Effective Leadership for Knowledge Sharing by Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) during Crisis

Abstract

This chapter explores effective human resource development strategies during and post-crisis. Particularly, during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the remote and hybrid measures taken by multinational corporations (MNCs) play a significant role in the development of people. According to previous literature, the internal enterprise social network (ESN) of MNCs, localization of human resources in overseas subsidiaries, and flexibility and resilience of human resource systems have a positive impact on people’s development during this crisis. Leadership has a moderating effect on using the internal ESN for remote learning, people development performance, and organizational resilience building via crises. Based on a literature review and theoretical analysis, this chapter puts forward several propositions to clarify the kind of leadership and leadership competencies that positively influence knowledge sharing through ESNs and organizational resilience innovation. Suggestions for leadership development. This chapter serves as a good reference for both business professionals and academic researchers. It provides original suggestions for both MNCs and small and medium-sized enterprises.

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously influenced society in terms of health, economy, family, and travel. The pandemic has negatively impacted many facets of business, including human resource development, knowledge sharing and learning, business travel, and supply chain logistics. This crisis prompted us to seek innovative solutions to raise organizational resilience to better adapt to uncertainty in a continuously changing environment.

According to ref. [1], among the international human resource management (IHRM) insights for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, distance and boundary issues exist for MNCs. It proposes three domains for future IHRM research: managing uncertainty, facilitating international and even global work, redefining organizational performance, and providing insights from international leadership in MNCs (adaption, integration, and direction). Similarly, in ref. [2], the relationship between enterprise social network (ESN) and senior leadership was discussed. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis and 347 respondents from 12 MNCs, this study concludes that it is important to use ESNs to exchange cross-border knowledge in the post-COVID-19 period, and senior leadership support plays a moderating role in raising the knowledge-sharing effect.

Unfortunately, no specific research exists on the kind of leadership that has such a moderating effect and how it impacts knowledge sharing through ESNs at various enterprise scales in different countries. Hence, this chapter explores this issue and addresses this gap.

2. Previous literature

To raise the learning effect of organizations and better develop human resources, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, scholars have conducted extensive research on ESN and leadership. The next section presents the latest research results on these topics.

2.1 ESN and its impact factors

Online ESNs are important for employees in dispersed locations and are used for knowledge management and transfer activities among subsidiaries in various countries. They are primarily used by two groups: knowledge contributors and knowledge seekers for the creation, dissemination, and consumption of knowledge across countries [3].

According to ref. [4], ESNs include those used in public and private firms (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Google+), and professional ESNs (Yammer, SharePoint, Salesforce, etc.). With 115 ESN users’ responses, using SEM and partial least squares (PLS) analysis with 115 ESN users’ responses, the study results indicate that using an ESN to share knowledge has a significant and positive influence on employees’ productivity. Moreover, the decision to use an ESN is significantly influenced by hedonic motivations rather than utilitarian ones [4]. Hedonic motivation refers to intrinsic motivation that emphasizes enjoyment, play mentality, fantasy, entertainment, and stimulation. Utilitarian motivation refers to motivation based on economic purposes such as rewards and benefits [4]. Using SEM and PLS analysis, the results of ref. [5] indicate that the extent to which an ESN that supports the drive to comprehend, acquire, bond, and defend starkly influences employees’hedonic motivations. Hedonic motivation has a much stronger impact on use continuance than normative motivation.

In ref. [6], the author concludes that knowledge-sharing reward systems are influenced by the dominant type of learners (avid or impressionable), ESN structure, and digitization effect.

Reference [7] explores the use of ESNs in medium-sized enterprises. Using a survey of 41 employees from different departments of an Italian company, the study found that the limited number of active users was a key obstacle to the effective use of ESNs. The purpose of using ESN should be explained better. The company seeks efficiency and speed, but trust, collaboration, tolerance toward mistakes, and transparency are overshadowed. The specific factors that impact the use of ESNs are listed in Table 1.

