case study of situational leadership

10 Situational Leadership Examples

Dave Cornell (PhD)

Dr. Cornell has worked in education for more than 20 years. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. He has trained kindergarten teachers in 8 countries and helped businessmen and women open baby centers and kindergartens in 3 countries.

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Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

The situational leadership style involves changing one’s leadership style to match the needs of the circumstances and the profiles of the team. It’s all about flexibility.

As circumstances change and the people on a team can be completely different, using one style of leadership is going to be ineffective, maybe even disastrous. Therefore, it is best to be flexible and modify one’s leadership style to match the project and people.

For example, projects can start out as complex and the team unconfident. So, a leader needs to be directive and a skilled motivator and trainer. However, as the project progresses and the team becomes more familiar with the tasks, the leader needs to change and become more hands-off.

Definition of Situational Leadership

According to Hersey and Blanchard (1969), there are four approaches that leaders should adopt based on the characteristics of the team and situational factors .

Each of the following examples can be used by a person with a situational leadership style:

• Telling Style: If the task is simple and routine, then the leader should implement a telling style of leadership. This means they provide a lot of direction and oversight. 
• Coaching Style : The coaching style should be used when the team lacks skills and is motivated, so they need training most of all.
• Participating Style: The participating style is useful when the team is experienced and knows what they are doing, but perhaps they need some confidence building.
• Delegating Style: A delegating style is best suited for a team that is self-motivated and highly skilled. They need very little direction or inspiration.  

Situational Leadership Examples

1. political campaigning.

Being able to adapt one’s leadership style is like being a bit of a chameleon . Every situation is different, so it is necessary to change one’s colors to match the environment.

In the arena of political campaigns, this usually means modifying political statements to match the voters being spoken to in that moment.

Working with the campaign staff brings another set of challenges. Those that work the phones need a direct, telling style of leadership. Those in charge of soliciting donations from the public may work more efficiently with a delegating approach. The personnel in charge of polling and public affairs may need to be watched more carefully, so implementing a participating style would be wise.

With so many demands needed to be juggled simultaneously, it is no wonder that campaigning is an exhaustive venture that only a few survive.  

2. Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt was the women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee for 38 years. 

During that time, she led her teams to 8 NCAA national championships and coached the US Olympic team in 1984, winning the gold medal.

Although she was known for her tough exterior and a cold stare that would send shivers down anyone’s spine, being able to motivate 10 athletes is no easy feat.

Each player is different and will respond to different approaches. Pat Summitt had a unique ability to modify her approach just enough so that it would produce impressive results. 

In addition, a career spanning nearly 40 years means enduring many changes: changes in the game, the rules, player characteristics, the fanbase, and of course, university Athletic Directors and Presidents. 

Being able to survive and excel during all of those changes required a style that was able to analyze and adjust on a continuous basis.

3. President of the University Alumni Foundation   

The president of a university’s Alumni Foundation plays a multifaceted and hugely important role at any school.

The president needs to form relationships with all alumni, engage in key fundraising efforts, and solicit funding from community leaders and government agencies.

Then there’s also the university president and the Advancement Office. The personality profile of each and every individual that make up those separate groups can be vastly different.

Not only do they have distinct personality characteristics, but each group will also have a different set of priorities and agendas. 

Balancing all of those demands requires someone that is an expert in applying a situational leadership style. The university president will respond to a participating style, while the Advancement Office may prefer a hands-off, delegating approach.

Community leaders and government agencies may be completely satisfied with just being told how the money will be spent, a telling style of leadership.

4. Colin Powell

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Colin Powell was a U.S. general in the military and a political statesman.

He served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, being the first African American to hold either position. His career was long and varied. He was known for his calm demeanor and moderate views, even when encircled by hard-liners and volatile personalities. 

During his service he worked with a wide range of individuals, from soldiers, to commanders, to diplomats and the leaders of nations from all over the world. In his own words he characterizes his leadership as: “I am a situational leader, and I adjust my style, within limits, to the strengths and weaknesses of my subordinates.”

5. Primary School Principal  

Managing a primary school can be both a joy and a pressure-packed occupation. 

Teachers of first grade are quite different from those teaching six-graders. Similarly, biology teachers have completely different personalities from art and music teachers.

Balancing government requirements and educational standards, with the wants and needs of a large teaching staff is a continuous balancing act. Throw in the concerns of protective and demanding parents, and it is now wonder that principals need good medical insurance.

It is a job where the circumstances and people that must be dealt with can change on an hourly basis.

Some teachers may work best when the principal is a servant leader , while other teachers may actually prefer a more direct, telling autocratic leadership style . At the same time, most parents want to feel included, so the principal should exercise his participating style of leadership when meeting with them.

6. Phil Jackson, NBA Coach

Phil Jackson will go down in history as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time and a truly transformational leader . He won a total of 11 national championships with two different teams.

During his many years, he coached some of the greatest basketball players in history: Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal. 

Each of those greats were about as different as you could possibly imagine. Their personalities, temperaments , and style of play were all distinct.

Yet, he managed to motivate each one. He turned each player into the best possible version of themselves by utilizing his unique ability to understand each one as an individual. 

For one player, he utilized a telling style, while for another that he trusted thoroughly, he delegated. At the same time, maybe even in the same huddle, he would adopt a participatory leadership style and seek the input of his most experienced player.

7. Producing a Video Game

The video game industry is vast and involves huge profits for companies that can produce a great game that really strikes a chord with players.

Today’s games can be incredibly realistic and be played simultaneously by different people from around the world.

Producing a successful video game is not a matter of luck. It requires multiple teams of individuals with a wide range of skillsets.

Programmers, storyline creators, graphic designers and tech specialists are all very different types of people. Some will need to be dealt with in a coaching style, while others may need more of a delegating approach. 

Customizing one’s approach to match the personalities and abilities of various members of the team takes a unique individual. The project manager will have to switch from a coaching style to a participating style, and then later to a delegating style as the project progresses.  

8. Professional Development

Professional development helps employees build or refine job-specific skills that are relevant to their career or a particular project.

For example, if the situational leader has determined that his team is highly motivated, but lack the necessary skills to get the job done, they may see to it that the team receives the necessary training (e.g., a coaching style of leadership).

The training could be in the area of technology, communication skills, project management, creativity and innovative thinking, or how to utilize certain software programs. 

By participating in the training program, the staff will be better able to carry-out the project successfully. The key idea is that it takes a situational leadership mindset to recognize the needs of the project and characteristics of the team to know what is require to complete a successful project.

9. Hospitality Management

Managing a five-star hotel seems like it would be one of the most wonderful jobs in the world.

The working environment is luxurious, the locations are exotic, the guests sophisticated, and the lunch breaks delicious. 

But if we take a step back, we see an ecosystem that is quite complex. Head chefs are known to be demanding and meticulous, while the wait staff are people-oriented and accommodating.

The accountant that does the books is quiet and hard to read, while the band that plays nightly is a group of extroverted partiers prone to getting into trouble. 

The people that work the reception all want your job, and another term for “sophisticated guests” is “unreasonably picky”. Since the hotel is in an exotic location, it means adjusting to a culture that may take years to understand.

Adjusting one’s leadership style is sometimes like playing a never-ending game of management Tetris.

10. Jack Stahl, CEO of Coca-Cola and Revlon   

Jack Stahl has been CEO of the world’s most respected multinational corporations, at Coca-Cola (1978–2000) and Revlon (2002–2006). Those are two completely different companies with vastly different customer bases and product lines.

As he explains in this interview with Strategy+Business , he has a very clear appreciation of situational leadership, stating that “… management is not a popularity contest…As a leader, once you see that people are doing that (focusing on details) successfully, then you pull back and worry about things from a more strategic perspective. ” 

Stahl is a firm believer in situational leadership. He goes on to state that in his opinion, a solid leader needs to be “… able to step into any circumstance and recognize whether they need to engage at the strategy level or dive into the nitty-gritty ”.

Any great leader understands that most projects are complex and fluid. Circumstances change and the individuals on the team all have unique personalities and skillsets.

That is why Hersey and Blachard (1969) developed the situational leadership model, a leadership concept which postulates that there is no single best leadership style example . A good leader should adapt their style to the demands of the situation and people on their team.

Based on that analysis, one of four leadership styles should be exercised: telling, coaching, participating or delegating . Each of these four styles vary in terms of their task or people orientation.

Being flexible maximizes results and leads to success. That is why some of the most successful leaders in the world practice a situational leadership style.

Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Life cycle theory of leadership. Training & Development Journal, 23 (5), 26-34.

Prewitt, M. (2007, September). The situational leader. Strategy+Business. Retrieved from https://www.strategy-business.com/article/li00042

Rabarison, K., Ingram, R. C., & Holsinger, J. W., Jr (2013). Application of situational leadership to the national voluntary public health accreditation process. Frontiers in Public Health , 1 , 26. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2013.00026

Sims Jr., H. P., Faraj, S., & Yun, S. (2009). When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership. Business Horizons, 52 , 149-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2008.10.002

Vroom, V. H., & Jago, A. G. (2007). The role of the situation in leadership. The American Psychologist , 62 (1), 17–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.1.17

• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 15 Theory of Planned Behavior Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 18 Adaptive Behavior Examples

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Ableism Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Theory of Planned Behavior Examples

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PERSPECTIVE article

Application of situational leadership to the national voluntary public health accreditation process.

• College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

Successful navigation through the accreditation process developed by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) requires strong and effective leadership. Situational leadership, a contingency theory of leadership, frequently taught in the public health classroom, has utility for leading a public health agency through this process. As a public health agency pursues accreditation, staff members progress from being uncertain and unfamiliar with the process to being knowledgeable and confident in their ability to fulfill the accreditation requirements. Situational leadership provides a framework that allows leaders to match their leadership styles to the needs of agency personnel. In this paper, the application of situational leadership to accreditation is demonstrated by tracking the process at a progressive Kentucky county public health agency that served as a PHAB beta test site.

Introduction

The mission of public health, as identified by the 1988 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Public Health , is “assuring conditions in which people can be healthy” ( 1 ). A strong infrastructure is central to the mission of public health, since it supports the delivery of key public health services. The critical role infrastructure plays in assuring public health is underscored in a 2003 IOM follow up report that identified strengthening governmental public health institutions as an essential area of action for the twenty-first century. The 2003 report highlighted the key role that leadership plays in maintaining a strong public health system through the development of a competent public health workforce. It also identified the importance of leadership in such specific recommendations as making “leadership training, support, and development” a high priority for all governmental public health agencies, schools of public health, and the other entities within the public health system ( 2 ).

Successful leadership is contingent upon developing a clear mission and executing a vision to guide progress ( 3 ). Various frameworks have been developed to guide public health leaders in developing a mission and vision, including the three Core Functions of Public Health and the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS) ( 4 ). While these frameworks are useful, they are macro-contextual, and may be disconnected from the day to day operations of a public health agency. The accreditation standards and measures developed by The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) provide specific benchmarks to be utilized by agencies as a framework to guide their activities. While PHAB’s standards and measures can be used to guide organizational leadership, the changes associated with accreditation require strong leadership and an immediate short-term strategic plan and long-term vision based on effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability.

Academic public health programs, as part of their curricula, educate students in leadership theories and models, and often include skill training at both the masters and doctoral levels. Students of public health rarely are provided the opportunity to practice the leadership skills developed in the classroom or to test leadership theories in real world situations prior to degree completion. This article discusses one opportunity to transfer leadership theory and practice from the classroom to the practice setting. In this instance, practice based field experience provided a public health doctoral student the opportunity to utilize concepts learned in the classroom in a practice setting, and develop a case study, based on initial and follow up interviews with public health agency personnel, focused on leadership in the context of preparing for participation in a Beta Test of the PHAB pilot standards and measures.

