Becoming a Virtual Team under Rapid Conditions: Leadership and Collaboration through change : An exploratory case study of the change to virtual work settings as a consequence of Covid-19

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Becoming a virtual team under rapid

conditions: Leadership and collaboration

through change

An exploratory case study of the change to virtual work settings as a

consequence of Covid-19

GROUP 5

ARREDAL ANNA-CARIN AXELSSON PIHL JOSEFINE BÖRJESSON ALICE

School of Business, Society & Engineering

Course: Bachelor Thesis in Business

Administration Supervisor: Inti Lammi Course code: FOA243 Date: 20/01/2021 15 cr

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ABSTRACT

Date: (20/01/2021)

Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr

Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Anna-Carin Arredal Josefine Axelsson Pihl

Alice Börjesson

Title: Becoming a virtual team under rapid conditions: Leadership and collaboration through change

Tutor: Inti Lammi

Keywords: Covid-19, Virtual leadership, Virtual teams, Reorganization and Rapid change.

RQ: How have the leadership and the teams changed due to the rapid redirection to virtual work settings because of Covid-19 in a formerly co-located organization?

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the current field of virtual leadership and virtual teams. This study aims to examine the effects on leadership, the relation between the leader and the team member, and the collaboration as a consequence of a rapid virtual transition.

Method: This qualitative research was conducted with an inductive approach through a case study. Primary data was collected through three semi-structured

interviews with team leaders from different departments and nine

semi-structured interviews with their respective team members. The primary data was analysed in a thematic way and had support from a theoretical model conducted from secondary sources.

Conclusion: This study signifies the importance of establishing relationships, trust and effective communication within teams in virtual environments and recognizes how these aspects are essential for leaders when guiding a team through a rapid virtual transition. Being a leader under the

investigated condition suggests individualized leadership as beneficial to maintain stability and trust through the reorganization process.

Managerial attitudes are confirmed as influential on team performance though a transition and the transformational leadership theory is argued to be successful when managing a change process based on the studied case.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who supported us in the making of this bachelor thesis. First of all, we would like to thank Ica Affärsservice for offering their time and being a part of this case study. Secondly, we would like to thank our supervisor, Inti Lammi, for giving us constructive critique, guidance and support throughout the whole process. Thirdly we would like to thank our opponents for the further insight and valuable feedback that they gave us. Lastly, we would like to thank each other for the work, support and teamwork that we all put into this thesis.

Thank you,

Anna-Carin Arredal, Josefine Axelsson Pihl, Alice Börjesson

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1. Introduction

The first chapter of this study will present the investigated topics of leadership and virtual work settings and its relationship to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter outlines the importance and relevance as to why the chosen subject requires further research. The

background, problem discussion, purpose and research question will be presented.

1.1 Background

Advances in technology have increased the opportunities for organizational innovation and has developed employee and leadership effectiveness by the utilization of new programs, tools and solutions (Eissa et al., 2012). The development of digital communication channels and platforms are increasing the use of online communication in many organizations and at the same time it decreases the need for physical meetings. Today an increase of activities are conducted within virtual work settings such as meetings and transferring information

( Schwarzmüller et al., 2018) . Some organizations have even chosen to change from a traditional office work setting, to a complete virtual work setting with the use of digital solutions ( Helms & Raiszadeh, 2002) . However, as seen in these transitions to a virtual work setting, there has been much needed planning beforehand including a transition strategy (Shepherd & Hagstrom, 2015). But what happens when the time frame of the transition becomes limited due to a crisis?

As of the 11th of March in year 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the ongoing Covid-19 virus as a pandemic, hence a global health crisis. In order to reduce the spread of the virus, curfews have been implemented in some parts of the world (Jansson, 2020). In Sweden, the government has yet not demanded curfews or stated that working from home is mandatory at the point of conducting this research. However, many organizations have chosen to let parts of, or the whole organization, work from home due to the pandemic which is in line with the recommendations from the public health authority (Eriksson & Falkirk, 2020). The fast transition into working from home means that the organizations rapidly have changed from a traditional office setting to a virtual one, thus depending on digital tools under these critical circumstances. Managing this transition may come as a challenge for the leaders and its teams as they encounter a situation where they get thrown

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into unfamiliar environments and positions (Lagowska et al., 2020; Bolden & O’Regan, 2016).

Since many organizations recently have gone through this virtual transformation process in the latest year and are currently experiencing the outcomes of this change, it has come to the authors interest to investigate this rapid transition with the focus upon the leaders and its team. Therefore, a case study has been conducted on an organization that recently has gone through a shift from working in an office environment to a virtual environment which, for both leaders and employees, has meant a rapid unpredicted change of prerequisites that has not been fully trained or prepared for in advance. The organization ICA Affärsservice was selected as a case, yet, the organization itself is not the focus in this study. The specific organizational change that the company has gone through is what makes the company a relevant fit for this research.

