Choice and Personality: Leadership in Turbulent Times on Way to New Vision of Organization

Abstract

The chapter discusses the problem of leadership and its understanding in various theories, and studies of technological changes in organization. On the basis of longitudinal case studies and applied analysis of HR practices, the changes in the personnel composition, products, and differences in the strategies of external communications with consumer of three Russian organizations—business school, consulting company, and dental clinic are investigated. It is shown that the strategy of reducing and hiring staff with inclusion in new social channels is the most effective. The image of new vision of organization and promising practices in managing people is described, taking into account the results obtained and the analysis of the history of business development, which are based on choice and development of both leader and staff in an informal structure and ability to self-renaissance of organization.

1. Introduction

The real problems faced by the world in recent times such as the development of network forms of organization and the folding of international companies, dependence on energy resources and their impact on pricing, falling incomes in a crisis and the supply of payment for rental of premises, protest movements and vandalism, and high level of inflation have become a political factor and an unstable situation.

The turbulence caused by the pandemic has led to new phenomena and an organization practices—from a stable team membership to a dynamic membership; clear borders to blurred borders; from inner focus to inner and outer; from one team to some teams; from individual people and machines to the unity of people and machines; from the organization as a context to a flexible context—hybridity; decontextual socialization and centrifugal forces [1].

In connection with it instability, uncertainty and fragility are pushing to search for new vision and views on the organization, to understand and disseminate new ideas in the management as an everyday practice.

1.1 Leadership and organization in theories of engagement, mindfulness, identity, and highlight of technological changes

The modern interpretation of leadership is constructed on its existence as a phenomenon based on the diversity of strategy for compatibility with the flexibility and volatility of the market, effective interaction, and collective desired real change [2].

It has been proven that in order to adapt to a new and rapidly changing environment, to remain competitive, organizations need change and co-leadership. Teams with shared leadership have less conflict, more consensus, and greater intra-group trust than teams without shared leadership [3].

Collaborative leadership is when team members share excellent knowledge and build behavior based on each other’s ideas, define a collective mission, create a favorable climate, comprehend and structure the team task, provide feedback, provide resources, and encourage team self-management and internal informal leadership [4], which encourages innovation.

In addition, the leaders of modern organizations operate in a situation of paradoxes—inconsistencies and dynamics that provoke a conflict. In this regard, cognitive complexity is required, encouraging the exchange of opposing ideas, which causes understanding and promotes synergy—extracting value with creativity, not with anxiety, pushing yourself and others to question the existing order and search for new opportunities [5].

Simultaneously, in twenty-first century studies, leadership is a bidirectional action—distributed power structures and many people [6], and its analysis does not include the search for the most appropriate characteristics of the first person, but dyads, groups, and organizations. This is because leader effects often affect time and people, and looking back and looking forward are completely different processes.

However, the pronounced high formal leadership increases the importance of general leadership when the role of uncertainty is high [7]. At the same time, high role uncertainty enhances the indirect influence of the appointed formal leader on the team and innovation through overall leadership.

In this regard, at the stage of organizations’ transition to a hybrid model of the working environment, managers who are able to conduct personnel audits and competency assessments, as well as who are able to integrate IT into the daily work of the organization and various specialists in collaboration, are highly significant. Today, the job market is dominated by either digital transformation-oriented managers or people-oriented managers. Currently, there are very few leaders who are able to integrate digital processes into the practice of organizations and involve people in the use of information technology in the workplace. The future is theirs.

One of the key drivers of innovation is the recombination of ideas in new ways that solve some new problems [8]. In the post-pandemic period, the hybridization of the economy is a way out for organizations stabilizing, developing under conditions of uncertainty, and new solutions to overcome the crisis. This will take place in different countries of the world regardless of cultural differences and will be based on the inventory of developments, technologies, and achievements.