Situational Leadership

Situational leadership theory suggests that leaders should adapt their leadership styles based on the readiness, current skills, and developmental level of team members ( 5 ). It provides the leader with the flexibility to assess the situation and adopt a leadership style that best fits the needs of the follower. It is particularly well suited to leading public health agencies through the accreditation process as will be demonstrated.

Utilizing Situational Leadership requires leaders to be aware of the perceptions of their followers. What leaders say they do is one thing; what followers say they want and how well their leaders meet their expectations is another ( 6 ). Given the novelty of accreditation, and the potential anxiety engendered during the different phases of the process, public health leaders need to be aware of and adapt their leadership styles to match the readiness, current skills, and developmental status of the team members engaged in accreditation, allowing the agency to successfully navigate this intricate process.

Situational leadership is based on two behavioral categories: task behavior and relational behavior. Task behavior is “the extent to which the leader engages in spelling out the duties and responsibilities of an individual or group” ( 7 ). Relational behavior is “the extent to which the leader engages in two-way or multi-way communication if there is more than one person” ( 7 ). Thus, situational leadership provides a balance between (1) guidance and direction (task behavior), (2) socio-emotional support (relational behavior), and (3) the readiness level followers exhibit for a specific task ( 5 ). The leadership styles of situational leadership include:

1. Style 1 (S1) “Directing” characterized by “high task and low relationship” behaviors;

2. Style 2 (S2) “Coaching” characterized by “high task and high relationship” behaviors;

3. Style 3 (S3) “Participating” characterized by “high relationship and low task” behaviors;

4. Style 4 (S4) “Delegating” characterized by “low relationship and low task” behavior ( 5 ) (see Figure 1 ).

Figure 1. Situational leadership and public health accreditation . Adapted from Ref. ( 5 ).

In situational leadership, readiness is defined as “the extent to which a follower demonstrates the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task” ( 5 ). The major components of readiness are ability defined as “the knowledge, experience, and skill that an individual or a group brings to a particular task or activity,” and willingness is defined as “the extent to which an individual or a group has the confidence, commitment, and motivation to accomplish a specific task” ( 5 ). As seen in Figure 1 , follower readiness is a continuum from low to high as followers develop ability and willingness. Leaders match their leadership style to the readiness level of their followers as follows:

1. Level 1 (R1) occurs when the follower is “unable and unwilling” to perform the task and lacks confidence, motivation, and commitment;

2. Level 2 (R2) occurs when the follower is “unable but willing” to perform the task and requires some guidance;

3. Level 3 (R3) occurs when the follower is “able but unwilling” to complete the task, possibly because of insecurity; and

4. Level 4 (R4) occurs when the follower is “willing and able” to accomplish the task with confidence ( 5 ) (see Figure 1 ).

Situational Leadership and Public Health Accreditation: A Local Health Agency Case Study

While accreditation is not a new concept in the American health sector [initiatives such as The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) have been a part of the health care system for decades], it is a new phenomenon in public health practice in the United States. Informal discussions concerning the accreditation of public health agencies have occurred for some time; however, accreditation received a significant boost from The Future of the Public’s Health in the Twenty-First Century , which stated that “despite the controversies concerning accreditation, greater accountability is needed on the part of state and local health agencies with regard to the performance of the core public health functions of assessment, assurance, and policy development and the EPHS” ( 8 ). This report led to the creation of the Exploring Accreditation project in 2004, the creation of PHAB in 2007, and ultimately the release of PHAB’s standards and measures for voluntary national accreditation in 2011.

Accreditation is a useful tool for improving the quality of services provided to the public by setting standards and evaluating performance against those standards, and has been shown to be associated with higher performing health systems. In a working paper for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Mays demonstrated that clinical quality measures for care of myocardial infarctions were lower and mortality rates higher in hospitals not participating in JCAHO accreditation when compared to JCAHO accredited healthcare facilities ( 9 ). It may be postulated that accreditation of public health agencies will have a similar effect. PHAB states that its program is intended to develop and maintain “a high-performing governmental public health system that will make us the healthiest nation.” Thus, PHAB “is dedicated to promote, improve, and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of state, local, tribal, and territorial public health departments in the United States” ( 10 ).

The PHAB accreditation process has seven steps; Pre-application, Application, Documentation Selection and Submission, Site Visit, Accreditation Decision, Reports, and Reaccreditation; and was developed after extensive review and revision, including a beta test of the process, which included 30 state, tribal, and local public health agencies ( 10 , 11 ). Following an interview with the director of a local public health agency regarding the agency’s experience as a beta test site, the authors noted that the agency’s accreditation experience closely matched the four situational leadership styles in relationship to the stages of follower readiness displayed in Figure 1 . As a result, a follow up interview was completed to confirm these findings, and to further discuss the application of situational leadership to the accreditation process.

The agency was well prepared for accreditation given its previous commitment to continuous quality improvement, as evidenced by its application to be a beta test site. In addition, the agency director was a member of the Kentucky Department of Public Health Quality Improvement Team prior to accepting her current position ( 12 ). This agency is also committed to performance measurement and management, having completed in 2008 a local public health system performance assessment that demonstrated a relatively high (69%) score in the overall performance of the EPHS ( 12 ).

During the initial interview with the agency director, it was apparent that leadership was viewed as a key element to accreditation success. Fostering complete organizational commitment to the process was of particular importance, including high commitment from contract and part time employes, as well as members of the local board of health.

Early in the accreditation process, particularly during the pre-application and application stages, and partially during document submission, the agency staff was relatively unfamiliar with the accreditation process (R1 follower readiness level as depicted in Figure 1 ), necessitating that the agency director engage in leader directed activities, primarily those shown in the S1 area in Figure 1 . Such actions involved informing the agency staff of the requirements and processes of accreditation and directing them through the process with high task behaviors answering the question: what is public health accreditation? She utilized a directing style of leadership dealing with questions such as who, what, when, where, and how.

As agency staff members developed an understanding of the value of accreditation and gained some confidence through identifying their roles in the process and the documents necessary for review, they transitioned to an R2 stage of follower readiness as depicted in Figure 1 , resulting in the director continuing highly directive behavior while adding high relationship behavior as well. A coaching, persuading, and/or explaining leadership style (S2 quadrant of the diagram) became important. While the leadership style was still high task, moving from direction to explanation occurred in order to answer the question, “Why is accreditation important to our agency?”.

By the time the agency was ready for document submission its personnel had sufficient confidence to transition fully to the R2 stage of readiness. There were still gaps in knowledge and ability related to the accreditation process, thus necessitating a continuation of the S2 leadership style, including coaching, explaining, and continuously persuading public health agency staff members of the value of accreditation and the importance of each individual’s role in the agency’s effort.

By the time the agency reached the PHAB’s beta test site visit phase, it had reached an R3 stage of readiness as depicted in Figure 1 . As a result, leadership style was based on high relationship, low task behaviors characterized by quadrant S3. These follower-directed behaviors revolved primarily around encouraging and championing the efforts of a highly participatory agency staff, with agency leaders assuming the role of problem solvers instead of being more highly task oriented.

By the conclusion of the PHAB beta test experience, when mock accreditation feedback was provided, the agency staff members had developed to an R4 stage of readiness. The agency staff was able, willing, and confident with respect to accreditation. As a result, the leader’s style had shifted to a low task and low relational behavior approach as described by quadrant S4. The director successfully delegated the accreditation coordination task to an accreditation coordinator, thus serving as an engaged mentor.

The PHAB beta test experience allowed the agency to further develop its quality improvement, performance measurement, and management infrastructure. The agency had successfully completed the three prerequisites of PHAB accreditation by developing a community health assessment, a community health improvement plan, and a refined strategic plan with clear mission and vision statements that were ready to be adopted. In addition, a 12 member accreditation team had been formed, being led by the full time accreditation coordinator.

As a result of the commitment and intense preparation exhibited by the staff, on February 28, 2013, the agency was awarded 5-year accreditation status by PHAB. 1 Accreditation of the agency was a direct result of the leadership exhibited by the agency’s senior leadership. The accreditation result was based on the development of a high-performing team founded on full collaboration between staff members and leaders. The use of a situational leadership approach contributed to team development. Conflict resolution was more readily accomplished by the leaders’ understanding of the needs of the staff members and the leaders’ ability to utilize an appropriate leadership style to meet the staff members’ needs. Due to the nature of the PHAB accrediting process, no ethical issues were raised by staff members during the beta test experience.

Situational leadership theory and skills learned in the classroom were effective in understanding the leadership required to effectively guide a public health agency through the process of preparing for PHAB accreditation. This theory of leadership is an appropriate approach for leading the accreditation process due to its flexibility as a follower driven model of leadership. Given the novelty and the complexity of the accreditation process, a highly functioning team is required and situational leadership provides a framework for public health agency leaders to successfully guide their teams through the process. Use of situational leadership will ensure that public health agencies successfully develop an ongoing quality improvement and performance standards plan throughout the accreditation process. Thus, a classroom leadership theory was found to be useful as an approach to being faithful to public health’s mission to “assure conditions in which people can be healthy” ( 1 ).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

• ^ http://www.phaboard.org/news-room/accredited-health-departments

1. Institute of Medicine Committee on the Study for the Future of Public Health. The Future of Public Health . Washington, DC: National Academy Press (1988).

2. Institute of Medicine Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century. The Future of the Public’s Health in the 21st Century . Washington, DC: National Academies Press (2003).

3. Jaques E. Requisite Organization: A Total System for Effective Managerial Organization and Managerial Leadership for the 21st Century . Arlington, VA: Cason Hall (1998).

4. The Core Public Health Functions Steering Committee. 10 Essential Public Health Services. (1994). Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nphpsp/essentialservices.html

5. Hersey P, Blanchard KH, Johnson DE. Management of Organizationl Behavior – Leading Human Resources. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall (2008).

6. Kouzes JM, Posner BZ. Follower-oriented leadership. In: Goethals GR, Sorenson GJ, Burns JM, editors. Encyclopedia of Leadership . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (2004). p. 494–8.

7. Hersey P. The Situational Leader – The Other 59 Minutes . New York: Warner Books (1984).

8. Mays GP. Can accreditation work in public health? Lessons from other service industries. Working Paper Prepared for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ; 2004 Nov 30. New Jersey: Princeton (2004).

9. Public Health Accreditation Board. Public Health Board Guide to National Accreditation Public Health Accreditation Board – Version 1.0 . Alexandria, VA: PHAB (2011). Available from: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12758866/PHAB%20Guide%20to%20National%20Public% 20Health%20Department%20Accreditation%20Version%201.0.pdf.

10. Public Health Accreditation Board. Evaluation of the Public Health Accreditation Board Beta Test . Alexandria, VA: PHAB (2011). Available from: http://www.phaboard.org/wp-content/uploads/EvaluationofthePHABBetaTestBriefReportAugust2011.pdf

11. Rabarison K. Conversation with Health Director . Frankfort, KY: Franklin County Health Department (2011).

12. Franklin County Health Department. Local Public Health System Performance Assessment – Report of Results . Frankfort, KY: Franklin County Health Department (2008). Available from: http://www.fchd.org/Portals/60/NPHPSP%20results%20.pdf

Keywords: situational leadership, public health accreditation, accreditation, leadership, student training

Citation: Rabarison K, Ingram RC and Holsinger JW Jr (2013) Application of situational leadership to the national voluntary public health accreditation process. Front. Public Health 1 :26. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2013.00026

Received: 05 June 2013; Accepted: 31 July 2013; Published online: 12 August 2013.

