Background: A changing world requires strong leadership. The pressure can increase in the event of the effects of a macroeconomic crisis in listed companies, as the demands from primarily shareholders increase. When a company is public, mandates within the leadership become even more important. Leadership in crisis and the crisis management work itself is decisive for how a listed company should instill security and stability. Through the ability to adapt the leadership according to the given situation, the leader can succeed in crisis management and at the same time motivate the employees in an effective way. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze leadership styles in listed companies and whether leadership adapts during a macroeconomic crisis. Method: The study is based on qualitative interview research and has an abductive approach. Literature, newspaper articles and scientific articles form the basis of the study's theoretical frame of reference. The study's empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews with six leaders from different levels and experience. What they have in common is that they all base their leadership experiences from listed companies. Conclusions: Leadership must be adapted in the event of a macroeconomic crisis. As a leader, you should come forward and be extra clear, visible and communicative. If this is not done, uncertainty will arise and employees may find it more difficult to perform. The leader's actions are fundamental in crisis management. In addition, the study shows that the more leadership experience a leader has behind them, the greater understanding the leader has of what adaptations are required from a purely strategic point of view for the interests of the company and the shareholders. The study shows that it is not unusual for a leader who normally adopts a certain leadership style, e.g. transformative leadership style (which means to change), to adopt the authoritarian style with great confidence, when it is necessary to get employees to engage in the company's goals in stressful situations.

Background: Organizations are constantly going through inevitable changes due to global crises that risk the organization's existence. Crisis management work is thus an important process that refers to how these crises are handled. Leadership is an important component during crisis situations as the leader's role determines what the crisis management work looks like and how effective it is. With the help of leadership skills and competencies, the leader can succeed in crisis management in a productive way. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and create a deeper understanding of how leaders handle organizational crises that arise because of global crises and the importance of different leadership competencies that are fundamental in crisis management. Method: The study follows an interpretivist paradigm and refers to the phenomenon of organizational crises and leadership. The study is based on the qualitative research method and has a deductive approach. Literature and scientific articles form the basis of the study's theoretical frame of reference. The empirical material of the study is based on five semistructured interviews with the CEO from different niche banks. Conclusion: Leadership is an important and crucial factor that affects crisis management in the organization when a crisis occurs. The leader's role is fundamental in how crises are handled, which leads on to crisis management. Crisis management efficiency depends on leadership skills and behavior that the leader chooses to have in order to adapt to the ongoing crisis. It is essential to possess leadership skills that can be applied during crisis situations and lead to effective crisis management. Furthermore, leaders can choose what behavior they have towards the crisis, which is also decisive for how the crisis is handled and how the results ofthe crisis management emerge.

Ghana has experienced an unprecedented failure of microfinance institutions. Within a period of 8 years from 2011 to 2019, the Bank of Ghana has revoked the license of over 489 microfinance institutions. The purpose of the exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies that microfinance managers apply to mitigate the effects of crisis to remain sustainable. The targeted population was composed of owner-managers from 6 microfinance companies in Ghana and 6 consultants who overcame the microfinance crisis and remained in practice. The situational crisis communication theory and the team leadership model were the conceptual frameworks for this study. Methodological triangulation was used to support the review and analysis of data from structured interviews, focus group discussions, and relevant company documents. Data were analyzed using NVivo to provide alphanumeric coding, and thematic analysis was used to support the identification of themes and subthemes, which were organized and linked to the crisis phenomenon to identify the 5 emerged themes: governance, communication, fundraising, cost reduction, and business model strategies. The study findings may contribute to social change by building confidence in the financial system, making microfinance services available to the lower end market. There may be more historical crisis effect mitigation strategies and evidence available to practitioners, entrepreneurs leading to job creation and sustainable businesses globally. These findings could provide insights for business leaders, owners-managers, the board of directors, practitioners and regulatory bodies to develop strategies to help their institutions survive in crises.

Covid-19 pandemin har haft stor påverkan på vårt samhälle. I Sverige är restaurangbranschenen av de branscherna som har drabbats värst. Vid en kris som denna krävs det att ledare agerar för att se till att deras organisation kan överleva. En ledare kan påverka organisationen inom alla aspekter, allt från ekonomi till personalhantering. Därav bär ledaren ett stort ansvar på sina axlar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur en kris som Covid-19 påverkar ledarskap inom restaurangbranschen och vilka förändringar som ledare gör för att hantera pandemin. Studien kommer förhoppningsvis att bidra till ökad förståelsen kring hur ledarskap har förändratsunder pandemin Covid-19 och vad det har haft för effekter. Den insamlade datan i denna studie ska förhoppningsvis förklaras med hjälp av tre olika ledarskapsstilar. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer medutvalda ledare inom restaurangbranschen. Resultatet för studien visar skillnader och förändringar som har skett i ledarskapet hos de ledare som har intervjuats. Samtliga intervjuer har tolkats och jämförts med studiens teoretiska ramverk. En kris som pandemin Covid-19 har haft stor effekt på organisationers sammanhållning samt motivation hos medarbetare och har resulterat i ett större mänskligt fokus från ledarnas sida. / The Covid-19 pandemic has had a big impact on our society. In Sweden the restaurant industry is one of the most affected industries. In a crisis like this it is required that leaders act to ensure that the organization survives. The leader is the one who can affect the organization in all aspects, from financial decisions to personnel management. Therefore, the leaders carry a big responsibility on their shoulders. The purpose with this study is to investigate how a crisis like Covid-19 affects leadership within the restaurant industry and what changes leaders have made to be able to deal with the pandemic. This study will hopefully contribute to increased understanding on how leadership has changed during the Covid-19 pandemic and what effects it has had. The collected data in this study will hopefully be explained by three different leadership styles. The study has been implemented with a qualitative method through semi structured interviews with leaders within the restaurant industry. The result of this study shows differences and changes that have taken place in the leadership of the leaders who have been interviewed. All interviews have been interpreted and compared with the study’s theoretical framework. A crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major effect on organizational cohesion and employee motivation. This has resulted in a focus directed towards the human factor of the leadership. This study is written in Swedish.

