gms | German Medical Science

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all spheres of life. As of yet, there has been little research aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding in which ways the COVID-19 pandemic affects leadership in work settings. Leaders might face particular psychosocial demands as employees with functional and leadership responsibility.

Research question: This study is embedded in a larger project researching the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in work settings. This paper will focus on the question: How does the ongoing pandemic impact the work of employees in leadership positions?

Methods: The study applied a mixed-methods design. In the qualitative module, we interviewed 8 participants of one company in October 2020 and we will interview them again in April 2021. All participants held leadership positions in the company and represented a variety in workplaces and positions in the hierarchical order within the company. We applied a semi-structured interview guide and used qualitative content analysis for data analysis.

Results: Some participants described shifting work contents, as organizing work in the pandemic became either more relevant than regular tasks or came on top of regular tasks. While some addressed that leadership tasks might be neglected due to pressing issues such as management of the pandemic, others addressed that leadership tasks increased as they had to lead a number of discussions with employees about the measures taken. When it came to organization of their own work, the participants in higher ranks reported high work intensity and extended working hours without sufficient breaks over the course of several months. Furthermore, several participants reported working in home office as challenging. This was linked to the new work environment (egonomics, lack of exercise) as well as the lack of social relations at home. Some said that new forms of work such as online meetings also brought some practical relief and might outlast the pandemic.

Discussion: The topics addressed by the employees in leadership positions touched upon all five dimensions of work-related psychosocial demands depicted by the GDA model. The follow-up interviews in April 2021 will show which factors were momentary in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and which factors had continued through the course of it. This will also be triangulated with the results from the other modules in the mixed-methods design.

Practical implications: Leadership is becoming all the more important in times of crisis. Our results give first insights into the work-related psychosocial demands that affect leaders during several waves of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As the study was conducted in a large enterprise, further interviews in micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses are planned.

Appeal to science and practice: Our results depict the first stages of the expected long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.