Dimension	Aggregated factor/category	Identified enablers/drivers (+) or inhibitors/barriers (–)
Technological	Platform Quality	Ease of use (+)
		Integration with existing system (+); and lack of integration (–)
		Accessibility (+)
		Limitation of platform features (–)
		Competing technologies (–)
	Perceived Security	Confidential information leakage concerns (–)
Organizational	Top management support	Top management commitment (+); and lack of involvement (–)
	ESN Strategy	Lack of well-defined purpose (–)
		Lack of coordination of group efforts (–)
		Lack of enforcement (–)
	Facilitating conditions	Reward system (+)
		Policy (+)
		Awareness campaigns (+); and lack of awareness (-)
		Lack of alignment with key performance (–)
		Country culture distance (-)
	Size and Structure	Geographical/temporal distance (–)
Social	Critical mass	Critical mass (+); and small user base (–)
	Reciprocity	Reciprocity (+)
		Lack of feedback from others (–)
	Information Quality	Quality contribution (+); and irrelevant information (-)
		Information overload (–)
	Task characteristics	Task uncertainty (+)
	Social climate	Collaborative norms (+)
		Tolerance to failure (+)
		Supportive community members (+)
		Negative social climate (–)
	Sense of connectedness	Sense of connectedness (+)
	Social ties	Existing preferred relationship (–)
Individual	Personality	Reputation (+)
	Enjoyment of helping others	Enjoyment of helping others (+)
	Personality	Sociable personality (+)
		Incompatibility with personal values (–)
	Time	Lack of time (–)
	ESN self-efficacy	Lack of ESN skills (–)
	Knowledge self-efficacy	Lack of knowledge self-efficacy (–)

Table 1.

Factors influencing ESN use.

Source: [8]

2.2 Leadership

Leadership has been extensively studied and approached from many perspectives, including cultural influence, organizational characteristics, leadership styles, leadership traits, gender, and ethnicity [9]. There are several categories of leadership: leadership in enterprises, education, government, sports teams, and family. The knowledge creation leadership-related theory purports to the existence of centralized, decentralized, and situational leadership [10]. Leadership is also influenced by organizational culture. During the COVID-19 crisis, scholars analyzed the various leadership roles and their influence on building better organizational resilience.

2.2.1 Leadership competencies, capabilities, and strategies

Some scholars have explored competencies, capabilities, and strategies of leadership to discover which leadership factors have a positive impact during a crisis. Using PLS-SEM to analyze quantitative data (interviews with 20 experts), [11] the results show that inclusive leadership benefits organizations during a global crisis. This is a significant moderator in the relationship between organizational inclusion and organizational citizenship behavior. According to ref. [11], inclusive leadership includes the following items and themes: the manager creates an ecosystem where employees feel a sense of belonging and trust; the manager believes that diverse thoughts lead to better performance; the manager promotes a culture of respect for diverse opinions and clarifies his team’s differences in the organization; the manager values and shows appreciation, embracing the differences in opinions and ideas at work; and the manager promotes open communication within the team.

In ref. [12], leadership competencies and human resource development during a crisis were studied. It shows leadership best practices during normal times and times of crisis (see Tables 2 and 3).

Leadership Practices in Normal Times	Leadership Roles in Times of Crisis
Model the Way	Sense maker
Inspire a Shared Vision	Technology Enabler
Challenge the Process	Emotional Stability and Employee Well-being
Enable Others to Act	Innovative Communication
Encourage the Heart	Maintain Financial Health of the Organization

Table 2.

Leadership best practices in normal times vs. times of crisis.

Source: [12]

Leadership practice	Operating definition
Model the Way	Clarify values and set the example through finding own voice, affirming and personifying shared values, and reflecting on action.
Inspire a shared Vision	Envisioning the future through: imagining the possibilities, finding a common purpose, and enlisting others by appealing to common ideals and animating the vision.
Challenge the Process	Searching for opportunities and taking risks through: seizing initiatives, exercising outsight, generating small wins, and learning from experience.
Enable Others to Act	Fostering collaboration and strengthening others through: creating a climate of trust, facilitating relationships, enhancing self-determination, and developing competence and confidence.
Encourage the Heart	Recognizing contributions and celebrating values and victories through expecting the best, personalizing recognition, creating a spirit of community, and being personally involved.

Table 3.

Five practices common to personal-best leadership practices.

Source: [13]

Stephanie [14] discusses the relationship between leadership strategies and communication implications during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is considered effective for leaders to deliver prompt responses that hasten people to act and communicate in situational, behavioral, and adaptive leadership.

Jamie [15] also analyzes leadership strategies and summarizes 13 crisis-ready leadership strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 4).

