qualitative research approach involving the AGL
team and myself. This chapter reviews the research design and methods for sampling, data
collection, and analysis. The following research questions were addressed in the analysis:
Research Questions
• What is AGL’s existing knowledge regarding self-regulation and collaboration best
practices in a virtual workplace?
• What is AGL’s motivation to apply self-regulation and collaboration competencies in a
virtual workplace to more effectively communicate and complete tasks?
• How is leadership preparing the team to develop the self-regulation and collaboration
skills in a virtual workplace at AGL?
In the remainder of the chapter, I present the participating stakeholders, my sampling strategy,
data collection, data analysis, credibility/trustworthiness of the design, ethical considerations,
and limitations.
Participating Stakeholders
The stakeholder populations for this study were the AGL team and me, as the founder
and managing director of AGL. For this study, I sent out a company-wide notice of the
dissertation that I worked on which included all members of AGL who have worked on an
internal or external project from 2018 to 2021. The reasoning behind approaching everyone who
has worked on a project over this three year duration was to gather as much insight as possible to
best understand the KMO of the entire organization’s soft skills. This data allowed me to explore
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what trends and gaps exist when it comes to self-regulation and collaboration skills required in a
virtual context.
Interview Sampling Strategy, Criterion, and Rationale
The sampling strategy I implemented for this study was census sampling where I strived
to have the entire population of 20 potential participants to participate. However, given that it is
unlikely that I will receive a response rate of 100%, I strived to have an acceptable response rate
of 70% (Johnson & Christensen, 2019) by interviewing 14 out of 20 possible participants.
Striving for a response rate of 70% ensures that the study included interviewing the majority of
the organization to answer the research questions listed above yielding insight to both the self-
regulation and collaboration elements of the study.
Stakeholders had to have completed work for AGL & Associates as an AGL team
member since the organization was founded in March 2018. These stakeholders were recruited
through two major processes. The first was through an email that I sent out to everyone who has
been a part of AGL staff since March 2018 describing the purpose of the study and information
regarding their requested participation. The second was through a third party who directly
reached out to each of these individuals through an email and a follow-up phone call and text
message requesting their consent and to schedule the interview. I provided the third-party
researcher all contact information by providing her our company’s database.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
There were two forms data collection utilized in this study. The first were interviews with
the AGL team to seek to understand how to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment
and how AGL & Associates inhibits/promotes those behaviors. The second was an
autoethnography where I used narrative inquiry, document analysis and observation to add more
depth, data, and context to this research. I utilized interviews as a data collection method for
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speaking with others given that this is a virtual site where I cannot observe behavior, feelings, or
how the AGL team interprets the world around them (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). Additionally, I
utilized the autoethnography to evaluate my role and impact on the culture that has been created
at AGL as it relates to leveraging these adapted soft skills in a virtual workplace. Together, the
interviews and autoethnography served to address all three research questions regarding best
practices in demonstrating self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual work environment.
Interviews
Candidates were recruited in two primary ways through census sampling. First, an email
was sent out to the AGL team outlining the purpose of the study and encouragement to
participate. This email was sent by me and provided a detailed introduction to what the study is,
why it is being conducted and why they were encouraged to participate. Second, a third-party
researcher reached out to each potential participant with a phone call and text message followed
by an email. The purpose of this outreach was to request consent of the potential participant to
conduct an interview and schedule time for it. Compensation in the form of a $20 Visa gift card
was mailed out to each participant for their time spent taking the interview.
The interview was conducted by a third party via Zoom which was the preference of the
third-party researcher as it offered recording and transcribing capabilities. A loosely structured
protocol (Appendix A) was used to guide the conversation as Miles and Huberman (1994)
suggest that loosely designed studies make good sense when experienced researchers have plenty
of time and are exploring exotic cultures, understudied phenomena, or very complex social
phenomena which this dissertation can relate to. The protocol focused on the knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences related self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual
environment while still maintaining room for flexibility to allow the staff to freely express their
experiences with self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual context. The interview itself
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contained only five to ten questions from the protocol as suggested by Creswell and Creswell
(2017) when discussing best practices of qualitative research. Lastly, because the interviews
were conducted by a third-party researcher due to ethical considerations explained later in this
chapter, all responses were transcribed, de-identified and sent to me after the interviews were
complete for the analysis phase.
Autoethnography
In addition to the interviews conducted with the candidates, an autoethnography was also
conducted for this study. An autoethnography is an intriguing and promising qualitative method
that offers a way of giving voice to personal experience for the purpose of extending sociological
understanding (Wall, 2008). This method was chosen given my active involvement and
participation with AGL & Associates as their founder and managing director. As the founder of
the company, the autoethnography allowed me to take a closer look at the culture I have built at
AGL & Associates and how it relates to the society of a rapidly evolving workplace, which are
the factors that unite all ethnographic work; human society and culture (Merriam & Tisdell,
2017). This method included observations, document analysis, and narrative inquiry.
Observations
Observations are common in many types of qualitative research and are especially
important in ethnographic studies (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). They are a particularly helpful
strategy for understanding ill-defined phenomena (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). Given that this
study was qualitative, encompassed an autoethnographic element, and attempted to understand
ill-defined phenomena (soft skills in a virtual workplace), observations served as a critical
element of this study. For the observational element of the study, I selected five meetings which I
was a part of for the third-party researcher to observe. These meetings consisted of 1 on 1
meetings with my direct reports, team meetings with certain divisions of AGL & Associates (ex.
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research team, client project, etc.), and client meetings. During these observations, the third-party
researcher focused on six areas in particular; the setting, participants, activities/interactions,
conversation, subtle factors and my own behavior as per the guidelines of Merriam and Tisdell
(2017). For the observations themselves, my stance was to be a participant as observer, which is
where my (the researcher’s) observer activities were known to the group and subordinate to my
(the researcher’s) role as a participant (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). All observations were
recorded via GoToMeeting.
Document Analysis
In addition to observations, document analysis was conducted as part of the
autoethnography. Document is often used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of written,
visual, digital, and physical material relevant to the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). For this
study, I focused on written documents in the form of a market research report on virtual worked
produced by AGL & Associates, the company handbook and the company’s brand guidelines.
Each piece of documentation provided context to how and why the culture of AGL & Associates
was created while addressing the research questions of this study.
Narrative Inquiry
A narrative inquiry was the last piece of the autoethnographic data collection. The key to
this type of qualitative research is the use of stories as data, and more specifically, first-person
accounts of experience told in story form having a beginning, middle and end (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2017). This approach allowed me to tell the story of how AGL & Associates began and
my philosophy on how to adapt in the emergence of the virtual workplace. Because so much of
AGL was built intentionally based on my philosophy on work, a virtual workplace, and
management, this served as an important piece to better understanding the origins of the
organization’s culture. This was the final dataset that I gathered after the document analysis and
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the observations to serve as a cumulative reflection on the intentions and the outcome of the
culture that I have created at AGL. This narrative inquiry consisted of me journaling on why I
started the organization as well as interviewing myself with the same protocol that was used for
the other participants in the study.
Data Analysis
The goal of data analysis was to make sense of data through consolidation, reduction, and
interpretation of what people have said and what the research has seen and read (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2017). This process started with identifying categories in the data set that were
responsive to my research questions, followed by sorting, organizing and naming these
categories, and then finally becoming more theoretical (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). This process
was conducted after all data was gathered and sent to me by the third-party researcher. Several
rounds of coding were conducted to address the research questions of this study.
Interviews
The data analysis process for the interviews started through writing memos after each
interview along with coding the transcripts after each interview. Through this process, I looked
for categories that informed my research questions where I was measuring participants’
knowledge and motivation and the preparation around self-regulation and collaboration
leadership provided to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment. I relied on an
emergent coding methodology seeking to understand participants’ knowledge, motivation, and
perception of how leadership has prepared them for demonstrating self-regulation and
collaboration in a virtual workplace. The codes were focused on the categories of awareness of
how self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual workplace differ from an in-office workplace,
perceived importance of self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual workplace, self-efficacy of
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self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual workplace, value perception of culture, and
perception of leadership’s effectiveness in preparing them for a virtual workplace.
Observations
For the observations, I provided the third-party researcher with templates to fill out
during and after the meeting being observed was complete. As per the guidance of Bogdan and
Biklen (2011), I refrained from discussing the observation with any participants before notes
were recorded as “talking about it diffuses its importance.” The only information was provided
to participants was an overview of the purpose of the observation and requesting their consent to
proceed with being observed for the purpose of this study. This consenting process was complete
without my presence to ensure no participant felt pressured to participate in the observation.
Document Analysis
The documentation which was reviewed included AGL Brand Guidelines, AGL
Employee Handbook, and a market research report on virtual work which was produced by AGL
& Associates. I selected these three documents due to their authenticity and the ability to verify
the authors, places, and dates of writing (McCulloch, 2004). After this, I conducted a content
analysis which is known as “an unobtrusive technique that allows researchers to analyze
relatively unstructured data in view of the meanings, symbolic qualities, and expressive contents
they have and of the communicative roles they play in the lives of the data’s sources”
(Krippendorff, 2013). The content analysis served to measuring the frequency and variety of
messages and confirming hypotheses (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017).
Narrative Inquiry
The narrative inquiry focused on a categorical analysis whereby “units were abstracted
from the completed stories” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). The reasoning behind this approach for
the analysis was because compared to a holistic analysis which focuses on the story as a whole,
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the categorical analysis allowed for me to extract meaningful units from the story and cross-
reference those units with the culture of AGL. This categorical analysis helped contextualize the
importance of both managing technology-based distractions and effective virtual collaboration.
Additionally, the narrative inquiry served as a reflection which will include the story of how
AGL was formed as well as looking back to analyze how things progressed over the first three
years of the company’s lifespan. This was done through personal journaling and interviewing
myself with the same protocol that other participants were interviewed with. I completed this
process after analyzing the interview data with the other participants because it allowed me to
understand what gaps existed in AGL’s ability to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual
workplace compared to my vision for the organization and my own worldview of virtual work.
This approach allowed me to understand where my biases for virtual work were and the areas I
need to improve the organization to serve the team in a more objective manner.
Credibility and Trustworthiness
The credibility and trustworthiness were maintained through this study due to multiple
methodologies being used. As LeCompte and Preissle (1993) suggested, there are four factors
that lend support to the claim of high internal validity of ethnographic research:
First, the ethnographer’s common practice of living among participants and collecting
data for long periods provides opportunities for continual data analysis and comparison to
refine constructs; it ensures a match between research categories and participant realities.
Second, informant interviews, a major ethnographic data source, are phrased in the
empirical categories of participants; they are less abstract than many instruments used in
other research designs. Third, participant observation – the ethnographer’s second key
source of data – is conducted in natural settings reflecting the life experiences of
participants more accurately than do more contrived or laboratory settings. Finally,
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ethnographic analysis incorporates research reflection, introspection, and self-monitoring
that Erickson (1973) calls disciplined subjectivity, and these expose all phases of the
research to continual questioning and reevaluation. (p. 342)
Each of the four factors were captured through this study including my common practice of
living among participants as the managing director of AGL, interviews with the AGL team,
participant observation during AGL meetings that I was involved in, and research reflection
through the narrative inquiry. Additionally, triangulation was conducted by comparing and cross-
checking data collected through observations and interviews (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017).
Furthermore, I utilized member checking as a method to build credibility by soliciting
feedback about the data and conclusions I gathered from the interviews to ensure that I
interpreted my participants’ responses correctly (Maxwell, 2013). To perform member checking,
the third party reached back out to each participant given the limited sample size. Although this
is no more valid than the responses themselves, it offered the ability to confirm that the
interpretations that were made from the interviews were accurate. Taking both into consideration
was an important way to maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of the study.
Ethics
My study took a qualitative design approach for both designated stakeholder groups; the
AGL team and myself. My responsibilities during the recruitment process were to inform all
potential AGL team participants of the purpose of the dissertation and to request their
participation. Establishing trust was important here as I have conflicting roles as the researcher
of the dissertation as well as the managing director of AGL. This is why the third-party
researcher was tasked to complete follow-ups and conduct interviews with each participant after
my initial outreach.
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Information Sheet
Each participant, regardless of which stakeholder group they belonged to, received an
information sheet to participate which included details such as informing them that their
participation is voluntary, that they are allowed to stop participation at any point during the
interview or observation, and that all disclosed information will be kept confidential and
anonymous but will be reviewed by me for only the purpose of this study. Additionally, the
third-party researcher requested permission to record the interviews and observations. Each
participant was informed that their recordings will be kept for research purposes only and are not
to be shared to anyone within the organization for any reason, except for me. Additionally, no
individual interviewed was identified or linked to any recording in this study protecting the
professional standing of every participant. To ensure this, no recordings of the interviews or
observations were provided to me as the voice of each participant served as an identifier. Instead,
the third-party researcher transcribed all of the interviews and provided me with a document
containing all responses. Additionally, the third-party researcher completed a template for each
observation which de-identified all parties involved and was provided to me for the purpose of
analysis. The primary ethical implication of this approach was to ensure the participants felt safe
to participate and trusted that the information will be kept anonymous, confidential and collected
by a third party.
Role-Based Dilemma
As suggested by Glesne (2010), there were specific role-based ethical dilemmas that
could have surfaced throughout this study. In this case, given that I am the owner and managing
director of AGL, there were certain ethical implications to be considered regarding my working
relationship with each of the participants. Since I am the owner and managing director of the
company as well as the researcher of the study, it was important to mitigate any sense of pressure
52

or coercion to participate or respond in particular ways for the participants. To do this, I only led
the initial outreach to inform the potential participants of the study. Here, I emphasized to all
stakeholders that the purpose of the study was to serve as an evaluation to bring AGL closer to
its performance goal and nothing else. From there, a third-party researcher was hired to reach out
to them and complete all data collection which involved each participant. This third-party
research had the necessary CITI certification to conduct data collection and had no affiliation
with the firm or any of the participants. I made the decision to select the third-party candidate
from the program mentioned above because they had the training and education necessary to
conduct quality interviews and did so in an effective manner. For example, one method of
effective interviewing which needed to be demonstrated was the third party refraining from
expressing their point of view on any topics discussed so the participant felt comfortable and was
able to freely express their own points of view (Rubin & Rubin, 2012).
Biases and Assumptions
Although I had a concrete, implicit agenda for this study and the findings, biases and
assumptions were mitigated from an ethical standpoint because a third party conducted the
interviews. They had no affiliation with the research topic, participants or the organization so it
was safe to assume that they interacted with the participants in an unbiased or assumptive
manner. Additionally, triangulation was used for the multiple forms of data collection to increase
the credibility/internal validity of the research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). The third party
conducting the interviews and triangulation served to minimize any potential for biases and
assumptions.
Limitations and Delimitations
There were two limitations of this study to consider. For one, the sample size for the
interviews had the same educational background. All but three potential participants (85%) have
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graduated from the University of Southern California’s Master of Science in Applied Psychology
(MAPP) program. Given the similar educational background and the social science context of the
program, their responses showed similar trends that may have not otherwise been seen in other
virtual organizations which ultimately may impact generalizability. Further research would have
to be conducted across other virtual organizations to see if there are similar or different trends.
Another limitation to be considered was the truthfulness of the responses in the
participants during the interviews. Ultimately, whether conducted with a third party or not, each
participant knew that this research was being conducted by the owner and managing director of
the company. However, given that this is not classified as a full-time position for any of the
participants, there was a lesser likelihood that the truthfulness will play as significant of an
impact compared to the possibility if it was their full-time role and their primary source of
income. Nonetheless, further research would have to be done external from the organization
which is being evaluated to see if these trends are replicable.

