Contemporary Leadership Issue:
Remote Workers

Abstract
“The Integral or “all-quadrant” (AQ) approach provides a method to define a problem space which is at once elegant, infinitely adaptable, and panoramic”. This Integral Theory, created by Ken Wilber (2005), is independently powerful and useful as a means to explore and describe the human territory of experience ”(Susanne R. Cook-Greuter, Fall 2005, Vol 1, No.3, pg 2). While the C.Graves Theory concluded after research that there are eight levels of existence (value systems or Memes) which are: 1) Survival; 2) Security; 3) Energy & Power; 4) Order, 5) Success; 6) Community, 7) Synergy and 8) Holistic life system. Each value system includes and transcends from previous ones, thus forming a natural hierarchy (or holarchy) (Marcel van Marrewijk & Marco Werre, September 2002).

Utilizing the concepts related to the integral theory, we analyzed the emerging concept of remote workers. Through our analysis, we identified the key perspectives of co-workers, leaders, and customers. These perspectives allowed our team to full explore the concept and dive deeper into how the key stakeholders view and interact with remote workers.

Integral Theory (AQAL)

Upper Left Quadrant: Intentions and Consciousness
At a very high level, the intention for both remote and in office worker is to work together to meet a mutual goal. That sounds good, but can get difficult quickly if not applied appropriately.

From the peers’ perspective of remote workers, work from home workers intentions are to have a flexible work schedule in an environment with fewer interruptions than being in the office. They save money on not commuting, parking, and save time. It allows people with families especially to have more time to be with them and participate in family events they normally may not have been able to due to the time it takes to commute. While there are perks, it can also lead to a feeling of being left out and a lack of bonding or connection with your team.

In office workers intentions are to keep remote workers included in projects and team statuses, but it’s very easy to forget about remote workers who aren’t seen in the office. It’s not intentional to leave the remote workers out of things, it’s just overlooked a lot of times. It’s very easy for in office workers to assume the remote workers are slacking off and build resentment towards them for the impression that you are unfairly carrying more of the workload. Though being in the office doesn’t mean that you are being productive all 40 hours every week either.

From a leader’s perspective of managing remote workers they want to establish a very clear and open communication so they can accomplish the organization’s goal that feeds back into the main goal of the company. It’s very easy to feel unorganized in regards to the tasks the remote workers are responsible for or to forget what you wanted to discuss with them when you get them on the phone. Unlike in office employees that you can swing by their desk to ask what you originally meant to, it can lead to a game of phone tag as the manager and employee try to get in touch with each other outside of a scheduled time.

As actual interaction time can be limited with remote workers, it makes it more critical that the manager uses a feedback mechanism in conversation to determine if the objective and their expectations of the remote workers are met and that their needs are also being met. It’s important for the manager to be aware of information the remote worker may need and making sure they communicate it not only to their in office workers.

In the mind of a remote customer, the intentions can be perceived as a flexible company that is mindful of a work life balance. While it may seem more convenient, it can also be burdensome to customers who prefer to meet in person.

Lower Left: Culture & Relationship
With the emergence of remote workers around the globe, both the employees and their companies need to be conscious of how their status effects interactions with other cultures.

From leader’s perspective, having a remote worker can make staying up-to-date on tasks difficult as they may be in a different time zone. This could lead to not being able to touch base over the phone and rely heavily on email correspondence. Also with having a remote worker, a leader would not be able to walk by their employee’s desk to get an update on a project or just to see how they are doing.

If the leader’s remote worker is in another country, the leader may not be aware of the worker’s culture. If a country’s culture tends be more relaxed or seeking constant feedback, the leader may not know this as they have not developed the same relationship as their in-office workers.

From the perspective of their co-workers, remote workers seem to be on the outsides of the main work group and environment. While working from their homes or a remote location, the workers may not get access to the same opportunities as their in-office colleagues. The remote workers lack complete visibility to the events of the office and this can translate to their inability to create stronger relationships with their co-workers. Another issue is that because the remote workers are not seen working from “9-to-5”, they could be perceived as lazy when in fact they may end up working more hours than their in-office counterparts.

In the perspective of a customer, dealing with a remote worker may be seen as a hindrance if they are not as responsive as the in-office employees. Customers tend to want a quick turnaround time on their requests and if a remote worker tends to take longer to respond, this would be seen as unacceptable by the customer. Also, if something very important comes up in ad-hoc meeting in the office and the information is not passed to the remote worker, this could be an issue as the customer is not provided with the most-to-update information that they could have received.

Upper Right: Behaviors / Lower Right: Systems
In considering the Upper-Right quadrant (the behavior and applied skills/competencies of individuals seen) and the Lower-Right quadrants (the environment, organizational infrastructure, processes, and systems seen) per the Integral Theory (Ken Wilbur, 2005) for remote workers, there are several factors and key areas that come into play for the stakeholders such as the leader/manager, co-worker and/or customers who interact with them.

