Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been confronting with severe health and economic consequences of a novel form of pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan. If examined closely, the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 is different from anything we have experienced in over a century. This pandemic looks to be a persistent and existential challenge for organizational leadership all over the world. The role of leader resilience is fundamental for the whole organization including its employees, and requires emotional, physical, and psychological endurance. Leaders should express high level of empathy towards their employees and encourage them to practice a calm and methodological approach regardless of whatever happens next. Moreover, leaders should provide the necessary psychological, financial, and logistic support to their employees to work remotely to ensure their safety and achieve their performance goals.
To ensure this support to employees, leaders must adjust and respond to the changing circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the organization, as their resilience can significantly influence employees’ resilience, wellbeing, work engagement, performance, commitment, creativity, and employees helping behaviors. Indeed, a good leadership and a supportive work cultural climate can have a positive impact on employees’ wellbeing during and after the crisis of COVID-19. Good leaders across the globe are showing their concern towards the safety, the security, and the health of their employees rather than concern for their performance. For example, leaders should adapt their leadership style according to the changing situation; they should redesign their business model, strategy, and structure to suit with changing market conditions. Additionally, they should protect the workplace, and equip employees with the required resources and training to motivate themselves to work well and adhere to social distancing practices and other protocols as required. To ensure employees’ resilience and well-being, leaders should adopt a proactive approach to develop a crisis command center within their organizations to help employees maintain business continuity, financing, and supply chain, to strengthen digital skills at different levels across the organization. Finally, leaders should engage with the business ecosystem to thrive during this COVID-19 pandemic.
The main purpose of this Research Topic is therefore to examine the impact of leadership on employees’ resilience and wellbeing, and vice versa. We welcome articles related to any aspects of leadership and its effects on the above-mentioned aspects during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are particularly interested in studies that focus on the role of leadership on employees’ wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially related (but not limited) to the following:
• Resilience and employees’ life satisfaction, creativity, job performance and commitment, and helping behavior, with a particular attention on these mechanisms in the new “work from home” environment;
• Leadership in organizational crisis management;
• Leadership in the perspectives for developing organizational resilience.
We welcome empirical studies across different disciplines and cultures that fall under the scope of the section and the journal.
The Guest Editors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Sadaf Iqbal during the initial stages of creating this Research Topic and for her help with the peer review process.
Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been confronting with severe health and economic consequences of a novel form of pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan. If examined closely, the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 is different from anything we have experienced in over a century. This pandemic looks to be a persistent and existential challenge for organizational leadership all over the world. The role of leader resilience is fundamental for the whole organization including its employees, and requires emotional, physical, and psychological endurance. Leaders should express high level of empathy towards their employees and encourage them to practice a calm and methodological approach regardless of whatever happens next. Moreover, leaders should provide the necessary psychological, financial, and logistic support to their employees to work remotely to ensure their safety and achieve their performance goals.
To ensure this support to employees, leaders must adjust and respond to the changing circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the organization, as their resilience can significantly influence employees’ resilience, wellbeing, work engagement, performance, commitment, creativity, and employees helping behaviors. Indeed, a good leadership and a supportive work cultural climate can have a positive impact on employees’ wellbeing during and after the crisis of COVID-19. Good leaders across the globe are showing their concern towards the safety, the security, and the health of their employees rather than concern for their performance. For example, leaders should adapt their leadership style according to the changing situation; they should redesign their business model, strategy, and structure to suit with changing market conditions. Additionally, they should protect the workplace, and equip employees with the required resources and training to motivate themselves to work well and adhere to social distancing practices and other protocols as required. To ensure employees’ resilience and well-being, leaders should adopt a proactive approach to develop a crisis command center within their organizations to help employees maintain business continuity, financing, and supply chain, to strengthen digital skills at different levels across the organization. Finally, leaders should engage with the business ecosystem to thrive during this COVID-19 pandemic.
The main purpose of this Research Topic is therefore to examine the impact of leadership on employees’ resilience and wellbeing, and vice versa. We welcome articles related to any aspects of leadership and its effects on the above-mentioned aspects during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are particularly interested in studies that focus on the role of leadership on employees’ wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially related (but not limited) to the following:
• Resilience and employees’ life satisfaction, creativity, job performance and commitment, and helping behavior, with a particular attention on these mechanisms in the new “work from home” environment;
• Leadership in organizational crisis management;
• Leadership in the perspectives for developing organizational resilience.
We welcome empirical studies across different disciplines and cultures that fall under the scope of the section and the journal.
The Guest Editors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Sadaf Iqbal during the initial stages of creating this Research Topic and for her help with the peer review process.