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Chapter Four: Results and Findings
This purpose of this chapter is to answer the following research questions using both
qualitative analysis and an autoethnography:
● What is AGL’s existing knowledge regarding self-regulation and collaboration best
practices in a virtual workplace?
● What is AGL’s motivation to apply self-regulation and collaboration competencies in a
virtual workplace to more effectively communicate and complete tasks?
● How is leadership preparing the team to develop the self-regulation and collaboration
skills in a virtual workplace at AGL?
Throughout the chapter, I discuss AGL’s ability to self-regulate and collaborate in a
virtual workplace by highlighting major themes and any potential gaps within each of the three
components of the KMO framework; knowledge, motivation, and organization. To do this, I
analyze interviews that were conducted with 11 former and current AGL team members (out of a
potential of 20 candidates). Furthermore, within each of the three sections, I also highlight my
own perspectives, understandings, and intentions of the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational elements of AGL with the use of an autoethnographic methodological framework.
Ellis and Bochner (2000) describe an autoethnography as a genre of writing and research that
displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural. Back and forth
autoethnographers gaze, first through an ethnographic wide-angle lens, focusing outward on
social and cultural aspects of the personal experience; then they look inward, exposing a
vulnerable self that is moved by and may move through, refract and resist cultural
interpretations. To do this, I have leveraged company documents, observations of company
meetings that I participated in as well as my own narrative inquiry (Appendix B) to provide my
own personal narrative within each section about the organization as it relates to the research
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questions listed above. This data discussed in this chapter provides results and findings of both
the AGL organization as a whole as well as my place within it as the founder and managing
director.
Participating Stakeholders
Interviews
As suggested in Chapter Three, data collection was intentionally designed to be
anonymized and de-identified to protect the confidentiality of each participant and avoid any
potential conflicts of interest that could have surfaced based on this study and my working
relationship with each participant; therefore the demographic table below comprises of every
potential participant that may have been involved. Overall, there were 20 associates who were
approached, 11 of which participated in the study. Table 4 outlines the demographic information
of the potential participants:

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Table 4
Demographics of Potential Participants
Gender Education Age
Male Ph.D. 26–30
Female Associates 31–35
Female MSc 36–40
Male MSc 31–35
Female MSc 31–35
Male MSc 21–25
Female MSc 21–25
Female MSc 21–25
Female MSc 26–30
Male MSc 31–35
Female BA 36–40
Male J.D. 26–30
Female MSc 21–25
Female MSc 26–30
Female MSc 26–30
Female MSc 26–30
Female MSc 26–30
Female MSc 21–25
Female MSc 31–35
Male MSc 31–35
Male BS 26–30

Personal Reflections
While this chapter contains a qualitative analysis in each of the three sections to follow,
there were additional data points which were gathered through the autoethnography process
which is used to form my own personal reflections within each of these sections as well. This
form of analysis is essential as I am the founder and managing director of the organization which
is being analyzed. By including myself in the analysis rather than attempting to remove myself
from a process that I am deeply engrained into, I aim to provide cultural analysis and
interpretation using my vision for the organization and interpretation of the data sources. These
sources include three documents which are the AGL Handbook, a market research report on
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virtual work written by AGL & Associates, and AGL’s Brand Guidelines document which
informs the organization’s marketing strategy. These documents were analyzed to help identify
the themes which will be outlined in the following sections. Additionally, there were five
observations completed by a third-party researcher. These observations included (2) one on one
meetings with myself and two of my direct reports, (2) client meetings, and (1) team meeting.
Table 5 outlines the five observations in greater detail. Lastly, I have also documented my
responses to each interview question in the interview protocol which was also used to interview
the participants in the study to serve as my narrative inquiry.

Table 5
Observation Participants
Meeting type Individuals involved Primary focus
(Internal) 1 on 1 Myself, direct report Weekly meeting/coaching
(Internal) 1 on 1 Myself, direct report Weekly meeting/coaching
(Internal) Team meeting Myself, 2 direct reports AGL Institute
(External) Client meeting Myself, lead consultant, 2
individuals from client
organization
Monthly review of
consulting engagement
(External) Client meeting Myself, 2 client leads, 2
individuals from client
organization
Market research deliverable
review

