Purpose This study explores how first-line managers adapt relationship management practices during the transition from onsite to remote and hybrid work amid prolonged uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal case study using temporal bracketing analyzed 49 interviews with seven first-line managers over one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Managers initially compensated for reduced physical proximity and social cues through sensing and visibility practices. As remote work persisted, these practices became routinized and distributed through team relationships. With the transition to hybrid work, managers selectively integrated physical and virtual interaction based on the relational information each provided. Across these phases, managers progressively reconstructed social awareness. Practical implications Managers can support relationship management in hybrid work by deliberately creating opportunities for social awareness across physical and virtual interactions. Organizations can facilitate this through interaction structures, peer-learning opportunities and training to help managers recognize and respond to relational cues across distributed teams. Originality/value This study conceptualizes relationship management as a dynamic process that evolves through compensation, routinization, distribution and selective integration as managers’ access to physical proximity and social cues changes.
Purpose This study examines whether leadership styles (i.e. transformational, servant, and exploitative) predict remote work satisfaction and whether these relationships are moderated by communication media richness. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 753 remote working German employees (µ = 41.6 years) were analyzed using multiple regression, moderation, and exploratory ANOVA. Findings Leadership styles explained a trivial share of variance in remote work satisfaction and showed no significant direct or moderating effects. Communication media did not moderate these relationships, and media richness was not associated with satisfaction across low, medium, or high levels. Exploratory analyses indicated weak and inconsistent patterns, including slight positive associations for transformational leadership and servant leadership under high media richness and negative patterns for exploitative leadership; however, these effects were not robust. Overall, results provide limited evidence for associations between leadership styles, communication media, and remote work satisfaction. Originality/value Findings indicate that established leadership styles have limited explanatory power for remote work satisfaction in digitally mediated environments. This supports a boundary-condition perspective, suggesting that reduced social presence, fewer nonverbal cues, and asynchronous communication may attenuate the observable impact of leadership behaviours on remote work satisfaction.
Purpose Strategic leaders are increasingly facing severe and unprecedented crises that are threatening organisation survivability, making classical leadership practices less effective in complex environments. Using complexity leadership theory that constitutes three dynamic leadership styles - administrative, adaptive and enabling – this study explores how they interact across different crisis phases and how the prevailing leadership style in each phase is associated with specific business model changes necessary for organisation resilience and survivability. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative research approach, interviews were conducted with 22 organisations that have managed to survive a multitude of crises to reflect on leadership practices adopted during the disturbances. Findings The results show a prevailing role of administrative leadership across the entire crisis timespan. While administrative leadership ensured centralised decision and control, it was cautiously exercised during the crisis management phase with the manifestation of adaptive leadership at the executive level. The post-crisis phase witnessed a sequential layered leadership approach, from administrative to enabling to adaptive. These dynamic interactions correspond with distinct business model changes, including liquidity management at the early crisis stage, stakeholder management and product development during crisis management and globalisation and transformative innovations at the post-crisis phase. Practical implications Strategic leaders can be reassured that their leadership style, in particular administrative leadership, can be modified as the context necessitates, such as incorporating both adaptive and enabling capacities in a sequential manner. They can also benefit from the findings to reduce the risk of leadership-strategy misalignment, thereby reducing internal resistance and enhancing innovation with the optimal configuration of business model decisions. Originality/value This study provides a micro-level analysis of the interaction of the three leadership styles suitable for a complex adaptive system. In doing so, it explores the relevance of each at different crisis phases, while establishing a link between leadership practices and business model changes, a relationship that has been overlooked in the extant literature.
Purpose While developmental programs act as identity workspaces, existing frameworks treat leader self-efficacy (LSE) as a static antecedent rather than a dynamic regulator. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the co-evolution of leadership identity and LSE within a post-Soviet MBA context to explain how initial confidence dictates divergent developmental trajectories. Design/methodology/approach Anchored in an interpretivist paradigm, we employed qualitative research methods to analyze 30 in-depth narrative interviews from two MBA cohorts. Thematic and narrative analyses were used to capture longitudinal identity shifts and LSE recalibration. Findings We reveal that identity evolution is regulated by LSE recalibration, manifesting in two distinct trajectories: empowerment (for low initial LSE) and grounding (for high initial LSE). These trajectories progress through four phases – Preparation, Orientation, Experimentation and Confirmation. From these findings, we derive the Confidence-Framed Leadership-Identity Evolution (CF-LIE) model, demonstrating how peer validation and cultural holding environments catalyze identity shifts. Research limitations/implications The retrospective, single-cohort qualitative design captures meaning-making but precludes real-time observation of LSE fluctuations. Furthermore, because the CF-LIE model emerged within a post-Soviet institutional context characterized by high power distance, its theoretical transferability requires longitudinal testing across divergent cultural and organizational typologies. Practical implications This study shifts the architectural focus of leadership programs from competency acquisition to targeted identity scaffolding. Curricula must be structurally calibrated to incoming LSE baselines – engineering early mastery experiences for the empowerment trajectory and strategic dissonance for the grounding trajectory. Furthermore, institutions must intentionally design “holding environments” that normalize identity friction as a core mechanism for leader emergence. Originality/value This study reconceptualizes LSE from a static antecedent into a dynamic regulator of identity work. The emergent CF-LIE model bridges social identity and self-efficacy theories, providing a processual architecture for leadership development in transitional economies.
Purpose Drawing from the social exchange theory (SET), the study examined the direct effects of perceived leader integrity on work engagement and the indirect effect of this relationship via emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a time-lagged design, collecting data in 3 waves from 392 public healthcare employees. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess model fit as well as the composite reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs. Hierarchical regression analysis and the Hayes PROCESS macro were subsequently used to test the study's hypotheses. Findings The findings revealed that perceived leader integrity significantly enhances both work engagement and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence mediates the positive relationship between perceived leader integrity and employee work engagement. Practical implications These findings support SDG 3 (“Good Health and Well Being”) by showing that integrity based leadership is essential for a healthy and engaged healthcare workforce. Employees' perceptions of their leaders' integrity are critical, making it important for leaders to demonstrate consistent ethical behaviour to sustain high levels of engagement. Originality/value This study offers original value empirically examining how perceived leader integrity enhances work engagement through employees' emotional intelligence, an underexplored mechanism in existing research. By focusing on the healthcare sector and using a three-wave time-lagged design, it provides fresh empirical insight into how integrity-based leadership strengthens engagement in emotionally demanding work settings.
