Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

7-2022

ORCID

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-0426-4188

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Linda Wilson-Jones

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Simone Elias

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Billie McConnell

Abstract

This dissertation explored for-profit business leaders’ experiences with technology and conflict resolution. With the rise of technology in communications in the workplace and the risk of miscommunications leading to negative impacts on organizational and individual performance, understanding leader experiences is vital to organizational success. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand for-profit business leaders’ (1) perceptions of technology and conflict resolution in the virtual workplace and (2) perceptions of their leadership styles and the impact on conflict resolution in the virtual workplace. Prior literature regarding the impact of technology on communications revealed mixed results with some studies indicating that higher levels of social cues improved communications and other studies suggesting that higher levels of social cues were detrimental. A qualitative research study was performed by conducting one-on-one semistructured interviews with 10 for-profit business leaders who were identified using a purposeful selection process. Interviews were transcribed and a values coding process was used to look for themes across the interviews. The research revealed leader preferences to use on-camera technology tools to communicate with employees when resolving conflict in order to obtain verbal and nonverbal inputs. Additionally, the leaders self-identified as using a collaborative leadership style and actively listening to engage their employees and create a safe and open environment for conflict resolution.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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