1. Plan and prepare	Anticipate major events, assess risk, specify areas of concern, identify warning signs and trigger points to mobilize action. Integrate risk communication into planning, make it part of training and preparedness exercises and embed it as part of harm mitigation strategies.
2. Narrate a clear-sighted strategy	Narrate the strategy for how the threat is to be addressed and the role people can play. Set the tone from the top, and lead by example. Don’t give mixed messages.
3. Meaning-making	Describe the risk, explain and contextualize its significance at opportune moments of public connection.
4. Direction giving	Give clear, coherent, concise and comprehensible decision-relevant information and instruction. Emphasize efficacy.
5. Differentiating people’s needs	Obtain, understand and address the varying information and support needs, preferences, and concerns of different individuals, groups, and cultures.
6. Credibility and trustworthiness	Show competence and commitment. Align with credible sources and use experts well. Communicate in ways that build trust. Do not over-protect or promise, do not stretch the truth. Be accountable.
7. Transparency	Make information ascertainable, comprehensible, and verifiable in a timely way.
8. Openness	Be candid, honest, and factual. Accept uncertainty. Enable critical input, and allow hard truths to be aired. Admit mistakes, and apologize when getting them wrong. Be receptive to and listen to external concerns.
9. Partnership and coordination	Establish networks integrating internal and external members and agencies at all levels. Identify the needs of stakeholders, partner up, and provide support where it is needed. Work together with communities, coordinate and pool respective strengths and resources.
10. Empathy	Show situational awareness. Acknowledge and respect others and show that feel as they do. Do not be aloof and dismissive.
11. Solidarity Express solidarity	Emphasize and enact a sense of “weness”, identify that everyone is “ in it together” including leaders “at the top”. Share the burden of risk and responsibility for dealing with it.
12. Be responsive and adaptive	Act quickly and decisively. Continuously evaluate and update plans and impacts and react promptly to change. Conduct dynamic risk assessments to identify wider interdependencies, needs and practical constraints. Involve stakeholders at all stages.
13. Media engagement across traditional and digital platforms	Initiate lines of communication. Meet the needs of the media. Monitor sentiment, interact with and proactively engage across traditional and digital platforms and technologies.

Table 4.

Thirteen pandemic risk leadership strategies and guidelines.

Source: [15]

Based on 120 questionnaire surveys and SEM analysis, leadership capabilities and organizational resilience were found to contribute significantly to higher private learning institutions’ performance [16]. Leadership capabilities also strongly promote performance. However, the specific styles or capabilities of leadership were not mentioned in this study.

2.2.2 Leadership’s effect on learning and working

Some scholars have conducted research from the viewpoint of increasing the learning effect of organizations, human resource development, and knowledge sharing or transference. Nussbaum et al. [17] confirm the moderating effects of leadership and analyze whether and how work autonomy, supporting leadership, and human resource factors influence creativity and innovation in organizations. In this study, 126 responses from knowledge-intensive and innovation-driven Swiss organizations were collected and a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted. The results indicate that work autonomy and appropriate leadership behaviors are only enablers of creativity if they are combined [17].

In ref. [18], the motivation and evaluation facets of leadership in learning were analyzed. Using the adaptive cycle of the resilience model, the authors searched for motivational factors for improving adaptivity and avoiding falling back. They state that managers can use education to reach the organization’s objectives through cooperation, implementation, and innovation and improve the learning process.

In ref. [19], the authors conducted an organizational culture inventory analysis and a case study on how culture, leadership, and engagement helped a small business survive during the pandemic. These findings indicate that cultural elements in the workplace contribute to company sustainability. According to the authors, focused leadership styles are crucial for company survival during pandemics. However, embracing ongoing leadership development with a focus on establishing strong and system-wide organizational core values is a challenge [19]. It also emphasizes the importance of fostering and maintaining a constructive workplace culture as well as empowering employees to grow and develop within their unique areas of organizational responsibility for effective workplace autonomy.

2.2.3 Gender differences in leadership and attitudes during a crisis

To raise organizational resilience in a crisis, some scholars have researched leadership’s role from the perspective of gender. In ref. [20], the authors found that women leaders were more risk-averse than men leaders in the domain of human life; however, in the domain of the economy, these women leaders were clearly prepared to take more risks than men leaders. The authors state that men are task-oriented and women are likely to be interpersonally oriented. Female national leaders are more transformational and act more quickly to localize their economies than their male counterparts do. They had clear, empathetic, interpersonal, and decisive communication styles. They also showed a tendency to build and nurture new relationships with others [20].