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Knowledge Results and Findings
The following section will address the first research question which focuses on
understanding what existing knowledge AGL associates possess related to best practices in self-
regulation and collaboration in the virtual workplace. The domains of knowledge which will be
evaluated are declarative, procedural, and metacognitive. Out of the data points analyzed
between interviews, observations, and document analysis, three themes emerged which include
clarity-seeking behavior, the ability to humanize, and technology management. The primary
source of data which led to the findings below were derived from the qualitative data/interviews
which were further substantiated by observations and documents.
Clarity-Seeking Behavior
When it comes to collaborating in a virtual environment, there are certain ambiguities in
comparison to in-person collaboration. These ambiguities include the absence of body language,
difficulty to interpret tone of written communication, and the potential for miscommunication
through virtual interaction. Miscommunication during virtual interaction could appear from a
misunderstanding of another person or dealing with potential distractions while others are
speaking a virtual setting due to notifications, personal disruptions such as those one lives with,
pets, as well personal devices. Because of these many ambiguities, participants placed a strong
emphasis on seeking clarification throughout interviews, documentation, and observations.
Given the virtual nature of the role, 18.8% of data collected to assess knowledge suggested that
participants demonstrated clarity-seeking behavior across multiple domains of knowledge. In this
context, clarity-seeking behavior refers to any behavior that was used to increase alignment
throughout the virtual collaboration process. This behavior includes the use of screensharing in
meetings, concerns around miscommunication, questions that were asked throughout
observations, etc.
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Declarative Knowledge: Screensharing
As stated in Chapter Two, this study sought to understand if participants had the
declarative knowledge of understanding specific situations in which to use particular
communication tools. This knowledge was demonstrated in many ways, one of the most popular
being through the use of a video-conferencing tool called screensharing. Screensharing, also
known as desktop sharing, is the practice of sharing the contents of your screen with another
device or multiple devices (TeamViewer, n.d.). Participants had the knowledge of when to utilize
screensharing functionality for both internal and client meetings. The purpose of screensharing
varied but included training, brainstorming, and presentations and it is considered a clarity-
seeking behavior as it helps clear some of the ambiguity that exists when two or more individuals
are not physically present while working together by allowing them to focus on one screen
during collaboration. Below are responses from interviews supporting the use of screensharing.
Response 1: Screenshare often? It became the default. But not because I needed
something, it was just the way they share information. Whatever they were doing we
would all see it. It was nice to see what people were thinking about. Screenshare when
people are talking about something easier to understand.
Response 2: Who would be leading the screenshare? I would be on it separately. Usually
it was James or Shamit. They would show their screen and I would take notes. And they
would go through how to run a website or how to use screenshare. If I had an issue I
would screenshare and then show them what my issue was. If I asked for help I would
show my screen. If they teach, they show their screen.
Response 3: Favorite feature of these platforms? Sharing screen. Sometimes hard to
describe what you are seeing, sending screenshots isn’t the same. A feature that could be
helpful to give someone control of your screen. If you want to see a task on your screen
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and share what you’re looking at and give them control. We can do that with Microsoft
teams.
Declarative Knowledge: Importance of Soft Skills
Another trend regarding the existing knowledge of AGL associates was the
understanding of the impact of soft skills in a virtual workplace. While this was not always
explicitly stated, participants demonstrated that they had existing knowledge of the impact of soft
skills through emphasizing its value through statements and actions. Because the term “soft
skills” can mean different things to different people, the data does a good job of capturing the
importance soft skills had to the participants of the study. This was done through evidence of
participants listening, managing expectations, making clarifying statements, asking clarifying
questions, and placing a specific emphasis on the value of being able to successfully
communicate with clients. Below are data points from interviews supporting the impact of soft
skills: from each of the different types of data:
Response 1: Things that you do? Ask for clarification, I give scenarios and examples. I
learned to repeat things back so people hear what they said and how I perceived it so they
know if this is their true feelings. To see if this is what they really meant to say. Talk
through the ambiguity if any still exists.
Response 2: I do always try to understand where other people are coming from. It’s the
undergrad psychology from me. I like to also talk about where I’m coming from so that
we can collaborate and reach an agreement on what we should do.
Response 3: My effort 100%. You always want to get clarification, you listen, I’m the
type of person that wants to know if I’m doing something right. I’m always going to be
doing that, even if I think I’m doing something correctly, I will always ask even if it’s not
making sense.
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Procedural Knowledge: How to Effectively Communicate With Virtual Coworkers
While the above two sections suggest that AGL associates both understand the impact of
soft skills in a virtual workplace as well as knew which situations were best to leverage
communication tools for collaboration, this section focuses on how they communicate with their
virtual coworkers. Participants demonstrated their procedural knowledge by describing how they
approach listening, sharing information, and seeking clarification during virtual collaboration.
Examples of this include confirming what participants are hearing by repeating it back to their
coworkers and as well as using pauses to allow others to finish their thoughts without
interruption. While repeating information back to someone may also be common for in-person
settings, its importance is amplified in remote settings as one is not able to acknowledge that she
or she is listening through body language such as eye contact and nodding their head.
Additionally, listening also requires specific adjustments in a virtual setting as one is unable to
determine when another person is finishing their thought through body language such as hand
gestures, eye contact, or head nods. Because of this, participants suggested that they use
deliberate pauses to listen better and allow others to finish their thoughts. Evidence supporting
the presence of this type of procedural knowledge is listed below:
Response 1: I would say, I’m really committed to that if we do a scale, I’m a 9 to 10. I
always try to make sure I’m understanding what someone is saying and that I’m not just
listening to respond. I’m listening to understand. I have learned to appreciate pauses
especially when connect virtually. When looking at technology the connection is not
always immediate. I someone is continuing their thought, I like to give a pause before I
respond. I also allow the thought to sit there before I try to respond or counter it. This is
more important when communicating virtually because there is a lack of facial expression
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and body language. You have to give additional time to connect over whatever platform
you are using to actually receive the message.
Response 2: I make a pretty good effort to understand before I respond to them because I
want them to do the same for me. I don’t want to put someone down when they ask me a
question.
Response 3: Are there moments where people cut each other off? Nope I haven’t noticed
that in any of our meetings. it’s not usually a rude cut off, it’s someone adding to
someone else’s point or correcting someone.
Willingness and Ability to Humanize
When replacing human to human interaction with technology-mediated human
interaction, there is a possibility for the dynamics of the interaction to shift over time. During
human to human interactions, pleasantries are often exchanged, and rapport building is not only a
norm, but behavior that is encouraged so colleagues can get to know one another and become
comfortable with each other. This is an essential element of collaboration particularly for in-
person settings. Many times, employers consider being personable and easy to work with an
important criterion when determining whether or not someone is a cultural fit for a role.
Furthermore, during in-person settings, developing strong interpersonal connection with others is
common as people are spending the majority of their day with their colleagues. This
phenomenon can be categorized as humanization. Merriam-Webster (n.d.) defines humanize as a
transitive verb meaning to include or increase human interaction (in something, such as a process
or place).
When removing human to human interaction and replacing it with technology to facilitate
collaboration, this element of humanization becomes jeopardized. The dynamics of an
interaction shift from relationship-oriented to task-oriented as people naturally spend a lot less
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time getting to know one another and more time on focusing on completing the task at hand.
Once the task is complete, colleagues continue on with their day, with little connection being
formed or maintained with others. Participants in this study saw this gap as an area for
opportunity and something that was fundamentally missing in the day-to-day interactions. 40%
of data collected to assess knowledge represented participants’ willingness and ability to
humanize a virtual interaction. Examples of participants’ willingness to humanize included
preferences to turn on cameras during meetings and share personal information with one another
as well the desire for more social interactions with their peers. This theme was identified across
multiple data types and domains of knowledge.
Declarative Knowledge: The Ability to Maintain Professionalism and Humanize Through
Video
One of the biggest differences in working virtually compared to in an office setting is the
lack of having the physical presence of those one works with. Because many individuals who
work virtually also work from the comfort of home, it can be challenging to understand how to
maintain professionalism and humanize interactions. Participants reported ways in which they
leveraged communication tools to humanize virtual interactions and maintain professionalism,
primarily through the preference of using the video feature for virtual collaboration over
alternative methods such as texting. Below are responses from participants to support this
finding:
Response 1: What do you do to understand someone’s perspective? First process in my
head, then ask follow-up clarifying questions to see if what they are saying is correct. At
that point, I’ll have an understanding of what they are trying to say. This is through a
video conference. This is probably the best. With text messaging things can be taken out
of context. So, web conference and reading people’s face helps a lot.
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Response 2: I’m always a fan of the webcam, you get the most information out of it.
What’s being said and watched. Group phone calls are great as well.
Response 3: When there is conflict what mode of communication do you prefer to use? It
depends on the level of conflict and everyone’s emotions. If it’s small and not heavy,
then text. But if it’s emotionally driven then it’s better and easier to communicate through
webcam or in person.
Declarative Knowledge: Valuing Interpersonal Interaction
An unexpected finding across the interviews were the many comments that were made
about a missing element while working at AGL, which was more interpersonal interaction.
Through interviews, it was evident that participants had the knowledge of the impact soft skills
can make in the virtual workplace. This was demonstrated by suggesting how AGL can improve
by adding social events to the organization and expressing how they felt that it was a missing
element while working there. While it is apparent that the knowledge exists for the participants
here, this suggests an organizational gap which is discussed in a later section in this chapter.
Supporting evidence from the interviews is listed below:
Response 1: A way to make you feel more connected to the other two freelancers? Could
have had more virtual get togethers. Bonding things. All hands meetings. Have video
conferencing. Back then it was only voice. They are doing that today. Our work, someone
was doing marketing don’t remember what the other person was doing. It wasn’t
necessary to really get to know them, we were doing things that were totally different.
Response 2: What did you want to see more of? Probably more communication weekly
with everyone talking about what we had going on, how we feel. Other than just meeting
to discuss a project. Want more talk like coworkers and friends.
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Response 3: What is needed to help build personal relationships? Something to add is the
willingness to do it. Scheduling time to talk about nonwork related things is weird. I was
in some sessions, I got to know my coworkers because we had to wait in between
sessions for some time. We were able to talk to each other there was that downtime. The
willingness to want to be social has to be there. Hard to talk to strangers sometimes.
Procedural Knowledge: Knowledge of How to Humanize an Interaction
As suggested in earlier sections, participants developed the knowledge of leveraging
technology to humanize a conversation as well as expressed the importance of interpersonal
interaction. This section focuses on how they go about humanizing an interaction in a virtual
workplace. This procedural knowledge was demonstrated by participants through observations as
participants would share information about their personal lives, check in on each other, have
informal dialogue and actively listen to one another. Additionally, participants described how
they used digital language such as informal acronyms (“lol”) and emojis to further humanize a
conversation.
Response 1: Different punctuations or emojis to share these emotions? I might say lol or
add exclamation if I’m excited. In emails and comments, I don’t use a lot of flowery
punctuation. But over text I might send an emoji or lol. Emails in written communication
I don’t add that. But if it’s more personal I’ll send an emoji from time to time.
Response 2: How do you usually demonstrate your emotions virtually? If text, I would
use different types of language or smiley faces or emoticons whenever we would do
meetings virtually we would have our webcams on. IT would be apparently how I was
feeling, so I’m pretty good with my emotions. People can hear the tone of my voice. Text
based I used symbols.
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Response 3: When easier to understand someone perspective? It’s not too different. For
me what makes it harder to understand people is when you text or email. Just writing
things basically is a lot harder to understand sarcasm. In live conversations you can ask
for clarification or ask if someone understand you. In a zoom call helps you see them face
to face and it’s close to real face-to-face interaction. You see their facial reaction and can
think through things.
Technology Management
An important distinction between in-office and virtual work environments is the
increased reliance on technology that is necessary in the workplace. Although many in-office
environments already have assigned computers for employees, communication is done in person.
Virtual workplaces on the other hand, solely rely on technology for both completing tasks and
communication. That said, it is important that virtual workers have a strong understanding of
what technology to use, when to use it and how to use it which participants demonstrated. 41%
of the data collected to assess knowledge represented the competency participants had to manage
the use of technology in two primary ways; in understanding what technology to use to complete
their work as well as having the awareness of how distracting technology can be as it relates to
productivity.
Declarative Knowledge: Understanding What Technology to Use
Today, there is far more technology to use in the workplace than ever before. With so
many software applications, devices and methods of communication available, it is important to
understand what technology to use, what device to use it on, and in what situation to use it which
can vary based on the person and the organization. Participants demonstrated that they possessed
the declarative knowledge necessary to successfully operate in a virtual environment.
Participants described the software applications that they often use to complete their tasks, what
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device they use for different scenarios, what platforms they use for communication and what
situations they used them. Software tools included Microsoft Office, G-Suite, and GoToMeeting.
Communication platforms included emails, messaging, video calling, and phone calling. Device
preferences were based on what the nature of the task was but there was a general preference for
using computers to complete tasks versus using a smartphone.
Response 1: What do you prefer to do on your phone versus computer?
Phone = Text Shamit, check email, email campaigns.
Computer work for AGL, send hundreds of emails, taking meetings with Shamit and
clients.
Response 2: Do you have a preference? I think if it’s for something quick prefer texting
because it’s instantaneous. If it’s longer answers, email. If talking through a lot of
specifics, then video conferencing.
Response 3: Chat = people are talking a lot, I put in chat so that they don’t forget my
question. When giving presentation, and you want people to reply instead of talking over
each other, I’ve seen people use the chat. You can also attach files.
Metacognitive Knowledge: Awareness of Distractibility
A unique element of working remotely is actively managing distractions that come with
technology. This can happen with both computers and smartphones as well as on work devices
and personal ones. Having this metacognitive knowledge about the potential distractions that
smart devices can bring to one’s work is an important element of virtual work. What makes this
challenging is due to the reliance people have on smart devices for their work as well.
Participants demonstrated this metacognitive level of knowledge but there were two categories
that participants generally fell into. One group of participants which had this awareness
expressed low phone usage while working. The other group who had this awareness expressed
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higher phone usage based on social media usage, general browsing, and reading the news.
Nonetheless, the data below supports that the awareness of distractibility exists.
Response 1: How do you manage notifications? I have a lot turned off completely. I don’t
like getting notifications. I don’t want to be on my phone all the time. I have my phone
on vibrate and a lot of apps don’t have notification permissions at all.
Response 2: Not frequently. Not very often. I do check it. But I guess I check it… It
honestly depends on the day. Yesterday there was a lot that required my immediate
attention, so I didn't check. But I might check it to see if someone needs a quick answer.
Like right now my friend just texted me, so I will ignore because I know she doesn’t need
something immediate. If I need to upload something to encompass that can be really thick
documents, so I’ll pull out my phone to check notifications because if I do other things
my computer will freeze.
Response 3: That’s hard. I don’t feel like we had working hours. But I do tend to distract
myself with my phone frequently. Relatively frequently. If I was spending 3 hours, I
would distracted 3–4 times. Each distraction would be 10–15 minutes or so.
Personal Reflections: Knowledge
Prior to launching AGL & Associates, I spent four years in business to business (B2B)
software sales and another 2 years in business to consumer (retail) sales. Additionally, I studied
Psychology during my undergraduate studies and Applied Psychology (Organizational and
Consumer Psychology) during my (virtual) graduate studies. I believe this combination of
experiences is what led me to understand what knowledge is required to self-regulate and
collaborate in a virtual environment. As I transitioned to launch AGL & Associates, there was no
question in my mind that the company would be run virtually. What was not so clear to me at the
same was how many others would join the organization over the next three years.
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When I think about what existing knowledge the organization has regarding self-
regulation and collaboration in a virtual workplace, I believe I provided AGL with the guidance
in some settings while also learning from the team in others. My background in software sales
gave me the knowledge of understanding what tools were necessary to collaborate with others
virtually as well as complete tasks in an efficient manner. Additionally, my background in
psychology and completing a virtual master of science degree was critical in understanding how
to understanding and collaborating with others in a virtual setting. These experiences made me
realize virtual work allows you to accomplish more quicker and also removes geographic
restrictions on who one can work with, opening up the possibility to work with anyone in the
world at any time. Given that so much of my work (professional and academic) was done
virtually, I had great practice in how to collaborate with others as well as how to self-regulate in
virtual settings. The knowledge that I was able to provide the organization was understanding
and emphasizing what software tools to use and in which settings as well as how to develop and
maintain relationships with clients over phone calls, virtual meetings and emails.
However, I also learned a lot from those who joined my team over the first three years of
the company’s lifespan. What I realized is that I have always been very task-oriented when it
came to work, and this became much more obvious in a virtual setting. Although I was very
productive and engaging with my clients and colleagues, I learned that I was not spending
enough time building deeper relationships with others I was working with. The idea of how
much can be accomplished if we eliminate any downtime or non-productive time became the
foundation of how I operated in a virtual setting going from one meeting to the next and blocking
time off to complete the work that was discussed during meetings. Nowhere in this plan did I
leave room for the importance of building relationships and socializing with those who I worked
with. As the company began to hire interns, I realized that this was more than just work to many
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of them. This was an experience to get to know others, network and develop long-lasting
relationships. They gave me the knowledge of understanding the impact developing deeper
relationships can have in virtual settings, particularly. I learned this as I began to notice how
people would open up much more as the informal discussions during meetings began and how
much they enjoyed these moments. Working on this dissertation made me realize this even more.
Although I have been demonstrating task-oriented behaviors this entire time, I believe the power
dynamics within the organization are what allowed my colleagues to be themselves and this is
what allowed me to learn from my team regarding the importance of building deeper
relationships with others in a virtual setting.
Knowledge Summary
The data presented in this section demonstrates that participants of this study
demonstrated having the knowledge necessary to self-regulate and collaborate successfully in a
virtual workplace. This knowledge spans across domains including declarative knowledge,
procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge. The declarative knowledge demonstrated
collectively included the use of screensharing, the importance of soft skills, leveraging video to
humanize and maintain professionalism valuing interpersonal interaction and understanding what
technology to use. The procedural knowledge collectively included how to effectively
communicate with virtual coworkers and how to humanize a virtual interaction. Lastly, the
metacognitive knowledge collectively included having the awareness of distractibility. Each of
these different types of knowledge all lead to the centralized themes of participants
demonstrating clarity-seeking behavior, the ability to humanize, and technology management.
Motivation Results and Findings
The following section will address the second research question which focuses on
understanding what motivation AGL associates possess to demonstrate self-regulation and
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collaboration competencies in the virtual workplace. Out of the data points analyzed between
interviews, observations, and document analysis, three themes emerged which include
maximizing efficiency, developing professionally, and emphasizing the importance of building
interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, several challenges were also documented in the data
primarily focused on concerns regarding self-efficacy in the ability to collaborate with others in a
virtual capacity.
Maximizing Efficiency
Maximizing efficiency emerged as a central theme, particularly due to AGL associates
placing in extrinsic value to limit technology distractions to maximize productivity. Out of the
data collected to analyze the motivation construct, 34.1% of the data placed an emphasis on
maximizing efficiency. This motivation to maximize efficiency appears to emerge based on two
themes; the first being the project-based nature of work and the second being by making a
conscious effort to limit technological distractions. Both themes focus on the self-regulation
component of soft skills.
Extrinsic Value: Project-Based Work
Much of my focus during the formation of AGL & Associates revolved around giving
each person in the organization with autonomy to work whenever they want to. Because of this
intention, the organization operates strictly on a project-by-project basis rather than working
fixed hours throughout the week. The outcome of this decision emerges in the data as AGL
associates place great value in maximizing efficiency because there is no pre-determined
schedule or minimum amount of time that needs to be accounted for. The only thing that
mattered to participants and myself was whether or not the project was complete and of what
quality. The data suggests that this motivated AGL associates to work as efficiently as possible,
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allowing them to manage their schedules and make time for other priorities they have. Below are
responses from participants which support this theme:
Response 1: When working 9–5 it was in person and virtual. When it was virtual 9–5
salary. In person there was talking with colleagues that would waste time. When move to
virtual I was on my phone or taking a longer lunch or running an errand or logging on
later ‘cause no one would know. At AGL, I was doing it for the learning experience.
When I started to get paid, I was being paid for a percentage of something. It changes
how I think about it because I don’t want to stretch it out. Let me just do it and let it be