1.2 Problem discussion

Virtual teams, virtual leadership and transition to a virtual work setting have previously been discussed in the literature. In regard to virtual leadership, former studies have examined the struggles of applying leadership in virtual teams (Malhotra et al., 2007; Hertel et al., 2005), where the importance of an inspirational and motivational leadership have been emphasized (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014; Joshi et al., 2009). However, in a virtual environment the

communication can be seen as more limited than in a traditional work setting (Mehtab et al., 2017; Schmidt, 2014), hence the aspect of acting as an inspirational and motivational leader can be challenging. Additionally, virtual teams and its environment are often characterized by vague communication and the necessity of self-leadership. They also often lack the

traditional face-to-face conversations and sharing information (Schmidt, 2014). Therefore, a leader in a virtual context needs additional skills in order to lead a virtual team in a successful manner (Mehtab et al., 2017).

In regard to transition and changes in an organization, the focus in previous studies have laid upon slow transformations where strategies and planning is possible (Seidl & Whittington, 2020; Shepherd & Hagstrom, 2015). As mentioned, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an intensity in the rapid crisis-driven changes of working in a virtual work setting from home, thus limiting the time-frame for the transition. Seidl and Whittington (2020) argue that the Covid-19 pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to further investigate the structural features

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of an organization. There is a possibility that the internal structure and the practices have changed due to the rapid adjustment to the pandemic, but also that some practices have remained the same (Seidl & Whittington, 2020).

Previous studies regarding virtual work have mainly been conducted on organizations that are already working in these virtual settings in order to understand the affections of physical distance within communication and leadership (Neufeld et al., 2010). The relational process amidst leaders and their team members digitally and virtually has been studied, however in the context of the fast redirection to virtual work settings because of a crisis such as

Covid-19, there is, to the authors knowledge, scarce research in this field. Therefore, a research gap has been identified regarding how organizations, that usually do not operate in virtual work settings, handle the rapid redirection to a virtual work mode. Together with the aspect of a potential change in the leadership role it can contribute to a more in-depth understanding of how to manage a rapid change into virtual work settings. This can provide further insights on how to handle successful virtual transformations for organizations and its leaders.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the current field of virtual leadership and virtual teams. There should be a coherent connection between the study's research question and its purpose as these two need to be related in order to explain what the research concerns ( Saunders et al., 2019) . Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects on leadership, the relation between the leader and the team member, and the collaboration as a consequence of a rapid virtual transition.

1.4 Research question

Based on the problems discussed in the previous section a research question have been developed with three sub questions:

Q1: How have the leadership and the teams changed due to the rapid redirection to virtual work settings because of Covid-19 in a formerly co-located organization?

Sub.Q1: How has the leadership role changed from a rapid redirection from a co-located, traditional work setting to a virtual work setting due to Covid-19?

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Sub.Q2: How has the relation between the leader and employee changed due to the rapid redirection from co-located to virtual work settings due to Covid-19?

Sub. Q3: How has the collaboration been affected between the team members due to the rapid redirection from co-located to virtual work settings due to Covid-19?

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2. Literature review

This chapter consists of the information needed in order to obtain a pre-understanding of the subject and a further explanation of the related theories to the purpose and research

question. The topics chosen consist of virtual leadership, virtual teams and reorganization, where relevant theories are presented under each section. The chapter is concluded with a theoretical framework and model derived from the literature review.

2.1 Virtual leadership

The digital transformation has changed the nature of work and how organizations operate in the modern world, including how leadership as a practice is being exercised. The information and communication technologies have enabled individuals to work jointly even though they are geographically distributed. Collaborative editing platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Drive have influenced the virtual work settings and enabled groups to come together along with the possibility to extend the collaboration in the groups network (Larson, & DeChurch, 2020). However, as leaders and groups start to work virtually, the face-to-face interactions become limited and at the same time, even when using video meetings or other tools, the leader can experience difficulties in coaching, monitoring and developing work functions (Bell, & Kozlowski, 2002). Therefore, previous research has suggested that there are several factors which are specifically crucial for a leader to successfully manage a team within a virtual work setting.

2.1.1 Collaboration

Bell and Kozlowski (2002) wrote that one of the key attributes to leading a virtual team is to endure a pleasant collaboration where the leader should act as an instructor and guide to the followers and is responsible for supplying the essential resources required. Kirkman et al., (2004) agrees upon this and adds that it also includes building relationships within the team in order to ensure true collaboration. Another aspect of the role as a leader in virtual work settings is the role of shared mental models. The leader should contribute to the development of these behavioural rules and guides, for example, knowledge about the technology and how to interact with the work colleagues within it. Because of the lack of face-to-face interaction, the leaders should have an open mind regarding a collaborative shared leadership which can possibly serve as a supplementary method within virtual work settings. Shared leadership

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implies the process where the employees influence each other, form decisions collaboratively, and share responsibilities. This can increase the employee's engagement to the work in a virtual work setting (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014).