Eichenauer et al. [21] explore the relationship between supervisory leadership and gender during COVID-19 and the results indicate that communal leadership is highly important during a crisis. Women were not more communal than men when managing crises and perceptions of leadership did not depend on supervisors’ gender. However, evaluations of women’s competence were more directly related to their display of communal behaviors than those of male supervisors [21].

The reflections of five female higher education leaders on the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed in ref. [22]. Based on these five cases, the authors propose three implications for both human resource and leadership development: 1. Creating professional development programs at multiple levels (individual, group, organization, and society) that challenge the norm; and 2. leadership during a crisis necessitates a sense of timing and the ability to toggle among a range of directive/agentic and collaborative/nurturing styles, and 3. Concerning gender bias, human resource development research, and practice have not only an opportunity but also an obligation to investigate, discover, and create research and interventions that disrupt the organizational inertia that defaults to a preference for the masculine style of leadership [22].

2.2.4 Leadership in government

Craig [23] analyzed the language of leadership in such a deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The authors discussed the politics of pandemic speech and stated that when leaders do not know what they do not know, the risk of pretending to be knowledgeable ramps up communication in a crisis. Leaders should consider a message that can be inferred from their words and not use intemperate language during a crisis [23].

The government’s leadership and collective action in Africa’s COVID-19 response were analyzed in ref. [24]. According to ref. [24], compared to personal freedom during the pandemic in the US and the UK, Africans are more likely to accept the value of personal sacrifices, such as increased hunger for the public good. Collectivism is a drawback, from the perspective of a pure economy. However, from the healthcare perspective, a sense of collective belonging and in-group obligations is beneficial. Africa’s strong government leadership during this crisis includes the African Union’s three principles: science informs decisions; rapid action; and not only medical but also other facets like funding and food security need a response [24].

Montiel et al. [25] also analyzed the language characteristics of pandemic leadership by mapping political rhetoric. Using a sample of 1201 publicly available speeches from 26 countries, Ref. [25] maps national leaders’ political rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic. This helps us to understand global pandemic leadership in an unequal world and political psychology [25].

Maak et al. [26] analyzed case examples of political leaders and pointed out the fault lines of leadership: narcissism and ideological rigidity. It compares narcissism, compassion, evidence-based decision-making, and ideological rigidity to show the differences between destructive and responsible leadership. It also proposed some opinions on leadership developing systemic thinking and the ability to mirror environmental complexity, reflective and critical thinking, and the ability to update one’s view when evidence changes, reasoning and ethical skills, and thus, the ability to evaluate and judge one’s decisions in the context of the greater good [26].

2.2.5 Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is a crucial leadership style when leaders face risk and uncertainty. Trudel et al. [27] analyzed transformational leadership and its influence on teacher resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a case study based on in-depth interviews, this chapter presents an analysis of transformational leadership to support teachers during disruptive change [27].

Han et al. [28] analyze how transformational leadership affects knowledge-sharing intentions. Using SEM, the results of 426 samples from South Korea indicated that transformational leadership has a significant and direct effect on psychological empowerment and organizational commitment. This mechanism is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Path model for relations among latent variables.

2.2.6 Other styles of leadership

Rahul [29] obtained 205 cross-sectional data points from Indian IT employees, and the results indicated a positive relationship between leadership trust and communication, decision-making, integrity, and motivation. This shows high levels of trust among IT employees during the COVID-19 pandemic [29].

Klebe et al. [30] used a vignette study (257 samples) and a cross-section survey (196 samples). These results indicate that health-oriented leadership is important for the health of followers affected by crises. It also has a positive relationship with job performance [30].

Carvalho [31] conducts a theoretical analysis of the power of love in leadership and states nine propositions: It adopts the concept of the AGAPE and understands it from religious, philosophical, scientific, and political perspectives. It also describes the relationship between AGAPE-based leadership and authentic, ethical, spiritual, transformational, and servant leadership. The author’s analytical model of leaders’ AGAPE behaviors includes humility, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, emotional control, impartiality, and empathy [31]. It also proposed the antecedents of leaders’ AGAPE: leaders’ self-evaluation + (positively related to leaders’ AGAPE), leaders’ narcissism (negatively related to leaders’ AGAPE), leaders’ Machiavellianism, leaders’ self-transcendent values +, and leader ecosystem motivational system +. Furthermore, it discusses the mediating processes of leaders’ AGAPE: follower commitment to, and trust in, the leader. In addition, it proposes the moderating processes of leaders’ AGAPE: follower power-distance orientation and follower attachment style [31].