Reviewed by:

Copyright: © 2013 Rabarison, Ingram and Holsinger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: James W. Holsinger Jr, College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, 111 Washington Avenue, Lexington, KY 40536-0003, USA e-mail: jwh@uky.edu

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, situational leadership during the post-pandemic crisis: a case of amanah institute.

Publication date: 15 April 2024

Teaching notes

Learning outcomes.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to learn, understand, examine and customize leadership styles per organizational culture; understand the conflict management styles of a female leader; and comprehend the organizational change process to devise an effective communication strategy.

Case overview/synopsis

Ever-changing business demands managers adopt organizational change in leadership styles, business processes, updated skill sets and minds. One must be ready to understand influential nurtured corporate culture and human resource resistance towards the inevitable change. This case study attempted to discuss the female protagonist dealing with an organizational conflict. The case study introduces one such protagonist from a century-old woman’s educational institution. Subsequently, this case study presents organizational change under the leadership of a female protagonist. This teaching case study gives the reader an insight into situational leadership, conflict management styles and the corporate change process by implementing an appropriate communication strategy. This case study describes the change process through the various decision-making scenarios that an academic institute over a century old faced during the post-pandemic crisis after adding a crucial protagonist. The employee union, followed by students and administrative employees, has challenged the dominating leadership position held by the college principal. Protests occurred due to the college administrator’s refusal to adjust her approach to leadership. This teaching case then provided different leadership styles of the current and old leaders. Finally, the case study lists the challenges a leader faces during turbulent times and the lessons a leader should learn from such situations while transforming the institute.

Complexity academic level

The teaching case benefits undergraduate students in business management subjects such as conflict management, leadership and organizational behaviour. Nevertheless, trainers can use this case study to teach seasoned managers and emerging leaders the significance of adopting and implementing change while understanding situational leadership.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

• Employee communications
• Corporate culture

Acknowledgements

Disclaimer. This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.

Saleem, I. , Ashfaq, M. and Ul-Durar, S. (2024), "Situational leadership during the post-pandemic crisis: a case of Amanah Institute", , Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-07-2023-0267

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Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

You do not currently have access to these teaching notes. Teaching notes are available for teaching faculty at subscribing institutions. Teaching notes accompany case studies with suggested learning objectives, classroom methods and potential assignment questions. They support dynamic classroom discussion to help develop student's analytical skills.

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Situational Leadership II

Elements of situational leadership theory, frequently asked questions.

Situational leadership theory suggests that no single leadership style is best. Instead, it depends on which type of leadership and strategies are best suited to the task.

According to this theory, the most effective leaders are those that are able to adapt their style to the situation and look at cues such as the type of task, the nature of the group, and other factors that might contribute to getting the job done.

Situational leadership theory is often referred to as the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, after its developers, Dr. Paul Hersey, author of "The Situational Leader," and Kenneth Blanchard, author of "One-Minute Manager."

Leadership Styles

Hersey and Blanchard suggested that there are four primary leadership styles:

• Telling (S1) : In this leadership style, the leader tells people what to do and how to do it.
• Selling (S2) : This style involves more back-and-forth between leaders and followers . Leaders "sell" their ideas and message to get group members to buy into the process.
• Participating (S3) : In this approach, the leader offers less direction and allows members of the group to take a more active role in coming up with ideas and making decisions.
• Delegating (S4) : This style is characterized by a less involved, hands-off approach to leadership . Group members tend to make most of the decisions and take most of the responsibility for what happens.

Maturity Levels

The right style of leadership depends greatly on the maturity level (i.e., the level of knowledge and competence) of the individuals or group.

Hersey and Blanchard's theory identifies four different levels of maturity, including:

• M1 : Group members lack the knowledge, skills, and willingness to complete the task.
• M2 : Group members are willing and enthusiastic, but lack the ability.
• M3 : Group members have the skills and capability to complete the task, but are unwilling to take responsibility.
• M4 : Group members are highly skilled and willing to complete the task.

Matching Styles and Levels

Leadership styles may be matched with maturity levels. The Hersey-Blanchard model suggests that the following leadership styles are the most appropriate for these maturity levels:

• Low Maturity (M1)—Telling (S1)
• Medium Maturity (M2)—Selling (S2)
• Medium Maturity (M3)—Participating (S3)
• High Maturity (M4)—Delegating (S4)

How It Works

A more "telling" style may be necessary at the beginning of a project when followers lack the responsibility or knowledge to work on their own. As subordinates become more experienced and knowledgeable, however, the leader may want to shift into a more delegating approach.

This situational model of leadership focuses on flexibility so that leaders are able to adapt according to the needs of their followers and the demands of the situation.

The situational approach to leadership also avoids the pitfalls of the single-style approach by recognizing that there are many different ways of dealing with a problem and that leaders need to be able to assess a situation and the maturity levels of subordinates in order to determine what approach will be the most effective at any given moment.

Situational theories , therefore, give greater consideration to the complexity of dynamic social situations and the many individuals acting in different roles who will ultimately contribute to the outcome.

The Situational Leadership II (or SLII model) was developed by Kenneth Blanchard and builds on Blanchard and Hersey's original theory. According to the revised version of the theory, effective leaders must base their behavior on the developmental level of group members for specific tasks.

Competence and Commitment

The developmental level is determined by each individual's level of competence and commitment. These levels include:

• Enthusiastic beginner (D1) : High commitment, low competence
• Disillusioned learner (D2) : Some competence, but setbacks have led to low commitment
• Capable but cautious performer (D3) : Competence is growing, but the level of commitment varies
• Self-reliant achiever (D4) : High competence and commitment

SLII Leadership Styles

SLII also suggests that effective leadership is dependent on two key behaviors: supporting and directing. Directing behaviors include giving specific directions and instructions and attempting to control the behavior of group members. Supporting behaviors include actions such as encouraging subordinates, listening, and offering recognition and feedback.

The theory identifies four situational leadership styles:

• Directing (S1) : High on directing behaviors, low on supporting behaviors
• Coaching (S2) : High on both directing and supporting behaviors
• Supporting (S3) : Low on directing behavior and high on supporting behaviors
• Delegating (S4) : Low on both directing and supporting behaviors

The main point of SLII theory is that not one of these four leadership styles is best. Instead, an effective leader will match their behavior to the developmental skill of each subordinate for the task at hand.

Experts suggest that there are four key contextual factors that leaders must be aware of when making an assessment of the situation.

Consider the Relationship

Leaders need to consider the relationship between the leaders and the members of the group. Social and interpersonal factors can play a role in determining which approach is best.

For example, a group that lacks efficiency and productivity might benefit from a style that emphasizes order, rules, and clearly defined roles. A productive group of highly skilled workers, on the other hand, might benefit from a more democratic style that allows group members to work independently and have input in organizational decisions.

Consider the Task

The leader needs to consider the task itself. Tasks can range from simple to complex, but the leader needs to have a clear idea of exactly what the task entails in order to determine if it has been successfully and competently accomplished.

Consider the Level of Authority

The level of authority the leader has over group members should also be considered. Some leaders have power conferred by the position itself, such as the capacity to fire, hire, reward, or reprimand subordinates.

Other leaders gain power through relationships with employees, often by gaining respect from them, offering support to them, and helping them feel included in the decision-making process .

Consider the Level of Maturity

As the Hersey-Blanchard model suggests, leaders need to consider the level of maturity of each individual group member. The maturity level is a measure of an individual's ability to complete a task, as well as their willingness to complete the task . Assigning a job to a member who is willing but lacks the ability is a recipe for failure.

Being able to pinpoint each employee's level of maturity allows the leader to choose the best leadership approach to help employees accomplish their goals.

An example of situational leadership would be a leader adapting their approach based on the needs of their team members. One team member might be less experienced and require more oversight, while another might be more knowledgable and capable of working independently.

In order to lead effectively, the three skills needed to utilize situational leadership are diagnosis, flexibility, and communication. Leaders must be able to evaluate the situation, adapt as needed, and communicate their expectations with members of the group.

Important elements of situational leadership theory are the styles of leadership that are used, the developmental level of team members, the adaptability of the leader, communication with group members, and the attainment of the group's goals.

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Advising Jay: A Case Study Using a Situational Leadership Approach

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Alan C. Lerstrom; Advising Jay: A Case Study Using a Situational Leadership Approach. NACADA Journal 1 September 2008; 28 (2): 21–27. doi: https://doi.org/10.12930/0271-9517-28.2.21

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Through a case study, I address the position that academic advising can be viewed as a developmental process. I present my specific experiences in applying Hersey and Blanchard's model of situational leadership (1969) during academic advising sessions. The model demonstrates that effective leadership is based on the appropriate balance of a leader's task and relationship behaviors. The leader's emphasis of either the task or the relationship behavior depends on the maturity or readiness of the follower.

Relative Emphasis: theory, practice, research

Author notes

Alan C. Lerstrom (PhD from the University of Kansas) is an associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at Luther College. E-Mail: [email protected] .

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New Normal: Emergence of Situational Leadership During COVID-19 and Its Impact on Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction

Sarfraz aslam.

1 School of Foreign Languages, Yulin University, Yulin, China

Atif Saleem

2 College of Teacher Education, College of Education and Human Development, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China

Tribhuwan Kumar

3 Department of English Language and Literature, College of Science and Humanities at Sulail, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia

Khalida Parveen

4 Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Introduction

Globally, COVID-19 has caused rapid changes in the workplace (Kirby, 2020 ). COVID-19 has disrupted the standard working order of all organizations, including educational, health, business, etc. This has affected workers' motivation and job satisfaction. Suffering and challenges reduce workers' happiness and productivity (Singh and Mishra, 2020 ). Motivation at work is an essential criterion for a healthy organization, particularly in an epidemic context (Wang et al., 2021 ). We need to employ new leadership behaviors that harness uncertainty to improve employee motivation and job satisfaction. This article provides theoretical support and practical reference for organizations to cultivate situational leadership and eliminate employees' exhaustion to improve work motivation and job satisfaction.

COVID-19 and Leadership

COVID-19 has affected governments globally, and societies are experiencing an odd situation; after the global pandemic, this situation led to a global crisis that touched the aspect of our lives, including family, education, health, work, and the relationship between leaders and followers in our society (Hinojosa et al., 2020 ; Aslam et al., 2021 ; Parveen et al., 2022a ). Organization leaders play a critical role in framing employee experiences at the workplace during and after the pandemic as they adapt to work on new realities (Ngoma et al., 2021 ). The managerial level of communication of those who lead still has a substantial impact on their followers' performance, behavior, and mental health (Wu and Parker, 2017 ; Saleem et al., 2020 ; Parveen et al., 2022b ).

“New Normal” has been used since the end of World War II (Francisco and Nuqui, 2020 ). An indispensable leader knows how to do ordinary things well; an unafraid leader acts regardless of criticism and never backs down (Honore and Robinson, 2012 ). Nevertheless, the new normal in 2020 is different since the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world's economy and education. This is an uphill battle in which education and money are at stake in a situation where people find it challenging to adjust. This shift in working and learning space is defined as the New Normal in working organizations (Mollenkopf et al., 2020 ). It is moving from a public to a private space, shifting from one-size-fits-all methods to individualized and differentiated learning, shifting responsibility. Active participation of household members is required for this learning process and for evaluating learning shifts (Francisco and Nuqui, 2020 ).

