Leadership Practices During the Novel Corona-virus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic 2020
Lindström, Jenni; Lindström, Jenni (2021)
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021061115800
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021061115800
Tiivistelmä
This thesis was written for Visual Meta GmbH, which operates in e-commerce in Berlin, Germany. The global crisis caused by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that started in the beginning of the year 2020 presents a unique possibility of looking at the company's agility and leadership practices and mapping out actual responses from employees and leaders to the situation. The objective of this thesis was to study possibilities to develop leadership practices further. The work related to this thesis also offers an opportunity to look at how the existing leadership practices in the company lead to shape the company's response when the crisis presented itself.
In this thesis, the author conducted interviews to gain insights into different company operations levels. First, the head of the people department was interviewed to learn about leadership practices, communications with employees, and possible crisis planning actions. Second, a person in a managerial position brought insights into operational leadership in the company. Third, email interviews were conducted with employees in functional positions. These interviews were based on insights from the theoretical framework offered by multiple studies in different leadership fields: general leadership models, crisis leadership, and virtual leadership. Finally, email communication from the organization to its employees was also gathered and analyzed.
As a result, developing a crisis plan is suggested to the company. In addition, clustering crises by type is recommended to help limit the scope of planning. Furthermore, it is observed that existing leadership models with a strive for open communication and empowering of employees benefited the company when transitioning to a new, remote work setting in a crisis.
The author's role as an employee of the company should not affect the findings and development suggestions. This role, however, did offer a possibility to act as an observer in the everyday operations of the company.
In this thesis, the author conducted interviews to gain insights into different company operations levels. First, the head of the people department was interviewed to learn about leadership practices, communications with employees, and possible crisis planning actions. Second, a person in a managerial position brought insights into operational leadership in the company. Third, email interviews were conducted with employees in functional positions. These interviews were based on insights from the theoretical framework offered by multiple studies in different leadership fields: general leadership models, crisis leadership, and virtual leadership. Finally, email communication from the organization to its employees was also gathered and analyzed.
As a result, developing a crisis plan is suggested to the company. In addition, clustering crises by type is recommended to help limit the scope of planning. Furthermore, it is observed that existing leadership models with a strive for open communication and empowering of employees benefited the company when transitioning to a new, remote work setting in a crisis.
The author's role as an employee of the company should not affect the findings and development suggestions. This role, however, did offer a possibility to act as an observer in the everyday operations of the company.