ROLE OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS DURING TIMES OF CRISIS

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As companies worldwide battle to survive under extraordinary conditions, the COVID-19 pandemic has already shown to be a snapshot of leadership. In this disaster, management is dramatic in many ways—that is, it shares dramatic on-screen features. Fox et al. (2020, p. 2213) found that crisis managers must demonstrate and maintain different abilities and attitudes depending on the issue. People frequently expect leaders to act in preset ways, for instance, with chief executives and conservative financial controllers. However, disaster managers need to be flexible enough to give several masks, depending on the circumstances. Times of crisis place extraordinary demands on the leadership of an organization. Because of the nature of crisis as unexpected events and the resultant degrees of uncertainty, the leadership and management of an organization is expected to provide direction for all followers, including recognizing the need for action and retaining positive motivation for action.

The first role of management and leadership in times of major crises is to provide leadership. At the forefront, leader influences and ensure their teams, send out a message of optimism and share their vision (Sidani & Rowe, 2018, p. 632). They are also sympathetic to the public. At the same time, these leaders are gentle and humble, revealing their personality’s caring side. All these traits must be paired with the role behind the scenes in which leaders address the major dangers they face bluntly and realistically (Ribeiro et al., 2020, p.201). Having gathered knowledge and experience behind the scenes, leaders communicate data and dig into procedures – be it financial, technical or human – to adjust and carry through with strategies. Therefore, providing leadership and direction are the most important aspects of crises management in an organization, a role that must be efficiently and effectively executed by leaders and managers.

The second role of an organization’s leadership and management team is to recognize that a firm is confronted with a crisis, establish the issues, and formulate a plan to address it. It is a tough step, especially during the beginning of crises that do not come abruptly but come from known conditions that hide their essence. Fox et al. (2020, p. 2213) argue that the 2002-2003 epidemic of SARS, and now the COVID-19 pandemic, are examples of these catastrophes. In the face of a slow-developing catastrophe, leaders need to overcome a normality bias and might underestimate the potential for a crisis as well as the impact it may have.

Another important role of leaders and managers in times of crisis is establishing the resources and capabilities available to their organization, and then preparing to effectively use these resources to respond appropriately to the crisis. When leaders acknowledge a problem, a chain of responses is likely to follow. However, they are unable to respond as in a regular crisis by implementing procedures prepared in advance. Productive answers are primarily generated throughout a crisis that is governed by inexperience and insecurity (Sidani & Rowe, 2018, p. 624). Therefore, the management and leadership of an organization is required to first weigh its capabilities against the resources available. These exercises allow management and leadership to understand how and when to cover a wide variety of measures: not just temporary movement, for example, the implementation of external parties to help in resolving a crisis. However, modifications to ongoing business practices, such as the use of new instruments for collaborative support, may be of benefit to continue long after the event has passed. Ultimately, identification of resources and capabilities is an important role of leaders and managers in times of major crisis in an organization.

One of the main roles of leaders and managers in times of crisis is ensuring that those under their leadership remain focused and motivated towards resolving the crisis. During a crisis, leaders require not an advanced reaction plan but behaviors and attitudes that prohibit them from overacting and helping them look forward to past events. Throughout a crisis, leaders have to abandon the conviction that the downward reaction creates stability. The average company can use its system and monitoring structure to manage operations efficiently in routine conditions employing a script reaction (Sidani & Rowe, 2018, p.624). However, in uncertain situations, leaders face unknown and poorly understood problems. A few top managements in the organization cannot collect or decide quickly enough to succeed. Therefore, as a part of their role in ensuring that followers remain focused and motivated, leaders and managers are expected to provide a clear definition of expectations and responsibilities and create solutions that support these priorities.

Another major role of leaders and managers is to build a system of teams to facilitate quick issue resolution and implementation under extreme and unexpected situations. Although the team network is a well-known structure, it should be stressed that very few businesses have expertise in its implementation (Sidani & Rowe, 2018, p. 626). A team network comprises a highly flexible group, linked by a shared objective and worked together much as people work together inside a single team (exhibit). Leaders’ crisis messages typically hit the wrong mark. In the early phases of a crisis, leaders are increasingly confident and up-and-coming tones—and stakeholders’ doubts about what leadership knows and how well they handle the crises (Kotterman, 2006, p.14). Therefore, leaders and managers should be in charge of team formulations, especially where teamwork is likely to achieve faster and more efficient results towards resolution of issues and crisis.

The last, and perhaps the most important, role of management and leadership in organizations during times of crisis is to provide communication on the way forward and on matters relating to solution finding. Thoughtful, regular communication demonstrates that leaders follow and modify the situation while learning more. Leaders should pay particular attention to ensuring that every audience’s problem, issues, and interests are addressed (Sidani & Rowe, 2018, p. 630). It can be particularly helpful if the crisis response team members talk directly about what is expected, and communicate a plan to steer off a crisis. Ibeabuchi et al. (2021, p. 15) argue that communications should not cease once the crisis is over. The positive and realistic perspective may have a strong influence on employees and other stakeholders and can encourage them to promote the recovery of the firm. For example, Sidani and Rowe (2018, p. 631) look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has tested organizational leaders from all over the world, particularly highlighting the benefits of a good communication structure. Evidently, only organizations that have an efficient communication plan are able to emerge out of a crisis without major losses.

In conclusion, leadership and management should ensure that crisis management takes center stage through organization, planning, communication, and motivating followers towards finding solutions. Indeed, the discussion finds a need for leadership and management of an organization to provide direction for all followers. One of the essential features of every leader is crisis management. In a business setting, crisis is an impermissible situation that interferes with the organization’s usual operations and which demands a quick response. The discussion establishes that crisis situations cannot be foreseen and regular processes might be disabled beforehand, recommending that efficient crisis management and sound management skills be implemented.

References

Fox C, Davis P & Baucus M 2020, Corporate Social Responsibility During Unprecedented Crises: The Role of Authentic Leadership and Business Model Flexibility, Management Decision, Vol. 58, No. 10, pp.2213-2233.

Ibeawuchi N, Nwagbara, U, Alhassan, Y & Brown, C 2021, Leading Change in Difficult Times: The Role of Effective Leadership in Confronting Educational Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic, Economic Insights – Trends and Challenges, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 11- 20.

Kotterman J 2006, Leadership Versus Management: What’s the Difference? The Journal for Quality Participation, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp.13-17.

Ribeiro N, Duarte AP, Filipe R & de Oliveira RT 2020, How Authentic Leadership Promotes Individual Creativity: The Mediating Role of Affective Commitment, Journal of Leadership & Organisational Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp.189-202.

Sidani Y & Rowe WG 2018, A Reconceptualization of Authentic Leadership: Leader Legitimation Via Follower-Centered Assessment of the Moral Dimension, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 29, pp. 623-636.