Herein, in this study, we examine: how organizations attain excellent performance in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic through a situational leadership approach?

The human resource department is one of the most important aspects of any organization. Organizations, irrespective of their form and goals, are based on various visions for the benefit of humans. Additionally, the process is by implementing its mission and is handled by humans. To achieve performance superiority, any organization should concentrate on brilliant employees. The impact of globalization on knowledge and technology progress in many different areas is incomprehensible. It is indispensable for the management of human resources to be among the most critical organizational assets since it plays a significant role in developing and achieving organization objectives (Syaifuddin and Sidu, 2019 ).

Social Exchange Theory (SET)

Organizational behavior theories such as SET (Blau, 1964 ) are the most influential approach (Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005 ). According to SET (Gouldner, 1960 ), a good deed performed by a leader engenders positive behaviors by the opposite party (a subordinate). Leaders who serve as role models are likely to feel obligated to their duties and show greater interest in their assigned tasks (Liborius, 2014 ). Using the social exchange perspective, employees whose leaders encourage them through participative leadership behaviors, such as participation in decision-making and increased responsibility, may thrive more and offer helpful behavior toward coworkers due to this increased autonomy (Usman et al., 2021 ).

Nature of Situational Leadership

Leadership style is a person's approach to influencing others through their behavior pattern. The directive, as well as supportive behavior, compose this leadership style. A directive behavior encourages group members to achieve goals by providing direction, setting goals and providing evaluation methods, defining roles, assigning deadlines, showing how they will accomplish the objectives, and establishing timelines, which are spelled out, often through one-way communication. Group members who exhibit supportive behaviors are more likely to feel comfortable in their group, coworkers, and situation. Social and emotional support is demonstrated through supportive behaviors; supportive behaviors demand two-way communication (Northouse, 2021 ). Providing direction, implementing and monitoring plans, and motivating team members are aspects of a leadership style (Hourston, 2013 ). An organization administrator capable of adapting to the current circumstances is situational leadership.

Through a situational approach, followers advance and regress in a developmental continuum that measures the relative competence and commitment of the followers. Leaders must determine where followers are on the developmental continuum to adapt their leadership style accordingly (Northouse, 2021 ). Situational leadership is characterized by the relation between the task behavior (giving instructions, directing, guiding, and valuing) and the listening, supporting, and valuing aspects of the engagement. Combined strategies that consider individuals and the environment are advantageous for this style. Consequently, workers can maximize their learning experiences and satisfaction (Walls, 2019 ). In following a situational leader, it is not as necessary to have a charismatic leader with large numbers of followers as it is to have rational comprehension of the situation and appropriate response (Grint, 2011 ). Situational leadership requires individuals to be flexible and use their behavior according to their situation without following a set formula (Walls, 2019 ).

Work Motivation

Motivation determines what individuals do and how they do it based on what they are motivated to do (Meyer et al., 2004 ). Motivating someone to act to achieve his or her goals is a condition or circumstance that encourages and stimulates a person. As a result of solid motivation, an individual may possess energy, power, or a complex condition and the ability to move toward a particular goal, whether or not it is achieved. The motivation will be driven by both the individual (intrinsic) and his surroundings (extrinsic). According to Herzberg's theory, a motivational factor would be achievement, recognition, responsibility, progress, the work itself, and the opportunity to develop. Work motivation factors include achievement, recognition, and advancement (Syaifuddin and Sidu, 2019 ).

Job Satisfaction

The sense of comfort and pride employees experience in doing their jobs is called job satisfaction; job satisfaction is achieved by employees who feel their job is valuable and essential (Mustofa and Muafi, 2021 ). The belief in the amount of pay employees must get for the differences in rewards becomes a general attitude toward their work assessment (Castle et al., 2007 ). Besides, job satisfaction is related to what they get and expect (Dartey-Baah and Ampofo, 2016 ). Then, it will be represented by positive or negative behavior that employees showed in the workplace (Adiguzel et al., 2020 ). Several factors have influenced job satisfaction, including working hours, working conditions, payment, work design, promotions, demographic features, human resource development, leadership style, and stress level (Bhardwaj et al., 2021 ). There is a direct correlation between job satisfaction and an organization's leadership style that provides advice, praise, and assistance to employees when they face problems at work (Sapada et al., 2017 ; Phuc et al., 2021 ). Employees who are highly satisfied with their job can contribute to the organization's performance (Takdir et al., 2020 ). Employees often focus less on the duties and responsibilities of an employee than on perceived job satisfaction that encourages them to perform at their best (Aprilda et al., 2019 ).

Relationship of Situational Leadership With Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction

There is a positive correlation between work motivation and job satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation is positively correlated with job satisfaction (Alnlaclk and Alnlaclk, 2012 ). In research, it was discovered that intrinsic motivation was positively related to job satisfaction (Arasli et al., 2014 ).

Leadership and work motivation provide a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction (Pancasila et al., 2020 ). Leadership motivates and satisfies followers by helping them in a friendly way (Haq et al., 2022 ). According to several studies, situational leadership leads to increased motivation (Fikri et al., 2021 ). Situational leadership can positively and significantly affect job satisfaction and trust, respect, and pride among subordinates. Incorporating these characteristics can assist leaders in building employee commitment, raising risk awareness, articulating a shared vision, and reinforcing the importance of the vision (Al-edenat, 2018 ). The result is also in line with that of Li and Yuan ( 2017 ), who demonstrated that a leader's impact on job satisfaction is both positive and significant. According to Saleem ( 2015 ), leadership creates a significant positive impact on job satisfaction. Situational leadership is positively associated with job satisfaction (Fonda, 2015 ). In conclusion, leadership is crucial in determining work motivation and job satisfaction (Mustofa and Muafi, 2021 ).

Summary and Conclusions

Situational leadership has a positive influence on work motivation and job satisfaction ( Figure 1 ). It encourages employees to finish their jobs enthusiastically and spurs their devotion to their roles for successful job completion. This leadership style is easy to comprehend, intuitively sensible, and adaptable to various situations (Northouse, 2021 ).

Conceptual model.

Situational leadership significantly impacts job satisfaction (Shyji and Santhiyavalli, 2014 ). Assuring employee job satisfaction is a vital role of a leader in achieving organizational goals. Job satisfaction levels may vary between employees, places, jobs, and organizations (Ridlwan et al., 2021 ; Saleem et al., 2021 ). In addition to promoting exemplary employees, effective leadership promotes job satisfaction (Setyorini et al., 2018 ). Employee job satisfaction directly impacts job performance in an organization (Hutabarat, 2015 ). Employee performance is positively correlated with job satisfaction (Sidabutar et al., 2020 ). This situational approach has a prescriptive component, whereas many leadership theories are descriptive. Situational leadership, for instance, prescribes a directing style for you, the leader, if your followers are of very low competence. The situational approach suggests that you follow a supportive leadership style if your followers appear competent but lack confidence. These prescriptions, in general, provide all leaders with a set of guidelines that are extremely helpful for aiding and enhancing effective and efficient leadership (Northouse, 2021 ).

Leaders should be aware of how they lead and use appropriate styles to develop the skills of their staff while promoting satisfaction with their jobs (Carlos do Rego Furtado et al., 2011 ).

In sum, situational leadership motivates employees and improves employee satisfaction at work (Schweikle, 2014 ). The situational approach applies to virtually any organization and at nearly any level for almost any goal. There are many possible applications for it (Northouse, 2021 ). Higher productivity resulted from better leadership. In this way, job satisfaction contributes to employee performance ultimately. That means the higher job satisfaction leads to the better the employee performance (Jalagat, 2016 ). Effective leadership can result in more satisfied employees, more motivation at work, and more satisfaction with the workplace. It is worth mentioning that the theoretical understandings gained through this research will encourage future scholars to investigate how situational leaders can improve the performance of employees. An extensive empirical study is needed to understand the role of the situational leadership approach in the current pandemic circumstances. Moreover, the biggest challenge facing leadership studies right now is the lack of knowledge about the topic.

Author Contributions

SA presented the main idea and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. AS contributed to revising and proofreading the manuscript. After review, TK and KP helped us finalize the revisions and proofreading. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Situational Leadership and Its Effectiveness in Rising Employee Productivity: A Study on North Lebanon Organization

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Confirmation of a crisis leadership model and its effectiveness: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

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2. Introduction

3. developing the crisis leadership constructs and items in the context of covid-19, 4. theoretical models, 5. research methodology, 6. analysis and findings, 7. discussions and conclusions, disclosure statement, additional information.

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Despite the significance of crisis leadership for organizations, especially in the wake of COVID-19, empirical research in this area is still nascent. Therefore, “What attributes make an effective leader during a crisis?” is unclear. Using lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, this study seeks to address this gap in the literature by i) developing and validating a robust multi-dimensional crisis leadership model and ii) measure its effectiveness in handling the crisis. A higher-order measurement model of crisis leadership comprising of seven constructs (compassion and care, openness and communication, resilience and courage, decisiveness, consultation and collaboration, and empowerment) and two structural models to measure its predictive validity (effectiveness in handling the crisis) were proposed based on the review of crisis leadership literature. Next, using data collected through a global survey, the validity of the proposed models, including the relevance/appropriateness of each construct and the predictive power of the crisis leadership model in explaining the organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis, were assessed. The second-order confirmatory factor analysis established the existence of a higher-order measurement model for crisis leadership, with each of the seven constructs contributing uniquely and strongly. The structural equation modeling results confirmed the strong predictive power of the crisis leadership model in explaining the organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis across its different (beginning, current, and future) phases. The findings show that crisis leadership is multifaceted and requires an all-encompassing effort and provides a road map for organizations looking to develop crisis leadership capabilities for senior managers and leaders.

• Crisis leadership
• conceptual model
• theoretical framework
• structural equation modeling
• confirmatory factor analysis
• empirical study
• survey research

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

During the initial stages of COVID-19 crisis, many organizational leaders have faltered under pressure while others successfully navigated through the crisis. The heterogeneity in the success of firms during the COVID-19 highlighted the importance of having a strong leadership during a crisis, which enabled organizations to navigate the crisis or even seize the opportunities presented by the crisis. This study sheds light into the key actionable attributes and skills that a leader must possess during a crisis. The results show that crisis leadership is multifaceted and requires an all-encompassing effort focusing on Compassion and Care; Openness and Communication; Adaptiveness; Resilience and Courage; Decisiveness; Consultation and Collaboration ; and Employee Empowerment . With organizational leaders again in crisis mode with the new wave of COVID-19 infections due to the Omicron variant, lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic so far have significant implications for organizations and leaders to take pre-emptive measures for effectively steering the organization through the remainder of the crisis as well to prepare for future crisis.

At the time of writing this article, 18 months have passed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which first appeared in China in December 2019. By now, most organizations have made adaptive changes to their operations and transitioned to the “new normal”, and business and leadership decisions have become a lot easier as the nature of the pandemic became clearer. However, this was not the case in the initial months, when little was known about the virus and its socio-economic impact. The pandemic, which started as a physical health crisis, had quickly turned into an economic crisis, with the virus affecting almost every country in the world (World Health Organization, Citation 2020 ). Leaders were grappled with many new questions for which they did not have answers, even as their teams looked for direction. The COVID-19 pandemic presented an ultimate test for organizational leaders across the world (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ).

