The Impact of Leadership Values on the Resilience of Employees in the New Normal

Abstract

With Covid-19 impacting the way of living, employees and organizations had it tough in terms of survival. In order to combat the repercussions of this pandemic, resilience plays a very crucial role. Resilience talks about the coping mechanism of an individual. In troubled times, the ability of an individual to bounce back and fight through the adversities is known as resilience. This study aims to understand the impact of leadership on the resilience of the employees working in organizations. It further tries to understand the difference in the coping resilience within genders and different roles in the organisation. Using an online questionnaire, 308 respondents filled in the survey. A positive correlation was found between the coping resilience of employees and the leadership values of empathy, stability and communication. Also, the results showcased the male gender to be more resilient. Since a young age, Indian society pushes men to shoulder responsibility and they are expected to be strong during adverse situations. Executives displayed a lower resilience as compared to the managerial and senior management roles. Thus, leaders should possess the ability to be empathetic, should be able to communicate effectively to the employees and display behaviour to stabilize the organization during difficult times in order to build a resilient organization.