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Leadership in times of COVID-19 : What is required by leaders to effectively manage employees in a virtual work context?

Wiefferink, B.B. (2021) Leadership in times of COVID-19 : What is required by leaders to effectively manage employees in a virtual work context?

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Abstract:As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to expand knowledge in the field of virtual work. Instead of focusing on whether virtual work must be implemented, organizations must now focus on how to get the most out of virtual work. This study shows that leaders can play an important role in optimizing the leader-member exchange in a virtual work context by performing specific virtual leadership practices that can serve as ‘tools’ to effectively perform transactional- and transformational leadership practices, which in turn lead to high-quality exchanges. It is known from existing literature that leaders who establish such high-quality relationships with their subordinates are practicing more effective leadership and are thus more effective at managing their employees. Therefore, this study concludes that leaders should develop new virtual leadership practices to optimize the ‘virtual LMX’, for the purpose of effectively managing employees in the virtual work context. With these insights, the study can be valuable for leaders to guide them in the leadership process during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also after that, considering that the virtual work environment will probably play a big role in the post-COVID world.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/88320
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