In this connection, mindfulness becomes more meaningful in the future. On the one hand, it prevents inadequate reactions to subordinates, social threats, or stressful situations that arise in a crisis, and is important for creating a positive vision for the future [9], and leaders with a high level of its development affect the organization less destructively and more transformative. On the other hand, it determines the choice of personnel for future changes. In the twenty-first century, with the development of information technology, e-Leadership is gaining more and more popularity. Virtual leaders use a variety of communication tools—email and voice mail for individual and group communication, as well as instant messaging and chats, and hands-free calls on smartphones in remote mode for group decision making. Ideally, project management for virtual teams involves institutional planning, regular meetings, and a well-defined communication process that all team members understand and follow for timely and effective communication. There are three types of behavior in virtual teams: virtual interaction, virtual socialization, and virtual communication skills [10]. Despite the fact that many people have experience using IT and various software in the workplace, building effective procedures and the feasibility of using information technology in the daily work of companies with the simultaneous participation of several people are a challenge for organizations. This is because differences in experience and inclusion in processes using different software require digital socialization and cause cognitive dissonance. Software is used for virtual (monthly or weekly) staff meetings. This allows staff to share ideas with colleagues, define common goals, and create a sense of community and generate excitement. Principles have been developed that can be used in virtual leadership: trusting relationships with each team member—re-defining expectations, and then achieving results that meet or exceed these expectations; establishing a norm of “presence” so that team members perceive leadership—responsibility for creating a virtual presence; striving for the social-emotional aspects of the team, personalization of interaction, a sense of connectedness between the leader and individual team members, a concerted effort to recognize individual achievements, a sincere expression of appreciation, team progress and accomplishment of assigned tasks, the leader’s personal responsibility for mistakes and transparency; looking for opportunities to promote a healthy team with every interaction—using coaching to develop and educate followers, regularly communicating with team members about the status of an issue or project—weekly emails with a report, a computer “chat room” to encourage group member interactions, and, when possible, face-to-face communication, efficiency discussions using videoconferencing, telephones, or personal data at regular intervals (weekly, biweekly, monthly); responsibility for setting communication standards and determining how communication tools are used (e.g., not just an acknowledgment of receipt of a message, but a quality response to e-mail); communication of contextual information electronically that is relevant to the problem under consideration (team members must distinguish between what is important and what cannot be); using technology tools to communicate in a timely manner to solve problems, provide feedback and recognition, and address performance issues; and sensitivity to improve conflict management (understand culture, group demographics, skill range, work intensity level, and team work time).

With the information technology development, there is research on the integration of IT and work processes. In particular, workplace controls or “reverse transparency” [11]. It is assumed that an individual should be able to control the collection, access, and further use of data about himself, as well as consent for decision making, in order to have a holistic view of organization and his\her daily tasks—to improve processes and work more self-organized and efficient. However, the proximity camera is unlikely to be a motivator or an effective monitoring tool. Rather, technology-enabled processes can be viewed from the perspective of operational management, accountability, and distribution of control in an organization and provide information about the inclusion of a person in technical processes at the hiring stage. Perhaps “reverse transparency” is more about business ethics, and ethical leadership with the results of the work of followers is an affective and normative obligation regardless of cultural differences [12]. However, the future lies in the rise of high trust organizations, where people take action and exercise mutual control, can offer solutions to mistakes, and offer solutions and better ways to achieve results that are implemented “here and now”, and thus organizational effectiveness achieve.

Despite the fact that there are two different understandings of leadership in the world that define the distribution of power and the order of work in different ways—transformational leadership, explained by processes in the West (globalization, democratization, complexity of the world) [13] and paternalistic type of management, dominant in Asian countries (goodwill, morality and authoritarianism) [14], none of them can be considered more effective. In Western companies, effective management is associated with the creation and management of teams. Nevertheless, on the way to achieving results, teams tend to autonomy (develop their own slang, rules of conduct), and management’s attempts to delve into their work cause resistance from the staff, which makes it difficult to manage the organization. In addition, it is possible to use the resource of teams only if there is an excess of all types of resources—material and human. In a crisis, there are no resources, so strict authoritarian management becomes the most effective. A key weakness of the Asian (Chinese) model is cohesiveness, which is negatively associated with moral leadership and team effectiveness [15], and workers spend more time building internal connections, getting more information and help from team members, which does not rule out hiring more educated, more open, and cosmopolitan people in high-tech Asian companies. In recent years, management theory has changed its views on the problem of leadership as an alternative to the understanding of transactional and transpharmacy concepts—servant leadership [16], distributed leadership [17], authentic leadership and followership [18], leadership and role modeling [19], neocharismatic leadership [20].

