Leadership in times of COVID-19 pandemic: Context and language effects on perceptions of leaders as charismatic and entrepreneurs
In times of crisis because of the COVID-19 outbreak, leadership matters more than ever. Previous research focuses on leaders as charismatic and identity entrepreneurs. Little is known about the effect of the we-referencing language of political speeches (type of narrative) and the context (stability or crisis) of their communication on identity leadership dimensions. This paper reports a 2x2 design that addresses this theoretical lacunae. Factorial multivariate analysis of variance (Two-Way ANOVA) found significant interactions between narrative type and context on leaders’ identity entrepreneurship, charisma, perceived trust and collective helplessness. Hierarchical multiple regression identified predictors of charismatic leadership in context of stability and crisis with the narrative type consistently predicting perceptions of charisma. Significant indirect effects of identity entrepreneurship on charismatic leadership were found via narrative type, collective helplessness and perceived trust. The contextualisation of identity leadership processes and the importance of type of communicated narratives on perceptions and evaluations of leaders especially in times of crisis are discussed.