2.1.2 Trust

Trust towards the leader and within the group is another key element for a successful work in a virtual work setting. Trust has been defined by Mayer et al., (1995) as “ the willingness of a

party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party”. It can contribute to an increased engagement from the

employees and act as a glue holding the fragmented group together which in turn can reduce the psychological distance (Furumo, 2018). Kodish (2017) states that in order for humans to interact with each other trust is necessary. A lack of trust implies that one party does not hold faith in the other person's competencies or questions the motivation of taking the promised activity seriously. On the other hand, an established trust can be seen as the relation among two or more individuals where one feels that the others involved are competent and can complete their part of the job. Hence, trust is an important aspect for a leader to consider and establish among the virtual group members (Furumo, 2018; Kodish, 2017). Previous studies have suggested different activities to enhance and build trust (Suchan & Hayzak, 2001; Maznevski & Chudoba, 2000). A frequent suggestion among the studies has been to organize quarterly meetings as face-to-face kickoffs with the virtual group in order to resolve the issue of mistrust, noting that physical meetings are preferable when building trust (Furumo, 2018). However, in the light of curfews and recommendations to work from home, physical

meetings might not be possible.

2.1.3 Digital communication

According to Malhotra et al. (2007), all leaders, virtual or non-virtual, should track and monitor their groups progress in order to gain an overview of the work and participation of each group member. A virtual leader has the opportunity to take advantage of the

communication and information programs of which the organization uses. The

communication platforms can be examined by the leader to see each member's participation in different discussions, chats and virtual meetings. Through these channels the leader can determine who is participating, and who might need further support and more motivation to

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engage in the activities. When it comes to what platforms and technology that should be used, virtual teams rarely begin with having all the technological tools needed. Instead, leaders of a virtual team usually have an attitude that the group can together try out the technological tools and if needed finding other solutions. In the study conducted by Malhotra et al. (2007), this attitude evidently contributes to the groups collaboration, motivation, and that each member accepts some part of responsibility to the virtual work setting. This also allows the virtual leader to be flexible in the choice of using technological tools and makes it easier to match the teams needs in line with their development. (Malhotra et al., 2007).

2.1.4 LMX-model

Having the role as a leader in a virtual work setting does also contain further communication and trust on an individual level. A widely used theory is the leader-member exchange (LMX), which is used to focus on the leader´s interaction with each individual group member and the quality of their relation. The LMX-theory has shown great relevance for virtual leadership where the leadership on an individual level has impacted the outcome of the Virtual team ( Goh, & Wasko, 2012) . Liden and Maslyn (1998) argues that there are four dimensions the leader´s interaction is based upon;

1. Affect 2. Loyalty 3. Contribution

4. Professional respect

Affect implies the mutual affection between the leader and the individual where the non-task

related elements are the major influence. This can be elements such as personal chatting and customizing information communicating such as sending emails. The second dimension,

loyalty , means the support from each other can strengthen the relationship between the

individuals. As an example, this could be when the leader defends the other party as in not putting the blame on that person and instead trying to understand the situation. Contribution in the LMX theory means that the quality and direction of task effort towards the team member is important and an example of contribution can be constructive feedback to the follower or setting personal work goals. This can both strengthen the relationship between the leader and follower, but also improve the performance. Lastly, the fourth dimension,

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followers skills, knowledge, and ability to perform. However, the individual follower should also acknowledge the leaders skills, knowledge and abilities in order to achieve professional respect. (Liden & Maslyn, 1998).

2.2 Virtual teams

Virtual teams let the organization operate in a flexible, adaptive and responsive way without the concern with the boundaries of space, which is of great importance for organizations to stay competitive (Duarte & Snyder, 2006; Bell & Kozlowski, 2002). According to Zigurs (2003), virtual teams can be identified as a compilation of individuals that are

organizationally and/or geographically divided, who cooperate by information and communication technologies to achieve a certain goal. She explains that virtual teams in general can involve all assignments and there is no accurate point where it becomes virtual, it is more concerned regarding the degree the team is virtual in different dimensions (Zigurs, 2003). Co-located teams can also present different levels of virtuality since the geographic dispersion is not the only level that determines a virtual team (Kirkman & Mathieu, 2005).

2.2.1 Dimensions of a virtual team

As mentioned, Zigurs’ (2003) presented a framework to acknowledge the virtuality in virtual teams with four dimensions which consists of organizational dispersion, geographic

dispersion, temporal dispersion and cultural dispersion, the model is presented in Figure 1.