However, these theories are not related. Research on leader-follower dyads in North America and the United States showed that although there was evidence of differential association (performance of the subordinate on a role basis and ethics of the subordinate as assessed by the leader; virtuous leadership and happiness of the leader based on self-esteem; the relationship between happiness and life satisfaction as leaders, and followers in transformational leadership), many hypotheses remained unconfirmed [21].

There is likely to be more evidence in the future for the hypothesis that democratic leadership should produce more “leadership” organizations [22].

2. Human resources management case studies: methodology and research results

2.1 Sample and methods

Three companies were studied—business school, consulting company, and dental clinic—leaders in their market segment. Companies are selected on the basis of public ratings, recognition of professional communities, the number of clients served. The choice was based on the number of employees—up to one hundred people, which allows comparative research between two companies providing similar services, as well as comparing personnel management strategies with an organization from a different professional field. As the third organization for comparison, a dental clinic with the history of 8 years, a staff of up to 15 people and a constantly developing one, was chosen.

Longitudinal observation was made of changes in personnel, products, and external communication strategies. Changes in the period before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic were recorded and analyzed using the standard case study method.

Changes in the quantity and quality of the staff were recorded every 6 months based on open information on the company’s websites. The role repertoire and competencies of the personnel were fixed—responsibility, as well as changes in a career—movement and dismissal from the company personally for each person.

The age, gender of hired employees, connection with the emergence of new products, people’s involvement in external communications, and interaction with customers were analyzed. Waves of changes were also recorded—the points of company development is associated with an renewal of personnel in the organization, on the basis of which conclusions were drawn about organizational problems and the position of company in market, management decisions, and the reasons for which they could be taken.

The nature of information on products and the ways of its presentation in time were studied—representation on the company’s website, professional exhibitions, social networks, frequency of appearance in the media with professional publications, or articles-consultations. The information obtained was compared with each other.

2.2 Results and discussion

For 15 years, the business school has seen the change in staff, but it was mainly associated with the search for specialists with the highest quality teaching and new emerging topics as well as the development of a specific teaching model that included scientists, practicing scientists, and business professionals without scientific degree. Separate specialists were hired to create new programs, which is associated with consumer dissatisfaction with the programs and the creation of new products that correspond to time. During the pandemic and after the pandemic, the number of young male professionals teaching technical and networking disciplines has increased, that is, associated with the development and wider dissemination of information technology, while the young female professionals hired are more related to human relations and control in organizations.

Furthermore, a small proportion of young professionals quit due to mismatch of expectations with the career trajectory offered by the organization. Despite staff turnover of more than 15% over the past 5 years, overall the business school is seeing staff aging. This is due to the specifics of management—a combination of state institution management, salaries, and tuition fees for public money, with the management of a commercial organization and the client fully pays for his studies at business school.

Unlike the business school, consulting company and dental clinic were set up as a small group.

Over the 15 years of its existence, consulting company has gone through three waves of personnel changes. The second wave is the expansion of the organization with new experts, the introduction of the position of director of customer service, and an employee responsible for conducting an external competition to determine the best business training practices. During the pandemic and after, several new specialists appeared in the organization. Moreover, the pandemic has led to the dismissal of key employees behind the creation of the company.

At the same time, a small number of young professionals have changed positions, either related to the direct mission of the organization or related to gaining new experience. While the number of people in the department working with clients increased and the department stood out as a separate unit, all other employees had the status of experts and trainers. Thus, at the stage of transition to the pandemic period, consulting company experienced an expansion in the number of personnel, followed by a contraction.

It is known that one of the options for business development is staff reduction. But cost cutting without strategic decisions is not effective [23].

One of the options for a strategic solution is the replacement of personnel for new tasks. Annie Mckee noted that the key to success in modern companies is smart people, learning and leadership oriented, motivated, and engaged, and for this companies need a common vision of individual needs and an atmosphere of enthusiasm, passion for learning, hope, respect, caring for others, honesty, and accountability. In these companies, people do not talk about empowerment; they do it—learn, unite, and win together [24].