Dewi [32] analyzed digital leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using logistic regression analysis with 1899 Indonesian managers as samples, the results indicate that digital leadership is a strong predictor of psychological well-being. According to ref. [32], the skills, attitudes, and competencies of digital leadership have significant and positive effects on psychological well-being, but the behavioral dimension does not.

According to ref. [33], digital leadership refers to leaders’ ability to create a clear and meaningful vision for the digitalization process and their capability to execute strategies to actualize this vision. It requires leaders to integrate the business perspective and digitalization agenda to ensure that every member of the organization is engaged in the digitalization agenda and to build the digital skills needed for the digitalization processes [33].

Gheerwo [34] presents the concept of creative leadership and three attributes of creative leadership: empathy, clarity, and creativity. According to ref. [34], the next stage of research is neuroscience: brain plasticity, neural connectivity, and emotional intelligence theory.

Shekshnia [35] discusses indirect leadership and states that UK chairs provide exemplary leadership by displaying the attitudes and behavior they expect others to follow.

2.2.7 Leadership development

Bawany [36] mentioned the development of disruptive digital leadership in the post-pandemic era. Disruptive digital leadership competencies include disruptive mentality (innovative-driven), visionary and entrepreneurial skills (creativity), cognitive readiness and critical thinking (mental agility), resilience and adaptability (change agility), empathy and social skills (people agility), and driving success (result agility) [36].

Levy [37] analyzes the perceived leadership chance of the host, third, and parent nationalities of MNCs and concludes with their differences. This also contributes to the development of leadership. Chaturvedi [38] conducted a thematic analysis using NVIVO for effective leadership development. It summarizes the categorization of identified factors under organizational elements from people, systems, psychological, operational, and informational aspects.

3. Theoretical analysis and propositions

Some conclusions have been stated in previous literature regarding the leadership competencies or capabilities needed to deal with a pandemic environment and improve organizational resilience. First, a crisis may cause employees to experience anxiety as they easily become nervous and upset. Therefore, emotional stability and employee well-being play crucial roles in uncertain situations [12]. Second, during a crisis, leaders must assess risk, identify warning signs, and trigger points to mobilize action [15]. Hence, the strategy of “plan and prepare” is a significant competency. Third, communication becomes more important during periods of uncertainty. The external environment continuously changes. New problems and policies have arisen almost daily. Employees will benefit significantly if leaders are willing and able to narrate a clear-sighted strategy to address the threat and role they can play [15]. Hence, this is another capability of leaders during a crisis. Fourth, urgent situations arise quickly during crises. Employees must consult with leaders to seek solutions within a limited period. Under such circumstances, leaders should act quickly and decisively. It is better for them to evaluate and update plans and impacts, and react promptly to changes continuously [15]. This is also an important leadership capability during a crisis.

In addition, according to refs. [27, 28], transformational leadership has a significant and direct influence on psychological empowerment and organizational commitment, then facilitates knowledge-sharing intention. It helps a leader to break the difficult situation and create a positive change for an organization.

Hence, the proposition on the leadership competencies or capabilities needed to deal with a pandemic environment and improve organizational resilience is as follows:

Proposition 1: “emotional stability and employee well-being,” “plan and prepare,” “narrate a clear-sighted strategy,” and “be responsive and adaptive” are the most effective and crucial competencies of leadership during a crisis. The capability of transformational leadership is also important in a risky environment.

From the viewpoint of the organization model of MNCs, there are four types of organization models: global, international, multinational, and transnational [39]. These characteristics are centralized power, high efficiency, high learning and knowledge transference effects, decentralized power of decision-making, and higher flexibility. The transactional organization model has all the merits of the previous three models.

