Introduction:

 

Problem Statement

 

Technology is witnessing unprecedented growth in all sectors of business, while simultaneously equipping leaders with relevant and readily accessible information to assist them in decision making process.  Thanks to the Internet, laptops, and smart phones, leaders have access to information from anywhere at any time.  However, this ease of access to information for organizations has also increased the demands and expectations of its leaders.

While organizations have adopted technologies to help drive an insatiable quest for productivity, efficiency and profitability, the consequences have been the virtual elimination of the 40-hour workweek.  In order to stay ahead of their competition, organizations have almost come to expect that their employees are always available, despite their personal lives and schedules outside of the office.

This notion of “always being connected” to work has introduced a new construct to the traditional eight to five white-collar job. Organizations are operating in a dynamic business environment which is prone to change, internally as well as externally, while leadership is left to deal with this change (Robbins, 2009).  The challenge for today’s managers is being able to lead both inside and outside the organization, while simultaneously being able to leverage rapid advancements in technology to remain competitive and relevant in their particular industry.  Technology can be used to leverage and assist managers in coping with the dynamic business environment.

A preliminary review of the literature has shown that there is minimal research on this notion of technology adoption and its impact on the leader outside of the organization.  Hence, there exists a substantial literature gap which can be filled by the proposed research. This research will seek determine the demographic influence that technology has had both within and outside of the workplace.

Leadership Theory:

The dynamic shift in the culture of an organization due to the adoption of technology implies that there may also be shift in this situational relationship between a leader and their subordinates.  This environmental aspect of the organization applies to both the cultural norms and operational performance of the organization. This study uses two theoretical frameworks, situational leadership theory and Scott’s model of institutional carriers, to understand how the technological and autonomous shift of the operational environment aligns with the needed situational leadership style required of today’s leaders.

The theory of situational leadership was developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard and is best understood by considering both the leadership style and development levels of subordinates (Robbins, 2009).  It is a contingency theory that takes into consideration the readiness of the leader’s subordinates in adapting to various situations. Situational leadership stresses that leaders adapt their style to the demands of different situations.  While situational leadership is not a new form of leadership study, it does provide an excellent context for this research study because it also takes into account the development levels of subordinates.  Consequently the situational leadership model can also provide a critical understanding as to the effect technology adoption has to the purview of a leader and their responsibilities to the organization.

Situational leadership contrasts the directive and supportive behaviors a leader has on their subordinates.  These two behaviors are further classified into a bell shaped curve that measures the leadership style through a continuum of four quadrants; High Directive/Low Supportive (Directing), High Directive/High Supportive (Coaching), Low Directive/High Supportive (Supporting) and Low Directive/Low Supportive (Delegating) (Robbins, 2009).

While the behavior styles of the leader help shape one’s influence over their subordinates, so too are the development levels of their subordinates.  These development levels describe the subordinates commitment and competence (i.e. developing to highly developed) over a given task.  As the data is analyzed, this framework will be critical to understanding the conducive nature by which both the leader and subordinate are adapting to this new operational environment as always being on and available.

Finally as the landscape of the organization has changed, so to has the need for the type of leadership style most conducive to this change.  Therefore, the second element of leadership theory needed for this research will be Scott’s model of institutional carrier’s.  Using Scott’s framework for this research will help to understand how organizations are shifting their “routines” from normal (i.e. 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday) workdays to one of no downtime, always on and always connected because of technology adoption outside of the normal work routine.

This research will contribute to the scholarship of understanding how technology adoption within an organization affects the leadership style of its administrators.  Consequently, this research and the two aforementioned theoretical frameworks outlined above will help to provide insight as to what has changed, and the impact technology has had on the normal routines of most organizations.

 

Purpose Statement:

The purpose of this quantitative research study is to understand the role that technology has on leaders within an organization.  At this point in the research, the perspective role of technology will generally be defined as email, smart phones, Internet access and computers both within and outside the organization.