done. I was doing the social media so things had to be scheduled. It wasn’t a traditional
working environment or schedule.
Response 2: By and large, our team formation is remote, that gave us more work hours.
Not in terms of demand, but the supply. There was more time to work when it best suited
us. Because of the flexibility, I would be able to work more focused because I could pick
my hours on when to work.
Response 3: I think that I have to set aside time. I need to book my time for emails vs.
work. In the office, that’s kind of construed, I do that now because I have to work and
teach a child. I have to get done with my work during specific buckets of time. It can be
either email or slides. It’s fine. If I didn’t have kids I don’t think I would treat email
differently from a management perspective vs. when I was in the office.
Extrinsic Value: Limiting Technological Distractions
Despite the virtual nature of the work done by AGL associates, the organization
demonstrates motivation when it comes to limiting technological distractions, particularly
browsing the web for leisure, social media usage, managing notifications and personal phone
usage. I found this theme to be particularly interesting given the inevitable reliance on
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technology virtual work brings. With the research that exists regarding the distraction of
notifications and the consequences of task-switching, along with the need of having these
devices close by, it was surprising to see how motivated AGL associates were to avoid such
distractions. When reflecting on why this theme may have emerged, my thoughts were because
many of AGL associates, including myself, are currently or were formerly Master of Science
students in Applied Psychology. This education and training emphasize the importance of
consuming and applying behavioral research to improve work-based outcomes. The data
suggests that these participants were applying what they studied in their graduate studies. Below
are the data points to support this theme:
Response 1: What do you do? I think over time I’ve forced myself to have a self-
discipline to restrain myself from social media during work hours. I read a lot of studies
on mental health and social media. I limited my time because of those studies.
Response 2: Notifications? That’s a great question. I moved from Samsung to iPhone. I
felt more disconnected with my android and that helped. But my goal for this week is to
turn down the notification son this iPhone. There’s a badge on the front, and there’s all of
these notifications on the front. This didn’t happen on my other phone, so I need to
arrange these settings to how it was on my other phone. Everything is push right now. On
my other phone my notifications are silent. My text messages don’t make a sound. It’s
me going and pulling down the information. I hate all the notifications going at me right
now. I like to get what I want when I want to, not everything coming at me at once.
Response 3: What do you do to prevent yourself from using phone? set it further along
the desk and away from me and face down. It blends in with my desk, so I don’t even
think to look for it. Away from my general working area.
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Developing Professionally
Professional development emerged as a primary source of motivation for AGL associates.
This was primarily due to the fact that many of the associates who were interviewed worked for
AGL & Associates as interns which was a requirement to the previously mentioned Masters of
Science in Applied Psychology program. Because of this, their primary motivation for the
internship was to develop professionally and prepare for their future careers. Out of the data
collected to analyze the motivation construct, 33.6% of the data placed an emphasis on
professional development. Two major themes emerged from this data. The first being
demonstrating self-efficacy in the ability to work remotely both from a self-regulation and
collaboration perspective. The second one focused on the passion about the type of work they
were doing.
Self-Efficacy: The Ability to Work Remotely
One of the motivational constructs described in Chapter Two focuses on self-efficacy. It
is defined as AGL employees’ confidence in their ability to effectively communicate with others
through virtual mediums, including both coworkers for collaboration and clients for persuasion.
While certain challenges emerged in the data as it relates to this, there were several data points
which supported this construct. Furthermore, participants described having self-efficacy in the
ability to work remotely from a self-regulation perspective. This is yet another example of how
the affiliation with the Masters of Science in Applied Psychology program comes into play.
Given that this program offers a virtual model (as well as in person), many participants were able
to learn how to operate virtually through this program both when it came to completing their
school work and collaborating with others. I believe it is their education which allowed them to
develop their self-efficacy in both self-regulation and collaboration in virtual environments. Even
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if they did not have self-efficacy coming in to the organization, they developed it over time.
Below are participant responses which validate this theme:
Response 1: That got easier as time went on. In the beginning I didn’t ask questions, I
was afraid to. They were open to helping me with things. It was easier for me to express
one on one time like data with James or talk about a certain project. Got easier over time
as I understood their style and open communication.
Response 2: I would say I didn’t get my virtual collaboration training here. It was
something I came into the door with. At my full-time job, we are global so we have to
work remotely an collaborate over different time zone and culture and nationalities. I had
these tools and skills already. Something I try to stress with my interns is that we are not
a typical brick and mortar 9–5. If you are working something over the weekend or in
between classes, my expectation is that you let me know of your progress. We are always
flexible. I try to stress this with my interns within AGL.
Response 3: I will say it’s easier to be open and honest and speak your mind virtually. In
person you limit a lot. You can read body language and facial expressions. Virtually,
there is a sense that this person can’t get me. In person I wouldn’t have talked that much.
Easier to show your emotions to show you are overjoyed or upset virtually.
Passionate About Their Work
One major theme that emerged as it relates to demonstrating motivation was the passion
AGL associates had about the work they did. During the formation of the organization’s culture,
one area that I put the most emphasis on is creating an organization where people are passionate
about what they do. To me, it was more important to build an organization around the passion
that people who worked here had rather than developing a rigid business model and fitting
people into roles that needed to support the business’s growth. My philosophy here was that
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people would be more likely to do their best work and find the greatest amount of satisfaction in
their work if they were passionate about what they did. This philosophy stems from my personal
notion that internal motivation is more sustainable and productive than external motivation.
Because of this, I would ask people what their passions were and how they believed it could help
the organization grow as part of the interview process. While there were both benefits and
consequences to this strategy, it has been great working with those who have internal motivation
to complete the work that was assigned. The type of work participants were most passionate
about were client-facing projects, conducting research, and developing professionally in
whatever way they could to advance their careers. Below are data points to support this theme:
Response 1: Good. I was excited, everyone was excited to work together on each project.
That contract to work we do at AGL is exciting and interesting. There is excitement and
eagerness. Most of us are in similar spots. Not all of us are experienced in consulting
work.
Response 2: What makes it more comfortable? More experience. I do a lot of client work
now and I feel comfortable now. Part of it is experience and time. Being able to be on a
project from end to end. I was in an assistant-type role for different phases of a project.
Would like to start with a client and build that working relationship from start to finish.
Response 3: Why? I find that AGL does care a lot their employees and want to make sure
we are all happy, especially on the projects we are given. I’m not used to that. I don’t
have a lot of work experience. You try to find a job, but the specific tasks aren’t always
what you want to do. At AGL they try to match that. They care about their employees.
Meeting with alumni to ask out questions gives us enough resources to go out there.
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Confident Collaborators
Participants demonstrated motivation in the form of self-efficacy when it came to
collaborating with others in a virtual capacity. Of the data analyzed for the motivational
construct, 18.8% of the data points were focused on participants describing their confidence to
collaborate with colleagues virtually. While there are individuals who expressed challenges in
this area, there were several participants who described a high level of comfort and confidence
during virtual collaboration. Additionally, they discussed the value of understanding others and
described their interactions with others in a positive way.
Self-Efficacy: Comfort and Confidence During Virtual Collaboration
One way in which participants demonstrated their self-efficacy was by describing their
level of comfort and confidence during virtual collaboration. As mentioned earlier, this may stem
from many participants who had previously operated in a virtual capacity at the Masters of
Science in Applied Psychology program. Additionally, there were instances where they
mentioned that it was easier to collaborate virtually than it would be in person. Below are the
data points that support this theme:
Response 1: How did it get easier? It got easier because realizing the dynamic between
the three of us. Very open, honest, transparent so I felt like I could be that way too. So, I
can let down my professional guard, but also know to talk and present myself a certain
way. They did a good job of not having an ego. I could be myself and that was going to
be ok. I came from jobs that made me be and act a certain way otherwise you would be
punished some way.
Response 2: I was always very comfortable with doing that. I might have needed to dial
in some slang. I was always very comfortable with doing that. We were more
professional and articulate intentionally with clients. It’s something that you do naturally
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in the real world. Social cues and guidelines when you are always behind a computer to
draw that distinction.
Response 3: I feel like I communicate just fine. I’m used to this situation. My coworkers
and colleagues are dispersed. If I go into the office, my manager is remote. So, I am
comfortable doing it virtually via hang out or whatever I don’t have issues.
Value in Understanding Others
As discussed in the knowledge section above, a theme that emerged in the motivation
construct was the value they participants placed in understanding others during virtual
collaboration. When asked to describe their level of commitment to fully understanding
someone’s perspective during a virtual interaction before responding, there were many
participants who stated a high level of commitment to this demonstrating their value for
understanding others as it relates to virtual collaboration. This was partially due to compensate
for the lack of in-person cues that would come from an in-person interaction as well as to simply
come to an agreement on how to move forward with the discussion. This level of active listening
is an important value for me personally which makes it even more rewarding to see in the
organization as well. Below are data points to support this theme:
Response 1: I make a pretty good effort to understand before I respond to them because I
want them to do the same for me. I don’t want to put someone down when they ask me a
question.
Response 2: I would say that I have a high level of that. out of 10 I have an 8 or 9 with
hearing what people have to say before reacting. So, I know where they are coming from
before making a comment about anything.
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Response 3: I don’t know if I would say intentionally, I would do it. But I make an effort
to give people space to finish a thought or complete a sentence. I think I listen to them to
understand their point of view. But I don’t know if I consciously make an effort.
Positive Sentiment
Not only in this section, but several data across all constructs is highlighted with positive
sentiment when reflecting on collaborating with colleagues within the organization. This
positivity is one of the drivers that seems to motivate participants to do their best work and
remain actively engaged during their time at AGL & Associates. Reflecting on the importance I
placed on employee engagement when determining how to best manage the team, it is reassuring
to see so much positive sentiment amongst participants as this was one of the most important
areas of focus for me when I was developing the culture of AGL & Associates. It was always
important for me to create a space where work could be as enjoyable as possible. Below are
participant responses to support this theme:
Response 1: 10/10 very comfortable. Always respectful, knew they wouldn’t come back
to me to make me reluctant. They were easy going and easy to work with.
What made them easy to work with? They were very helpful. I ask a lot of questions.
They ask a lot of questions and respectful in their answers. Then I knew I could ask them
for anything.
Response 2: It was alright. I know that everyone had other stuff they were doing as well.
So it limited the relationship we could build upon. Overall it went well, we never had
issues when working together.
Response 3: Having convo outside of work helpful? I like connecting with people and
people I get along with. I haven’t found anyone I don’t get along with at AGL. It’s
helpful to build a community and reach out outside of work. It helps when you know
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more about someone personally. It helps working on a team. You get to know how they
react to things. When they are weak, if there is something else going on in their life.
Challenges
Of the data points gathered to analyze the motivational constructs, 13.5% of data
represented challenges that participants felt as it relates to their motivation to self-regulate and
collaborate in a virtual environment. These challenges include a doubt in self-efficacy along with
challenges to collaborate with others virtually. The doubt in self-efficacy primarily stems from
the inability to understand other’s perspectives as well as the ability to seek clarity during
meetings. It seems that there is some inhibition for certain participants it came to speak up during
meetings and listening actively. Furthermore, challenges include the inability to get to know
others outside of projects, dealing with miscommunication and isolation. What is interesting
about this data is that it conflicts with the Confident Collaborators theme above that was
mentioned earlier suggesting that not all participants are alike and that there is individual
coaching that should occur to bring everyone to the same level of self-efficacy. Below are data
points that support this gap.
Response 1: It’s very difficult because as you are having meetings early ons, you are
establishing meeting orders. You have to do them, if something is not clear, things are
moving fast. I process the information, and then you can’t interrupt someone online
‘cause you wait for them to talk. In a virtual space it’s more complicated to solicit
clarification for something that is unclear. I don’t mind interrupting someone, but if you
get blindsided it’s harder as the meeting is happening to get clarification on something.
More challenging to jump in when there is more than one.
Response 2: What is needed to help build personal relationships? Something to add is the
willingness to do it. Scheduling time to talk about nonwork related things is weird. I was
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in some sessions, I got to know my coworkers because we had to wait in between
sessions for some time. We were able to talk to each other there was that downtime. The
willingness to want to be social has to be there. Hard to talk to strangers sometimes.
Response 3: What made it difficult to talk about worries? Time constraint, when you
make a call there has to be an agenda even if it’s something that you are worried about.
When you are in the office there’s more casual encounter and you are in the same room.
Took more time. When calls were more casual and you would say, “Oh yea I have 10
more minutes” etc etc. We are having a tough time with this client. I was asked a lot, how
are you doing and how are you feeling and that was appreciated and those conversations
helped too.
Personal Reflection: Motivation
Motivation is one area that I placed the most emphasis during the formation of AGL &
Associates. My long-standing belief is that people perform better and are more satisfied with
their work if their motivation is intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic. Because of this, one of the key
traits that I look for when hiring for AGL & Associates is to understand whether the candidates I
am interviewing are intrinsically motivated to work for us or extrinsically. If they are
intrinsically motivated, they will mention their passion for the work that we do and their desire to
get experience in this industry. This hiring practice is what became the backbone to the level of
motivation each colleague has as it relates to both self-regulation and collaboration in virtual
settings.
From a self-regulation perspective, I primarily focused on building self-efficacy with my
team. If I determined that they are intrinsically motivated, the next step for me became to build
their self-efficacy to yet again, boost their performance and engagement with their work. This
came in the form of allowing them to pursue work they loved. With each person who worked at
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AGL, my biggest goal was to understand what they love to do and then find a way to incorporate
this into our business while allowing them to lead that project. This way, they would be engaged
with their work. Further along this point, I was very intentional to teach them that the most
important element of trying their best rather than focusing on perfection. I was intentional to
never penalize anyone for doing a project incorrectly, but I would certainly have difficult
conversations with those who are not giving projects their best and most sincere effort. My
intentions with this strategy are that each associate would focus on doing their best and not being
afraid of failure. This element of psychological safety was essential in my eyes and something
not enough leaders incorporate in their work. Additionally, because the work we assign is
project-based rather than hourly, each associate was motivated to self-regulate and complete
their work in an efficient manner rather than trying to find a way to keep themselves busy
throughout an entire workday, which is yet another benefit to virtual work.
From a collaboration perspective, this was more organic but also formed as a result of
hiring those who are intrinsically motivated. Bringing together individuals who share the same
passion of I/O psychology made the motivation to collaborate with others effortless. Most
associates became close with at least a few of their colleagues because of this shared interest.
Furthermore, because the majority of my recruitment is done from the USC MAPP program,
which is delivered virtually (for some), applying best practices to virtual collaboration was
second nature to the majority of them. No one seemed uncomfortable when it came to
collaborating virtually because many already had experience with the virtual element of
collaboration and also because they shared an interest in organizational psychology.
Motivation Summary
The data presented in this section demonstrates that the majority of participants in this
study demonstrated having the motivation necessary to self-regulate and collaborate successfully
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in a virtual workplace. This motivation spans across two major domains which were placing
extrinsic value on how efficiently they could get work done and having the self-efficacy to
collaborate in a virtual environment. The extrinsic motivation to maximize efficiency may have
been influenced by the project-based approach I set up to delegate work and manage each
individual within the organization. Additionally, participants demonstrated their extrinsic
motivation to complete work efficiently by limiting technological distractions. Two other areas
of motivation included developing professionally and having confidence to collaborate virtually.
Overall, there was a positive sentiment when participants reflected on their relationships with
others in a virtual environment. Lastly, there were a handful of participants who expressed
challenges with motivation, particularly as it related to having the self-efficacy to collaborate in a
virtual environment.
Organization Results and Findings
The following section addresses the third and final research question which focuses on
the organization itself and how leadership is preparing the team to develop self-regulation and
collaboration skills in a virtual workplace. There were three cultural elements that I placed an
emphasis on when developing the organization’s culture which include building a culture of a
growth mindset, focus, and a specific management style which I define as “hands off, trust on”
management. These are the three lenses from which I developed the interview protocol to
address this third research question. From these three cultural pillars, six themes emerged from
the data sources which are experimentation, fostering a supportive environment, an expectation
of high performance, education, role clarity, and the value of time. Additionally, there were
certain challenges which emerged which as well is covered at the end of this section.
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Growth Mindset
As discussed in chapter 2, my initiative to develop a culture of growth mindset stems
from the work of Carol Dweck (2008). Her book, Mindset, defines growth mindset as one in
which characteristics are viewed as able to be developed over time with practice, rather than
something that is innate. This was something that resonated with me and something I focused on
bringing to the culture of AGL & Associates. This is an intentional part of the culture that has
been created because Dweck’s work shows that there is indeed an improvement in performance
when one shifts their mindset to believing it is possible to learn and achieve things that one has
not previously learned before (Dweck, 2008). Because of this, there was an emphasis on
experimentation and innovation within the organization. When analyzing the data, there were
two themes that emerged from the data which supported this culture of a growth mindset,
experimentation and education. Of the data analyzed, 34.3% of the data points fit into these two
categories.
Experimentation
One way in which the culture of growth mindset is embraced at AGL & Associates is
through experimentation. Given that the organization is currently three years old and comprises
of 20 individuals, 7 of which who are active at the time of this writing, experimentation is an
important element of the organization. This stems from the scientific approach the organization
was built on through behavioral research. While AGL & Associates provides consulting services
primarily by leveraging behavioral research, the organization also brings that same scientific
rigor for internal projects. While achieving successful business outcomes is an important part of
the organization, there is a significant emphasis on embracing failure and allowing people to
work on new projects to serve as a learning experience to facilitate their professional
development. One of the greatest examples of this type of experimentation is by operating
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virtually which allows people to unintentionally train on how to effectively self-regulate and
collaborate in a virtual setting. Experimentation also included sharing the vision and discussing
how to progress towards it, having to be resourceful, leveraging data-driven trends to inform
decisions, brainstorming with one another, and encouraging all participants to share their
thoughts and ideas. Below are participant responses to support this theme of experimentation.
Response 1: Meeting set up? Not everyone hops on at the same time. IN the beginning
we do small talk to catch up. Don’t have to start talking about the work until everyone
else is there. So, you don’t have to repeat yourself. While waiting that’s how you connect
on a more personal level. If someone is running the meeting they will start the meeting.
Then we will go one by one about where they are at. Even if I’m not involved in the
project I’ll hear how AGL or other people are doing and get help if needed. It was a good
time to collaborate and brainstorm together.
Response 2: 10 out of 10. We had calls with clients, active feedback sessions, what did
we do right or wrong, where to improve. Swiss cheese model. They were open to
clarifying.
Response 3: 10/10 very comfortable. Always respectful, knew they wouldn’t come back
to me to make me reluctant. They were easy going and easy to work with.
What made them easy to work with? They were very helpful. I ask a lot of questions.
They ask a lot of questions and respectful in their answers. Then I knew I could ask them
for anything.
Education
The second way in which the culture of growth mindset is embraced at AGL &
Associates is through education. Although the organization is a commercial entity with
aspirations to achieve profitability, as the organization grew, we became very focused on
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providing an excellent learning experience for those who joined the organization. As mentioned
previously, the majority of individuals who joined the organization came in as interns to fulfill
credits for their Masters of Science in Applied Psychology degree. Because of this, it started to
become more important to me to ensure that each person who came in to the organization left
better than when they started, particularly in a virtual environment. This theme of education
emerged in the data from multiple data sources as well as leaders and subordinates within the
organization. Below are participant responses to support this theme of education:
Response 1: AGL is like a training institution for MAPP. Figure out your skillsets and see
what it is you want to learn. Dennis has great infographic background. But he wanted to
learn more of the Data stuff. I can do it myself or we can block out an hour to do this
practice rounds. A lot of times people come here to learn. I learned sales. It was doubling
down on my skillset. Did data analysis in this type of context. It’s a lot of goal setting in
the beginning
Response 2: What do you usually do when working with new person? I try to understand
what they are trying to get out of AGL. Almost always someone to practice a new skillset
to see what they are good at and what they are trying to do. Chinara had training
background but want to market. I can give her the stuff she wants to train on as part of
her project. If they want more client-side experience, it’s about getting them in front of a
client.
Response 3: Pretty well. I learned the most when I was an intern. Learned how to divvy
up work, talk, follow up, complete project on a team that is remote.