(This figure is not included due to copyright reasons)

2.2.1.1 Organizational dispersion

Co-located groups or teams are mainly bound to the available means that already occur in the organization. Though, when working in a virtual team, it lets the organization exceed its traditional boundaries and with that it can access the best suited employees even though they

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operate in different locations. Organizational dispersion can therefore be connected to the cultural dispersion depending on the width of the organizational dispersion in a particular organization (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002). Organizational dispersed teams can demand

integration in different areas such as methods, goals and culture which can both benefit and drawback concerning the communication and collaboration (Duarte & Snyder, 2006).

2.2.1.2 Geographic dispersion

Geographic dispersion is characterized by the lack of physical closeness within the team, who is dispersed in different geographical positions (e.g. Dulebohn & Hoch, 2017; Malhotra et al., 2007; Bell & Kozlowski, 2002). Co-located teams also use virtual and digital tools in their communication, but they are mainly used as an addition to the interactions that occur face-to-face. In geographically dispersed teams it is demanded to have virtual and digital tools to function, they are fully virtual in that matter (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002). The biggest impact this dispersion has on the company is the lack of spontaneous interactions (O'Leary & Cummings, 2007).

2.2.1.3 Temporal dispersion

Compared to most co-located teams, the borders of time and space do not limit the virtual teams to the same extent, the different time zones does not hinder the work in the same way as in non-virtual teams. Though, there lies a great importance in communication and the synchronicity in it to decide the temporal dispersion. Email gives an increased degree of this dispersion compared to live-communications such as video calls or similar (Bell &

Kozlowski, 2002). Temporal dispersion impacts the team negatively in solving problems in real time as the dispersion increases (O'Leary & Cummings, 2007). However, the non synchronous communication, such as emails, lets the virtual teams think about the message received and how to properly answer it (Kirkman & Mathieu 2005).

2.2.1.4 Cultural dispersion

When operating in a virtual team, cultural dispersion can be a dimension to consider mainly when the team is geographically dispersed. Different languages, values and ways of working can affect communication (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002). In order to not let this dimension affect the organization negatively it is crucial for the virtual team-leaders to manage the differences

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culturally and make a path for the team with the same goals and values (Malhotra et al., 2007).

2.2.2 Struggles of virtual teams

Teams are used in most organizations and can be divided in three different categories: the

traditional team where the members meet and work face-to-face, the hybrid team, where the

teams work face-to-face but also virtually, and the pure virtual team, where the team never meets and communication is handled via digital tools (Griffith et al., 2003). In the case of this study the organization mainly worked in traditional teams but has now rapidly become an almost pure virtual team. This is not usual and the existing literature has mostly concerned the upbringing of new virtual teams with members who did not know each other before. In these cases, challenges such as establishing effective communication and trust have been noted (e.g. Dulebohn & Hoch, 2017; Brahm & Kunze, 2012; Zigurs, 2003).

Previous studies regarding virtual teams and how it can be successful has, except trust and communication, focused on the importance of the people involved in the virtual teams, the technology, strong cooperation and the social interaction (Dulebohn & Hoch, 2017;

Anantatmula & Thomas, 2010; Lee-Kelley & Sankey, 2008; Saunders & Ahuja, 2006; Dubé & Paré, 2001; Windsor, 2001). According to Davis (2004), there is also often an overreliance in the technological infrastructure in virtual teams and issues will be harder to distinguish and solve, this due to the fact that the distance enhances the dysfunction and abates the human relationship. Fisher and Fisher (2011) further discussed the key variables that can affect virtual teams, which consists of time, space and culture. When working together as a team at the same location, with similar schedules and a knowledge on how to work together, you will have an advantage over the virtual teams regarding both the informal and formal

communication when cooperating.

For this study, the key struggles or aspects to consider to have a successful virtual team is not completely in line with previous research as mentioned. Many of the previous studies concern the creation of new virtual teams with new members who have not met face-to-face and established trust already. Also, these studies focused a lot on virtual teams due to

internationalization or similar and was not regarding a crisis situation. However, many of the core aspects are still valid and this part of the study will mainly focus on the challenges of communication, relationships and social interaction within virtual teams.

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2.2.2.1 Communication

When communicating via virtual and digital tools, an overreliance can lead to issues and misunderstandings that in turn can affect productivity and communication in a negative way (Daim et al., 2012). When working with non synchronous communication tools it is easy to misinterpret or misunderstand since they are impersonal and the non-verbal indications are lost ( Morgan et al., 2014). Though, teams who know each other have been proven to overcome some of these obstacles even when the communication is lacking. The key here was that there was a shared understanding in the virtual team and the members could more easily anticipate how the other members would react or handle situations ( Marlow et al., 2017). Marlow et al., (2017) further discusses that operating in a virtual team can hinder the real-time communication which can affect the organization negatively and suggests

communication timelines and closed-loop communication to facilitate this challenge. Armstrong and Cole (1995) suggests that the virtual team-members should agree upon how the technology should be used, and that the norms that should be used are specified clearly to avoid issues. Rothbard and Pottruck (2013) also propose some solutions regarding

communication via virtual and digital tools. For example, summarizing key points of

meetings or workshops, letting everyone have their time to speak and contribute, studying the tones, words and emotions can enhance the virtual communication.