Barbour (1993) highlighted the three views on the technology namely, “Technology as the liberator”, “Technology as the threat” and “Technology as the instrument of power”. Further, the research will try to determine which viewpoint fits in the case of use of technology by the leaders both within and outside the organization.

Research Question(s):

The research outlined by this proposal will provide answers to the following questions and sub-questions concerning the role of leaders outside and

Question 1.  How has technology expanded a leaders role outside of traditional working hours as outlined by Scott’s Organizational Theory of Institutional Pillars and Carriers?

Question 2.  How can Situational Leadership Theory be applied by leaders to understand the role that income, race, age, education and gender have on organizational routines within an organization?

In order to answer these general research questions, the following sub-questions will be addressed:

Sub-question 1.  Is there a significant difference in what a person’s role within an organization has on the amount of work activity they do outside of normal working hours via use of technology?

H_O:  There is no significant difference between a person’s role within an organization and the work that they do outside of normal working hours via use of technology.

H_a:  There is a significant difference between a person’s role within an organization and the work that they do outside of normal working hours via use of technology.

Sub-question 2.  Is there a significant difference in the role that technologies have on leadership positions in utilizing more advanced services as compared to other employees?

H_O:  There is no significant difference in the role that technologies have on leadership positions in utilizing more advanced services as compared to other employees.

H_a:  There is a significant difference in the role that technologies have on leadership positions in utilizing more advanced services as compared to other employees.

Sub-question 3.  Is there a significant difference in technology use by a leader because of their race, gender, age and education?

H_O:  There is no significant difference in technology use by a leader because of their race, gender, age and education.

H_a:  There is a significant difference in technology use by a leader because of their race, gender, age and education.

Sub-question 4.  Is there a significant difference in employees working longer hours outside of normal hours when an organization blocks websites?

H_O:  There is no significant difference in employees working longer hours outside of normal hours when an organization blocks websites.

H_a:  There is a significant difference in employees working longer hours outside of normal hours when an organization blocks websites.

 

Sub-question 5.  Is there a significant difference in the amount of work a leader does outside of normal working hours because of their access to technology?

H_O:  There is no significant difference in the amount of work a leader does outside of normal working hours because of their access to technology.

H_a:  There is a significant difference in the amount of work a leader does outside of normal working hours because of their access to technology.

 

Definitions

Type of work – Is the job title of the individual that one holds within an organization.  It is an independent variable.

Amount of Time – Refers to the time spent by an employee outside of the workplace doing work related activities.  It is a dependent variable as it depends on the type of work.

Cell Phone and Internet Use outside of work – Refers to the accessibility to technology outside of the workplace. It is a dependent variable as it depends on the type of work and technology access.

Internet Access – Refers to whether the employee has been provided the Internet access by the organization or not. It is an independent variable as every employee has an access to Internet in order to facilitate the working.

E-mail Access – Refers to whether the employee has been provided E-mail access by the organization or not. It is an independent variable as every employee has an access to E-mail in order to enable working outside of the organization.

Cell phone or Smartphone access – Refers to whether the employee has been provided the cell phone or Smartphone access by the organization or not. It is a dependent variable as it depends on the type of work.

Race, Gender, Age and Education – These are independent variable used to highlight the demographic profile of the target population.

Income – It is a dependent variable as it is dependent upon the type of work. It is also a demographic variable.

Block Websites – Refers to the websites on which the organizations explicitly places restrictions to access.  Employees are not allowed to access these websites from their place of work potentially impacting their ability to do work.

Technology use increases amount of time at work – It is a dependent variable as it measures the perception of the employees towards the use of technology and how the use of technology affects the amount of working time outside of normal business hours.