As mentioned in “the previous literature” section, centralized and decentralized leadership exist in knowledge creation. The features of centralized leadership include planned cooperation, dictatorial conviction, and stable and robust decision-making power. Conversely, decentralized leadership involves self-initiative cooperation, participative conviction, and mobile power of decision-making [10]. It praises autonomy and permits more power and freedom for the team members. In addition, situational leadership exists with the characteristics of contingency [10]. Hence, the following proposition on the relationship between organizational models and the leadership type of knowledge creation is proposed:

Proposition 2: In the post-COVID era, to increase the management efficiency of MNCs, it is better for leaders in global-modeled organizations to use centralized leadership; in multinational-modeled organizations, leaders may adopt decentralized leadership; in other types of organizational models, leaders may adopt situated leadership.

Regarding the efficiency of knowledge sharing by ESN in organizations, previous literature [4, 5] indicates that hedonic motivation has a much stronger impact than other motivations (e.g., utilitarian motivations and normative motivations). However, it is unclear what leadership can create or increase employees’ hedonic motivations. According to ref. [40], compassionate managerial leadership styles could reduce employee stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a qualitative and interpretive methodology, via telephone interviews with 30 respondents in Nigeria, ref. [40] indicates that compassionate managerial leadership can drive a considerate response to employees’ “fear of job security,” “healthcare risk,” and concerns about “work overload, underpayment, and delayed payment.” These are considered the causes of increased stress during the COVID-19 pandemic [40].

In addition, ref. [31] emphasizes the power of love in leadership. Factors such as forgiveness, self-sacrifice, emotional control, impartiality, and empathy help leaders build trusting relationships with employees more easily. Therefore, compassionate leadership and the power of love in leadership contribute to increased hedonic motivation. Thus, the next proposition is as follows.

Proposition 3: Compassionate leadership and the power of love in leadership contribute to raising learning and knowledge-sharing efficiency through ESN.

As mentioned above, leadership is important for organizational learning, knowledge sharing, and transference by ESN in a crisis. How can we develop and innovate better leadership and increase organizational resilience? First, previous literature [20, 21, 22] on gender differences in leadership shows us the strength of female leadership: more transformational and acting more quickly to lock down their economies, more directly related to their display of communal behaviors, and disrupting the organizational inertia of preferring a masculine style of leadership.

Second, [37] concluded that employee nationality affects their perceived senior leadership opportunities in MNCs. The findings indicate that the structural position of parent, host, and third-country nationals in the social hierarchy affects sense-making and perceptions of access to senior leadership opportunities. The authors obtained data from 2039 employees of seven MNCs in Australia, Japan, and the US from five industries (telecommunications, high-technology manufacturing, chemicals, banking, financial services, and other services). In ref. [37], multilevel confirmatory factor analysis with robust standard errors was conducted, and the interactive effects were checked. The two specific findings are that host and third-country nationals perceive that nationality and location influence access to senior leadership opportunities more than parent-country nationals do. The moderating factors–gender, tenure, and education–increase the perception gap between parent country nationals and host and third-country nationals, although these results are inconsistent [37].

Third, based on the literature on government leadership [23, 24, 25, 26], it is easy to understand that leadership is influenced by language and country culture. Leadership cannot transcend regional culture. In Africa, a collectivist country culture with strong centralized leadership is successful. Japan is also a country with collectivist culture. Many traditional Japanese MNCs are of a global organization model with a centralized power system and high efficiency of decision making.

Conversely, in countries with individualistic cultures, individual needs and expectations should be respected. If they are not satisfied, the society in that country will lose its stability. Leadership style must be determined according to the cultural environment of the country or corporation. Therefore, the following propositions were developed:

Proposition 4: It is necessary to consider raising the proportion of female and senior leadership opportunities for host and third-country nationals.

Proposition 5: While strong centralized leadership is effective in a collectivist cultural country, decentralized leadership is more successful in an individualistic cultural country.

4. Conclusion

Based on a literature review and theoretical analysis, this chapter proposes several propositions (Figure 2) to clarify what kind of leadership and what competencies of leadership have a positive influence on knowledge sharing via ESN and organizational resilience innovation. Some propositions were also proposed as suggestions for leadership development. They contribute to human resource management during crisis periods from both academic and practical business facets.

Figure 2.

Effective leadership competencies and how to develop leadership.

In academic facets, first, this chapter provides some new opinions on the challenges of people management in the new time, which is also the purpose of this book. In the new time, remote working and learning by ESN may be a normal style. How to find effective leadership and develop it, and how to raise the learning efficiency would be the new challenge for academic researchers.

