Strategic leadership in organizational crises: A review and research agenda
Schaedler L, Graf-Vlachy L, König A (2022)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2022
Journal
Book Volume: 55
Article Number: 102156
Journal Issue: 2
DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2021.102156
Abstract
Of all actors involved in managing an organizational crisis, strategic leaders play a particularly central role. However, the growing scholarship on the impact of strategic leaders in crisis situations is characterized by a high degree of fragmentation, considerably hindering the generation of parsimonious theory and practically useful insights. To address this issue, we conduct a systematic multidisciplinary literature review that spans the research streams on strategic leadership and organizational crises. For each type of strategic leader—Chief Executive Officer (CEO), top management team, and board of directors—we identify the different applied theoretical lenses and highlight commonalities and differences between studies and their insights. We use our review to derive an integrative conceptual framework that guides future research. Our exploratory review unveils that, while each type of strategic leader plays a significant role in a crisis context, the perspectives taken and the resulting evidence vary: as for the CEO, research focuses on social evaluations—for instance, based on the CEO's appearance—as well as agency-theoretic considerations—particularly, financial incentives. Regarding the top management team, research mostly adopts a managerial and organizational cognition lens, focusing on characteristics such as personality and human capital. Lastly, for the board of directors, agency-theoretic considerations again dominate the scholarly conversation, especially studies of board independence. Overall, we review and organize a rich but patchy research landscape, and we derive ample opportunities for novel theoretical and empirical inquiries into strategic leaders and their role in managing organizational crises.
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Schaedler, L., Graf-Vlachy, L., & König, A. (2022). Strategic leadership in organizational crises: A review and research agenda. Long Range Planning, 55(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2021.102156
MLA:
Schaedler, Linda, Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, and Andreas König. "Strategic leadership in organizational crises: A review and research agenda." Long Range Planning 55.2 (2022).
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