Changes in personnel turnover were also observed in dental clinic. During the pandemic, due to a decline in consumption and the impossibility of deferring rent payments, dental clinic abandoned one of the offices. Key specialists have been replaced by new ones with more prestigious education and younger age, as well as different specializations. This group formed the new core of company. The assistants and the staff implementing the main mission of the organization retained their positions. One member of rank and file entered the new core.

With the change in the qualitative composition of the staff at the business school, new programs appeared, and the site posted interviews with the leader in prestigious publications, both on an external order and on their own initiative. Business school demonstrated international accreditations and leading positions in domestic rankings, strengthening its positions, while consulting company and dental clinic promoted services and communicated more through specialized exhibitions.

Over time, consulting company retained this strategy of communication with a client, but began to package and present products on the site more and came out with a larger offer by the end of the pandemic, while dental clinic used social networks more actively during the pandemic and post-pandemic period. At the same time, with change in staff, more expensive services appeared in dental clinic. However, while business school was more about international recognition and network of partners as a competitive advantage, dental clinic was shaping a new face.

But if business school retained the number of clients, then dental clinic increased their number, changing the range and quality of services, which made possible to hire several more highly qualified specialists in the post-pandemic period, which may lead to creation of a network of clinics in future.

To be considered a reliable cooperation partner, a company must have a “face” that identifies it as such [25]. In the twenty-first century, the channels of interaction with the client are changing. It is known that organizational effectiveness is associated with the type of culture, and cultural norms are associated with the type of leadership [26].

In contrast to business school and consulting company, a new norm of behavior was adopted at the stage of personnel change, when, along with the usual professional role, medical specialists were required to provide services in social networks. Thus, instead of usual narrow role of the performer, employees were required to have social skills as a representative of company, which increased openness, allowed the promotion of additional services, and strengthened the status of a medical organization in market that cares about smile of customers. Thus, social networks are replacing the usual advertising and public relations.

In this regard, the usual role culture is being replaced by a culture where employees act as ambassadors of the organization in which they work. Together with the leader in his profile or a special channel, employees demonstrate in shifts the services or goods that they develop or create market value—demonstrating to the consumer the quality, competitive advantages, attitude toward work and the client, the work process, and results—are creating the face of the organization. This approach is based on a collective identity that facilitates the process of joint leadership, and leaders create alliances using knowledge across borders and activities. On the one hand, a strong collective identity facilitates the process of social construction, underpins leadership in complexity, and encourages coordinating exchanges among group members. This leads to a more adaptable organization by adjusting the organizational culture according to changes in the dynamic system [27]. It can also be a recruiting tool, as potential employees of the organization can observe the process and values demonstrated by employees in behavior through social channels. Thus, the recruitment process is also changing. Previously, potential employees could learn about the company from the site, in informal communication, as a client. Now, they can watch their future workplace in real time.

Thereby, the combination of staff reduction strategy with change in personnel policy and communication channels had a greater effect in dental clinic. The strategy of reducing staff with replacement by new experts in consulting company cannot be considered erroneous. However, the transition from a key account manager to the creation of department and an increase in the number of client managers with a change in number of experts and strategy for increasing the number of products did not indicate the development of company, but rather miscalculations in working with clients. However, the strategy of the business school rather indicates its flourishing. But, in the long term, the aging of company and the continued trend of young staff turnover may lead to the loss of its position in market. The success strategies of dental clinic compared to consulting company and business school can also be associated with the number of staff—its greater dynamics and involvement of staff in new social channels of interaction with the client.

Thus, a comparison of the behavior of leaders and HR practices allows to draw conclusions about a dynamic strategy in managing people in turbulent time and shows that the strategy of dismissing personnel with the involvement and focusing on the strategy of ambassadors are more productive in a crisis and changing channels of interaction compared to a role-based culture.

