Leading in Crisis & Corporate Reputation
Most of the existing business models cannot meet the requirement for high instability or consider potential crises underlying the business environment. As a result, many traditional business models have been changed partially or even completely in face of a crisis. Especially, the crisis of credibility may pose an impact on the business activities of the enterprise and even cause a devastating consequence. However, effective leadership can reduce this impact and help the enterprise gain consumer acceptance. This paper, through a critical literature review methodology, explores ‘how’ leadership underpins corporate reputation in a crisis situation reviewing also the key factors influencing leadership effectiveness in such stressful situations. The study concludes that the leadership role is important in supporting the corporate reputation in a crisis situation, a good reputation helps corporations to gain the trust of consumers and reduce the losses caused by the crisis, enterprises in crisis should choose appropriate leadership style so that leaders to create a culture that could predict threats and risks, to incorporate crisis management practices into operations, and to integrate potential risk and vulnerability assessments into the process of strategic debate and planning to prevent reputational damage.