The role of organizational leaders and the impact of their decisions and actions are magnified during times of crisis, especially during its initial phases, wherein organization experiences shock, as the crisis could threaten their very existence (Fink et al., Citation 1971 ). Leaders are also vulnerable to crisis shock which could leave them paralyzed (Fink et al., Citation 1971 ). According to James and Wooten ( Citation 2005 , p. 141) “what differentiates those firms that thrive during and following a crisis from those that do not is the leadership displayed throughout the process. However, the COVID-19 is a rare, long-haul, health and economic crisis, which is global in nature, and no training or experience in previous crises could have prepared leaders for it. Still, organizations have relied on their leaders to lead them out of the COVID-19 crisis despite it kept generating new uncertainties. While many leaders successfully managed the crisis, others were not so successful in managing the crisis, and have faltered under pressure, resulting in temporary or permanent business closures. The heterogeneity in the success of firms during the COVID-19 has reemphasized the importance of having a strong leadership during a crisis, which enabled organizations to seize the opportunities presented by the crisis and stay ahead of the competition (McKinsey & Company, Citation 2020 ). Looking back, the decisions made by leaders under heightened uncertainty (during the first 6–8 months of the pandemic), when little was known about the virus and its socio-economic impact, have played a significant factor in the success or failure of organizations. This obviously makes us examine that fundamental question—”What attributes make an effective leader during a crisis such as a pandemic?”.

Although generalizable statements about the effective leadership attribute that works for any crisis would be problematic, the leadership lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic could shed light on some key actionable attributes and skills that future leaders need to develop to sustain through (at least in the initial phases) any future crisis, especially when there exists no tried and tested methods and little information for confronting a live crisis. The significance of creating collective wisdom to prepare for future crises is even more critical given that we are awaiting several crises to unfold (the “next pandemic” or the “next global recession” features on everyone’s future crisis list) due to the increasing uncertainty that the world faces as a result of climate change, political conflicts, war, and cyber-terrorism (Soete, Citation 2021 ). Moreover, given the uncertainty over how long this COVID-19 pandemic will last with several countries experiencing or likely to experience a second or third wave of infection, leaders may find the valuable leadership lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic so far to be helpful and actionable to navigate through the remainder of the crisis (McKinsey & Company, Citation 2021 ). Overall, taking stock of leadership lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic deserve prioritization on the research agenda.

Unfortunately, despite the crucial role of leadership in the context of crisis, research in this field remains limited and fragmented (Bundy et al., Citation 2017 ). Most studies adopt a descriptive and subjective approach based on anecdotal evidence, personal reflections, and assumptions. Crisis leadership during the pandemic, in particular, is arguably in its early development phases, both academically and practically, despite our past experiences with epidemics such as SARS, Ebola, bird flu, H1N1, and MERS. For example, health or pandemic-induced crisis did not feature in the review study by Pearson and Clair ( Citation 1998 ) which identified several large-scale organizational crises situations. To date, no available and widely recognized theoretical frameworks and measurement models of crisis leadership exists, let alone for the pandemic. Any efforts to conceptualize the critical dimensions of crisis leadership and develop a scientific scale-based instrument to understand and measure them are still in the nascent stage. Since construct development and validation are essential for establishing a common conceptual base (Venkatraman, Citation 1989 ), these limitations make it difficult for researchers and practitioners to appreciate the progress made in the crisis leadership literature, derive comprehensive and objective insights, and forge a path ahead for theoretical and empirical advancement, and a practitioners’ guide.

The aforementioned gaps in the literature formed the motivation of this research, which aims to develop and empirically validate a robust multi-dimensional crisis leadership model and measure its effectiveness in handling the crisis using the lessons learned from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In realizing this aim, the following research question (RQ) is answered:

RQ: What are the critical crisis leadership attributes that would contribute to its effective handling?

To develop the relevant crisis leadership constructs and their underlying items;

To empirically test and validate the multi-dimensional measurement model of crisis leadership;

To assess the predictive power of the crisis leadership model in the effective handling of the crisis

This study, which was conducted during August–September 2020, includes several key leadership attributes that seemed to have played a role in the successful handling of the initial but critical phases of the COVID-19 crisis when organizations grappled with often limited and conflicting pieces of information and heightened uncertainty regarding the nature of the virus and its socio-economic impact. The results will provide organizational leaders with numerous valuable and actionable insights for future pandemics or disasters. Integrating existing knowledge into a comprehensive model allows investigation of multiple theoretical perspectives simultaneously, helps define the boundaries of the field more rigorously, and allows knowledge to grow in a consistent manner in the field.

The employees’ perceptions of the crisis leadership behavior demonstrated by their leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic were used in this study. Previous studies have asserted the importance of considering employees’ (followers) experiences of being led during periods of crises in gaining a deeper understanding of crisis leadership (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ; Eichenauer et al., Citation 2021 ). A survey-based research method was undertaken in this study since surveys are an effective tool to capture individual (employees) perceptions, test and validate conceptual models, and investigate cause and effect relationships. In terms of theoretical background, the study takes inspiration from two main theories, namely the situational leadership theory and implicit leadership theory.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. In the next section (Section 2 ), we conduct a review of literature on crisis leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop the relevant crisis leadership constructs and underlying measurement items. In Section 3 , conceptual models to measure crisis leadership and its effectiveness in handling the crisis are proposed. Section 4 explains the research methodology undertaken in this study. The analysis and findings of the study, including validation of the constructs and framework, and testing of hypotheses, are presented in Section 5 . We conclude in Section 6 with discussions of the study, along with implications, limitations and recommendations for future research.

In line with the research objectives, literature review was initiated to obtain knowledge about the effective leadership attributes during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to learn from such experiences and propose attributes that leaders need to take on board if they were to survive and thrive in future crises. The current studies on crisis leadership during pandemic are not only limited but also fragmented and scattered across the literature. A lack of comprehensive research in crisis leadership during pandemic appear missing. As a result, organizational leaders had limited understanding of how to deal with COVID-19 pandemic situation, and have naturally been caught unawares.

In the first stage of the review, a careful synthesis of the scattered studies in crisis leadership during COVID-19 pandemic was undertaken. Although fragmented, the limited studies on crisis leadership during pandemic provided a good starting point for the development of the conceptual base for this study. The review included academic articles and a range of industry sources. The scholarly review of articles included empirical studies (e.g., Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ), reflections (e.g., Stoller, Citation 2020 ), short commentaries (e.g., Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ), viewpoints (e.g., Sadiq et al., Citation 2021 ), and editorials (e.g., Lagowska et al., Citation 2020 ), while the review of industry sources included websites (e.g., Forbes, United nations), magazines (e.g., Harvard Business Review), reports (e.g., McKinsey & Company, Deloitte), and news articles among others. The approach of combining academic and industry sources is justified, given that practical and realistic solutions are needed to inform practice, especially considering that COVID-19 is a relatively new and unique event (Balasubramanian et al., Citation 2021 ).

In the next phase, much broader generic crisis management literature across sectors such as crisis leadership competencies in the facility management sector in Thailand (Wisittigars and Siengthai, Citation 2019 ), construction industry (Loosemore & Hughes, Citation 1998 ), healthcare crisis (Allen, Citation 1991 ) was undertaken to extend the conceptual base of crisis leadership literature developed for the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, several seminal works on crisis management literature was reviewed to strengthen the conceptual based of this study (e.g., Fink et al., Citation 1971 ; Hersey et al., Citation 1979 ; Hershey et al., Citation 1977 ). Finally, several leadership studies and leadership theories were reviewed to support the crisis leadership literature and to select the appropriate theoretical lenses for this study. They are discussed in the following sections.

3.1. Theoretical background

A crisis is a low-probability, high-impact event that causes significant disruption. From an organizations’ perspective, a crisis is an “unexpected abnormal situation which presents some extraordinary, high risk to business and which will develop into a disaster unless carefully managed” (Shaluf et al., Citation 2003 , p. 29). This study explores crisis leadership through the lens of “situational leadership theory” and “implicit leadership theory”.

3.1.1. Situational leadership theory

The significant uncertainty of a global crisis exacerbates the challenges associated with leadership compared to more ‘business-as-usual times (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ). However, each leadership style has its own issues in managing crises. For example, transformational leadership may not be the most appropriate in the case of an extreme time crunch since it takes time to build consensus. Similarly, a transactional leader is bound by rules and regulations, making him/her ill-suited to manage the dynamics of most emerging crises. Likewise, charismatic leadership could backfire in a crisis, as they tend to satisfy their own needs, such as positioning themselves as the center of attention and ignoring the viewpoints of other organizational members. A directive leadership will also have issues in crises that require organizational flexibility or innovative action. At the same time, a cognitive leader could lack sufficient empathy and interpersonal skills to manage a crisis successfully. Holding on to one leadership style or selecting the wrong leadership style during a crisis could lead to ineffective leadership (Vera & Crossan, Citation 2004 ). Given the ever-changing and evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be said that no one leadership approach or style will work (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ; Francisco & Nuqui, Citation 2020 ). This is evident from the leadership literature on COVID-19, which has discussed several leadership styles in handling the crisis. For instance, studies have discussed identity leadership (Haslam et al., Citation 2021 ), supervisory leadership (Eichenauer et al., Citation 2021 ), authentic leadership (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ), decisive leadership (Al Saidi et al., Citation 2020 ), and charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leadership (Crayne & Medeiros, Citation 2020 ). Therefore, it can be assumed that a combination of different leadership styles will be needed as the crisis progresses through its various stages (Vera & Crossan, Citation 2004 ; Korn Ferry, Citation 2020 ). An effective leader during a crisis should be able to display multiple competencies and styles as a coherent ensemble. Therefore, the relevance of situational leadership is even more significant during a crisis.

The situational leadership theory is centered around the approach that a situational leader should hold to no single leadership style but adapts as needed, as the situation requires (Sims et al., Citation 2009 ; Vera & Crossan, Citation 2004 ). The seminal works on situational leadership theory underlines the selection of leadership style for a given situation that has the highest probability of success (Hersey et al., Citation 1979 ; Hershey et al., Citation 1977 ). For instance, depending on the followers’ maturity to handle a task situation, leader may have to engage in telling, selling, participating and delegating style of leadership (Hersey et al., Citation 1979 ). It acknowledges that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to solving a crisis and advocates leaders to take an all-encompassing effort rather than being oriented toward one or two specific behavior or style. Moreover, it is built on the assumption that different sets of responses will be required to manage and plan the different stages of the crisis (e.g., beginning, ongoing/current, and future phases; Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ). Earlier studies have also mentioned situational leadership to be best suited for crisis management, during the crisis, and in the post-crisis stages (Hersey & Chevalier, Citation 2000 ; Wisittigars and Siengthai, Citation 2019 ).

Situational leadership strategy encourages leaders to take stock of their team members, weigh the many variables in their workplace and choose the leadership styles that best fit their goals and circumstances. Leaders must be able to move from one leadership style to another or demonstrate multiple-leadership styles simultaneously to meet the changing needs of an organization and its employees. During crisis, employees are likely to demonstrate different readiness to handle situation. Situational leader could choose the appropriate leadership style to match with the followers’ level of readiness to enhance their productivity and competitiveness (Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, Citation 2009 ). Situational leaders, therefore, must demonstrate a high level of different leadership competencies during the crisis. In our review of leadership during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have identified several leadership behaviors and styles that a situational leader must possess to handle the crisis effectively. They are discussed in the following section.