2.2.2.2 Relationships

Gibson and Gibbs (2006) mentioned that the level of strength in social relationships is

affected by the mutuality within the team, the level of interaction and how much emotion that is put into those interactions. Depending on the level of strength in the social relationship decides if communication will be adequate or not. If the relationships in the team are

maintained and managed well it will contribute to a tranquility in the team which will affect the organization in a positive way, implying that the relationships in a virtual team is of great importance (Pauleen & Yoong, 2001). As mentioned, previous research has emphasized on trust as a key for a successful virtual team. Thomas and Bostrom (2010) even considers trust to be the base for effective teamwork and states that face-to-face communication is a vital part of trust. In the teams researched in this study, they already know each other and most of their interactions and relationships are built on face-to-face communication, hence trust can then be seen as implemented in these teams and this could be seen as an advantage compared to new virtual teams.

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2.2.2.3 Social interaction

Many virtual teams work in projects which are temporary, the interactions are then mostly concerning the specific operation or project. In these cases, the social interaction is often held to a minimum and there is little social or spontaneous communication which can cause a lack in knowledge-sharing and efficiency (Morgan et al., 2014; Saunders & Ahuja, 2006).

Spontaneous social communication can boost the cooperation within the team and make the team members collaborate better. The lacking social interactions has to be managed properly to not affect the organization negatively and it is important for the team to have functioning virtual communication tools that are useful to social interactions. It has to be easy to have spontaneous interactions via these tools to let the social interactions proceed and to let the team members establish shared views regarding problems and solutions (Daim et al., 2012).

2.3 Reorganization

Changes and reorganizations within businesses are often met by resistance and reluctance by employees as well as by leaders (Trignano, 2010; Carter et al., 2013). A significant change in an organization is stressful and means a transition from stability to the unknown, creating a natural tension between familiar and the new, which is an automatic emotional reaction to change for the humankind ( Trignano, 2010; Vakola, & Nikolaou, 2005) . Technological changes in particular are often met by resistance due to, for example, lack of skills of new technology. When there is a lack of skill it may result in a lack of benefit for the employee which can make it difficult for the individual to see the overall meaning of the transition (Wargin & Dobiéy, 2001) .

2.3.1 Leadership through change

According to Trignano (2010), for leaders to guide employees through a transition and keep everyone focused on achieving the corporation's common goal, the leadership skills and style sometimes needs to be refined or adapted to the situation. Managers’ and leaders' attitude towards a change is an essential aspect as they can either resist or embrace it which may determine the outcome of the transition. As a leader, Trignano (2010) suggests that knowing your team members is a crucial part of leading your employees through a transition and to understand how a change impacts differently on individual employees. Moreover, having good, continuous and open communication throughout a transformation process can help employees feel less fearful towards the change ( Vakola, & Nikolaou, 2005) . Keeping

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employees informed and feeling valued increases a positive climate within the team which creates a stronger company culture within the organization. By knowing what motivates your employees, how they respond to changes and understanding how a particular change affects the individual employee in relation to external factors and personal circumstances, makes it easier for the leader to manage the change. However, first of all the leader needs to be aware of its own way of communicating and be conscious of its own towards the change. As

reluctance is a normal way of reacting to change, the leader may also feel resistant, which has an impact on the employees perception. For the leader to avoid this initial reaction and

implement a successful transition, focusing on the objective of the change, being confident and building a plan for the process is important and will increase the support and positivism of the reorganization throughout the team (Trignano, 2010).

2.3.2 Transformational leadership

Previous research within the field of managing organizational change has established the effectiveness of transformational leadership during reorganizations (Carter et al., 2013). The transformational leadership theory builds on a leadership where changes are visualised and created together with employees through inspirational activities, intellectual stimulation and collective missions. A transformational leadership focuses on the leaders’ behaviour and ability to inspire and motivate employees to achieve greater performance, devotion and remarkable results (Jung et al., 1995). By building relationships, encouraging and coaching employees, recognizing unique abilities and needs of the individuals, transformational

leadership has shown to be one of the most effective leadership styles, especially for a virtual leadership ( Purvanova, 2009) . In this particular study, it is interesting to look at whether the transformational leadership theory can be beneficial for a leader throughout a rapid

unpredicted reorganization as of the investigated kind. The framework for transformational leadership was first developed by Burns (1978). Later Bass and Avolio (1994) developed the framework further and included four key dimensions which all, separately or in combination, contributes to an increased performance in the workplace.

