Leadership: Theory and Practice

Module code: LSME601

Module lecturer: Jose Kattady

Student ID:

Deadline: 07/11/2022

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Changing perspectives of Leadership..............................................................................................4

a) Evaluation of the problems in leadership with the aid of the case study.................................4

b) Identification of the possible solutions to the problems..........................................................5

Responsible leadership....................................................................................................................7

Significance of Responsible Leadership......................................................................................7

Performance of Responsible Leadership during and after a crisis like the pandemic.................8

Ethics and Responsible Leadership.............................................................................................9

Learning and Responsible leadership........................................................................................10

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11

References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Strong business leaders require to be adaptable and open to embracing changes. The ability to
avoid complacency and instead push on in the face of adversity is a trademark of a strong leader
(Premuzic, 2021). However, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has infuriated the need for
such leaders in business organizations. As a consequence, this report intends to propose with the
aid of the given case study that businesses should empower Responsible Leadership to safeguard
the well-being of their workers and ensure the long-term viability of their operations, rather than
relying solely on the implementation of strategic climate.

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Changing perspectives of Leadership
a) Evaluation of the problems in leadership with the aid of the case study
For a couple of centuries, leadership aspects have not changed that much. However, after the
emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, leadership requirements have been extensively changed.
As none of the organizational leaders had any prior experience of how to assess and handle such
a devastating crisis before, business organizations experienced substantial losses during the
pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic as an unprecedented dynamic facilitated the need to
undertake a systematic perspective by the leaders and make sophisticated decisions (Sheikh et
al., 2021). However, there are several problems in leadership caused by the arrival of the
pandemic that will be outlined in the light of the given case study.

 Communication problems: Due to the global shutdown, managers and leaders had to
communicate virtually with the employees. No matter how compelling and flawless a
virtual way is, it is far less effective than physical communication (Ali and Al-anwer,
2022). Thus, misunderstandings also arise. For instance, Millers Oils had a poor
communication system between its sales staff and middle managers due to an ineffective
leadership system. A responsible leader is expected to be transparent and provide regular
updates to the employees and other stakeholders regarding any issue (Kaul et al., 2020).
Updates will ensure the stakeholders that the company is preparing to encounter the
crisis.
 Coordination problems: As communication with employees gets adversely affected by
a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, it becomes too hard to establish coordination among
the tasks and the employees (Dong and Zhong, 2021). In Millers oils’ case study, an
absence of proper coordination between the sales staff and the sales manager was
noticeable. Because of this, the organization was unable to utilize the full potential and
creativity of its employees. When the company removed its middle managers,
communication and coordination among the sales staff and top management level
increased extensively.
 Resource constraints: Resource constraints saw a severe dimension during the Covid-19
pandemic. Organizations needed to incorporate safety measures for the employees within

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the workplace which required a huge amount of funds (D’Auria and Smet, 2020). Also,
providing salaries regularly during this global crisis is challenging. Organizations across
the world had to apply for loans to continue their operational expenses (Yuste, 2021).
Most of the time, leaders have to cut off employees to reduce costs that often ends up in
employee dissatisfaction.
 Employee well-being: Whenever a crisis is introduced to organizations especially when
it comes to a global crisis, employees tend to get panicked because the crisis may directly
affect their salary and job security (Yuste, 2021). When employees get anxious during the
pandemic, the other stakeholders may find it negative and pursue that the organization is
not handling the crisis well. Thus, employees suffered from both mental and financial
distress amid the pandemic. Most of the organizations were experiencing a financial
downturn and so they had to cut off thousands of employees and withhold bonus plans
(Haque, 2021).
 Decision-making in uncertainty: During the pandemic, the entire business world
plunged into an uncertain darkness where nobody knew when things will be normal
again. In such an environment, taking the best possible decision for an organization
becomes the toughest job for a leader (D’Auria and Smet, 2020). When the pandemic hit
the world economy, no business entity could anticipate the upcoming problems the virus
was about to bring. For this reason, taking important decisions became hard as
information regarding how to address the crisis was scarce (Northouse, 2022). Leaders
were struggling to be patient during such an atmosphere and some were compelled to
make wrong decisions.

b) Identification of the possible solutions to the problems

What's demanded from leaders in times of crisis, rather than a set of predetermined responses,
are attitudes and ways of thinking that keep them from responding too hastily to past events and
instead encourage them to focus on what's to come (Dugan, 2017). The aforementioned problems
need an immediate response during any crisis. Some of the possible solutions are outlined below:

