Being an Emotional Business Leader in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Importance of Emotions during a Crisis

Simona Margheritti (), Andrea Gragnano, Raffaella Villa, Michele Invernizzi, Marco Ghetti and Massimo Miglioretti
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Simona Margheritti: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
Andrea Gragnano: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
Raffaella Villa: Mosaic Consulting, 20123 Milano, Italy
Michele Invernizzi: Mosaic Consulting, 20123 Milano, Italy
Marco Ghetti: Mosaic Consulting, 20123 Milano, Italy
Massimo Miglioretti: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis has brought about massive and sudden changes in the way people work and has created new emotional strains on workers. For this reason, being an emotional business leader is necessary for an organization’s survival and employees’ well-being. This qualitative study aims: (1) to explore the quality of emotions expressed by business leaders during the COVID-19 crisis, (2) to go into detail on how business leaders managed their own emotions, and (3) to investigate how they managed emotions shown by employees in their company. We interviewed 38 business leaders from 11 Italian companies. The main emotion reported by the leaders we interviewed was anxiety, caused in part by the development of the pandemic and related to uncertainty about the future. Results also showed that some leaders considered emotions as a secondary matter, or something to overcome for the good of their role. Other leaders showed a higher level of emotional intelligence and were able to empathize with their followers, communicate their vision and feelings, and create positive and constructive relationships. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed.

Keywords: emotional intelligence; leadership; business intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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