2.3.2.1 Individualized consideration

Individualized consideration means that the leader focuses on the individual employee and

identifies strengths, weaknesses and ambitions. The leader needs to be able to take advantage of and utilize the employees in the best possible way. By acting as a coach and identifying

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individual characteristics between employees, leaders can allocate the work assignments better which opens up possibilities and improves the individual performance. Individual consideration builds on a two-way communication between the leader and the employee where they both express their expectations, aspirations, capabilities and potential problems. (Jung et al., 1995).

2.3.2.2 Intellectual stimulation

Intellectual stimulation refers to when transformational leaders encourage employees themselves to discover, understand and find new solutions to solve problems and challenges that occur in their work. An intellectual stimulation culture motivates employees in

questioning, thinking innovatively and introducing new ideas that leads to improved organizational performance. (Jung et al., 1995).

2.3.2.3 Inspirational motivation

Inspirational motivation is carried out as the leader motivates its team members to perform beyond expectations. The inspirational leader can by optimism and shared visions, make the employees feel safe and thrive with its leader. The leader motivates their team members by challenging and giving meaning to their work as the leader simultaneously demonstrates a high confidence and faith in its employees. Inspirational motivation builds on increasing engagement within the workplace by creating an attractive vision of the future that the employees can strive towards. (Jung et al., 1995).

2.3.2.4 Idealized influence

Idealized influence (charisma) refers to that the leader bases his leadership on values and shared visions, as well as ensures that these are prevailed throughout the work that takes place in the organization. The leader acts and engages as a role model to earn trust and respect of the employees. Through idealized influence the leader aims to support the employees' self-confidence and self-esteem to achieve organizational goals. (Jung et al., 1995).

2.4 Theoretical Framework

Research concerning the rapid redirection from co-located work settings to virtual work settings due to a crisis such as Covid-19 have yet not been investigated thoroughly. This has

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led to a research gap that needs to be explored further and can be considered of high

relevance today. This study has its focus on the change in the leadership, the leaders' relation to the team and the team members' cooperation due to the rapid change to virtual work settings. There is an assumption that a change has occurred in these sections since the work settings are not the same as they were before the crisis, and the aspects of face-to-face and other physical interactions are removed. The literature review of this study has therefore discussed leadership, with focus on virtual leadership, virtual teams and reorganizations since these subjects are important to understand in order to examine the changes that have

occurred.

Leadership can be understood in several ways but for this study, where the focus lies on virtual leadership, the theories used concerns the leaders’ interaction with both the team and the individual team members. Collaboration, communication and trust have in previous research been emphasized as important aspects to consider in order for a virtual leadership to be successful. The LMX theory involves building relation and trust with the team members on an individual level where there are four dimensions to consider to enhance the quality of the relation.

Virtual teams have various levels of virtual dispersion as mentioned previously, the different dispersions and its depth comes with different opportunities and challenges for the

organization and its teams. Previous studies concerning struggles in virtual teams that can be relevant for this study consist of communication, relationships and social interactions. Understanding the aspects of virtual dispersion, together with the previous known struggles for virtual teams, can be useful to comprehend what consequences have evolved from the rapid redirection to virtual settings.

Moreover, previous studies show that changes and reorganizations are often met with a resistance and reluctance among leaders and employees, which has been seen especially in technological changes. The leader will have to meet this resistance and reluctance by adapting to the situation or refine the leadership. A leader under reorganization has to understand how these changes will impact each individual employee, there also lies an importance in maintaining communication regarding what will happen throughout the reorganization. Transformational leadership has proven to be an effective leadership style when going through changes in an organization, and also for virtual work settings which is suitable for this study.

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Theories of effective virtual teams and leadership together with the transformational

leadership style will be used as a framework when analysing the data in order to understand the changes that occurred in the leadership because of the rapid redirection to a virtual work setting. By looking at the aspects that have shown to be effective in previous studies of change and virtual team management, this research can resemble these aspects with the empirical findings in order to draw conclusions and gain further understanding within this area. Furthermore, the different challenges and opportunities of a virtual team, as well as the important aspects of leading a virtual team will be interpreted in order to explain what differs in the organization from before the redirection to virtual work settings. A theoretical model (see figure 2) is presented in line with this;

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3. Methodology

This chapter will explain the methodology of this study, why and how the information was gathered and what research approach and design that has been used. It will also present the choice of case company, selecting cases and the data collection. Furthermore, the

operationalization, quality criteria, and ethics of the research will be discussed followed by the limitations.

3.1 Research Approach

This study is conducted through an inductive approach with a qualitative data collection and an interpretivist philosophy. The core meaning of interpretivism is that there are no universal laws regarding the social worlds of humans because its complexity denies generalizations. With interpretivism there is an understanding of separating the physical phenomena and human beings because the humans create a meaning of their own and the objects cannot (Saunders et al., 2019). In regard to this study, the interpretivist stance concerns recognizing and understanding how the participants have experienced a social phenomena that can be explored and interpreted, but not generalized.

