The impact of virtual environment on fostering individual’s creativity by transformational leaders

Abstract

The precise use of several transformational leadership techniques greatly develops individual creativity and assists individuals in working in a creative and forward-thinking manner. The rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the trend to home office working patterns, appears to make the transmission of creativity more challenging. It is therefore critical to comprehend how the interaction between leaders and employees relates to the transition to the virtual environment. The goal of this dissertation is to answer if the virtual environment impacts transformational leaders in fostering the creativity of individuals. This leads to the research question:"Does the virtual environment influence transformational leaders in fostering individual creativity? "In order to answer the research question, a mixed method approach was conducted, which includes a qualitative and a quantitative research approach. More specifically, the qualitative research method comprised 10 expert interviews with transformational leaders from various internationally renowned companies. The quantitative research, which was conducted with the help of a survey, focused on the answers of 453 employees (N=453), which measuredthe level of creativity of the employees through the influence of transformational leaders and the virtual environment. Recommendations generated from the expert interviews were integrated into the questionnaire to determine whether they are also effective from the employees' point of view. The expert interviews and the survey findings clearly illustrate that a virtual environment has an influence on transformational leaders in terms of fostering individual creativity. The effect might be either positive or negative. The virtual environment challenges may be overcome or even improved with the correct technology, methodologies, and tools.

Date of Award	7 Nov 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Leonor Almeida (Supervisor)