The benefits of transformational leadership for addressing workplace emotions after COVID-19 at a large multi-campus university

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a series of challenges to organizations. Among those that successfully continued operating, the subsequent recovery period catalyzed pressure to redefine work structure after social distancing restrictions lifted. Here, we observed the benefits of transformational leadership in this historically unique context of organizational distress by applying an adjusted version of Ashkanasy and Dorris’s (Ashkanasy and Dorris in Annu Rev Organ Psych Organ Behav 4:67–90, 2017) framework for workplace emotions to a large, multi-campus university. We quantitatively content-analyzed semi-structured interviews of more than 300 divisional leaders and their staff from across the organization. Interviews occurred in the months following the first semester of continuous in-person service delivery, when most employees returned to working in employer-operated space. Despite disproportionate emphasis on negative and self-focused emotions, negative emotions clustered in individuals’ empathic recognition of others’ emotions; though efforts to regulate those emotions proved scant. Positive emotions primarily emerged in response to local leadership efforts to mitigate the negative emotions of students, staff, and faculty. This data pattern suggests that individuals experienced negative emotions, recognized others’ negative emotions, and appreciated leaders’ interventions to ameliorate those negative emotions. Strategies reminiscent of transformational leadership therefore productively addressed the negative impact of workplace stress imposed by the pandemic, helping to facilitate compliance and enthusiasm with return-to-work efforts. The findings thus illustrate how a transformational style of leadership can address individuals’ negative experiences during a period of pronounced existential stress.