Table 1.  Overview of Data and Connections to Theoretical Framework

Research Sub-Question(s)	Variable (Dependent/ Independent)	Label	Source	Data type (Values)
1,2,3,4,5	Type of Work  (Independent)	Role	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Kind of work (01-08); Questionnaire #6
1,2,3,4,5	How often work outside of workplace (Dependent)	Time	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Amount of Time worked (1-6); Questionnaire #6a
1,2,3	Cell Phone & Internet use outside of work (Independent)	Technology	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Importance of Internet and cell phone access outside of work (1-4); Questionnaire #14
5	Internet Access (Independent?)	Internet	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Internet access for job (1-4); Questionnaire #7
5	Email Access (Independent)	Email	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	E-mail access for job (1-4); Questionnaire #10
5	Cell Phone or Smartphone Access (Independent)	Cell	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Cell Phone or Smartphone access for job (1-4); Questionnaire #8
3	Race (Independent)	Race	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Race (1-2);
3	Gender (Independent)	Gender	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Gender (1-2);
3	Income (Dependent)	Income	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Income (1-4);
3	Age (Inependent)	Age	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Age (1-4);
3	Education (Independent)	Education	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Education (1-4);
4	Block Websites (Independent)	Block	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Company Blocks Websites (1-3); Questionnaire #15
6	Technology use increase amount of time at work (Dependent)	Use	2014 Pew Technology Use Research Questionnaire	Increase the amount of time at work (1-2); Questionnaire #18

 

 

Significance of Study:

 

With more and more people accessing telecommunications services from their homes and billions of dollars already spent on infrastructure, the question must be asked by both researchers and leaders, “What effect does this adoption of technology have on leaders and their relationship with their employees?”   While there are various leadership theories, the one that appears most appropriate relative to this study would be situational leadership that takes into account the relationship between the leader and their followers.   In addition, there is social context with the organizational through the rapid adoption of technology and its impact on the personal lives of employees.  Consequently, this delineation between work and family time is becoming blurred with the advent or technology.

This research will seek to examine the impact that technology access has on the leadership role within an organization. If senior executives can “tune into” the key differentiators associated with situational leadership and learn to adapt their technology adoption to their organizational routines, then they can not only advance employee morale, but also possibly improve the customer relationships because of higher employee satisfaction.  Ultimately this simple relationship between technology adoption and balancing the routines of an organization could ultimately lead to improved financial performance and profitability for their shareholders.

Finally, there is a need to understand what role does the demographic differences exist between; gender, age, education, race and income have on the leaders adoption of technology.  For example, what role does one’s leadership position have on their workload outside of normal work hours because of ease of access to technology?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Limitations & Delimitations:

 

The delimitations of a study are related to the chosen boundaries that are being studied, while the limitations of the scope are made with the purposeful intentions to not include specific elements during the design of the study.  Secondary data was gathered via Pew Research Data; consequently, there are several delimitations and limitations related to the design of this study.

 

Specifically, the delimitations associated with this research proposal are that only customers within United States were studied.  While further research could be conducted across numerous parts of the globe to determine correlating evidence or effects that demographic influences might have on this model, that was not the intent of this study.

 

In addition, only adults are part of this study.  While age groups were part of the ranges, it was only 18+.  While it could be conceived that the rapid adoption is by those 18 and younger, the purpose of this study was based on those that use technology via an organization and are employed.

Finally, this study did not concentrate on any specific industry segment (i.e. Service, Manufacturing, Banking, Farming, etc.).   Despite this delimitation, there could be some similarities between or within sectors due to the adoption of technology by an organization.

 

Finally, while there are other variations of quantitative analysis that could be used, the logistic regression model was chosen because it provides a sound baseline to predict a dependent variable based on numerous and categorical independent variables.  In addition, this logistical regression model provides executive leadership with the information necessary to pinpoint areas for understanding the managerial intervention in deciding where to focus on adapting organizational routines.

 

The limitations of this study were related to the study environment since only one geographical area was chosen for this research proposal and it may not have provided an overarching or representative viewpoint of other areas within the United States or Globally.

 

The data was collected in 2014 and is two years old.  Therefore the results may not accurately reflect the current state and use of more current technology inside and outside of the workplace.

 

The other limitation associated with this study was that of not knowing the length or frequency by which the customers have used technology within their organization.  This may have an impact on the results as it is unknown whether previous positive or negative experiences may have caused the employee to respond differently.   The respondent’s perception of previous experiences with their current technology may have had a direct influence on the response provided.  Further, there could have been other questions asked of the participants to gain a deeper understanding into the technologies and issues surrounding the tethering of technology for leaders.