 A leader needs to be calm, flexible, patient, and strong during the pandemic even after the
pandemic period (Kau et al., 2020). He/she has to extract the underlying opportunities of
the pandemic. For instance, E-commerce saw an extraordinary dimension during this

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time. Likewise, thousands of such new opportunities are revealed by the pandemic that
needs to be discovered and utilized by an effective leader (Premuzic, 2021). This strategy
can improve an organization’s poor condition. As information is not available to take
decisions, the most efficient way to make proactive choices is to use the information at
leaders' disposal to carry out several different hypotheses as per Haque (2021).
 During a crisis, employees need reassurance regarding their jobs and salaries from the
organization while adopting emotional intelligence (Meyer-Cuno, 2021). In this regard,
a responsible leader will first try to communicate his contingency plans with the
employees and then communicate with the other stakeholders (Sheikh et al., 2021). A
leader can convey the exact message to the employees and support them emotionally so
that their anxiety cannot hamper their performance (Yuste, 2021). If job cuts are to be
made, leaders have to do that by showing proper empathy toward the staff.
 The pandemic has shed light on the fact that leadership does not require to be authorized
and practiced by only one individual within an entity. Rather each employee possesses
some or many leadership traits that might be utilized during the global crisis which is
called Distributed Leadership (Pounder, 2022). Thus, each employee will have the
freedom of making useful decisions for the company, provide more opportunistic views,
and share more creativity.

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Source: (Northouse, 2022)

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Responsible leadership
According to Haque (2021), incorporating individuals, communities, and institutions, responsible
leadership is defined as a multilayered phenomenon that prioritizes ethical values, leadership
efficacy, concern for stakeholders, and social, economic, and environment-friendly approaches.

Image: Aspects of RL

Source: (Stone-Johnson, 2017)

Significance of Responsible Leadership

There is a positive relationship between responsible leadership and innovation. The reputation of
a company can be improved when its leaders prioritize both societal and environmental causes in
their pursuit of sustainable prosperity (Dong and Zhong, 2021). Therefore, workers who have a
stronger sense of belonging to their responsible leaders and morality may consider their jobs
more important and find increased beneficial impact, both of which boost the likelihood that they
will engage in creative activities (Yuste, 2021). Responsible leaders promote the rights of their
employees, foster a welcoming workplace that encourages people to work together and share
ideas, and give their staff members the authority to do so (Premuzic, 2021). By hearing that their

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employees are being treated fairly by those outside the company, businesses can boost morale
and, in turn, encourage more innovative efforts from staff.

According to Dong and Zhong (2021), Responsible Leadership is the talent of inspiring others to
embrace a new vision of sustainable growth and the required change through effective
communication, persuasion, and team development. Therefore, responsible leaders base their
characteristics around these basic qualities. According to Stone-Johnson (2017), some of the
major characteristics of this type of leadership are:

 Responsible leaders extensively promote ethical leadership by establishing ethical

behavior within the workforce and observing their activities.
 Responsible leadership significantly prioritizes Change Management over anything.
Therefore, it is considered to be the most effective leadership style during global crises.
 A responsible leader promotes employee participation while eliminating any
hierarchical differences. This approach reveals the way for creative ideas from the
employees.
 Responsible leadership encourages addressing the stakeholders’ interests with a
systematic approach. While doing so, leaders respect others' ideas, practice justice,
promote teamwork, and manifest honesty.

Performance of Responsible Leadership during and after a crisis like the pandemic
Today more than ever, business organizations require the guidance of responsible leaders to help
them survive the storm of the current global crisis and emerge stronger on the other side. Given
the extent of the risk, leaders must balance growing demands with a growing number of requests
and competing objectives and a responsible leader can do this task more efficiently than any
other leader (D’Auria and Smet, 2020). Organizational sustainability and employee well-being
are the core aspects of RL and the pandemic has maximized the need of ensuring these two areas
(Kaul et al., 2020). As this leadership style promotes stakeholders’ interests and social
responsibility, it properly addresses the agency theory and institutional theory (Northouse, 2022).
The ongoing pandemic has questioned the sustainability of many organizations. However,
organizations can better address pressing social and economic threats with the help of RL's
ability to spot and adapt to emerging opportunities. Moreover, due to its employee-focused

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approach, including RL in a strategic environment may boost workers' morale as they face the
pandemic issues as per Haque (2021).