Culture of Focus
Because there are no shared physical workplaces at AGL & Associates due to the virtual
nature of the company, developing a culture of focus was critical for the success of the
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organization. This was my philosophy because there is no ability to see others working when
collaborating remotely so identifying ways to keep the organization on track with their workload
was to deliberately foster a culture of focus. To me, developing this type of culture was based on
minimized use of meetings and detailed descriptions of how and why tasks should be done. The
intention was that this type of focused culture will allow AGL associates to remain focused on
the task at hand despite not having their colleagues around physically. Throughout the data
points, there were three themes that emerged to support this type of culture which were high
performance, role clarity, and value of time. Of the data analyzed, 32.6% of data points fit into
one of these three themes.
High Performance
One way in which the culture of focus was demonstrated at the organization was through
an expectation of high performance. The theme of high performance was exemplified through
focused meetings with little to no time wasted, clear agenda established, the use of problem
solving, a heightened sense of discipline, client engagement, and intensive sessions of
collaboration. As much as I and the other leaders were nurturing through our team’s learning, we
also emphasized the importance of quality output and high performance for both internal projects
as well as client engagements. While we were very flexible on how we managed and the little
time we requested our teams to meet, there was an expectation that work would be done at the
highest quality possible. This did lead to an outcome of participants perceiving that the
organization was not social enough as we were very much task-oriented with a focus on getting
projects done in a timely manner. This lack of sociality is discussed more in the challenges
section further along this chapter. Below are participant responses to support this theme of high
performance.
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Response 1: How often do you have side conversations with your colleagues? Not often.
Maybe 5–10 person of the time 95% strictly business.
Response 2: Any misunderstanding with colleagues virtually? None that I would recall.
There was something related to misunderstanding how we wanted to put together slide or
who was responsible for what part of the deliverable. But overall everyone
communicated and were on top of things.
Response 3: Missing? I think it’s more like a nonscheduled social aspect that is missing.
any conversations we had were convos necessary to complete projects. We would have to
plan to meet for a project instead of casually talking.
Role Clarity
Another theme that emerged from analyzing the culture of focus was that participants
demonstrated strong role clarity which can be defined as the degree to which individuals have a
clear understanding of their tasks, responsibilities and processes at work. An important element
of the culture I was attempting to build at AGL & Associates was to ensure that everyone was
kept in the loop, knew their roles and responsibilities and had what they needed to complete their
projects in a timely manner. This was important to me as I noticed role ambiguity can cause
many inefficiencies and errors when collaborating with others, particularly in a virtual
environment. Because of this, I overemphasized each person’s roles and responsibilities to
ensure that everyone knows what to do and when to get it done, particularly during meetings.
This is another promising example of my vision for the organization coming to fruition. Below
are participant responses to support this theme.
Response 1: Relationship with interns? I love my interns I am their boss. I am
comfortable asking them for clarity. Biggest problem is if they don’t’ ask me for
questions. I intentionally put them into ambiguous situation and then coach them on it. I
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don’t have problem going up to them and asking them what is going on, because I am
their boss. I am the second highest ranking person here. I answer to no one except
Shamit, and I barely answer to him.
Response 2: Who would be leading the screenshare? I would be on it separately. Usually
it was James or Shamit. They would show their screen and I would take notes. And they
would go through how to run a website or how to use screenshare. If I had an issue I
would screenshare and then show them what my issue was. If I asked for help I would
show my screen. If they teach, they show their screen.
Response 3: I think it get you used to working in virtual format and with all the different
mode of communication. You really have to take it upon yourself to make sure you are
asking when you need to. And do the work you need to do. Lots of responsibility. Not
like when you are going into the office.
Value of Time
The final theme that emerged from analyzing the culture of focus was the value of time
that many participants spoke about throughout the interview process. When conceptualizing how
to build a virtual organization, there was one major difference that stood out to me which was the
perception of time. When working in an in-office setting, individuals are typically expected to
arrive at a certain time and leave at a certain time. There is also an element of getting ready for
work and commuting to the office. In a virtual environment, there does not necessarily have to be
a universal time to start and finish your work nor is there any particular preparation one has to do
for work such as getting ready and driving to the office. Keeping these thoughts in mind, I was
explicit about having individuals within the organization complete work whenever they saw fit.
Because of this, there was an increased value time brought as it enabled individuals to work at
AGL while also managing their other obligations such as another job, school, hobbies, etc. It
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helps them create a lifestyle that works for them and allows them to be autonomous in a virtual
environment. Additionally, individuals within the organization were cognizant and respectful of
other’s time particularly because they were often in different time zones. Participants expressed
this throughout the interview and below are their responses to support this theme.
Response 1: Feel more comfortable with giving projects to people that were already at
AGL. Plan around how long it takes someone to do something. Can schedule around
someone’s pace. If someone doesn’t bring their A game, their B game is better than most.
But when they are new, I don’t’ know anything I don’t know if they are talking a great
game but not producing the output to match it. I don’t know if they will at the last minute
say, “I actually don’t know what they are doing.” I would have to look over their
shoulder to trust them with a client, it’s a less psychologically safe process.
Response 2: Pretty high. I’ll wait until whoever is speaking speaks. I don’t have an issue
getting clarity because I know we are all virtual. When we are meeting at that meetings, I
will clarify anything. We have it blocked off for an hour or so. A couple of times we use
that full hour.
Response 3: Pretty high, we don’t’ always have a lot of time when we do all meet. That is
the best time for everyone to meet. You can’t always get everyone together again.
Important to be professional and articulate with your words to not waste anyone’s time.
Not joke around because of the time aspect.
Hands Off, Trust On
During my experience prior to founding AGL & Associates, I began to develop a specific
philosophy regarding management styles. Throughout my professional career, I noticed that it
was very common for managers to tell their subordinates what to do without helping them
understand why they had to do it. This would often times lead to a poor delivery or one that does
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not align with the end goal. It also takes away the creativity and autonomy of the individual
completing the task while leaving it with the manager who is not the one actively working on the
task. Furthermore, I hypothesized that if managers were to give their subordinates more trust,
freedom, and flexibility to complete the project based on the anticipated outcome, it would yield
stronger results and greater satisfaction to the subordinates completing the work.
Because of this notion, I was explicit in carrying out this type of culture, particularly
because of the beliefs I have regarding this management style, and also because in a virtual
environment, managers do not have the same level of access and visibility in how their
subordinates are approaching their work. This section focuses on the culture of hands off, trust
on where AGL leaders are encouraged to provide their subordinates with a great experience and
autonomy to learn and complete tasks the way they see fit. Of the data collected to analyze the
organizational element of the KMO model, 23.8% of the data points collected were grouped into
the hands off, trust on cultural influence. The major theme within this data was to foster a
supportive environment.
Fostering a Supportive Environment
When developing a hands off, trust on management style, it is important to foster a
supportive environment. This type of management strategy requires support, trust, an alignment
on values, humility and guidance by management, and genuine effort by those doing the work.
Throughout the data that was analyzed, these requirements did emerge. One way in which
management fostered this environment was through servant leadership where the primary focus
is to serve the team rather than focusing on the success of the organization. Participants made
many positive remarks on this style of leadership and have found it to be effective, particularly in
a virtual environment. Below are participant responses to support this theme:
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Response 1: Describe it very well. Worked closely with Shamit. Worked with Chinara.
They were open and inviting to me. Fast forward worked with last batch of interns under
me. It was cool to have the experience and give it back. It was very much a round table, it
wasn’t siloed. Everyone was allowed to ask questions.
Response 2: How did they make you feel appreciated? They were very verbal. If they
liked anything they would just tell me. In forms of constructive criticism, I never felt like
it was negative. They said, this is great, and you can also do this. It helped make me feel
appreciated and supported throughout.
Response 3: I think there is a great amount of effort. Especially with welcoming interns
and letting them know that their skills and opinions are values. AGL is more autonomous
than other internships. We are trusting our associates to champion and be the leader of
what their assignment or project is. We give minimal feedback because we trust that
person expertise. We select associates based on what they bring to the table. We trust
them as an expert in that field. AGL is mature in that aspect because a lot of companies
hire people and tell them what to do. We hire people to tell us what to do.
Challenges
Of the data points gathered to analyze the organizational constructs, 6.2% of data
represented challenges that participants felt as it relates to the organization providing adequate
preparation for participants to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment. These
challenges include technical difficulties, not receiving adequate training, and not feeling
connected to others within the organization. Technical difficulties were primarily due to internet
and device issues as well as having to work in disparate software applications. Not receiving
adequate training seemed to result from being a “hands off” virtual organization. Some
participants desired more training throughout the internship. Lastly, the lack of connectedness
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was a consistent theme for many participants. As mentioned earlier, participants desired more
social interaction with the team but given the virtual nature of the organization and an effort to
foster a culture of focus, the data provides evidence that not enough was done to nurture the
social elements of working together. Below are participant responses to support this theme of
challenges.
Response 1: Do you think there is a way to have it all in one spot? They were going to
use google hangouts, emails, and then google chat feature. If we had stuck with that and
done that it would have been easier. It’s all over the place. Sometimes use
GoToMeetings, or Microsoft teams today.
Response 2: Don’t feel super connected, it’s hard since we are completely virtual. I did
appreciate that they would reach out and check in with me. Overall, I felt kind of
disconnected.
Response 3: Presently. Not connected at all. Don’t have relationship with them outside of
internship. I don’t work with them at all. I did an internship with them.
Personal Reflection: Organization
When I first started AGL & Associates, it was a one-person consulting firm, with the one
person being me. At this time, my primary interest was advising organizations to boost their
revenues and increase their employee engagement. However, as more and more people reached
out to work at AGL, my primary passion began to change. No longer was the most important
goal for me to provide the best service to our clients, but instead it was to provide our team with
everything they needed to develop professionally and personally. My belief was that the clients
will receive even better output from AGL if I personally placed my focus on developing my
team. The three methods that I focused on preparing the team to develop self-regulation and
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collaboration best practices in a virtual setting were through giving them autonomy, focusing on
their development, and demonstrating servant leadership.
When it comes to virtual work, one of the prerequisites should be that one has to be
autonomous in managing and completing their work as there is no one to watch over you as
could be the case for in-person work environments. Because of this, I implemented a
management model which I call “hands off, trust on.” This management model focuses on
empowering my team to take the lead on their work. This is done by only meeting with each
member on a weekly basis for 30 minutes to an hour. For the rest of the week, they have the
autonomy to complete the work that is assigned to them however and whenever best suits them.
The weekly meetings serve as check-ins to review past assignments, discuss upcoming
assignments, and provide any coaching necessary for them to complete their tasks. One reason
why autonomy is an important element of our culture is because I believe our team should be
able to have their own life outside of AGL whether it be to have another job, go back to school
or enjoy their life though personal hobbies. The best way to allow this is to allow them to make
their own schedule in terms of when they want to complete their work.
The second method is to focus on their development both personally and professionally.
AGL was always set up to be a place where people could learn and grow. Typically, the people I
look to bring on to the organization are those that are looking to develop a particular skill set that
they are unable to do for other companies due to their lack of experience. Because lack of
experience often becomes a catch-22 for people to do the work that they love, I intentionally set
up AGL to be a place where people can get the experience they need to continue on with their
career. In my eyes, I want our team to go pursue their goals and dreams even if it is outside of
AGL. Many came into the organization because they wanted to gain an experience that they
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could then leverage somewhere else and we embrace that. For us, it’s not about holding people
back from their true calling but enabling them to pursue it.
Lastly, taking a servant leadership approach with my team is something I prioritize as
well. This is an important management philosophy in a virtual setting because it is hard to tell
what someone needs to get their work done if it is not a priority to ask them. With a servant
leadership approach, my primary focus is asking the team what they need to get their work done.
This helps them get comfortable in communicating their needs from a collaboration perspective
and also gives them all the tools they need to complete their work in a timely manner from a self-
regulation perspective. I personally believe there is no better style of leadership in a virtual
setting due to the lack of physical proximity.
Organization Summary
The data presented in this section demonstrates that the majority of participants felt that
AGL leadership prepared participants to develop self-regulation and collaboration skills in a
virtual workplace. This preparation spans across three cultural model influences which include a
culture of a growth mindset, a culture of focus, and a culture of hands off, trust on management.
The culture of growth mindset is to enable and encourage AGL associates to embrace failure and
learn new skills. This was demonstrated through emerging themes of experimentation and
education. The culture of focus is one where there is a minimized use of meetings and detailed
descriptions of how and why tasks should be done. This was demonstrated through emerging
themes of an expectation of high performance, providing role clarity, and emphasizing the value
of time. Lastly, the culture of hands off, trust on management is one where leadership gives
subordinates the autonomy to complete tasks the way they see fit on their own time. This was
demonstrated through the emerging theme of fostering a supportive environment. Although there
were many positive sentiments in regard to how leadership prepared participants to work in a
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virtual environment, there were also some challenges which were mentioned such as dealing
with technical difficulties, not receiving adequate training and feeling that there was a lack of
social interactions with the team.
Summary of Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization Influences
This chapter provides insight into the knowledge, motivation and organizational
influences that provided AGL & Associates the ability to self-regulate and collaborate in a
virtual environment. The results and findings were extracted from multiple data sources which
included interviewing 11 of those who work at AGL & Associates, performing five observations
of both internal and external meetings held by the organization, analyzing three organization
documents and completing my own narrative inquiry. This approach combines the traditional
method of qualitative research with an autoethnography component to provide greater cultural
context as I am the founder of AGL & Associates and have intentionally worked to create the
culture that we currently have. Throughout this data, I leveraged the KMO model to identify
gaps to help AGL & Associates advance our organizational goal of leveraging our virtual culture
and collaboration experiences to offer a new line of consulting services focused on creating an
effective virtual culture for startups around the world. Below is a summary of each section.
Knowledge
AGL & Associates demonstrated that they the appropriate knowledge to self-regulate and
collaborate in a virtual environment. The three major themes which emerged from this section
included demonstrating clarity-seeking behavior, the willingness and ability to humanize
interactions, and the ability to manage technology.
Clarity-seeking behavior emerged in two ways. The declarative knowledge that was
demonstrated as it relates to clarity-seeking behavior includes screensharing and understanding
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the importance of soft skills. The procedural knowledge that was demonstrated was
understanding how to effectively communicate with virtual coworkers.
Willingness and ability to humanize virtual interactions emerged in two ways as well.
The declarative knowledge which was demonstrated included the ability to maintain
professionalism and humanize through meetings with video and having value in interpersonal
interaction. The procedural knowledge was demonstrated by understanding how to humanize an
interaction.
Lastly, technology management emerged in two ways as well. The declarative knowledge
demonstrated was that participants understood what technology to use and when to use it. The
metacognitive knowledge demonstrated included being aware of the distractibility technology
could bring during virtual work. Ultimately, all three themes demonstrated that AGL &
Associates contains the knowledge to effectively self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual setting.
Motivation
While AGL & Associates demonstrated that they were motivated to apply self-regulation
and collaboration best practices in a virtual environment, there were certain challenges that
surfaced through the data as well. Focusing on the motivation they demonstrated, three major
themes emerged from this section including maximizing efficiency, developing professionally,
and being confident collaborators.
Maximizing efficiency was demonstrated primarily through the motivation of extrinsic
value. First, the project-based work approach at AGL & Associates influenced associates to work
efficiently rather than stretching their work out over pre-fixed working hours. The extrinsic value
here was that the faster they finish their work, the faster they are done with their work day at
AGL. Furthermore, extrinsic value was also demonstrated as participants made a conscious effort
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to limit technological distractions to stay focused on the task at hand. Again, they were focused
on getting their work done in a timely manner rather than stretching it out.
Developing professionally emerged as another source of motivation for AGL &
Associates. This source of motivation emerged in the data by participants demonstrating their
self-efficacy regarding their ability to work remotely as well as being passionate about the work
they were doing. With both the passion to do the work assigned to them and the confidence to do
it remotely shows that participants were focused on their professional development during their
time at AGL & Associates which is something the organization also takes great pride in
providing to those who join the organization.
Lastly and expanding on the self-efficacy mentioned above, the data suggests that
participants were confident collaborators. This level of confidence assists with the motivation to
self-regulate and collaborate virtually. This emerged in three primary ways throughout the data.
First, many participants suggested that they were comfortable and confident during virtual
collaboration. Second, they emphasized the value they place in understanding others. Lastly,
there was an abundance of positive sentiment that was expressed when asked about collaborating
with others virtually.
In addition to the themes which demonstrated that AGL & Associates possessed the
motivation necessary to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual workplace, there were also
challenges which were expressed leading to gaps which are addressed in the next chapter. These
gaps include that some participants demonstrated doubt in their self-efficacy particularly as it
relates to their ability to understand others, seek clarity during meetings, and how to deal with
miscommunication and isolation. Furthermore, there were expressed challenges in not having the
ability to get to know one another outside of projects.
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Organization
The final research question focuses on what leadership at AGL & Associates is doing to
prepare participants to develop necessary skills to self-regulate and collaborate effectively in a
virtual environment. Three cultural influence models address this question but similarly to
motivation, challenges were identified as well. The cultural influence models which are
highlighted above include having a culture of growth mindset, focus, and a hands off, trust on
management model.
The culture of growth mindset is something that the organization actively builds into the
culture through both experimentation and education. The idea of this cultural model is to create a
safe place for participants to learn and grow professionally. To do this, experimentation is a
trending theme which emerged from the data. Because of the scientific rigor the organization
placed in the work they did for clients, they took a similar approach to internal projects and
growing the organization. It was never the matter of who is qualified to complete a task and who
is not. It was more about understanding who wants to do the work and who does not. For those
that want to do the work, the leadership at AGL was instructed to help that individual grow those
skills by doing. Further along this point, there was an emphasis on education. Given that many of
the participants started at AGL & Associates as interns to fulfill credits for school, leadership
emphasized education to help them develop. Each manager served as a teacher or mentor while
assigning work to participants that was relevant to the organization’s projects. This way, the
manager had their deliverables complete and the participants had an excellent learning
experience.
The culture of focus is an important element of the organization. Given that the majority
of those who worked at AGL & Associates started as interns, it was important to instill a culture
of focus to them as the work they were doing was indeed related to AGL’s performance goals
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and that of their clients. This culture of focus was developed by creating an expectation of high
performance, providing role clarity to each individual at the organization and helping each
individual learn the value of time. The high performance was implied as each individual was
working on business-critical assignments. Role clarity was made explicit during onboarding and
within each meeting that was held. The value of time also became apparent as there were
deadlines created to ensure that all tasks are done in a timely manner. With these three topics, the
culture of focus was enforced to assist each individual to self-regulate and collaborate effectively
in a virtual environment.
The culture of hands off, trust on management is the cultural model that I take most pride
in. It has always been important to me to make those who work at AGL & Associates to feel
safe, valued, and heard. Creating this environment of psychological safety is what I have always
believed would lead to the best performance across the team. This was primarily done by
fostering a supportive environment by myself and the other leaders within the organization. Each
meeting that was held between a direct report and their manager was focused on ensuring the
direct report had everything they need to get the job done whether it be training, resources, or the
help of others. Each direct report was also given the flexibility and freedom to do the work on
their own time and provide their feedback to management regardless of it was positive or
negative.
Lastly and similarly to motivation, there were challenges expressed in this research
question as well. These challenges include feeling that there was not enough explicit training on
how to effectively self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment, dealing with technical
difficulties and most importantly, not feeling connected to others. The gaps I have identified are
further discussed in chapter 5 in terms of how to implement policies to address them in both the
motivation and organizational components of this chapter. These gaps primarily deal with
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ensuring that each participant has the self-efficacy to collaborate in a virtual environment and
creating more social initiatives to develop interpersonal connections with one another that so
many participants suggested that was missing.