Furthermore, to gain an in-depth understanding of the individual participants’ perception and experiences of the phenomena, a qualitative primary data collection was obtained. The use of qualitative methods was also beneficial to discover processes which can be difficult to

comprehend when only examining the surface in, as for this study, individuals and teams (Bell et al., 2019; Saunders et al., 2019).

3.2 Research Design

In order to explore the phenomenon and topic of this research a case study was conducted. A case study is relevant in this research since the aim is to gain a rich understanding of an enacted process in a certain context. Case studies are applicable as a research strategy where the questions of “why”, “what” and “how” are examined. Through a case study, these questions can generate answers that mostly are used in explanatory and, as of this research, exploratory studies. (Saunders et al., 2019).

In this research, a single case study approach with an embedded case will be carried out focusing on one single organization. Within the organization, three different sub-units will be

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analyzed where interviews will be held with one leader from each team as well as separate interviews with three different employees of each team. According to Saunders et al. (2019), it is important to define the investigated phenomenon to distinguish the context of the studied case. For this research, the boundaries constitute three different teams within the same

organization that, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, have reorganized into a virtual work setting which implies that their usual way of working and interacting with each other has changed. This particular change forms the context of the authors’ investigation.

Since the purpose of this study is to gain insights and understandings about the research topic regarding how leaders and employees have experienced and perceived the investigated phenomenon, the nature of this study is of exploratory kind. An exploratory research has the advantage of being flexible and adaptive to change, which is suitable for this research since the aim is to discover the investigated field with a broad focus that towards the end of the process, becomes narrower. Exploratory studies often include in-depth individual interviews, focus groups and interviews with “experts” in the subject together with search of the existing literature. In this research, semi-structured interviews will be conducted together with a literature search. (Saunders et al., 2019).

Another aspect to consider is transferability which is connected to how well the research can be adapted to other research areas (Bell et al., 2019). Lincoln and Guba (1985) discusses that in order for others to assess and interpret if the research design can be used for other research settings, is reliant on an established detailed and complete evidence of the whole research process. The transferability of this study can be seen as valid world-wide since the current situation is global, but it might not be suitable for all industries and can be weaker in that aspect.

3.3 Choice of Case Company

The case study is conducted on the Swedish accounting firm, ICA Affärssevice, which provides financial and payroll services for grocery retailers. The organization has an office located in Västerås with approximately 300 employees that, prior to Covid-19, worked in an office landscape on site. As of April 2020, 75% of the employees drastically were forced to work from home to the furthest possible extent (Team leader 1 & 2, 2020). Since then, all of the departments that have been able to carry out their work from home have been obligated to do so and all meetings have been conducted virtually. ICA Affärsservice is a part of the

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organization ICA gruppen AB which core operation revolves around grocery retailing. The company was originally founded in 1938 and today it consists of 23 000 employees and is the second largest retail company in the Nordics (ICA Gruppen AB: Annual report, 2019).

3.4 Selecting Case

When selecting a case to study it is important that it brings meaning and justification for the objectives and purpose of the research. Due to the large number of managers and employees that the research question of this study applies to, it would be impracticable for the authors to collect data from the entire population. Thus, a sample needed to be selected. When selecting a sample to study, there are two main sampling techniques that can be used, probability sampling and non-probability sampling. The sample in this study was selected by a

non-probability sampling since the research area requires the collection of in-dept, rich and informative data in order to create an understanding of the investigated field. As a part of the non-probability sampling technique, a purposive sampling was used. A purposive sample means that the sample was selected based on the authors judgement that the particular sample can bring valuable insights that can help answer the research question and meet the objectives of the study. This technique is often used when a study is conducted on a smaller sample where the purpose is to select particular information-rich cases. (Saunders et al., 2019). The organization ICA Affärsservice was selected both due to its characteristic fit to the purpose of this study, but also because of the easy accessible contact and connection the authors had with the organization because of the fact that they all work there. The size and structure of ICA Affärsservice made the organization appropriate to analyze for this research, as the organization recently had gone through the particular process of change into a virtual work setting that this study wants to explore. The case study was conducted on three different unit groups within the organization that each was led by separate team leaders. The three different leaders were interviewed as well as three employees within each team in order to gain an understanding from both the leaders’ and the employees’ perspectives. The selection of sample and size was based on the logical relationship between the focus of this research and what data being useful in regard to that (Saunders et al., 2019). Thus, twelve interviews consisting of three leaders and nine employees was estimated as an appropriate sample size that would bring value to this research. This number was chosen in order to have as rich interviews as possible in regard to this study’s available resources and limitations. Twelve

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interviews is recommended for studies which aim is to understand commonalities within a homogenous group (Saunders et al., 2019).

