Leadership in situations of uncertainty - a guideline for the leader

Abstract

Leadership is constantly of focus when discussing problems of all sorts. Throughout this study we assume that leadership is somewhat shaped after situation. Today the world is suffering from a global financial crisis, which has created a national uncertainty. We found it interesting to investigate the effects of external circumstances on leadership. We discuss possible guidelines for a leader to use when in situations of uncertainty such as in the current time. We decided to pose the following question; what is to be reckoned with when developing a model that may be of use as a guideline when leading in uncertain times? This is a study of a specific office of a Swedish bank, situated in Gothenburg. Through interviews performed both personally and through telephone and with the help of e-mail correspondence we have investigated the conducted leadership in the office. We found that both external circumstances and personality traits of the leader have impacts on the employees of this study, and hence the conducted leadership. To understand the general view of these findings we have established a model, which we also used as an over-view of the studied office.