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Chapter Five: Recommendations, Implementation, and Evaluation
This study investigated how particular soft skills, self-regulation and collaboration, need
to be adjusted and applied in the virtual workplace. The organization studied for this gap analysis
was AGL & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in employee engagement,
market research, and learning and development consulting. This organization is comprised of 20
individuals who have participated in at least one consulting project for the organization over the
past three years, all of which who operated virtually, each of which who were invited to
participate in this study, of which 11 did. Additionally, given my role within the organization as
the managing director and founder, this study also served as an autoethnography examining my
influence in shaping the culture of the organization. The gap analysis and autoethnography were
utilized to answer this study’s three research questions listed below:
• What is AGL’s existing knowledge regarding self-regulation and collaboration best
practices in a virtual workplace?
• What is AGL’s motivation to apply self-regulation and collaboration competencies in a
virtual workplace to more effectively communicate and complete tasks?
• How is leadership preparing the team to develop the self-regulation and collaboration
skills in a virtual workplace at AGL?
Chapter One provided the reader with the background of the problem in transitioning to a
virtual workplace which included the evolution of work, the impact technology has made on
employees over the years, the impact of remote work and technology on diversity, inclusion, and
equity, and what soft skills are required for the future of work. Chapter Two served as a literature
review aiming to present the business case regarding the value of soft skills, factors that impact
virtual collaboration and the knowledge, motivation and organizational influences that were
studied. Chapter Three provided the research methodology and plan for analysis. Chapter Four
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discussed findings which were analyzed based on interviews, documents, observations, and a
narrative inquiry.
The purpose of this chapter is to conduct a review of the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational constructs examined and the gaps identified within them as they relate to the
organizational performance goal of AGL & Associates to leverage their virtual culture and
collaboration experiences to offer a new line of consulting services focused on creating an
effective virtual culture for startups around the world. Additionally, this chapter also aims to
provide solutions to the gaps identified along with an implementation and evaluation plan using
the framework of Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2006).
Review of Findings
Based on the gap analysis model of Clark and Estes (2008), this study aimed at
understanding the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences participants had when it
came to self-regulating and collaborating in a virtual environment. The major themes which
emerged when studying the knowledge construct included participants demonstrating clarity-
seeking behavior, the willingness and ability to humanize interactions and the ability to manage
their technology use suggesting that they had the declarative, procedural, and metacognitive
knowledge to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment. All three themes that
surfaced in the findings align well with Matteson et al., (2016) and Cimatti’s (2015) definition of
soft skills with clarity-seeking behavior and technology management falling under intrapersonal
soft skills and the willingness and ability to humanize falling under interpersonal soft skills.
More specifically, the willingness and ability to humanize aligns with Vinagre and Esteban’s
(2018) study when discussing the importance of using affective language during virtual
interactions. Additionally, technology management aligns well with the literature review
conducted by Zhang et al. (2018) regarding how to select appropriate software tools for each
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situation. Lastly, one finding that was contradictory to the findings of this study is related to
Hassell and Cotton’s (2017) study regarding increasing effectiveness of meetings when
individuals cannot see themselves on camera. In the case of the participants of this study, the
majority preferred to have their video on to increase the humanizing element of the meeting even
though they were able to see themselves on video.
When evaluating the motivational component of this model, participants demonstrated
that they possessed the motivation to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment
through the themes of maximizing efficiency, developing professionally and being confident
collaborators. Although Glass and Kang’s (2019) study suggest that there is a negative
correlation between technology use and performance, participants demonstrated that they were
able to work efficiently with the use of technology, contradicting this study. Additionally,
developing professionally is related to Klause’s (2010) study which discusses the value of soft
skills as they relate to general employability. Given that most participants ultimately desire to
take what they learn at AGL & Associates to pursue their careers, the literature is well aligned
with this theme. The last theme which emerged which contradicts previous literature would be
that participants demonstrated that they were confident collaborators. Cameron and Webster
(2004) suggested that technology-based platforms for communication reduce the quality of
communication overall which is contradicts this theme. However, at the same time, there were
participants who demonstrated low self-efficacy as it related to the ability to understand others
and seek clarity in virtual meetings as well as struggling to deal with miscommunication and
isolation during virtual interactions which would confirm the research of Cameron and Webster.
Although these gaps were inconsistent across participants, there were multiple instances of these
gaps throughout the interview data.
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Lastly, for the organizational component of this model, three cultural models were
examined including a culture of growth mindset, a culture of focus, and a culture of “hands off,
trust on” management. The culture of growth mindset emphasized the importance of
experimentation and education within the organization which was a critical component in
assisting participants to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual setting. This aligns well with the
research of Dweck (2008) suggesting that those with a growth mindset can develop skills with
practice and effort, in this case through experimentation and education. The culture of focus
emphasized the expectation of high performance, a high level of role clarity, and the value of
time management. This aligns well with Doodle’s (2019) State of Meetings which suggested the
importance to minimize the use and necessity for meetings in a virtual work environment.
Although this research supports this theme, it also contradicts a gap which was identified as
individuals did not feel connected to others due to a lack of social interaction with peers given
the lack of meetings or interactions. Although this cultural model assisted participants with self-
regulation, two gaps emerged. Additionally, Zhang et al.’s (2018) study regarding choosing the
right technology tools surfaced again and is aligned with a gap which was identified regarding
technical difficulties within the software tools used to collaborate in a virtual environment
suggesting that the organization should be more thoughtful when deciding what technology the
organization should use to collaborate. The final culture model, “hands off, trust on”
management, emphasized how AGL fostered a supportive environment to grow and work within.
This is supported by the research of Cangemi (2000) which suggests that micromanaging can
damage employees by creating self-doubt, lowering self-esteem, discouraging independent
thinking and suggesting a lack of trust. Consequently, this research was also contradicted by a
gap that was identified here as some participants felt that there was not enough explicit training
to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment.
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Solutions and Implementation Plan
To address these gaps mentioned above, I have put together an implementation plan
focusing on developing the motivation and organizational components to improve the
organization’s ability to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment. This plan focuses
on three primary policies which will be formed: monthly engagement surveys, monthly 1 on 1
coaching sessions and launching AGL Community, which is an initiative to make space for
networking and socializing with past and current associates of the organization. Below, I have
created a chart to outline how I will approach evaluating this implementation plan. This plan was
put together by referencing Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick’s (2006) literature on how to evaluate
training programs.
Monthly Engagement Surveys
This process of this study shed light into the motivational and organizational gaps at AGL
& Associates related to the ability for individuals to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual
environment. The purpose of the monthly engagement surveys is to create awareness into
ongoing challenges related to self-efficacy, challenges with technology tools, and dealing with a
lack of social interaction at the organization. There are four action steps to implement this policy.
The first is to develop an instrument to assess self-regulation and collaboration at the
organization. This effort will be led by myself and a lead consultant at the organization who
specializes in employee engagement. This initial step should take approximately four weeks to
complete to develop an initial draft of the instrument and any revisions that are required prior to
administering to the organization. Once developed, this survey will be administered to active
individuals within the organization. Here, the primary indicator will be participation from the
organization. After the survey is administered, data will be analyzed to measure trends month
over month to determine whether improvement is being made. While this policy alone is not
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expected to lead to improvements, it will serve as a way to measure growth of the next two
policies listed below.
Monthly 1 on 1 Coaching Sessions
To address the gaps identified in Chapter Four, the first policy recommended is to hold
Monthly 1 on 1 Coaching Sessions. This policy is designed to address gaps both in the
motivational and organizational constructs relating to low self-efficacy and a lack of preparation
from the organization. These monthly 1 on 1 coaching sessions are designed to improve the self-
efficacy of the organization to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment. To
implement this policy, three action steps are required. First, as the managing director of the
organization, I will meet with each active team member on a monthly basis to explicitly discuss
each individual’s unique challenges relating to their self-efficacy to collaborate and self-regulate
virtually. After the first meeting which will serve as a baseline, a coaching plan will be
developed for each individual which will span across the duration of three months. Every three
months, the coaching plan will be reviewed to ensure that each individual is improving their self-
efficacy to self-regulate and collaborate virtually. Because each individual will bring unique
challenges, there is no predefined template for this process. One challenge to be mindful of here
will be bandwidth concerns for myself as I will be leading this initiative in addition to ongoing
responsibilities held at AGL & Associates.
AGL Community
The final policy which will be implemented will the design and launch of AGL
Community. This policy is intended to create space for past, current and future members of the
organization to socialize and network with one another to address the gap of participants who
expressed a lack of social connectivity at the organization. This policy will be implemented
through four primary steps. The first is to design the framework of the policy which will be done
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as a result of the first engagement survey. The data collected in the initial survey will inform
what the organization would want to see in this initiative prior to launching. Focusing on what
the organization would like to see in this initiative is what will lead to early adoption and long-
term success. Once this policy is designed, the next step is to present this policy to the
organization and receive their buy-in prior to launching. Multiple iterations of this policy will
take place to ensure that every individual in the organization feels that their needs are met. The
third step of this policy will be to implement the initiative to connect all current and former
through a shared virtual platform through LinkedIn and live virtual events which will be held on
a recurring basis (frequency to be determined by active individuals at the organization). The
primary measure of success here will be participation levels of invited individuals. The last step
to implement this policy will be to review progress of this initiative on a quarterly basis to make
necessary changes as we go.
Evaluation Plan
The evaluation framework developed by Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2006) will be used
to evaluate the progress and success of each recommendation outlined above. This framework
consists of four levels; reactions, learning, transfer, and impact, in that order as each level builds
off of the previous level. The first level, reaction, “measures how those who participate in a
program react to it.” This level is important as it can impact the motivation of participants to
start, persist, and put in the effort required to participant in the implementation plan. The second
level is learning which is defined “as the extent to which participants change attitudes, improve
knowledge, and/or increase skill as a result of attending the program.” This level has importance
as it measures the learning outcomes and general performance based on the implementation plan.
The third level is transfer (or behavior) which is defined as “the extent to which change in
behavior has occurred because the participant attended the training program.” In order for a
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change to occur as a result of an implementation plan, there are four conditions which must be
met:
- The person must have a desire to change.
- The person must know what to do and how to do it.
- The person must work in the right climate.
- The person must be rewarded for changing.
This is an important level as this level monitors whether participants have applied what they
have learned into their work. The last level is impact (or results) which can be defined as “the
final results that occurred because the participants attended the program.” This level focuses on
evaluating the impact the implementation plan has made on participants behavior as well as the
organization’s overall performance. Below is a detailed description of each of the three solutions
and their evaluation plan.
Monthly Engagement Surveys
The first solution is conducting monthly engagement surveys. Reactions will be measured
of this solution through the survey itself. In addition to the standard engagement survey items
which will be included, there will be a section to measure reactions of this solution both
quantitatively through Likert scales and qualitatively through open-ended responses. The goal
here is to ensure that there is a favorable response to this solution and its frequency. Learning
will be measured through by analyzing month over month increases or decreases in engagement
scores. As this is meant to be a forum for participants to express both positive and negative
feelings they have, engagement should increase over time leading to the next level, transfer.
Transfer will be measured by participation and depth of responses by the participants. If this plan
is effective, participants should open up by expressing their frustrations and concerns about the
organization so that they can be addressed. The final level of impact will be measured by the
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increase in self-efficacy, engagement, and social interactions with others in the organization. An
increased engagement level for each participant is a goal of the organization as it ensures that
participants are engaged and productive.
Monthly Coaching Sessions
The second solution is to provide monthly coaching sessions to each participant. Here,
reactions will also be gauged by the surveys referenced above. There will be a dedicated section
within the survey that focuses specifically on this solution to ensure that the participants are
finding this solution helpful to them. Learning will be measured through multiple ways including
understanding what progress is being made on the explicit goals that were discussed by myself
and the participants. These goals will be documented via email after the coaching session which
will make each goal explicit. Lastly, given that each participant will have different strengths and
weaknesses as it relates to self-regulation and collaboration in a virtual workplace, learning will
be measured by developing a plan with each participant on how to improve their unique
weaknesses. Transfer will be measured collaboratively with the participant. This will be
accomplished by quantifying behaviors that would indicated transfer is occurring in a positive
way. Lastly, impact will be measured in an informal interview manner during the coaching
sessions to see if self-efficacy has increased as it relates to the ability to self-regulate and
collaborate in a virtual environment. This particular solution has no end date. After the initial
goals have been met, we will work towards identifying new goals to work towards.
AGL Community
AGL Community is the last of the three solutions proposed to address gaps identified in
participants ability to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual environment. Much like the two
solutions above, reactions will be measured through the engagement surveys. There will be a
dedicated section in the survey which inquires about the AGL Community initiative to measure
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whether the reactions are positive or negative. Learning will be measured through understanding
if participants are learning useful habits from their peers within the community. Additionally,
understanding participation is an important element as it serves as a measure of progress as AGL
Community was designed to help participants feel more comfortable with their peers on a social
level. Transfer will be measured by observing the relationships participants have with others in
the organization. These observations will be made in team meetings, during 1 on 1 meetings, and
through the platform on which AGL Community will be hosted, LinkedIn. Lastly, impact will be
measured in two ways. The first way will be to determine if participants are reporting higher
levels of self-efficacy and feeling connected to the organization. The second way will be to see
how many others are being referred into the organization, what participants go on to do after
their time with AGL and how often they come back to participate in AGL events and discussions
on the LinkedIn platform.