Banksektorn är en av samhällets viktigaste funktioner och har genomsyrats av strukturella förändringar under åren som förklaras tvingat organisationerna att genomgå inre omställningar. Exempel på dessa förändringar är ny teknik och IT-utvecklingen som på senare år influerat branschen. Banksektorn som många andra branscher har drabbats av en kris i form av coronapandemin vilket innebär yttre påfrestningar. Krissituationen är intressant att studera för att skapa en förståelse för hur ledarskapet hos chefer inom banksektorn har fått hantera de yttre effekterna som coronapandemin medfört. I detta arbete är därför syftet att få en förståelse för hur chefer inom den svenska banksektorn upplever ledarskapet under coronapandemin. Arbetet riktas in på att skapa en förklaring för hur ledarskapet utövats och anpassats under krissituationen. Ledarskapsperspektiv som anses relevanta för den aktuella krissituationen används för att tolka upplevelserna. I studien används en kvalitativ undersökning i form av intervjustudier. Studiens data kommer från semistrukturerade intervjuer där respondenterna utgörs av bankchefer. Teorin kommer att beskriva tidigare forskning kring ämnet ledarskap samt perspektiv på ledarskap som berörs. Det redogörs för egenskaper som utlyser respektive ledarskapsteori. I empirin presenteras respondenternas upplevelse kring ledarskapet samt upplevelsen av ledarskapet under coronapandemin. Krisledning upplevts tillämpats i organisationer för att leda organisationen genom krisen. Det visar vidare på att den krissituation som uppstod medförde förändringar för organisationen och för ledningen, vilket visas genom en digital omställning. Vilket kan ha bidragit till att tillämpningen av distansledarskap och digitalt ledarskap ökat. Omställningen till ett digitalt arbetssätt har medfört att chefernas ledarskap har inkluderats mer av egenskaper som flexibilitet, individanpassning, kommunikation och coaching under pandemin. En slutsats är också att ledarskapet utifrån chefernas upplevelse har haft inslag av olika inriktningar inom ledarskapet som kan förstås genom olika ledarskapsperspektiv . / The banking sector is one of society's most important functions and has been permeated by structural changes over the years that are declared to have forced organizations to undergo internal changes. Examples of these changes are new technology and IT development that has influenced the industry in recent years. Like many other industries, the banking sector has been affected by a crisis in the form of the corona pandemic, which also means that the industry has been affected by external pressures. The crisis is described as interesting to study to create an understanding of how the leadership of managers in the banking sector had to deal with the external effects that the corona pandemic has brought. In this work, the aim is to understand how managers in the Swedish banking sector experience leadership during the corona pandemic and the leadership during the crisis. The study has focused on creating an explanation for how leadership has been adapted in a crisis. Leadership perspectives that are considered relevant to the current crisis are used to interpret the experience. In the thesis, a qualitative survey was carried out in the form of interview studies. The data is based on semi-structured interviews where the respondents are bank managers. The theory should describe previous research about leadership and perspective on leadership. For the theories presented, it is described as characteristics that proclaim respectively. The empirical presents the respondents' experience leadership and leadership experience during the corona pandemic. Crisis management has been used in the organization to lead the organization through the crisis. Furthermore, it shows that the crisis led to changes for organizations and the management, which shows by a digital change. The digital transformation may have contributed to the application of remote leadership and digital leadership. The change to a digital way of working that has taken place in leadership means that leadership has been included more in characteristics such as flexibility, individual adaptation, communication, and coaching extent during the pandemic. A conclusion is also that leadership based on the managers' experience has been influenced by specific leadership orientations that can be understood through a leadership perspective.

