Resumo

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, represents a substantial global health crisis. This first pandemic of the 21st century has exerted great pressure on societies and health systems worldwide (Simões e Silva, Oliveira & Martelli, 2020). Billions of people around the world have been isolated (Sample, 2020) and more than a quarter of the world’s small businesses have gone bankrupt (OECD, 2020). Leadership is one of the most valuable topics in the social and behavioral sciences during this period of pandemics (Bavel et al., 2020).

This paper aims to examine the behavior of transformational leadership during the global health crisis caused by COVID-19 and identify the predictive indicators of innovative actions implemented by companies in times of crisis.

However, although transformational leadership is one of the most heavily studied styles (Wang et al., 2011) and the originator of the concept is considered one of the most influential authors in leadership studies (Zhu et al., 2018), we have little information on how each leadership style affects an organization in times of global crisis (Bavel et al., 2020).

Methods: The objectives of the research were achieved with a survey conducted among business leaders in Brazil. The study employed logistic regression analysis as the main methodological strategy to analyze the data. The research focused on the dimensions of being innovative and encouraging individualized staff development, using the transformational leadership scale as a formative tool.

Results: The survey results indicate that there are differences between the indicators of transformational leadership and their relationship with new ideas during the global health crisis. The dimensions of being innovative and encouraging individualized staff development were identified as the main predictive indicators of the ability to implement innovative actions in companies. These findings shed light on the importance of these indicators for business survival during crises.

Conclusions: The paper makes three main contributions. Theoretically, it identifies specific indicators of transformational leadership that predict the implementation of innovative actions during a real crisis. Methodologically, the analysis of the data highlights the original characteristics of the transformational leadership scale and its use as a formative tool. Practically, the findings provide professionals with valuable information for management, recruitment, and training.

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