Table 6
Implementation and Evaluation Plan

Implementation

Reactions

Learning

Transfer

Impact
AGL Community

Reactions will be measured
through the monthly
engagement survey listed
below. Reactions in each
content will be determined by
the general sentiment of each
initiative to determine if they
are being well-received by the
organization and are improving
their ability to self-regulate and
collaborate in virtual settings.

The survey will be primarily
quantitative using a Likert scale
to measure reactions of the
AGL community as well as the
monthly coaching sessions.

Additionally, there will be an area
for open-ended responses
encouraging participants to
provide feedback both for
improvement as well as to give
praise.
Learning will be
measured in the AGL
Community through
understanding if the
members of the
community are
learning useful habits
from their peers
within the
community.

Understanding
participation is also
important as it serves
as a measure of
progress because it
was designed to help
participants feel
more comfortable
with their peers on a
social level (outside
of a project).

Measuring transfer of
the AGL
Community will
focus on observing
the relationships
participants have
with others in the
organization.

This can be observed
in team meetings,
will surface during 1
on 1 meetings, and
will also be evident
on the platform
where this
community will be
maintained
(LinkedIn).
Measuring impact of the
AGL Community will
be done in two ways.
First, the initiative will
prove to be impactful
if individuals within
the organization are
reporting higher levels
of self-efficacy and
feelings of
connectedness to the
organization.
Secondarily, impact
will be measured by
seeing how many
people are referred
into the organization,
what associates do in
their next role (post-
AGL), and how often
previous AGL
members come back to
participate in events
and discussions on the
LinkedIn platform.

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Implementation

Reactions

Learning

Transfer

Impact
Monthly Coaching
Sessions

Learning will be measured
in a few ways for
monthly coaching
sessions. Given that
each coaching session
will be 1 on 1, learning
will be measured by
understanding progress
on explicit goals that
were discussed.

Additionally, action items
will be documented in a
follow-up email to
make each goal explicit.

Lastly, learning will be
measured on an
individual basis by
understanding each
associate’s weakness as
it relates to self-
regulation and
collaboration and
developing a plan on
how to improve upon
those weaknesses.

Measuring transfer
during the monthly
coaching sessions
will be very explicit.
After understanding
what areas of growth
each participant has,
we will
collaboratively put
together ways to
quantify their
behavior to
determine if
behavior is changing
in a positive way.

Some examples might
be to quantify how
often a person
speaks up during
team meetings, how
responsive someone
is to emails, how
often someone
checks their devices
for personal reasons
while they are
working, etc.
Measuring impact here
will be done by
measuring self-
efficacy to self-
regulate and
collaborate in a virtual
setting. This will
primarily be done in
an informal interview
manner during each
coaching session.

Given that this policy
will never “finish,”
impact will be
continuously measured
until goals are met and
self-efficacy is
increased.

After this is complete,
we will identify new
goals and concerns to
address in this same
model.

114

Implementation

Reactions

Learning

Transfer

Impact
Monthly
Engagement
Surveys

Learning will be measured
here by analyzing
month over month
increases (or decreases)
in engagement scores.

Measuring transfer
during the monthly
engagement surveys
will largely focus on
participation and
depth of responses.

If the plan is effective,
the expectation
would be to see
participants open up
more about their
needs, concerns, and
overall satisfaction.
Impact for monthly
engagement surveys
will be measured by
the increase in self-
efficacy, engagement
and social interactions
with others within the
organization.

In addition to boosting
self-efficacy, steadily
increasing employee
engagement scores of
the organization is our
ultimate goal to ensure
associates are engaged
and productive.

115
115

Suggestions for Future Research
Suggestions for future research would come in three primary forms. The first would be to
evaluate a more diverse virtual organization. The reason for this is that AGL & Associates
primarily comprises of those who attended the Masters of Science in Applied Psychology at the
University of Southern California. Although there is diversity offered in terms of gender and age,
the educational backgrounds and areas of interest are largely the same given that the majority of
participants studied the same thing. Future research should identify virtual organizations that are
substantially larger in size with employees that have a wide range of educational backgrounds
along with other factors in diversity such as age and gender. This will be important to see if the
findings identified in this study are unique to AGL & Associates due to their similar academic
backgrounds or if they are replicable across other organizations as well.
The second suggestion for future research would be to research other types of soft skills.
While this study focused on self-regulation and collaboration, there are several other areas that
future research can focus on as it relates to soft skills in a virtual environment. Some examples
include empathy, enthusiasm, negotiation skills, situational awareness and conflict resolution.
Ultimately, the scope of this study was only focused on self-regulation and collaboration but
there are several other soft skills which can be studied to grow the body of research in soft skills
in a virtual environment.
The third and final suggestion for future research would be for a researcher to conduct a
study on this topic without having any direct relationship with the site that is being studied.
Although the autoethnographic approach provided here provided great insight into my role and
influence on the company, an objective evaluation of soft skills in a virtual workplace could
deem equally important. If findings are replicated through an objective study where the
researcher is separated from the site being studied, the results would prove to be significant.
116

Overall, researching a more diverse and larger sample size, other soft skills, and an organization
that the researcher does not have a direct relationship with are all suggestions to advance
research in the field of soft skills in a virtual workplace.
Conclusion
This study sought to evaluate how individuals within AGL & Associates employed soft
skills in a virtual environment. The organizational performance goal for AGL as it relates to this
study is to leverage their virtual culture to offer a new line of consulting services focused on
creating an effective virtual culture for startups around the world. Given that the definition of
soft skills can be varied based on the source, for the purpose of this study, the definition of soft
skills by Cimatti (2015) was used to narrow the scope of this study. Cimatti’s definition of soft
skills is two-fold. The first component is self-oriented, or intrapersonal, skills which refer to
what a person must understand and develop about themselves and the second is interpersonal
skills which refer to what a person must understand and develop about relating with other people.
Using this definition, this study focused on two primary soft skills; self-regulation and
collaboration, particularly in virtual workplaces.
There were two primary components to the research to investigate this topic. The first
was a qualitative approach through interviewing every individual who has been involved with
the organization since its founding in 2018. This methodology was selected as it is a particularly
helpful strategy for understanding ill-defined phenomena such as soft skills in a virtual
environment (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). The second was an autoethnographic approach which
leveraged company documents, observations of meetings, and a narrative inquiry which reflected
on how the culture was intentionally shaped by me as well as blind spots that I had not
previously accounted for, some of which surfaced in the qualitative findings. This methodology
was chosen as I am the founder and managing director of the organization which was being
117

studies. Therefore, rather than attempting to remove myself and remaining objective throughout
the study, an autoethnography allows to reflect upon my role and its impact on the virtual culture
that was created at AGL & Associates for greater context.
When analyzing the dataset, three major themes emerged as it relates to the knowledge
component of the KMO framework (Clark & Estes, 2008) that was used throughout the study.
The first theme was that participants demonstrated clarity-seeking behavior. This was
demonstrated through the use of screensharing (declarative knowledge), understanding the
importance of soft skills (declarative knowledge), and understanding how to effectively
communicate with virtual coworkers (procedural knowledge). The second was the willingness
and ability to humanize. This was demonstrated through leveraging video to demonstrate
professionalism and humanize interactions with coworkers (declarative knowledge), valuing
interpersonal interaction (declarative knowledge), and possessing the knowledge of how to
humanize an interaction through conversation (procedural knowledge). The last theme within the
knowledge component was technology management. This was demonstrated through participants
understanding what technology to use in specific situations (declarative knowledge) and being
aware of how distracting technology can be (metacognitive knowledge).
In regard to the motivational component of the KMO framework, three themes emerged.
The first was to maximize efficiency. This was demonstrated through having the extrinsic value
to limit technological distractions and the fact that the organization operated on a project-based
work schedule where there are no set hours and participants are able to complete their work as
they see fit. The second theme was to develop professionally. This was demonstrated through
having the self-efficacy to work remotely and being passionate about the work that they do. The
final theme which emerged under the motivational component of this framework was that
participants were mostly confident collaborators. This was demonstrated through placing great
118

value in understanding others and having an overall positive sentiment about the work they did
and those they worked with.
The final component of the KMO framework was to analyze the organization. Through
this analysis, three cultural frameworks were evaluated. The first was the culture of a growth
mindset which was demonstrated through participants emphasizing how the organization offered
both experimentation and education in the day-to-day work. The second was the culture of focus
which was demonstrated through a culture which emphasized high performance, role clarity and
a value of time. The last theme of the organizational component is the hands off, trust on
management model. This was demonstrated primarily through the organization fostering a
supportive environment for each individual within AGL & Associates.
Through this gap analysis, the knowledge influences were validated while the motivation
and organizational components were partially validated as there were certain gaps which
emerged in these two areas. Challenges in the motivational component included some
participants demonstrating low self-efficacy when it came to understanding others and seeking
clarity in virtual settings as well as struggling with miscommunication in virtual interactions and
isolation given the nature of remote work. Challenges in organizational component included
having technical difficulties and frustrations with the software tools which were used to
collaborate, not feeling connected to others due to a lack of social interaction with peers, and not
having enough explicit training on how to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual workplace.
As discussed in this chapter, three recommendations were put in place to close these gaps
overtime which included conducting monthly engagement surveys, monthly 1 on 1 coaching
sessions, and launching AGL Community, an online platform to connect past, current, and future
AGL & Associates members together to build a greater sense of community at the organization.

119

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Appendix A: Interview Protocol
1. How would you describe your interpersonal relationship with your colleagues at AGL
during projects? (knowledge, collaboration)

2. How would you describe your approach to managing e-mails throughout the workday?
(knowledge, self-regulation)

3. Describe your comfort with demonstrating emotions with your colleagues and clients
during communication (meetings, text messages, calls, etc.). (knowledge, collaboration)

4. Describe your ability to communicate your needs with your colleagues, clients and
supervisor through virtual interactions. (knowledge, collaboration)

5. Describe the frequency in which you performed non-work-related tasks on your computer
during working hours such as checking social media or browsing the web. (motivation,
self-regulation)

6. Describe your phone usage during working hours. (motivation, self-regulation)

7. During moments of ambiguity during virtual meetings, describe your level of comfort in
asking for clarity. (motivation, collaboration)

8. Describe your level of effort or commitment to fully understanding someone’s
perspective during a virtual interaction before you respond. (motivation, collaboration)