3.1.2. Implicit leadership theory

While leadership is often seen as what leaders do, research in this area acknowledges that leadership is a process of interaction between different leaders and followers and the environment (Schyns & Riggio, Citation 2016 ). Employees (followers) are key stakeholders for leaders, and during a crisis, employees expect the leader to successfully manage it. They want to be supported by him, they demand support from him, they want to feel his interest and empathy, and subsequently, they want to help him through the crisis (Joniaková et al., Citation 2021 ). The followers’ preferred behaviors from their leaders during times of crisis may differ from those expected of them during the normal time or at different stages of the crisis. It is likely that employees’ perception of their current leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic will shape their (leaders) crisis leadership behaviors.

Implicit leadership theory is centered around employee’s (followers) perception of leadership characteristics (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ). According to theory, followers’ perception of leadership based on their knowledge, cognition, and beliefs could be used to identify the attributes and behaviours that distinguish leaders from non-leaders, good from bad leaders, and effective from ineffective leaders (Holmberg & Åkerblom, Citation 2006 ). Also, the theory states that the followers’ mental representations of leaders will influence how they acts toward leaders and how they behave in their workplace (Schyns & Riggio, Citation 2016 ). Therefore, the follower-centered approach to crisis leadership is important, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, since discrepancies are often found between leaders’ self-perception and followers’ perception of leadership (Seghal et al., Citation 2021 ). Understanding followers’ perception of leadership is critical for narrowing the leader-follower perception gap and achieving congruence between leaders and followers (Seghal et al., Citation 2021 ), which in turn could lead to engaged employees going that extra mile at their jobs, especially during crisis.

On the other hand, a greater discrepancy in the leader-follower perception could lead to surprise, consternation, disbelief, or emotional distress among employees, which could lead to a poor organizational culture and employee productivity (Aarons et al., Citation 2017 ). When large sample of employees from diverse organizations share the idea of what constitutes the major attributes and behaviours that distinguish desirable and effective crisis leaders from others, this represents a culturally endorsed implicit theory of crisis leadership (Holmberg & Åkerblom, Citation 2006 ). Therefore, this study focuses on capturing employees’ inference-based perceptual process, to draw conclusions on how their organizational leaders responded to the COVID-19 crisis.

3.2. Conceptualization of crisis leadership during COVID-19

Construct development and validation are essential for the establishment of a common conceptual base, especially when the existing body of knowledge on crisis leadership during COVID-19 is limited and scattered across the literature. However, fragmented contributions of these various COVID-19 focused studies and secondary sources, when considered together in conjunction with a larger body of crisis literature, have provided many critical aspects necessary for the development of crisis leadership constructs and underlying items. The seven key dimensions (constructs) of crisis leadership derived from the literature are discussed in the following sections.

3.2.1. Compassion and care

Leadership during the crisis is not only about securing the support of employees but also about giving support to them and show that the organization cares about their well-being (Eichenauer et al., Citation 2021 ; Haslam et al., Citation 2021 ). During a crisis, employee-centric leaders put the employee first and are sensitive to their differing circumstances (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Haslam et al., Citation 2021 ). A crisis is not the time to dwell on employee mistakes but rather to instill confidence in them through empathy, support, and reassurance (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). Compassion and care create a sense of togetherness during the crisis. Haslam et al. ( Citation 2021 ) argued that leaders’ ability to develop and embed a sense of “us-ness” among followers is essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. The emphasis during a crisis should be on making a connection rather than correction (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). Leaders must have the humility to listen to the wide range of employee concerns during a crisis. It shows that leaders genuinely care about them and their well-being, including mental, emotional, and physical, while making decisions (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ).

The demonstration of empathy and walking compassionately in the shoes of employees is critical during COVID-19 pandemic in which human tragedy is frequent (Deloitte, Citation 2020a ; Forster et al., Citation 2020 ). Leaders will be more effective if their policies and decisions are seen to be informed by empathy with others and their plight (Haslam et al., Citation 2021 ). Although employee needs may be many and varied during the crisis, leaders need to understand individual employees’ problems separately and guide them to overcome them (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Haslam et al., Citation 2021 ). The acts of leaders conveying concern and interest in the personal circumstances of employees were a major source of consolation. This includes expressions of empathy, concern, and understanding of what employees are going through during the pandemic, and the assurance that they are available whenever employees need to talk (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ). Dirani et al. ( Citation 2020 ) stressed the need for leaders to listen to employees’ concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide necessary psychological and supervisory support, especially to those who most need it. The study also highlighted that leaders must be more empathetic and genuinely caring in their response to the needs of their employees. Employees should be given the opportunity to speak up, express their concerns, to which leaders have to respond (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ).

3.2.2. Openness and communication

Crisis communication can be defined broadly as the collection, processing, and dissemination of information required to address a crisis situation (Coombs & Holladay, Citation 20 10). Several studies highlighted “communication” as one of the core leadership principles during a crisis as it “inspire a shared vision” (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ; Stoller, Citation 2020 ). Dirani et al. ( Citation 2020 ) stressed that frequent communications with employees about the current state of the business is an integral part of crisis management and is one of the core responsibilities of the leaders at the time of crisis. It provides comfort for employees in otherwise uncomfortable times. Such communication during a crisis must be honest and transparent, being factual, frequent, iterative, clear and direct, and must use multiple-dissemination media (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Stoller, Citation 2020 ). Employees respond so much better to the known (even if the news isn’t great) than the unknown (which tends to fuel more anxiety) or, even worse, misleading half-truths or irresponsible optimism (Forbes, Citation 2020 ).

Leaders, therefore, need to seize the narrative at the outset, being transparent about current realities (what is happening), including what they do not know. Such communication needs to be clear and consistent but also adaptive (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). Caringal-Go et al. ( Citation 2021 ) found constant and open communications from their leaders helped alleviate the negative feelings brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Forster et al. ( Citation 2020 ) stressed the importance of leaders ensuring transparency in their communication during the crisis. Deloitte’s ( Citation 2020b ) study on COVID-19 leadership also stressed the importance of communicating transparently and openly during a crisis.

3.2.3. Adaptiveness

Responding to a rapidly evolving crisis such as COVID-19 requires adaptive leadership because the crisis is characterized by uncertainty and turbulence. Therefore, continuous learning and the adjustment of responses are necessary (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Ramalingam et al., Citation 2020 ). The leaders must adapt to the situation as the conditions change (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ; Forster et al., Citation 2020 ). During a crisis, leaders should make sure to incorporate an agile and adaptive mindset into their decision-making and operational thinking, such as the need to think critically while engaging in the situation to discover new processes, restructure strategies of action and understand the phenomena (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ).

While it is all too easy to move into survival mode during the crisis, effective leaders at the same time should embrace the long view and recognize the need for new business models and innovations during and post-crisis (Deloitte, Citation 2020b ). The forward-thinking leaders are likely to use crisis as an opportunity to identify new paradigms, incorporate innovative strategies and systems into the rebuilding process such that the new processes are stronger, more robust, and progressive (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). In the case of COVID-19, the pandemic also offers opportunities for organizations to address novel demands that have emerged in the market and demonstrate their adaptability to stakeholders (Donthu & Gustafsson, Citation 2020 ).

3.2.4. Resilience and courage

A resilient leader is a person who sees failures as temporary setbacks they can recover from quickly (Forbes, Citation 2017 ). Instead of freezing under pressure, resilient leaders demonstrate courage in the face of uncertainty caused by the crisis. They must realize that hard decisions and sacrifices are required to preserve strategic direction during the crisis (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). Leaders must learn to work under extreme stress during a crisis while attempting to minimize the stress of their followers. At the same time, these leaders acknowledge that in moving quickly, it is natural to make some mistakes on the way (Stoller, Citation 2020 ). However, good leaders learn quickly from their mistakes and bounce back strongly. Taking responsibility for the crisis means that leaders are demonstrating resilience, that they are in this for the long haul, and can be relied on to continue to persevere on behalf of their followers (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ). Such leaders also show honesty and courage in admitting when they have made missteps and when there have been failures (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ).

3.2.5. Decisiveness

During a crisis, time is of the essence. Also, crises call for leaders to be more direct and strong and adopt a take-charge approach. Decisive leadership is important to act swiftly during a crisis (Forster et al., Citation 2020 ). A recognized characteristic of decisive leadership is a rapid response based on a clear understanding of the threat posed by the crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders cannot afford to make decisions by the committee in such circumstances. A decisive leader during a crisis understands that no action or a delayed action may lead to a worse outcome (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ; Al Saidi et al., Citation 2020 ). A decisive leader has well-defined expectations, communicates clearly, and typically expects people to follow the dictum without questioning it too deeply. This do-what-I say approach can be very effective at times in a crisis. The seminal studies on situational leadership have stressed the importance of “telling” employees what, how, when, and where to perform, especially when employees are unable and unwilling to take responsibility (Hersey et al., Citation 1979 ; Hershey et al., Citation 1977 ), which is a likely scenario during crisis situation. Also, decisive leaders do not hesitate to take these rapid, high-impact, hard decisions even in a limited information setting. This is because high-quality data are scarce or hard to come by crisis, and therefore, leaders must make decisions based on prior or best available knowledge, experience, intuition, consensus, and sometimes common sense (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). Caringal-Go et al. ( Citation 2021 ) study found that the employees want their leaders to be decisive such as “act quickly”, and ‘show a sense of urgency to address emerging concerns during COVID-19. Stoller’s ( Citation 2020 ) reflection on leadership in the time of COVID-19 emphasized the need for leaders to show a sense of urgency and make decisions quickly during a crisis. Employees usually obey orders when they know that the stakes are high.

3.2.6. Consultation and collaboration

During a crisis, it can be tempting to move fast and make decisions without seeking input from others (UN Global Compact, Citation 2020 ). However, addressing the challenges of a complex crisis like the current pandemic requires more than leaders acting alone and requires collective and inclusive decision-making and stakeholder collaboration for success (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Sadiq et al., Citation 2021 ). Even authoritarian leaders should not stick to their “one-leader show” during a crisis (Deloitte, Citation 2020c ). The best leaders during a crisis actively resist the instinct of withdrawing inward as they are likely to be faced with information from outside of their area of expertise and may not have the time to learn more about the crisis.

Leaders, therefore, must reach out to individuals with relevant knowledge and expertise (Lagowska et al., Citation 2020 ). They should look outward to internal and external expert colleagues such as employees, suppliers, customers, and other organizations to gather the insight required to enable better decision-making (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). The leader may also consult with subordinates and seeks input to make consensus decisions. Dirani et al. ( Citation 2020 ) stressed the importance of tapping onto the collective leadership potential of everyone in the organization during the pandemic. In sum, leaders who treat internal and external stakeholders as the solution to a crisis are likely to be more effective in handling the crisis (Haslam et al., Citation 2021 ). This dimension is aligned with the situational leadership theory given that “participating” is to encourage the follower to participate and get involved in collaborating and shared decision-making (Hersey et al., Citation 1979 ; Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, Citation 2009 ).

3.2.7. Employee empowerment

Empowerment means releasing self-motivation of employees such that they have the will to perform and contribute more (Coleman, Citation 1996 ). In order for employees to feel empowered, leaders must ensure that their ideas are valued and taken seriously in decision-making (Quinn & Spreitzer, Citation 1997 ). Accordingly, one of the key aspect of employee empowerment is to encourage creative ideas rather than telling employees what to do, and thereby make everyone a contributor (Coleman, Citation 1996 ). In the context of COVID-19 pandemic, Forster et al. ( Citation 2020 ) highlighted the need to empower the employees and promote open discussions, in which creative ideas can be exchanged without fear of reprisal. Kaul et al. ( Citation 2020 ) emphasized the importance of creative problem-solving strategies to keep the enterprise operational during COVID-19. Stoller ( Citation 2020 ) mentioned the need to provide space for colleagues to experiment, take risks, and learn from the accompanying mistakes during the crisis. Eichenauer et al. ( Citation 2021 ) highlighted the importance of providing employees the flexibility and autonomy in completing their tasks. Also, from a social exchange perspective, followers who receive support from leaders will reciprocate by performing in accordance with leaders’ preferences (Keller & Dansereau, Citation 1995 ). For instance, appreciation at work and recognizing the employees’ contributions is critical during the crisis as it galvanizes their commitment and provides positive reinforcement (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Stoller, Citation 2020 ).