As previously introduced by the Upper-Left quadrant (intentions and consciousness) and the Lower-left quadrant (culture and relationships) more and more companies are setting up the necessary network infrastructure to enable remote working as part of their environment. In addendum, as mentioned before remote working represented work flexibility to the employees globally and locally alike. (Microsoft Guardian Professional ; Kristen Sudin ).

Three key aspects that come to mind with regards to remote workers are 1) Connection, 2) Alignment, and 3) Accountability. These deal specifically with how to keep the remote workers engaged and motivated with all that is going in the office concerning the organization. It also deals with performance metrics. In regards to accountability one requires to keep tabs on the remote workers accomplishments and put extra work into developing strong team dynamics (HBR , April 4, 2013). Giving one constant feedback and improving communications is the key to high performance virtual teams (Keith Ferrazi , 2012).

Other items noted are that one needs to set blame aside and focus on fixing the problem when a remote worker brings bad news. By doing this it enforces open communication and is positive and forward moving keeping the incoming information flow protected. (Lynn Adler , 2012). There needs to be a level of trust established with remote workers as we tend to trust what we can see (Lakshmi Natarajan , 2013).

Communication is a piece of this connection and the communication style and method changes when dealing with remote workers. Meeting face-to-face only happens on occasion via video conferencing or when the remote worker can appear in the office. Questions need to be re-phrased differently during connection time with remote workers to extract the same information as one that has a face-to-face conversation. In the face-to-face conversation one can see the non-verbal body language. For example in the office one can ask the question “How are things” and sense and see the non-verbal body language detecting some of the non-verbal issues. While with remote workers the method of communication will need to be more pro-active using facilitative type questioning such like “Hey, what’s getting in your way? What roadblocks are you facing right now? What’s stopping you? What’s holding you back? What’s frustrating you?” (Lynn Adler , 2012). This behavior (Upper-Right Quadrant) of communication needs to be intentional from leaders, co-workers and customers alike whether dealing with remote workers in the same time-zone or different than theirs.

A benefit to video conferencing is to save the company money while previously traveling was required for important meeting. Because of this new trend of remote working traveling won’t be required and everything can be conducted by means of the new IT infrastructure setup by the company to allow remote workers to work efficiently with those who are in the office.
More communication effort is required with remote workers than with local office workers due to the fact that if any information got missed during a meeting, the person can usually do a drive-by the desk of the person to give or get the needed information as required as well as keep the person engaged and motivated.

From the interviews conducted the following was noted during interviews with leaders dealing with remote workers. As those that were interviewed dealt specifically with remote workers that are in different locations a lot of communication has to take place via the phones or e-mails. They cannot do a drive by the desk as those that are co-located in the same location. Those that are in office tend to receive firsthand information and details with respect to decisions made concerning projects and all this type of information needs to be communicated back to the remote workers to keep them in-sync and engaged (see Appendix C for details of interviews).

One can find a remote worker getting disengaged and unmotivated if there is not a constant open communication and honest feedback with and from them. Keep in touch regularly, reward diligence, model enviable behaviors, and loosen the leash a little—but not too much! Remote employees are still employees and should be held to the same standards as everyone in the office (David Mielach , 2012). Cultivate inclusion to keep morale high. In addendum, those that tend to work remotely tend to be more independent individuals and don’t require direct leadership guidance.

In researching and reading different articles concerning remote workers to address the connection, alignment, accountability, and other areas the following has been suggested with regards to preparation for meetings. Each meeting needs to address these four points for it to be efficient when conducting meeting with remote workers:
1. What is the topic we’re going to be discussing?
2. Why is this topic on the agenda?
3. What do we hope to accomplish?
4. What should the people on the call do to prepare?

As to what structural, organizational or system level dynamics are involved for a company to have this option of remote working there is a need to set a reliable IT infrastructure that is secure where the remote worker can do their work anywhere besides in the office. There is a need to access documents and types of company information securely while working remotely using access like VPN. There is also remote connectivity, citrix connections, virtual desktop connections, email, Microsoft Lync messenger, audio conferencing, and web cameras. With support from human resources, managers at all levels must make the 'mental shift' to trusting that employees are getting the job done without seeing them every day — and to have the strength to act decisively when they're not. On the technology side, the right hardware and software choices backed up by abundant support staff can make the difference between a seamless transition and hundreds or thousands of man-hours lost to bugs and faulty connections.

MEMES:
With remote working becoming a growing trend these days, certain norms get established for communication, performance measurements, and being intentional in keeping remote workers in the loop. From the concept of remote working being an unthinkable concept just a few years ago to major companies having half of their workforce remote is a trend that’s been passed amongst competitors.