After breaking through the glass ceiling, women often obtain precarious or risky leadership positions in crisis-ridden organizations (the glass cliff; Ryan & Haslam, 2005). Due to women’s minority status, their appointment in a crisis can signal important changes to organizational stakeholders indicating the use of new strategies for overcoming the crisis (signaling theory; Spence, 1973). Our study examines whether the media visibility of organizations moderates these signaling effects in ways that either strengthen or weaken glass cliffs. We augmented the archival dataset used by Haslam et al. (2010) in which the glass cliff phenomenon was discovered by including data on the media coverage that the Financial Times Stock Exchange index 100 companies received between 2001 and 2005. Our analysis shows that glass cliffs were more pronounced in companies with low media visibility. This suggests that the media visibility of organizations can contribute to increased accountability regarding their personnel decisions in ways that expose women leaders to less discrimination. / Nachdem sie die gläserne Decke durchbrechen, erreichen Frauen oft unsichere und riskante Führungspositionen in krisengeschüttelten Organisationen (gläserne Klippe oder Glass Cliffs; Ryan & Haslam, 2005). Nach der Signaltheorie (Signaling Theory; Spence, 1973) kann die Ernennung von Frauen in Krisenzeiten aufgrund ihrer Seltenheit Stakeholdern grundlegende Veränderungen bezüglich kritischer Probleme ankündigen. Wir untersuchen die Möglickeit, dass die mediale Sichtbarkeit von Organisationen Glass Cliffs moderiert – also verstärkt oder abschwächt. Können medial sichtbare Unternehmen wirksamere Signale senden oder stehen sie stärker unter Beobachtung? Hierfür wurde der Archivdatensatz von Haslam et al. (2010) um die Medienberichterstattung erweitert, die FTSE100-Unternehmen zwischen den Jahren 2001 und 2005 erhielten. Unsere Analyse zeigt, dass Glass Cliffs bei Unternehmen mit geringer medialer Sichtbarkeit stärker ausgeprägt waren. Dieser Befund zeigt, dass die medialer Sichtbarkeit von Organisationen zu einer höheren Verantwortlichkeit bei Personalentscheidungen beitragen kann, so dass weibliche Führungskräfte weniger diskriminiert werden.

Syftet med denna magisteruppsats har varit att utforska hur Covid-19 pandemin har påverkat ledarskapet och organisationens riktning.    Covid-19 pandemin har påverkar olika delar av ledarskapet. Resultaten visar tydligt att chefer känner sig överbelastade eftersom de måste hantera många administrativa uppgifter och alternerande möten. På grund av brist på tid och balans mellan arbete och privatliv har förmågan att ha en helhetssyn, tolka och ta in perspektiv utifrån och in och inifrån och ut varit en utmaning för ledarna. Resultatet indikerar även på behovet av tydliga kommunikationskanaler mellan ledarna, de anställda och deras kunder om vilka åtgärder som krävs för att anpassa sig till den nya situationen som pandemin har medfört.   Under pandemin har organisationerna tvingats att vidta snabba åtgärder baserat på föreskrifterna och begränsningarna från Folkhälsomyndigheten och regeringen. Etablerade digitala kanaler har använts men nya digitala kanaler har behövts identifieras för att skapa interaktion och relationer inom organisationen samt med kunderna.   Den snabba omvandlingen till den digitala världen har påverkat organisationens riktning att tänka annorlunda, vara mer flexibel och anpassningsbar till nya oväntade förändringar, såsom pandemin. Organisationerna har använt nyckelindikatorer för att identifiera och få en tydlig bild av hur pandemin har påverkat organisationens riktning internt och externt gentemot sina kunder. Denna nya digitala omvandling har också tvingat kunderna att gå in på nya digitala plattformar och interagera online med organisationerna. Den nya digitala medvetenheten från kunderna har framkallat nya digitala krav och tjänster som i sin tur har resulterat i behov av nya digitala självservice tjänster och en högre och starkare digital kompetens från organisationens kundtjänst.   En bidragande diskussion till organisationerna och samhället är att hänvisa till begreppet lönsamhet som en värdeskapande effekt som är hållbar över tid, kopplad till tre element: ledarskap, organisationens riktning och kundbehov. / The purpose of this thesis has been to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the leadership and the direction of the organization.   The Covid-19 pandemic has affected various parts of the leadership. The results clearly indicate that managers feel overloaded since they have to handle a lot of administrative tasks and alternating meetings. Due to lack of time and balance between work and private life, the ability to have a holistic view, interpret and take in perspectives from outside-in and inside-out has been a challenge for the leaders. The results also indicated the need for clear communication between the leaders and the employees and their customers about what actions are required in order to adapt to the new situation that the pandemic has imposed.   During the pandemic the organizations were forced to take fast action based on the regulations and restrictions from the Public Health Agency and the government. Established digital channels were used but new digital channels had to be identified to create interaction and relations within the organization and with the customers.  The fast transformation to the digital world has affected the direction of the organization to think differently and be more flexible and adaptable to new unexpected changes, such as the pandemic. The organizations have used key indicators to identify and get a clear picture of how the pandemic has affected the direction of the organization internally and externally towards its customers. This new digital transformational shift has also forced the customers to enter new digital platforms and interact online with the organizations. The new digital awareness from the customers has induced new digital requirements and services which in turn have resulted in the need for new digital self-services and a higher and stronger digital competence from the organizations customer service.   A contributing discussion to the organizations and to the society is to refer to the concept of profitability as a value-creating effect sustainable over time, connected by three elements: leadership, direction of the organization and customer need. / <p>2021-06-06</p>