Table 1. Constructs and measurement items of crisis leadership in the context of COVID-19 pandemic

In this section, a second-order measurement model for crisis leadership is proposed, followed by two structural models to test the relationship between crisis leadership and organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis.

4.1. Proposed second-order measurement model of crisis leadership

As evident from our review, crisis leadership is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, encompassing seven constructs. An effective leader during a crisis should be able to display multiple competencies and styles as a coherent ensemble. In other words, no single dimension (construct) itself will be sufficient in describing or predicting the crisis leadership phenomenon. A measurement model defines relationships between the observed constructs and unobserved latent construct (the crisis leadership construct) and evaluates the reliability and validity of the model (Chiou et al., Citation 2011 ). Previous studies have strongly advocated the operationalization of leadership as a second-order measurement model (e.g., Meng & Berger, Citation 2013 ; Overby & Suvanujasiri, Citation 2012 ).

H1 : Each of the seven constructs (CC, OC, AD, RC, DC, CCL, and EM) will contribute uniquely to crisis leadership.

Figure 1. A second-order measurement model for crisis leadership.

4.2. Proposed structural model

I am satisfied with the way in which my organization has handled the crisis at the beginning (CHE1)

I am satisfied with the way in which my organization is currently handling the crisis (CHE2)

I am satisfied with the way in which my organization is prepared for handling the crisis in the future (if it continues) (CHE3)

H2: Crisis leadership will have a significant positive impact on the organizations’ overall effectiveness in handling the crisis

H2a: Crisis leadership will have a significant positive impact on the organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis at the beginning

H2a: Crisis leadership will have a significant positive impact on the organizations’ effectiveness in the current handling of the crisis

H3a: Crisis leadership will have a significant positive impact on the organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis in the future (if it continues)

Figure 2a. Structural model for crisis leadership and overall crisis handling effectiveness.

Now that we have developed the conceptual models, the next stage is to test and validate the individual constructs and the measurement and structural models and, in the process, examine the proposed hypotheses. The research methodology used to achieve this is explained in the next section.

A survey-based research approach was adopted to test and validate the proposed models and hypotheses in the study. This method facilitated structured data collection from a large representative sample population, which is critical for enhancing the generalizability of the findings to a larger population (Al Ahbabi et al., Citation 2019 ). The various stages of the survey research are discussed in the following sections.

5.1. Survey design

The survey had three sections. The first section captured the demographic profile of the respondents and their organization. The second section captured the respondent’s perceptions of crisis leadership and their organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis. The third section included open-ended questions to gather more in-depth qualitative insights such as the “What leadership decision worked or failed during the crisis?” and “what is the best leadership strategy during a crisis situation?”. For capturing crisis leadership, the underlying items within each construct, as given in Table 1 , are used with all statements assessed on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). All constructs had a minimum of three items with the exception of “OC” construct, which had two items. For capturing organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis, the three-item measure for crisis as suggested in Section 3.2 is used with statements also assessed on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The use of multiple-item measures is expected to enhance the reliability of the constructs of interest.

5.2. Survey pre-test

During the development phase of the survey instrument, the questionnaire was pre-tested with two industry leaders and two academic experts with knowledge in this domain. The pre-test process with the participants involved checking the appropriateness of the questions, survey flow, evaluating the readability/choice of terminology, clarity, and ease of understanding on the intended objective of the question, and the practical relevance of the items in real-world situations (Balasubramanian & Shukla, Citation 2017 ). Based on the suggestions from the pre-test respondents’ certain modifications were made to improve the survey instrument. For example, the question, “ Leader has demonstrated a great of self-awareness during the crisis” has been excluded from the survey because one of the pre-test participants mentioned that followers may not be able to assess and rate the self-awareness of their leaders. Similarly, “Leader has a long-term view (big picture) of the crisis” was excluded from the final survey.

5.3. Survey pilot-test

Immediately following the pre-test, a pilot survey test with 20 participants using convenience sampling was conducted to gain insight into the planning and preparation of the main survey, including aspects such as the response rate, the dropout rate and average time for completion, questions/sections skipped. For instance, close scrutiny of the behavior of drop out respondents revealed that few respondents dropped out around the 10–12-minute period without completing the important “crisis performance” section. Based on this pilot study responses, changes were made to the sequencing of the questions, and survey length was reduced by removing some demographic questions. For example, demographic question on participants’ monthly salary was excluded in the final survey instrument.

5.4. Main survey administration—population and sample

Table 2. demographic classification of survey respondents, 5.5. model and hypothesis testing.

A two-stage procedure was used to test the measurement and structural models. In the first stage, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the measurement model. In the second stage, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the hypothesized relationships in the structural models. SEM can handle multiple relationships simultaneously and efficiently (Garver & Mentzer, Citation 1999 ), including relationships between multiple unobserved latent constructs and between unobserved latent constructs and observed variables (Lei & Wu, Citation 2007 ). Both CFA and SEM can check how well the model fit the data. It provides estimates for the overall model fit and various other goodness-of-fit indices to ensure the statistical appropriateness of both models. They are discussed in the following sections.

In the first phase of the analysis, the statistical appropriateness of each of the first-order constructs was assessed. First, the unidimensionality of the seven crisis leadership constructs was determined using convergent validity and discriminant validity (Balasubramanian & Shukla, Citation 2017 ). Next, the construct reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha (α) values and composite reliability (CR) scores. Reliability estimation was conducted after construct validation because reliability would not be meaningful in the absence of a valid construct (Lee et al., Citation 2012 ). However, before presenting the validity and reliability findings, the various model fit indices of the first-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were computed to check how well the measurement model fit the data. The first-order CFA output is given in Appendix 1 .

6.1. Goodness-of-fit of first-order confirmatory factor model

Table 3. measurement model fit indices (first-order confirmatory factor analysis), 6.2. convergent validity, table 4. first-order confirmatory factor analysis, 6.3. discriminant validity, table 5. heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations, 6.4. construct reliability, table 6. mean, standard deviation and reliability of constructs.

Since the study has established the validity and reliability of the constructs, the next phase of analysis required examination of the descriptive statistics at both the construct and the item level to identify the relative importance of the constructs and items as perceived by the respondents.

6.5. Descriptive statistics

Since all the seven first-order constructs have been tested and validated and their relative importance understood, the study proceeded to the next phase to test and validate the proposed second-order measurement model of crisis leadership and the structural model examining the relationship between crisis leadership and organizations’ effectiveness in handling the crisis.

6.6. Testing the second-order measurement model of crisis leadership

Table 7. measurement model fit indices (second-order confirmatory factor analysis), table 8. second-order confirmatory factor loadings.

Among the seven constructs, compassion and care (β = 0.981, p < 0.001) emerged as the construct that explained the highest variance in crisis leadership. The qualitative comments in the survey supported the quantitative results. For instance, one of the respondents quoted: “I was really impressed by the fact that the employees’ needs and well-being were put first at all times“ . In the words of another respondent, ”Leadership team ensured physical and mental well-being of team members and special considerations were provided to the team members based on their social context” . The result echoes the previous findings in the COVID-19 literature. For instance, a qualitative study by Caringal-Go et al. ( Citation 2021 ) found that being compassionate and caring is the most salient characteristic of an effective leader during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative study by Eichenauer et al. ( Citation 2021 ) also found compassion and care among the top desired leadership behavior by employees.

Resilience and courage (β = 0.970, p < 0.001) explained the second highest variance in crisis leadership. The significance of resilience and courage can be summarized in the words of the following respondents: “ Leaders must remain positive and must not show fear …… if you are frightened you will fail “; “ …. the leader needs to be adequately resilient to tide the rapidly dynamic situation ”; and ” Creating panic, and imagining the worst will not help anyone” . The results support the notion in the literature that leaders need to lead through the crisis with enough agility to absorb adversity and improve responsiveness to arising challenges (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ). Moreover, the study findings acknowledge the fact that, during a crisis, it is normal for leaders to make mistakes (Stoller, Citation 2020 ), but they should demonstrate courage in admitting the mistakes and failures they have made (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ). Also, the results echo the Deloitte industry report findings on leadership that highlighted the need for leaders to demonstrate courage in making decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, including unpopular ones based on imperfect and inconsistent information (Deloitte, Citation 2020a ,b,c).

Openness and Communication explained the third-highest variance in crisis leadership (β = 0.967, p < 0.001). The importance of openness and communication appeared consistently in the qualitative comments of survey participants. For example, one participant wrote, “Our Director created an online newsletter for all staff and had regular online meetings to ensure staff is well informed of the evolving crisis situation“ . Another respondent mentioned, ”the CEO sent regular communication to all employees almost every other day to keep employees informed and hosted a digital townhall for employees to discuss with management any COVID-19 related issues or concerns employees are facing ”. The results are in line with the previous findings in the literature that highlighted “communication” as one of the core leadership attributes during a crisis (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ; Stoller, Citation 2020 ). Caringal-Go et al. ( Citation 2021 ) found communication as the third most important characteristic of the leader during the pandemic (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ). The quantity and quality of communications coming from a leader during a crisis provide information instead of leaving a vacuum for others to fill, thereby mitigating the risk of rumors and misinformation being spread. Moreover, clear evidence-based communication, especially organizational procedures, affecting employees can reduce their anxiety and fear (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Forster et al., Citation 2020 ; Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ). Caringal-Go et al. ( Citation 2021 ) found constant and open communications from their leaders helped alleviate the negative feelings brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, open and transparent communication during a crisis creates trust, which serves as an anchor in uncertainty (Deloitte, Citation 2020b ) and instills a sense of comfort and confidence among the employees (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ). Openness, transparency, honesty, and trust have appeared frequently in the qualitative comments of survey participants.

Empowerment emerged as the fourth important contributor of crisis leadership (β = 0.958, p < 0.001). Several survey participants also mentioned the importance of empowerment in the open-ended questions on crisis leadership strategy. For example, respondents mentioned the importance of “delegating and empowering employees to make decisions during the crisis“; “encouraging employees towards self-innovation“; and “empowering employees to find creative solutions to the problems” . Similarly, participants also mentioned: ”Recognition of employees for their excellent work values, ethics, and behavior during the pandemic is critical, so that feel important and motivated ”; and ”The encouragement and recognition during the crisis could create a more positive and optimism among the team members” . The results support the findings in the literature that leaders need to empower their employees during the crisis (Eichenauer et al., Citation 2021 ; Forster et al., Citation 2020 ), including freedom, flexibility, and autonomy at work, along with appreciation and recognition for their contributions (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Stoller, Citation 2020 ).

Decisiveness explained the fifth-largest variance (β = 0.954, p < 0.001) in crisis leadership. The decisiveness of leaders to invest in human resources and technology during the pandemic is reflected in the comments of respondents. For instance, respondents mentioned, “Without any delays, he (the leader) took action to ensure employees are trained on the online environment much before the crises deepened and work from home was implemented “; “The CEO decisively moved to online platforms as the crisis began which helped in our functioning”, and ”Overnight, our CEO invested in technology to ensure that the business did not cease because of ‘lockdown’ situation” . The result echoes the findings of Caringal-Go et al. ( Citation 2021 ), who found that the decisive behavior of leaders is one of the most important leadership attributes during the COVID-19 crisis. For instance, the study found that many leaders acted fast to encourage employees to work from home, even days before the mandatory country-wide lockdown was announced (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ).

