This activity is important because managers should be aware of different ways that they can improve their leadership skills. This can include both task$-$oriented and relationship$-$oriented supports. Given an increase in employees who work remotely and with flexible hours, new skills may be needed.

The goal of this activity is to increase your knowledge of leadership behaviors that are successful in motivating employees and increasing their satisfaction.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

Remote work has increased dramatically, especially for employees with college degrees and who consider themselves individual contributors, such as those who tend to work alone on projects and tasks. This means that managers will be challenged to maintain relationships with employees and to effectively monitor their performance.

Connections to coworkers decrease with remote work. Pew Research Center reports that $65$ percent of those who are working remotely for the first time feel less connected to those at work.

Companies experiencing the remote work trend have found that apps can keep managers connected to their employees. A sea of competitors wants to provide team management apps, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Chatter, Workplace by Facebook, and Cisco Jabber. These tools offer the ability to host interest groups, focused topic discussion rooms, and, of course, manage teams. Collaborative work includes screen$-$sharing capabilities with one or more members. Scheduling, assigning tasks, and meetings are all possible, and the manager can see the degree of member participation and ongoing work. Other apps allow creation of a wiki that answers common questions and is added to on an ongoing basis. A visual workflow can be created that shows each team member$$s role and deliverable on the way to project completion.

Some apps uniquely focus on aspects of leadership that go beyond monitoring tasks and work$-$related progress. For example, Hazel and Humu monitor employee satisfaction with mini$-$surveys asking questions like, $$How was your week?$$ or $$How is your work progressing?$$ Feedback is sent to managers, who receive automated suggestions and assigned tasks for follow$-$ups with employees, referred to as "nudges." This type of reminder promotes ongoing feedback versus a performance review that may only come every six months to a year. Managers can give kudos $($great job!$),$ as well as counsel employees with problems.

It is important in many workplaces that some employee surveys are anonymous, as can be done by Glint and Culture Amp. Since it is the app that creates and gathers the responses, employees may trust giving honest feedback. The Wall Street Journal reported one successful case in which the frequent surveys, called $$pulse surveys,$$ showed that the morning kitchen staff of a restaurant were unhappy because they came into the restaurant well before the rest of the employees. Survey results showed that they felt isolated, which may not have been detected for months with a regular performance review or yearly surveys.

An expansion on these apps is Waggl, in which employees can see issues that their peers bring up for management consideration. They can vote on which problems should be addressed first. Glassdoor is one company that uses this type of app to gather questions for the CEO. Every two weeks, he meets with employees to address them.

The new apps available for leaders are varied$$hundreds exist$$but the primary goals break down into three types: motivating team members, organizing work, and gathering feedback.

Apps can help facilitate one$-$on$-$one communication between a manager and each employee, developing a higher$-$quality relationship that increases performance according to what theory?