9. Describe the preparation AGL provides to you to work for a virtual organization.
(organization)

10. How connected do you feel to the AGL community as a remote worker? (organization)

11. How well does AGL educate or train you in virtual collaboration? (organization)

12. How much of an effort does AGL make to create a sense of belonging for you and your
colleagues? (organization)

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Appendix B: Narrative Inquiry
Starting AGL & Associates was a cumulative and organic process. My initial efforts were not to
start the firm that exists today. Taking a step back and thinking about what drivers led to the
formation of the organization, there is a long story here which started back in my undergraduate
studies at Rutgers University. During this time, I was trying to determine what career I wanted to
pursue. My parents always encouraged me to pursue a career in medicine, particularly to
consider being a medical doctor. From their perspective, they had made the ultimate sacrifice
uprooting their lives from India and immigrating to the United States. This came with many
stresses and challenges that most people haven’t (and shouldn’t endure). During this transition,
my father picked up any job he could in the Untied States to make ends meet and my mother
would support him. Soon enough, they began pursuing entrepreneurship in retail settings with
managing convenience stores and eventually purchasing and operating a motel in Tasley,
Virginia. During this time, my father was attacked by some of his clients, leading to a stroke
which would ultimately paralyze him, reducing and ultimately removing his ability to provide for
his family. This stroke came with not only physical challenges for him, but also psychological
ones which took a toll on his relationship with his wife and his older two children, but
surprisingly, not me. Through this time, my older brother and mother did everything possible to
support our family of three children and my two parents. They realized that running this motel
was too challenging relative to the rewards it was bringing, leading them to uproot their lives to
New Jersey to yet again, start over and provide my sister, my brother, and me with a better life.
During this time, there were many ups and downs, but my parents always wanted me to pursue
education to get a stable job and live a life that was much less stressful and horrifying as theirs
had become, which is why they primarily wanted me to become a doctor.
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I spent the majority of the rest of my life in New Jersey from 10 to 31 which is my age
today. When I was in college, I wanted to be the best I could be for my parents but realized that I
had no interest in medicine or desire to study sciences such as chemistry or biology, but seeing
what happened to my father and the toll it took on our family made me very interested in
psychology, so in college, I decided I would pursue a career in psychology. During this
exploratory phase, I learned that I had inherited the natural “business” and entrepreneurial skills
of my brother and father based on both the nature and nurture elements which shape how each of
us become the adults we are. From here, I realized that pursuing a career in I/O psychology was
of the highest interest to me which is what I did while helping my brother run his own
convenience store where I learned how great I was with people. From here, I applied to Penn
State’s I/O psychology program and unfortunately was rejected, leading me to a very difficult
point in my life. As I sat in my car crying, feeling like I failed my parents, especially after all
they have endured to provide me a better life, I realized that I had to bounce back. I then applied
to another PhD program at Alliant University, San Diego and was accepted. When I went to visit
the university, I realized that I could not take it upon myself to move so far away from my
parents, especially because my dad was handicapped, and my mother was supporting the family
along with my brother. It did not feel right in my heart to leave them and start a life somewhere
else. In fact, it felt quite selfish, which is something that I did not want to be, especially because
of my great relationship with my mother.
I decided to apply my I/O psychology background and education in psychology,
Entrepreneurship and Organizational Leadership to a career in sales. Fortunately, one company
gave me an opportunity in New York City to sell Managed Print and IT Services as well as
Document Management software. I quickly rose the ranks from a telemarketer to the Director of
Sales, being second in command of the organization at the age of 24 years old. I loved what I
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did, the clients I worked with, and working with technology as I realized that this was inevitably
going to be the future of work, but at the time, I wasn’t quite sure how. Unfortunately, due to
some questionable business practices by CEO, I decided it was time for me to step down as the
role was challenging my own views on ethics as it related to business. I left the organization to
work as a recruiter. Two months into this role, I realized this wasn’t for me, either, but it was
great to learn how the organization operated. Fortunately, my brother and I saved up enough
money to finally provide our parents with their dream home, so we purchased the home, and all
lived in this beautiful home that sat on an acre of land in Central New Jersey. For the first time in
my life, I felt successful and fulfilled with what I have come to accomplish. My parents were
happy, safe, and taken care of and my brother started his family.
Now the question was, what do I do next for work? No one wanted to hire me as a sales
leader at the age of 25, which I didn’t understand then, but certainly understand now, 6 years
later. So, I began to utilize my sales capability and vast network and continued to job hop, from
selling exterior home remodeling to home owners on a commission only basis (man, that was
difficult), to being a relationship manager at a local bank. I realized that neither of these roles
were as financially fulfilling as my first role at the technology company nor was I interested in
working in the retail sector or one that doesn’t focus on technology, but I loved what I learned. I
was relatively successful given the short durations I worked at both companies and learned a lot
more about people from how they manage their homes and families to how they manage their
finances. Great lessons learned ultimately. It was during this time where I realized it was time to
go back to school to get a master’s degree as I really wanted to become a management
consultant. At the time, I was a bit naive thinking that another degree in psychology would
position me best to work at a Big 4 consulting organization, but again, psychology is what I
loved so I focused on that and told myself that however it works out, it’ll lead me to my success.
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As I began pursuing my degree at USC for a Master of Science in Applied Psychology
specializing in Consumer and Organizational Psychology, it expanded my mind to understand
what was possible in the world. My parents were right, higher education is so very important for
reasons far beyond monetary gain. I finally began to learn this and fell in love with the work I
was doing in school. Coincidentally, I received an offer to be the head of Sales in North America
for a Bulgarian IT firm. This was a great transition as it brought me back to a leadership role in
sales and the CEO I worked for had great respect for my education and allowed me to really run
the organization how I saw fit. He was one of my greatest influences in terms of how I have
learned to manage and lead an organization and where I realized the “hands off, trust on ''
management model can lead to great results. Unfortunately, for this organization, bringing me on
was too little, too late. The board of directors were growing tired of funding North American
operations and not seeing the results they wanted. Although I brought in their first 6 clients, they
brought in 1 in the three years they were established prior to me joining and decided to sever the
business unit within North America, leading my CEO to resign. This left me in a strange place as
we were essentially acquired by a company that was run by one of the board of directors out in
Idaho which is what ultimately led to me being laid off. I will return to this crucial point later.
Taking a step back and focusing on the MAPP program, this was certainly a significant
time as it relates to launching AGL. During MAPP, as I mentioned earlier, I loved what I was
learning and knew that I wanted to pursue a career that allowed me to use both Consumer and
Organizational Psychology principles to apply in business settings, but as a “sales guy,” I wasn’t
sure where to start. Concurrently, I began reading books assigned in the program such as Work
Rules! by Lazlo Bock and Brick by Brick, the story of LEGO and began to realize that this was
the type of work I wanted to do. Work Rules! emphasized the importance of data-driven
decisions and Brick by Brick was an ultimate story of organizational resilience. Then came case
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studies of Chipotle and Pixar and I was never so interested in what I was reading. From here, we
were tasked to pick our own book to write a report on and this became the pivotal moment for
me. I chose Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance and something clicked. Not only did Elon go on to be
my greatest role model (professionally), but he was the greatest source of inspiration for me to
start something, anything! Learning about his approach to life, not work, his vision, his resilience
and ultimately, his success, I knew that I wanted to become a leader like Elon. This choice
wasn’t about his success or his fortune. Frankly at the time of this reading, Tesla was struggling,
and SpaceX was not nearly as large as it is today, but it was about his purpose and why he was
doing what he did. I began to identify other purpose driven entrepreneurs to read about such as
Steve Jobs, Vishen Lakihani, Gary Vaynerchuck and my own boss at my then current role,
Yavor Djonev. These individuals were visionary who did not work for money. They pursued
their passions and effectively changed the world in small and big ways.
With this excitement and energy, but still not knowing where to start my business, I
began a blog called “Abnormal Executive” where I interviewed several CEOs to learn about
what brought them to start their own businesses and what their passions were. These businesses
were typically small, but I learned something special from each one. In hindsight, it really was a
market research project that I did in the form of a qualitative study. Concurrently to this, I began
to advise friends with their startup ideas, none of which really took off frankly, leaving my time
used without any compensation (which was necessary in hindsight). I learned a ton about a lot of
different types of businesses and enjoyed consulting. After all, at this time, my dream was to
become a management consultant.
During this absolutely beautiful time in my life, something terrible happened. My father
was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. He was a fighter through and through, but Stage 4 lung
cancer was tough to beat. My dad lost his life a few months after his diagnosis and right before I
138

was about to receive my master’s degree. The death of any parent is something that I had never
considered or was prepared to handle. It broke me, especially after life broke him over and over,
and he got back up and kept fighting. And his final days of our time together was spent watching
me deal with the consequences of a foolish mistake I made in my personal life. What was
ultimately going to be my father’s final months, he spent by my side supporting me
unconditionally while I dealt with my consequences of a poor decision. I felt like a failure and an
idiot. Everything he and my mother worked so hard to support me for, I disrespected in the most
idiotic way. Fast forwarding to my eventual lay off from Sirma Group, I was lost. Dealing with
the loss of my father, a job that I truly loved, and graduating from a master’s program, it was
tough to figure out what was next.
To deal with all of this, I traveled. I did a 45-mile trek over 5 days to Machu Picchu,
which included climbing the Salkantay Mountain which stands tall at 20,000+ feet in the air
without any physical training or preparation and sailing the Mediterranean Sea, barely knowing
how to swim. These certainly helped me cope with the loss of my father, face my fear of heights
and deep water and deal with the ongoing challenges in my life. These trips will go down as
moments that made me realize how much strength people can have even during their darkest
days. During these trips, I thought a lot about what my future career would look like and I
realized that I still wanted to be a management consultant, even though the places I applied at
during my master’s program didn’t even interview me. I realized that my career in consulting
wasn’t best suited for the traditional path and that I wanted to use my education and training in
psychology to offer behavioral science-based consulting. Furthermore, once I returned from my
trip, a friend called me and asked for assistance for a company he was starting. For the first time,
I introduced a new model rather than based on equity, to be based on billable hours. With this
project and a heavy heart with the passing of my father, I officially launched Abnormal Group
139

LLC as a tribute to his life. My goal with this launch was to create something that lives on past
my lifetime as it was one way I can still be connected with my father and thank him for
everything he’s done for me, after death. This company was, is, and will always be a tribute to
not only him, but both of my parents.
Abnormal Group LLC was a one-person company when I started and I loved working
with clients directly as well as running my own organization. As I was going through the
process, people began to reach out to me. At the graduation ceremony in Los Angeles for the
MAPP program, I met James who became my right-hand person. While I was good at taking the
initiative to launch a formal business, brand it in a distinct way, and get clients, he was the data-
centric piece to this organizational puzzle. James, too, lost his father so it became a way we
connected in addition to our love for consulting and running a company. When James came on
board, I realized I was not only responsible for my clients, but also the people (or person, at the
time) who worked for me. This gave me a heightened sense of pride and accomplishment,
particularly because of the tribute that the company was to my parents. Having James join my
vision although I had little to offer, meant and still means the world to me because it was never
just a business to me, it was a legacy for my parents.
There were things that James taught me and things that I taught him but ultimately our
minds combined to scale the organization. At this point, I reached out to someone who is very
influential in my life, the program director at USC, Dr. Leggett, and asked if I could provide
internships for her students and she accepted the informal proposal with open arms and a big
smile. From here, we began training interns on market research and employee engagement and
servicing multi-million-dollar clients. It was a dream come true. Furthermore, we did it all
remotely, simply because the MAPP program and my experience working at a Bulgarian IT firm
taught that it is possible, and also a wise way to keep costs down and bring in great talent from
140

across the country. At this point, it was more important to me to train and develop our people and
let them handle the client work which is where my cultural models began to form. Before I dive
into the cultural models, there was a pivotal moment where I realized this shift occurred. James
had a lifelong goal to get his PhD in I/O psychology, so he applied to many programs, one of
which was his dream schools, UConn. Leveraging his experience at AGL, a recommendation
letter from me, as well as all of the other impressive accolades he already had at that point, he
got in! I was the second person he told, after his girlfriend who was there by his side when he
found out. Hearing his joy and knowing how bad he wanted this made me so happy for him. It
also made me realize that this is my life’s work… to develop people to be their best selves which
is how the cultural models described below will suggest.
James and I were always fixated on keeping meetings “focused and intentional” in
James’ words. We did not want to have excessive meetings and he required that we take some
non-negotiable time off. I, being a workaholic, was ready, willing, and able to work 24/7 but
James put a stop to that, suggesting that it’s not about working harder, but smarter, and a focused
and intentional culture can foster that. Furthermore, the cultural model of growth mindset was
important to James and I as well as we were young relative to the rest of the industry to be
consultants. Dealing with “impostor syndrome” was definitely a real issue for a while until we
really began to embody what we learned in MAPP program regarding a growth mindset. With
this mentality, I realized that I did not care to hire top talent, I cared to hire passionate people. If
they were passionate about what they wanted to do, they will learn, grow, and go on to do great
things with work they absolutely love. Lastly, was the hands off, trust on management model.
We did not want to be micromanagers but instead, enablers. We empowered our team to always
give it their best shot and letting them embrace failure, because frankly, it’s not as scary as
141

certain managers and corporations make it out to be. Of course, easier to say running a very
small organization compared to a Fortune 500 company.
I realized that through my corporate roles and reading about and interviewing
entrepreneurs as mentioned earlier prior to launching AGL, there was a real possibility to work
and live completely on your own terms, so we embodied that. It wasn’t about how many hours a
week you were willing to work, it was about the projects you wanted to work on in addition to
your regular life. This is why the virtual model with minimum meetings works for us. We
frankly don’t look at it as work, but passion projects that we can collaborate on when they come
in. Of course, as the owner of the organization, I do have to be fiscally responsible, report the
company’s financials, and maintain necessary documentation for the team that is hired, but for
the rest of the team, it was about focusing on what they loved, and I love that we created a
culture like this.
We also believed that our team’s opinion was equally or more important than our own.
One example of this was when one of our interns questioned the company name and provided a
compelling case as to why we should consider changing it, shortly after a SIOP conference the
three of us had attended together. Thinking about what she said, she was right. It was time for the
company to have a more “mature” feel and given the fact that we ultimately became an unofficial
training facility for the MAPP program while also being a consulting firm, we changed the name
to AGL & Associates (as a DBA). AGL stands for Abnormal Group LLC to keep the essence of
our origination.
Although this narrative was long, I hope it is evident why each part of this story was so
important to the formation of AGL and the cultural models that we developed at the
organization. Everything from my upbringing to my professional experience to my educational
experience played a role to bring us where we are today. My family instilled in me my
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entrepreneurial spirit. My passion for psychology stemmed from his accident and how it
impacted my family. The loss of his life was the catalyst to build something in loving memory of
him. My time at my first job taught me how to be a better leader than my first and my last job
prior to launching taught me how a good leader can empower and instill self-efficacy by being
hands off, and trust on. My professional background in technology roles taught me how to utilize
technology to run a company virtual before the pandemic made it a household phenomenon. And
my education taught me how to apply psychology in business settings to deliver value to how
people manage their teams and maximize their revenues. I owe it all to my family, my team at
AGL and those who inspired me along the way such as Elon Musk, Ellen Leggett, Yavor Djonev
and Vishen Lakihani. I could not be prouder of how far we come, and I know my late father as
well as now, my late mother, is as well as I am able to impact lives of those who join us in
beautiful ways. My life’s work is in loving memory of the two who made the ultimate sacrifice
to allow me to be writing this narrative. And although both have passed after living an extremely
stressful life to do so, AGL & Associates will make sure they are never forgotten.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This study sought to evaluate how participants of AGL & Associates utilized soft skills, particularly self-regulation and collaboration, in a virtual workplace using a qualitative approach by surveying 11 participants within the organization as well as an autoethnographic approach which allowed the researcher to leverage company documents, observations, and a personal narrative given his role at the organization being studied as the founder and managing director. The qualitative data was analyzed using the gap analysis model of Clark and Estes (2008). Results indicated that participants had the knowledge to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual setting through demonstrated clarity-seeking behavior, willingness and ability to humanize as well as being able to manage technology. Results also indicated that participants also had the motivation to self-regulate and collaborate in a virtual setting through the value of maximizing efficiency, developing professionally, as well as having the self-efficacy to collaborate confidently. The organization also provided support to utilize these skills through three cultural models which were the culture of growth mindset, the culture of focus, and a “hands off, trust on” management model. However, certain challenges were identified as it relates to motivation and the organization which are discussed along with an implementation plan to address these challenges.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Patel, Shamit Yashavant (author)

Core Title An examination of soft skills in the virtual workplace

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Degree Conferral Date 2021-08

Publication Date 08/09/2021

Defense Date 07/20/2021

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag autoethnography,collaboration,emotional intelligence,equity,gap analysis,hard skills,leadership,OAI-PMH Harvest,remote work,self regulation,self-regulation,soft skills,telecommuting,virtual,virtual workplace

Format application/pdf (imt)

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Advisor Hinga, Briana (committee chair), Leggett, Ellen (committee member), Maddox, Anthony (committee member)

Creator Email shamit51@gmail.com,shamitpa@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC15720657

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