The requirements for the interviewed participants was that they had been working at ICA Affärsservice prior to the reorganization into a virtual work setting and that they, at the time of the research, were working fully or mainly virtually from home. In table 1 below, specific details about the interviews are outlined that are taken into consideration in this study.

Table 1: Case study respondents. Created by the authors, 2020.

3.5 Operationalization

Before the formatting of the interview composition and questions, a proper literature review was made in order to investigate which areas needed further exploration. This enabled the authors to match the interview questions to the aspired outcome. In order to further connect the questions to the authors’ theoretical model, the concepts needed to be operationalized to ensure that relevant questions were asked. Since the empirical research was conducted by

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interviewing both leaders and employees, two different sets of questions were formed, see

appendix 1 and 2. In table 2 below, the rationalization and purpose of each question is

presented as well as how it is connected to the theoretical model. As the theoretical model builds on analyzing leadership from different angles, the same questions are sometimes being analyzed, but rationalized from different perspectives .

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3.6 Data Collection

The collected data began with a research of the topic which then led to a decision upon what subject to investigate in order to gain further understanding of the area. Subsequently, a research gap was found concerning the interest in studying how the leadership and teams have been affected due to the rapid redirection to virtual work settings because of Covid-19. When conducting a study, there are different types of data that can be used (Saunders et al. 2019). In this study primary data and secondary data were used in order to gather information to answer the research question.

3.6.1 Primary Data

The primary data was collected by conducting twelve semi-structured interviews. These types of interviews are usually carried out face-to-face where the interviewer leads the interviewee with predetermined themes and key questions (Saunders et al., 2019). However, due to the ongoing pandemic the authors chose to have the interviews online using the digital

communication tool Microsoft Teams to keep a social distance and then limit the spread of the virus Covid-19. Microsoft Teams is a tool the case company already uses in their daily operations and therefore the participants are familiar with it, hence any problems or questions regarding the digital tool could be minimized (Saunders et al., 2019). Since the interviews were held digitally, the authors asked all of the involved to have their camera and speaker on. The reasoning for this was to make it resemble a face-to-face interview as much as possible so that other aspects such as the interviewees body language can be taken into consideration. There is a risk of having an interview digitally since trust issues can occur, hence if the interview fails to establish trust to the participant the data collection and the research can risk a decrease in the reliability (Saunders et al., 2019). Although, Denscombe (2017) argues that having an interview through a digital tool with cameras on can be comparable with a

traditionally face-to-face interview since the only difference is the distance.

In preparation for the interview and to ensure confirmability, the authors had developed knowledge of the research topic and the organization so that they entered the interview with credibility and suitable competences in order to gain confidence from the interviewee (Saunders et al., 2019). The key questions and themes were developed before the interview and sent out to the respondents seven days prior to the meeting to further enhance the credibility and to give the interviewees the opportunity to prepare for the interview (Bell et

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al., 2019; Saunders et al., 2019; Guba & Lincoln, 1994). However, as this research follows an interpretivist approach, the predetermined questions and themes were asked during the

interview in relation to what the interviewee responded, in other words the questions and themes were not strictly fixed in what order to ask. Additionally, a semi-structured interview allows the interviewers to follow up with sub questions so that the interviewee can elaborate their answers and further express their own understandings of the subject (Bell et al., 2019; Saunders et al., 2019).

The interviews were held in Swedish since this is every respondents native language thus providing them with the opportunity to fully express themselves without having to think about translating their thoughts and speaking another language they might be uncomfortable with. With the permission from each interviewee, the interview was audio-recorded and then transcribed. In addition, notes were taken during the interview since they can work as a back-up if the audio-recording does not work (Saunders et al., 2019). Beyond this, the authors had to plan the interviews in a suiting way regarding the fact that they all work in the

organization. None of the authors were an interview respondent for this study. Since the authors do not all work in the same department, the authors did not interview their own team members or leaders. The team members interviewed in this study were not selected by the leaders or authors, the question of involvement in the thesis were asked to the team as a whole and the respondents who had the time and interest were then involved in the research. In order to maintain credibility of the findings, this study was made accordingly with the doctrine of good practices to make sure that the researchers had fully grasped the social world. The respondent validation is a crucial perspective of credibility in this kind of research and in order to consider this, the findings were shared with the respondents who confirmed that they had the same understanding as the authors. (Bell et al., 2019).

3.6.2 Secondary sources

The secondary sources were gathered in order to enhance the quality of this study and to build a basis for the theoretical framework. Various sources were used in the process of finding relevant information in order to gain a broader view and to increase the reliability of the collected data. Scientific articles were mainly found through databases such as

ABI/INFORM Global, Emerald insights, the discovery service for Mälardalen University, and Google Scholar. Other sources used to conduct this study were books and Internet

Becoming a Virtual Team under Rapid Conditions: Leadership and Collaboration through change : An exploratory case study of the change to virtual work settings as a consequence of Covid-19