3. New vision of organization

Leadership in turbulent times is about creating networks of connections, where the choice of partners affects not only the company’s income, but also influences the distribution of power and the creation of new connections in organization and at the same time becomes the basis for new experience for leader of organization. An analysis of business development history shows that at the dawn of its formation mono enterprises with a limited circle of partnerships dominated. As the level of uncertainty increased, organizations acquired the image of holding companies consisting of different types of business or organizations focused on different categories of customers, where a lack or failure in one type of business was compensated by the income of another type of business, or a customized product. Over time, to increase business profitability, network forms began to develop, close to the social organization in India—with nodes in the center and links to smaller nodes on the periphery, as well as multinational companies. Moreover, violations in logistics supplies lead to instability in this form of business organization. With an even greater degree of uncertainty, business began to acquire a more flexible type of organization—an ecosystem. This type of organization for existence is trying to cover an increasing number of businesses. The main risk in creating a flexible structure is that in fact it may turn out to be a rigid structure for the distribution of limited resources between management, loyal staff, and scarce resources for new blood supplying new ideas to enrich the ruling elite. In addition, the biological approach to understanding social systems erases all previous knowledge associated with understanding human behavior in the workplace with motives, interests, and needs. The simplest example of an ecosystem is mosquitoes-frogs-herons, where the violation of the ecological balance leads to disruption of system. Today, it is impossible to consider organizations as systems where some people eat other people. Leadership that lacks ethical behavior can be dangerous, destructive, and even toxic [28] and leaders can take action to establish ethical standards within organizations not only through the development of formal documents on ethical behavior, but also demonstrate ethical leadership in daily behavior, decisions, and actions, caring for the overall results. Research shows that psychological empowerment partially mediates the effect of job characteristics on affective commitment, and leadership complexity moderates the effect on job characteristics, while empowerment on affective commitment [29].

One of the strategies for personnel selecting for the highly intelligent types of business and medicine in the future is a review of documents or a list of training events. At the same time, it is not so much the documents and the list that are important, but the direction of professional development. Based on the analysis of the content of training, one can understand both the ambitions and motivation, and the professional level of a potential employee. The surplus of professionals with various combinations of advanced training or participation in continuing education programs makes it possible to form groups to solve new problems in the organization. This approach to personnel selection requires discernment, that is, the ability to not only see the value of an employee to the organization, but how, with his\her participation in the processes, the organization will gain competitive advantages and become more profitable compared to other organizations in the industry. This approach is based on the fact that leaders throughout the history of the organization are able to take its development to a new level and create a new image—with a new quality of services and new interaction with the client—to receive benefits—to save time and resources.

According to various studies, people capable of leadership are no more than 5% of the total population. They are called self-actualized [30] or passionate [31]. These are people who make revolutions in history, science, and business—lead to new goals, make discoveries, and create new products. And they are the ones who create new jobs. In the twenty-first century, the psychology of the staff is changing. A through career is becoming more and more common, when the next round of the economic crisis leads to a redistribution of people between organizations and gaining new experience, realizing potential and abilities—personnel circulation. For leadership, as for broader concepts of career and life stages, transitions are critical [32]. People learn from experience and learn different things from the same experience, and previous experience influences what can be learned from current experience. Nevertheless, how deep learning becomes in different cases depends on the learning person. This experience serves as the basis for development and is explained by the readiness for change in one organization and the rejection of change in another. However, leadership experience differs from personal experience in that leaders need to understand and correct cognitive and behavioral responses to uncertainty and stress in a crisis, to have more effective responses. In this regard, the experience of collective thinking in teams and organizations [33] is useful for top management—indirect learning, simulations with an unusually high level of ambiguity, and requiring creative problem solving, as well as experience in interpersonal communication learning.

On the other hand, in conditions of uncertainty and overcoming the crisis, the leaders of organizations act as social entrepreneurs and responsible leaders: they initiate social innovation, for example, change social channels of interaction with the client, take the role of a change producer in the organization, use vision, influence and creativity to promote their ideas, and receive support [34]. In this case, leadership with a noticeable influence has an impact on the creation of a new organizational culture, as well as material results, thus capitalizing their knowledge. In addition, leaders who seek specific help use the tactic of asking for further development under a reasonable future commitment. Followers who are responsible for receiving assistance earn “chips,” future benefits—a positive assessment of performance and increased career opportunities [35].