Second, this chapter analyzes the crucial competencies and capability of leadership for enterprise knowledge learning in a crisis or other uncertain environment. Leadership-related research has begun for more than 100 years. The cognition, definition, and styles of leadership have changed a lot in the past years. Scholars have studied the effect of leadership in education institutes, such as schools or universities. Researchers also study the effect and methods of social and experiential learning. However, there are very few conclusions on the effect of leadership on enterprise knowledge learning or sharing by ESN. This chapter would fill this gap.

Third, the propositions stated in this chapter provide directions for future research, although they are not confirmed by cases or empirical data. Are there other competencies of leadership for crisis and organizational resilience? How do create more approaches to develop them? With the development of organizational models of MNCs, what are the new styles of leadership for the new organizational models of them? These questions may lead us to do more and better research on leadership and its influence on human resource management in the new time.

In practical business facets, for human resource managers, it would be effective to develop the crucial competencies of leadership mentioned in proposition 1. These help to increase an organization’s resilience to compete against an uncertain environment or crisis. Compassionate leadership and love in leadership are also significant for leaders to raise members’ hedonic motivation for learning or knowledge sharing in MNCs. In addition, transformational leadership is strong to risk and can conduct revolution in an uncertain environment. It is also worth development.

Compared with large MNCs, it is more significant for leaders in SMEs to build trust, collaboration, and tolerance relationships with employees through compassionate leadership with love to raise their hedonic motivation. According to ref. [7], the purpose of using ESN is not explained fully by managers. Moreover, for ref. [41], the results indicate a positive relationship between the carrot-and-stick approach and motivation. Using a quantitative approach with 12 returned questionnaires, the author obtained primary and secondary data from three dairy manufacturing Lebanese SMEs and stated that carrot-and-stick transactional leadership motivates employees in SMEs [41]. In MSEs, employees are motivated by utilitarian rather than hedonic motivations to use ESN. Hence, leaders in SMEs may not only fulfill transaction leadership to maintain the utilitarian motivation of employees but also actively try to raise their hedonic motivation, so that they feel they are respected and cared for and have more fun and interest in using the SEN to communicate on learning.

From the perspective of gender, human resource managers may pay great attention to fostering female leaders and gradually fulfilling their leadership, especially through knowledge learning and sharing programs. There is some default recognition that people prefer male leadership or that male leadership is better than female leadership. However, from research on female leadership in crises, we can find the merits of female leadership, such as being more transformational and acting more quickly than male leadership. Managers may create such a workplace environment and organizational culture to better accept female leadership.

With the advancement of localization in MNCs, an increasing number of local employees have been promoted and have entered the management layer of overseas subsidiaries. Some MNCs recruit hosts or third-country nationals to their managerial positions. Their proportion has been increasing. Doing this not only provides additional leadership opportunities to host or third-country nationals but also gives them more decision power and raises their job motivation. It shows the trust and expectations of relational psychological contracts from the parent country headquarters. This benefits many facets of MNC organizations, such as building a better organizational culture, improving the relationship between headquarters and overseas subsidiaries, corporate governance, decreasing dishonest and illegal behaviors, raising productivity quality, and organizational resilience to crises.

Leadership is influenced by both organizational culture and the country’s culture. Leadership can also influence an organization’s culture. When developing effective leadership for knowledge sharing and learning via ESN during or after a crisis, it would be better to identify the outside cultural environment of the country or region and confirm the present organizational culture.

Regarding government leadership, the language of leaders’ speeches plays a crucial role. Likewise, language is also important for leadership in enterprises. Especially during a crisis, firm leaders’ language may change an individual’s feelings, psychological well-being, attitudes, and even behaviors. These findings are also worthy of attention.

This study has some limitations. First, case studies and quantitative approaches were not conducted to confirm the propositions. Future research could obtain more specific empirical data to make conclusions more persuasive. Second, it would be better to analyze the moderating effect of leadership on knowledge sharing or transference through ESN from the perspective of network organizations; MNCs are network organizations. However, SMEs are not although they have implicit personal networks or informal organizations. Hence, the differences in leadership influence between MNCs and SMEs are worthy of considering in future research. Third, many leadership styles have been mentioned in the literature, such as transformational, creative, inclusive, trusting, disruptive digital, and health-oriented leadership [11, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36]. Future research may explore the competencies of these leadership styles and further clarify their influence on knowledge sharing and learning by ESN.