Employee perspectives on effective crisis leadership skills in small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

ABSTRACT Building on the 4Cs and five phases of crisis management and Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model, this research aims to identify employees’ perspectives and expectations on crisis leadership characteristics and skills to lead organisations and decrease the disruptive effects of a black swan event. This exploratory research interviewed 43 small and medium-sized enterprise employees from wholesale and retail trade sectors in Taiwan and the U.S. and studied their expectations of effective crisis leadership. Using an inductive thematic analysis, this research identified eight themes for leaders to navigate and lead through crises and make positive changes. Personal qualities and abilities to excel are the top two themes mentioned by most of the interviewees. A follower-centred situational leadership that demonstrates positive personal qualities, focuses on employee safety, and assures job security and transparency can effectively lead the employees and organisation to overcome a crisis. The findings could be used for organisation leaders’ and HRD professionals’ practice as change agents and for future research in HRD theory and leadership.