Published Online:September 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Effective Executive
Product Type:Article
Product Code:EE040924
Author Name:Lester Davids, Kurt April and Rajul Grover
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Management
Download Format:PDF
Pages:38
The global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was unprecedented in our generation. It represented an acute crisis that saw countries crippled economically, socially and morally. For leaders all across the world, this crisis was a challenge that they had never anticipated and were unprepared for. Within this context, this paper sets out to explore leadership in small and medium enterprise businesses across four industry sectors. Using a phenomenological approach, nine leaders across four businesses were interviewed. The questions were designed around a framework of six constructs garnered from literature that epitomized leaders’ competencies during a crisis. They were: authenticity, empathy, transparency, creativity, flexibility (in business) and resilience. Transcript analysis was done using CAQDAS, NVivo. In all, 135 codes were extracted from the transcripts and distilled into 17 conceptual (second-order) categories. Further aggregation resulted in five emergent themes reflective of leading businesses in and through crises. Cross-referencing these themes with literature resulted in a theoretical model—Entrepreneurship-as-Practice. Overall, the phenomenological approach to understanding leadership in crises produced an applicable model for current and future crises preparedness.
The Covid-19 pandemic caught the world unprepared, leading to widespread shutdowns and economic disruption. The common understanding is that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus rapidly spread globally, from the Far East, due to travel, affecting businesses from fast food to healthcare. Social distancing and mask-wearing became essential. In Africa, SMEs faced severe financial hardship and soaring unemployment in the so-called ‘new normal’.