The money saved on not having to have as much physical office space, being able to pick the best candidates (no matter where they are located in the world) has made the concept of remote workers appealing to many companies. Another MEME that’s been growing is hiring cheaper labor in other countries to do analytical or computing work (no longer just cheaper manufacturing).

Companies are also starting to source their non-key processes to companies that specialize in them. Whether it is a company to handle logistics of a warehouse or a banking company to handle a credits and collections, companies are seeking to streamline their business practices. Companies that seem to engage in this practice are able to free up resources and capital to invest in their next product line or enhance their current infrastructure.

A norm within some organizations could be that when working remotely you need to be shown as online on your Instant Messaging (IM) tool and be ready to respond no more than 15 min. when inquiry comes in.

Areas of learning/Debrief
Review the list you have made for each of the four quadrants (quadrivium). Are there any gaps?
Gaps we see with regards to remote workers is that training may not have been established for those dealing with remote workers especially on how to enable constant communication/feedback and recognition of their work and performance. What was your overall impression of a quadrivial analysis?
That a lot of more effort required by everyone to stay in sync.

Was it challenging? If so, in what manner?
Challenges occur such as for those leaders I have interviewed that dealt with a different culture on top of remote working.

Was it more difficult to investigate through one quadrant as compared to another? How so? Why do you think that was the case?
Looking from the different lenses some information shows to be more obvious, for example one’s consciousness towards remote workers. While intentions may not be as apparent since one doesn’t have the face-to-face interface.

Were you able to explore to an equal depth through each lense?
We believe so.

Were there any patterns?
Patterns in regards to how to bring about the organizational culture in the office to those that are working remotely, feelings of being left out, and miscommunications or lack of communication with remote workers.

Did you gain greater insight?
We gained greater insight to what is needed to make dealing with remote workers more efficient. For example being intentional in keeping them in the loop of all communications, having an open communication channel, be clear about expectations with regards to performance, and remember to empathize, recognize and reward remote workers.

It was interesting learning about this contemporary issue of allowing workers to work remotely in that a whole infrastructure and systems have to be put in place in order for this to work in addendum to the effort of keeping communication going.

Recommendations/Future Actions
The research and analysis of this topic reveals that there is a lot more areas that need to be explored concerning remote workers. Such as the reliability access of the technology during winter storms when everyone opts to work from home. The burnout factors for those working remotely that have a hard time doing a work-life balance and possibly many more. We have only explored portions of this issue.

Conclusion
This has made us more conscientious and aware of items we need to be very intentional when dealing with remote workers to keeping them engaged and motivated and how to go by establishing norms on how to make this work more efficiently. Plus utilizing facilitative questioning as explored and learned in class with remote workers. Works Cited

By Susanne R. Cook-Greuter, (AQAL, Fall 2005, Vol 1. No. 3), “AQ as a Scanning and Mapping Device”

By Marcel van Marrewijk & Marco Werre, (September 2002), “Multiple Levels of Corporate Sustainability”

By Ken Wilbur, (2005), “Introduction to Integral Theory and Practice”

Microsoft Guardian Professional, ”How technology is enabling remote working”,
n.d. Web 21 Nov. 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/partner-zone-microsoft/technology-enabling-remote-working) By Kirsten Sundin, American Express Graduate Research Assistant for CAHRS, n.d. web 21 Nov. 2013. “VIRTUAL TEAMS: WORK/LIFE CHALLENGES - KEEPING REMOTE EMPLOYEES ENGAGED” http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/research/whitepapers/upload/Spring10Mtng_RemoteWorkersEngaged.pdf By Lyn Adler in Blog, Leadership Skills, ““Tips for Managing Remote Employees”(Posted on December 19, 2012 “ n.d. web 21 Nov. 2013. https://www.leadershipiq.com/tips-for-managing-remote-employees/)

By Harvard Business Review April 04, 2013, ““Evaluate Remote Workers Fairly” n.d. web 21 nov, 2013. http://business.time.com/2013/04/04/evaluate-remote-workers-fairly/)

Cisco. (2007). “Understanding and Managing the Mobile Workforce”.

By Lakshmi Ramarajan “Marissa Mayer Should Bridge Distance Gap with Remote Workers”, (11 Mar 2013) n.d. web 21 Nov. 2013, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7096.html)

By Keith Ferrazzi | 11:02 AM December 20, 2012 – “Evaluating the Employees You Can't See”, n.d. 21 Nov 2013, http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/12/evaluating-the-employees-you-c/)

By David Mielach, BusinessNewsDaily staff writer Published May 30, 2012 FOXBusiness; n.d. 21 Nov 2013, “Are Offices Headed for Extinction? “ http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/legal-hr/2012/05/30/are-offices-headed-for-extinction/

By Chad Halvorson, Posted on May 7th, 2013, “Managing Remote Worker Morale”
http://wheniwork.com/managing-remote-worker-morale/)