While adaptiveness (β = 0.952, p < 0.001) emerged as the construct to explain the second least variance in crisis leadership, its contribution to crisis leadership is not far behind others, especially decisiveness and empowerment. The relevance of adaptiveness during the crisis is echoed in the comments of survey participants. For instance, respondents mentioned ” Leaders should be flexible and open to ideas from employees at all levels of the organization”; and ”Leaders should be able to adjust to ever-changing circumstances . One respondent highlighted the need for ”leaders to adapt their business strategy by making products and services that is useful for the people during the pandemic ”. The results support the notion in the literature that during the crisis, leaders need to be adaptive at all levels, something not usually associated with leadership in more ‘business-as-usual times (Ahern & Loh, Citation 2020 ; Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ). The result also supports the view of Kaul et al. ( Citation 2020 ), who suggested that effective leaders during a crisis need to be flexible in changing course, adopting novel, more promising ideas while abandoning dogma or prior diktat. Moreover, the results show that leaders need to demonstrate adaptiveness to overcome difficult situations and seize the opportunity presented by the pandemic (Kaul et al., Citation 2020 ).

Finally, consultation and collaboration emerged as the construct that explained the least amount of variance in crisis leadership (β = 0.940, p < 0.001). However, the contribution is still strong and significant, highlighting that it is integral to crisis leadership. The qualitative comments from the respondents supported the importance of consultation and collaboration during the crisis. For example, one of the survey participants reflected: “ Our leader established different committees’/task forces to deal with different areas of work and propose solutions to cope with the crisis “. Similarly, other respondents mentioned, “Leadership team consulted with all internal and external stakeholders including experts and outsourced staff to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic” , and ” Our leader took the entire employees in confidence and got feedback/advice from everyone irrespective of their designation, and involved them in decision making” . The results, to some extent, reject the notion in the literature that crisis leadership requires authoritarian and highly centralized leadership that focuses on swift action over delegation (Joniaková et al., Citation 2021 ). On the contrary, it supports the notion that crisis leadership requires collective and inclusive decision-making and stakeholder collaboration for success (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ; Sadiq et al., Citation 2021 ). For instance, Caringal-Go et al.’s ( Citation 2021 ) exploratory study on leadership characteristics during COVID-19 found that many leaders were consultative in how they engaged with their employees (e.g., ask for inputs and suggestions) in gathering ideas on how to adjust to new ways of working and coming up with collaborative solutions. Similarly, Stoller ( Citation 2020 ), reflected on the importance of leaders harvesting wisdom from every part of the organization and outside during the COVID-19 pandemic.

6.7. Structural equation modeling and hypothesis test results

Table 9. measurement model fit indices of structural models.

Figure 2b. Structural model for crisis leadership and crisis handling effectiveness at different stages.

Table 10. SEM test results (Model 1 and 2)

For H2, the crisis leadership explained almost 83% of the variance in the organizations’ overall effectiveness in handling the crisis (β = 0.91; p < 0.001). Similarly, the crisis leadership explained around 71% variance in organizations’ effectiveness in handling of the crisis situation at the beginning (β = 0.84; p < 0.001) as well as during the pandemic (β = 0.84; p < 0.001). Despite the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis leadership explained approximately 66% of the variance in organizations’ preparedness in handling the crisis if the COVID-19 continues (β = 0.81; p < 0.001).

The results are not surprising as the synthesis of the qualitative comments of survey participants shows that effective crisis leadership is leading to several organizational outcomes such as employee productivity, employee motivation, work–life balance, employee commitment, loyalty, and retention, among others. For instance, one respondent mentioned: “ Leader showed faith followed by freedom at work helped in me giving my best and doing what it takes to keep the business moving “. Similarly, other respondents mentioned: “ Trusting your workers to work from home provides flexibility for employees which results in improved work-life balance and happiness and work efficiency “; “ … keeping employees’ interests/apprehensions in mind while making decisions for the company reinforces motivation in them to work harder as tougher situations arise”; and ” … when an employee is valued and taken care during a crisis, he/she will remain loyal and will have more respect and dedication to the employer” . On the contrary, one respondent mentioned, ” …. with the leader panicking first and securing themselves, there is a lot of uncertainty and negativity spread within the company that led to lower employee morale, leading to increase in employee attrition and lower productivity” . This echoes the findings in the literature that, during a crisis, leaders must validate gratitude for the employee’s adversities, which helps build loyalty and promotes commitment on behalf of the organization (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ). Similarly, empowering employees during a crisis creates motivated teams, improves decision-making, and boosts the stakeholders’ commitment to the organization and its survival (Dirani et al., Citation 2020 ). Also, the delegation of tasks and ownership to employees during the crisis will enhance employee motivation through autonomy and leader-follower trust relationship (Crayne & Medeiros, Citation 2020 ). Further, acknowledgment of employees’ contributions during a crisis galvanizes employees’ commitment and provides stamina for the long haul (Stoller, Citation 2020 ).

The current COVID-19 crisis is having and will continue to have a huge impact on us at the individual, organizational, societal, and global levels. At the organizational level, the COVID-19 pandemic brings into the spotlight the role of leaders and leadership in reshaping their organizations to survive during and after the crisis. Unfortunately, despite crisis leadership being a strategically important area in leadership studies, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, empirical studies in conceptualizing and measuring crisis leadership have been limited and fragmented. This study bridges this gap in the literature using the lessons learned from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The fundamental question the study attempted to answer was “What attributes make an effective leader during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic?”.

For practitioners, the study is timely given the high-stakes and urgent nature of the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, given the uncertainty over how long this COVID-19 pandemic will last with several countries experiencing or likely to experience a second or third wave of infection, the study finding has significant implications for organizations and leaders to take pre-emptive measures for effectively steering the organization during the COVID-19 crisis as well to prepare for future crisis. This study demonstrated that crisis leadership is multifaceted and requires an all-encompassing effort focusing on all seven constructs rather than focusing on one or two aspects

From a theoretical standpoint, this study extends the discussion of crisis leadership through the lens of situational leadership theory and implicit leadership theory. The findings support the notion in the literature that situational leadership is an effective leadership style during crisis (Hersey & Chevalier, Citation 2000 ); Wisittigars and Siengthai, Citation 2019 ) and that an effective leader requires a rational understanding of the task situation and make an appropriate response that has the highest probability of success (Hershey et al., Citation 1977 ; McCleskey, Citation 2014 ). In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to responding to the crisis. Instead, leaders must be able to move from one leadership style to another or demonstrate multiple-leadership styles simultaneously to meet the changing needs of an organization and its employees. For instance, leaders may have to give orders to followers in a do-what-I say approach, while at the same time, leaders may have to consult and collaborate with employees and seek their creative inputs in responding to the crisis situation. Similarly, leaders may have to make tough decisions, including layoffs, while simultaneously demonstrate compassion and care for employees. The findings, therefore, provide a road map for organizations looking to develop the essential crisis leadership capabilities for senior managers and leaders. Given, situational Leadership applies equally well with/and by both men and women, and can apply with the same level of effectiveness across different cultures with different people groups, the theoretical lens of situational leadership used in this study is expected to enhance the generalizability of the findings across different setting (Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, Citation 2009 ).

The findings also support the notion of implicit leadership theory that states that followers’ cognitive structures or prototypes of leader characteristics will influence how they acts toward leaders and how they behave in their workplace (Schyns & Riggio, Citation 2016 ; Shen, Citation 2019 ). This results advocate a follower-centered approach to crisis leadership, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, given that the followers positive perceptions of leadership style are associated with a more positive organizational performance, in this case, crisis performance (Shen, Citation 2019 ).

In terms of research contribution, the study also answers the growing calls in the literature for conducting quantitative studies to validate themes and/or test conceptual models of effective crisis leadership (Caringal-Go et al., Citation 2021 ). Lack of reliable quantitative measures had stalled researchers’ efforts in evaluating effective leadership behavior during a crisis. Previous literature has largely failed to empirically examine crisis leadership as a multi-dimensional construct. These gaps in the literature have been addressed through the development of a measurement model, which integrated the seven constructs of crisis leadership. The findings from this study are expected to be relevant to a broader population across different countries, given the fact that data was collected from a global survey comprising participants from 22 countries. The validated first and second-order crisis leadership constructs and their associated measurement items (24-item scale) can be adopted by future researchers in different settings to advance investigation and practice in crisis leadership. This in itself is a significant contribution, given that the construct development is at the core of theory building (Venkatraman, Citation 1989 ). We expect the validated measurement scale and model to forge a path ahead for theoretical and empirical advancement of crisis leadership and help define the field’s boundaries more rigorously.

The study has some limitations. Although recent literature has been reviewed and multiple-leadership concepts have been examined, we are by no means suggesting that this is a definitive set of leadership constructs and measures that should be examined. The study is only the first attempt in modeling crisis leadership during the pandemic. More work is needed to refine and extend the constructs and items of crisis leadership during the pandemic and in general. Researchers interested in crisis leadership can expand this study to different regions and cultural settings to test the universality of the proposed crisis leadership model as well as incorporate some unique aspects associated with each subculture. The established crisis leadership model in this study is based on the lessons learned from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. More work is required to test the generalizability and transferability of the proposed model in different crisis situations.

The other limitation of the study is the use of non-probability sampling technique of convenience and snow-ball sampling to recruit participants for this study. This limits the generalizability of the findings since convenience and snowball samples may not produce representative results for the target population. Future studies could consider probability sampling technique such as random sampling to reduce sampling bias and enhance generalizability. Also, the model is build based on employee perceptions and has not considered the self-perceptions of leaders. Previous studies have found discrepancies in leader and follower perceptions of effective leadership behavior (Seghal et al., Citation 2021 ). Future studies can test the model using leader perspectives. Such understanding is critical for narrowing the leader-follower perception gap and achieving congruence between leaders and followers on crisis leadership. Finally, the study findings are based on cross-sectional data from only 205 respondents. Future studies with increased participation can further enhance the validity and generalizability of the findings and tease out more managerially relevant implications. Moreover, it was evident from the literature that, at the employee level, organizations could rely on crisis leadership for enhancing employee productivity, loyalty and commitment, as well as reduce employee stress and anxiety. Similarly, at the organization level, crisis leadership can be effective in maintaining the financial health of the organization, and seize the opportunities presented by the crisis and stay ahead of the competition. Future studies could use the proposed crisis leadership construct to assess its impact on the aforementioned outcomes variables at the employee and organizational levels, such as revenue and market share.

Despite these limitations, the study findings make several significant contributions in advancing our understanding of crisis leadership during a pandemic and in general. This study has deepened the knowledge of how leaders can effectively manage crises, especially crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. For researchers, this study provides a solid theoretical foundation and a measurement methodology that may greatly facilitate further empirical work in this domain.

Author statement

The authors are part of the Middlesex University Dubai’s COVID-19 research team that have been involved in a range of COVID-19 related over the past two years. Both authors have keen interest in advancing situational leadership theory and in developing crisis leadership model. Previous leadership studies of authors include impact of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on employee innovation and performance, and leadership strategies for supply chain management.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Appendix 1:

Second-order confirmatory factor analysis results.

Appendix 2:

Structural equation modeling results for model 1.

Appendix 3:

Structural equation modeling results for model 2.

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