 

Literature Review:

A literature review is essential for any research study as it structures the premise for the examination of the issue and helps the researcher to increase valuable knowledge reagrding the research themes.  It also serves as a pivotal wellspring of secondary data which can be utilized to supplement the discoveries of any future research.  Hence, in the context of this study, the existing literature can assist in understanding the role that technology has on leaders within an organization.

Technology is viewed differently by different individuals. Some consider it to be the valuable source of higher expectations for everyday comforts, enhanced wellbeing, and better correspondences. Others may view technology as reproachful, holding that it prompts estrangement from nature, ecological obliteration, and perhaps even the loss of human liberation. A third opinion could be that innovation is vague, its effects fluctuating as indicated by the social setting in which it is planned and utilized, on the grounds that it is both an item and the origin of monetary and political force. (Galliers, 1992)

In this context,  researchers have contended that there are three views on technology namely, “Technology as the liberator”, “Technology as the threat” and “Technology as the instrument of power”. The first view highlights that technology makes human life easy by protecting human beings from hunger, various deadly diseases and poverty. The second view highlights that technology is a threat to the human existence while the third view propend that the technology can be both a liberator and a threat, depending upon the use of it. It will be quite interesting to find whether the technology act as a liberator or an oppressor in the organizational context. (Barbour, 1993)

Numerous leadership theories have been developed over the past century to understand the relationship between a leader and their followers.  Many of these leadership theories have been the result of organizational and psychological research that have been refined over the decades.  However it wasn’t until the late 1960’s, that one of the more relevant leadership styles began to emerge within the organizational realm – situational leadership (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969).

Situational leadership is characterized by how a leader operates within the various environments in which they are leading.  The premise of this theory is that different situations demand different types of leadership styles (Northouse, 2010).  The uniqueness of situational leadership is that it operates within the realm of two dimensions; directive and supportive.

The theory further expands upon how a leader applies each of these dimensions in a measured way given each unique situation (Northouse, 2010).  Based upon a particular situation, a leader must evaluate their employees and assess how competent and committed they are to perform a given task (Northouse, 2010).  It is also assumed that the employees skills and motivations change over time, therefore situations leadership theory suggests that leaders should change the degree to which they are directive and supportive to meet the changing needs of their subordinates (Northouse, 2010).

Although situational leadership is widely discussed in scholarly literature, to understand the tenants and applications in the corporate environment, specifically via the use of technology outside of work, (Chen and Nath, 2008) coined the term “nomadic culture” to describe the artifacts, values and basic assumptions that provide the remote workers with the flexibility to work anywhere and anytime.  However, the organization must also adapt its operational procedures, by helping the leader adapt through the use of support mechanisms that tie into the culture and values of the organization.  Studies have shown that this nomadic culture has led to higher job satisfaction within organizations (Chen and Nath, 2008).

The effective supervision of this nomadic culture concluded that in order for a employees must be trustworthy, responsible, and self-directed in order for technology to provide a positive impact on those worker who access it from a mobile standpoint outside of the organization (Chen and Nath, 2008).   The tension therefore between the technical and social aspect of changes in technology have been defined through a theory known as the socio-technical theory (Bostrom and Heinen, 1977).  This theory states that the processes, tasks and technology needed to transform inputs to outputs has a relationship upon the attributes of people (i.e. attitude, skills and values) along with relationships among people, reward systems and authority structures.  The four elements therefore are the social system (Structure and people) and the technical system (technology and tasks) (Bostrom and Heinen, 1977).

The traditional information technology systems approach always focused on optimizing the technical subsystem while allowing social system to adapt to these changes.  However the socio-technical theory contrasts this approach by stating that any redesign of an organization’s work system must consider the impact of each subsystem on the other and that the requirements of these two subsystems must be met simultaneously (Rouse and Baba, 2006).

