Title: Time to prove: Sustainable leadership versus crisis management - a qualitative study regarding the experience of duality for leaders between two leaderships in a unique and complex environment.

Authors: Julia Bülow and Aida Ekberg 

Published: 2021–05–24

Supervisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire 

Background: The environment is forever changing, and leaders need to adapt according to different factors. Previous research has named this rapidly changing environment as VUCA which is an acronym that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. To face such an environment, previous research has suggested VUCA prime as a way for leaders to approach the situation using vision, understanding, clarity and agility. When covid-19 entered the context, a situation of unique complexity was created which meant even greater challenges for leaders to navigate. These reinforced challenges are argued for using the external factors of PESTEL which imply political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. This environment is named as VUCA max is this study, while indicating that the need of crisis management is reinforced at the same time as the need for sustainable leadership remains and has in fact never been more in question. Based on this background, this study aims to research the approach of leaders when faced with the duality of crisis management and sustainable leadership during VUCA max. This concludes the research gap for this study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how leaders handle the duality that appears in a situation of crisis, with regards to not compromising the future need of sustainability, while faced with a unique and complex environment.   

Research question: How does leaders handle the duality between crisis management and sustainable leadership during VUCA max which is a unique and complex environment?  

Methodology: This study has a qualitative approach by the conduction of a case study, consisting of interviews with seven leaders. The main research approach is deductive, with a slight element of inductance. Therefore, the research approach for this study is abductive in its entirety. 

Conclusions: The conclusions of this study show that the leaders use crisis management and sustainable leadership in a balanced manner during VUCA max.  Sustainable leadership is therefore not deprioritized due to the increased need of crisis management. Further, the leaders have an enhanced use of clarity in relation to crisis management and understanding in relation to sustainable leadership. Leaders also use approaches such as trust, compassion, the ability to be goal-oriented, brave, take responsibility through self-leadership, and the establishment of a varied network during VUCA max. Finally, the concept development VUCA max-prime is introduced to describe how leaders handle the duality between crisis management and sustainable leadership during VUCA max.