Image: RL during Covid-19

Source: (Haque, 2021)

Lastly, the pandemic catastrophe presents an opportunity for RL to expand further than the
leader-follower connection. By incorporating RL into their overall strategic
atmosphere, organizations can focus on more than just the wellness and longevity of their staff.

Ethics and Responsible Leadership

Ethical leaders are guided by a code of moral principles instead of their self-interest, to the
benefit of their followers, their enterprises, and the community as a whole (Pounder, 2022). On
the contrary, permitting employees to engage in decision-making, become more self-reliant
instead of reliant on their leaders, and have greater control over their tasks is an encouraging
component of power sharing (Meyer-Cuno, 2021). Surprisingly, a company during the global
pandemic can adopt responsible leadership that blends the two aforementioned aspects into its
principles. By doing so, RL promotes ethical behavior among both the leaders and the staff.
Responsible leaders will influence the staff through ethical values, principles, and practices
(Haque, 2021). It encourages communicating frequently with the stakeholders and giving honest
updates on the crisis letting them know the true condition of the business during the crisis (Ali
and Al-anwer, 2021). Also, RL ensures providing emotional support to the employees and
addressing employee needs during the pandemic crisis that goes beyond the leader’s self-interest.

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Learning and Responsible leadership
As responsible leaders adopt ethical approaches to address crisis management, they can create a
working environment that assists employees to learn about the different dimensions of the crisis
and how they should be handled (Woszczyna et al., 2015). Apart from that, leaders themselves
indulge into self-learning processes in such leadership style. Different crises facilitate them to
learn different leadership and ethical practices that promotes organizational sustainability.

Image: Dimensions of RL

Source: (Stone-Johnson, 2017)

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Conclusion
Past experiences may not work for a leader to tackle challenges during a crisis like the Covid-19
pandemic. Proper adaptation of modified leadership traits, flexibility, self-confidence, and trust
in the employees can positively impact an organization's performance during such a crisis.
However, a leader also has to think about the post-pandemic situation and whether the adapted
practices need to be continued or not. All these factors were thoroughly explicated in this report.

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References
Ali Awad, N.H. and Al-anwer Ashour, H.M. (2022), “Crisis, ethical leadership and moral
courage: Ethical climate during covid-19,” Nursing Ethics, 29(6), pp. 1441–1456. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330221105636.

D'Auria, G. and Smet, A.D. (2020), Leadership in a crisis: Responding to the coronavirus
outbreak and future challenges, McKinsey & Company. McKinsey & Company. Available at:
https://www.mckinsey.com/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/leadership-in-a-
crisis-responding-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-and-future-challenges (Accessed: October 27,
2022).

Dong, W. and Zhong, L. (2021), “Responsible leadership fuels innovative behavior: The
mediating roles of Socially Responsible Human Resource Management and organizational
pride,” Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.787833.

Dugan, J.P. (2017), Leadership Theory: Cultivating Critical Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons,
Incorporated, New York.

Haque, A. (2021), "The COVID-19 pandemic and the role of responsible leadership in health
care: Thinking beyond employee well-being and organizational sustainability," Leadership in
Health Services, 34(1), pp. 52–68. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs-09-2020-0071.

Kaul, V., Shah, V.H. and El-Serag, H. (2020), “Leadership during crisis: Lessons and
applications from the covid-19 pandemic,” Gastroenterology, 159(3), pp. 809–812. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2020.04.076.

Meyer-Cuno, D. (2021), Author post: Shifting perspectives in leadership, Forbes. Forbes

Magazine. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/shifting-perspectives-in-leadership/ (Accessed:
October 27, 2022).

Northouse, P.G. (2022), Leadership theory and practice. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Pounder, P. (2022), "Leadership and information dissemination: challenges and opportunities in

COVID-19", International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 151-172.

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Premuzic, T.C. (2021), How leadership needs to change after covid-19, Forbes. Forbes
Magazine. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/how-leadership-needs-to-change-after-covid-
19/ (Accessed: October 27, 2022).

Sheikh, F., Iyer, N.K., Leigh, B. & Rubasundram, G.A. (2021), Calling Out COVID-19:
Business Strategies for Surviving a 'Pompeii Event', Business Expert Press, Business Expert
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50(4), pp. 645–674. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161x13510004.

Woszczyna, K.S., Dacko-Pikiewicz, Z. and Lis, M. (2015), “Responsible leadership: A real need
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