While situational leadership can be understood from the leader follower perspective, another dimension that must be taken into account is the culture of organization.  The dimension of understanding how a leader manages while in a changing organization can be understood through the notion of agency and institutions (Scott, 2008).  One of the best frameworks to understand this type of social structure within an organization is through the use of varying carriers (Jepperson, 1991).  Specifically, Scott identifies four types of vehicles or carriers within an organization; symbolic systems, relational systems, routines, and artifacts (Scott, 2008).  These carriers can be seen as fundamentally important as to how an organization changes whether in a convergent or divergent way (Scott, 2008).

Institutional carriers point to a set of mechanisms that allow theorists to account for how ideas and changes move through an organization and who or what is transporting them (Scott, 2008).  While a fairly substantial amount of literature exists, it is considered illusive to researchers, as a variety of labels are used to define these carriers (i.e. diffusion of innovation, technology transfer and organizational learning) (Scott, 2008).  In the case of this research study, carriers will be defined as the routines of an organization (i.e. those protocols, jobs, procedures and roles) that have evolved with the use of technology.

What researchers have determined is that these carriers are never neutral and can be interpreted in different ways (Scott, 2008).  Thus, these carriers can be considered “conduit metaphors” since how the message is received and circulated affects how it is interpreted and received (Reddy, 1979).

Institutions also have structured activities in the form of habitual behavior and routines.  These routines are patterned actions that reflect the knowledge of actors, which may be considered habits and procedures not necessarily articulated in knowledge and beliefs.  Therefore, many early scholars viewed routines, patterns, standard operating procedures and habitual actions as central features of institutions (Veblan, 1919).  However more recent evolutionary theorists have emphasized the stabilizing role of employee skills and organizational routines that involve little conscious choice by the participant and in which they are not even aware of their actions (Nelson and Winter, 1982).   These routines are further rooted into the DNA of an organization in which they range from “hard” – activities encoded into technologies to “soft” – organizational routines of which all are repetitive in activity (Winter, 1990).   These patterns include the behaviors by both the individual and the organization (Miner, 1991).  It is these types of skills that bring about the stability of organizational behavior that account for the rigidness and reliability of the operational performance of an organization (Scott, 2008).

It is the relational systems of an organization that sustains and renews the routines of the organization (Scott, 2008).  As these routines evolve, a term entitled, “legitimate peripheral participation” begins through which existing employees demonstrate the mastery of knowledge and skills so that newcomers move toward full participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991).

Based on Scott’s framework of routines, it can be posited that the influence and expansion of technology within an organization could begin to evolve to a new level of expectations, and commitment to stay within the routines of that community.  However these routines could also be evolving causing the community to be transforming itself due to the technologies being utilized for the employee.  Despite the evolution of the organization, there is still debate that these routines are learned and sustained within that community and are not transportable to new organizations (Scott, 2008).   However the use of technology and easy access to it could be considered transportable to other communities, despite different actors and participant relationships.

Early studies on mobile work and access to new technologies remotely, were deemed as both a driver and enabler of organizational transformation (Chen and Nath, 2008).  Most of these technologies are considered convenient, transparent, integrated and convenient from outside of the organization (Kleinrock, 2001).   While the benefit of allowing workers to be almost nomadic in terms of office confinement has also brought about a social construct to the cultural context of the organizations and its leaders.

Using these frameworks of Situational Leadership and Routines, then there can be assumed a social impact to work outside of the organization.  Leaders and their employees must redefine what the expected social norms (ie. Routines) should be so that they can find new ways to make themselves productive and efficient (Chen & Nath, 2008).  Without these new social boundaries, these technology rich environments may infringe on the worker’s work-life balance (Davis, 2002).  One scholar was quoted as saying that without these new work cultures or practices, “anytime, anywhere work has become all the time, everywhere work” (Jarvenpaa, Lang, and Tuunainen, 2005).  It is therefore the organization that must define what the work and supervision should be in this new computing enhanced environment, otherwise researchers predict that there will be a spill-over effect from work to personal life can have a long-term negative effect which will lead to a decrease in productivity (Chesley, 2005 and Davis, 2002).

 

<strong