Pages: 35-45
Introduction. Under the incidence of COVID-19 pandemic, everything is chanced from behavior to action patterns. Research indicates that lack of flexibility and finding short term solutions to changes can be a myopia of leadership. People, organizations and governments are leading their actions in a context characterized by the unknown, the lack of predictability and hazy horizons, in which the only weapon is the ability to adapt. Adaptive leadership should be a solution for individuals and organizations to adjust to changing environments and effectively respond to recurring problems. The adaptive leadership involves changing behavior in appropriate ways as the situation changes and it requires knowledge and the tools to solve the problem efficiently.
Aim of the study. The article is an exploratory study based on author`s observations and literature investigation on the subject investigated during COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the paper aims to investigate how companies acted in the first phase of the pandemic (as first actions), but also how organizational leadership can be transformed into current conditions to achieve efficiency. The article provide a perspective of the adaptive leadership theory as a basis for business to change their traditional leadership into a process that is not constrained by hierarchical and one-directional notions of leadership (Scott Du Rue, 2011) because in current context, leadership should develop and adapt in dynamic contexts. Limitations: the paper is a theoretical approach that is trying to guide the organizations in the process of acting in a business, economic and social environment profoundly changed by the pandemic effects. Another limitation is the period investigated; the author includes only the actions in the early stage of pandemic (the first three months).
Keywords: pandemic, leadership, organization, crisis, development, adaptative leadership
JEL Classification: H12, M12, M54
