Wartime leadership in the context of organizational change theories

Abstract

After the beginning of the wide-scale terrorist invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, leadership theorists shifted their research focus to wartime leadership.  The aggressor demonstrated extreme cruelty in fighting with the peaceful people of the country and in one day millions of peaceful leaders changed into wartime leaders. Despite the plethora of research studies devoted to leadership theories, the research topic of wartime leadership has not been discussed widely. The article aims to explore the effective wartime leadership styles, skills, and attributes that can be applied during the war and investigate practical change theories that can help wartime leaders achieve the organizational goal of survival. The author used a phenomenological design because this study attempts to understand students’ perceptions relative to a particular situation. Nine students of West Ukrainian National University were interviewed and shared their perceptions of the practical wartime leadership skills and change theories that can be applied during the war period. The sample size is aligned with a typically used for phenomenological research sample size from 5 to 25 individuals. Literature analysis and research findings show that there is no best leadership style that proves to be the most effective during the war. However, the list of practical wartime leadership skills differs from peacetime leadership skills and embraces such personality attributes as courage, integrity, honesty, reliability, and responsibility. Besides, wartime leadership is about strong communicative skills, fast decision-making, and positive affectivity. Moreover, it is about the constructive implementation of new changes. Therefore, change theories can help wartime leaders to face the challenges. The change theories should be simple, flexible, and easy to be modified.