This is also due to the fact that the leader’s active contribution to the development of social implementation includes the social climate, in that autonomy, social support, and feedback exchange cover, and the thoroughness of the performance of employees. However, a shared identity with high visual scoring can reduce organizational performance despite high levels of employee engagement—disabling innovation and creativity. Thus, it is necessary to take into account the diversity of social affiliation in the organization [36].

The idea of champions [34] has been discussed previously. It appears to be relevant in project-oriented adhocracy cultures as well as in organizations with high levels of autonomy in the workplace. Moreover, in the twenty-first century, the idea of breaking down bureaucratic barriers that impede the development of human potential is becoming more important, as organizations have their own set of rules and organizational context. The organization of the future is rather a community with strong horizontal ties and a pronounced informal structure, where it is not so much the status that counts, but the ability, rather than an organization where a person needs to collect the signatures of six bosses to perform an action or his\her human capital is exploited. One of motivators in the organization of future is more likely the product or service itself, the creation or support that works and realize the abilities in the workplace, and potential employees choose what the company offers them, consistent with their personal values and beliefs, and what kind of experience they purchase in this case.

On the other hand, the impact of the external environment becomes a test of loyalty and devotion. Among the reasons why people leave organizations—management style, lack of recognition of merit (identified by F. Herzberg in the twentieth century), two new ones are added in the twenty-first century—fatigue caused by technological stress, and the impossibility of potential realizing. As a result, the way out for a person is a change in the working environment, and organizations offer special conditions—trips abroad, a wider range of social contacts, payment for dental services, and other privileges that create competitive advantages of the workplace and attract certain workers categories. Organizations creating with such privileges and norms that allow a person to express himself is one of the tasks of HR service, since the resources of traditional methods have been exhausted. In this regard, not so much social intelligence and communication, which ensure success in business, come to the fore as much as the leader’s choice of his\her staff, the company’s staff for work, solutions for improving productivity, changing the strategy of working with personnel, partners for inclusion in business networks.

Thus, choice becomes a key skill of leadership in the twenty-first century—maintaining connections and strategic partnerships, as it determines the sustainability of a business—a self-renaissance organization based on insightful leadership, the potential and abilities of people and information technologies that allow connections building in real time—leader in the workplace and remote workers, workers in the workplace and remote leader, face-to-face and remote communication of groups led by a leader, solving one or more tasks, several people at a distance, several people and a leader at the workplace, several people and a leader in removal, and several people at the workplace.

In this regard, in the twenty-first century, organizations will become increasingly important, where an increasing number of people realize their potential and abilities; that is, healthy organizations will arise based on horizontal connections and informal communication—the informal structure of the organization. On the one hand, this will reduce the time for making managerial decisions, and on the other hand, it will become a preventive measure in the prevention of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.

4. Conclusion

In the post-pandemic period, the importance of clarity and the involvement of people in organizational processes using information technologies and tools are increasing, which will subsequently lead to a new culture and demand for specialists focused on both people and IT. Moreover, the future lies in the rise of high trust organizations, where people take action and exercise mutual control, and organizational effectiveness achieve. An applied analysis of HR practices showed that during the transition period, the strategy of dismissal of staff and hiring with a change in the channels of interaction with customers are quite effective. For the first time, using longitudinal case studies, the study shows that when studying personnel management strategies, it is important to study how changes in the qualitative composition of an organization affect the quality of its work.

In other words, to understand the change of strategies based on the analysis of changes in the qualitative change in personnel, changes in products and services, as well as changes in communication channels with the client. Thus, a step has been taken toward studying the HR strategy during the crisis period based on the behavioral analysis of the leaders of organizations. The choice determines both the development of personnel, as a result of which employees build a cross-cutting career and gain new social experience, and leaders who create new products and networks of partners or customers. The vitality of an organization in the twenty-first century becomes dependent on its ability to self-renaissance—reaching a new level, realizing the potential of employees in an informal structure and thus, a health of workers.

The three compared companies results described can be used to compare with the changes taking place in relevant professional areas in other countries and to design a human resource management strategy to improve the efficiency of organizations.