International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

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Usage Trend and Patterns of Google Meet as an e-Leadership Tool: An Evidence from Malaysian Public Organisations

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Video conference technology (VCT) is a multimedia application that enables sound and image transmission, as well as real-time, duplex, and data communication. It facilitates communication between people in different places by using a camera, microphone, and monitor. In Malaysia, the use of this technology is rather recent and the spike usages of it were seen during the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020. Organisations were fast to adopted VCT in order to facilitate the organizational communications as employees were away from the office. In Malaysian public organisations, the Government have introduced the use of Google Meet as their main VCT tool. However, not all employees in the organisations were ready to adopt the technology and even some are still refusing it. Driven by the noted disparities in preparedness to embrace this technology, the study attempts to identify the variables impacting Google Meet's usage for leadership communication through an examination of usage patterns and demographic traits. Overall, the paper examines the demographic characteristics of 353 survey participants, their responses regarding Google Meet usage trends in a leadership communication context, and substantiates the widespread utilization of Google Meet for official purposes by managers in Malaysia through the presentation of data using charts and tables. The study also explores the subtle aspects of usage, including trends, frequency, and types of activities that supervisors, subordinates, and coworkers engage in on Google Meet. It is interesting to note that managers in Malaysian public organisations prefer to utilise Google Meet as an e-leadership tool, and they have expressed interest in using it going forward. The study's conclusions offer compelling new perspectives on how things work of this communication channel. Moreover, understanding the preferences of managers on e-leadership tools able to help to the development of policies that align with organizational goals. For this, the findings of this study can be used for policy makers in strategic decision-making within organizations, helping leaders tailor their approaches to technological integration.
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