Leadership Communication Effectiveness During Organizational Crisis

Abstract

Organizational crises lead to uncertainties, disturbance of the stability of the working environment and make it difficult for leaders to preserve employee trust and organizational continuity. In the process, leadership communication becomes an important variable affecting the perceptions, trust, and resilience of employees. The current paper aims at studying the impact of leadership communication effectiveness on organizational crises through the examination of the effects of communication transparency, timely communication, empathy, consistency and employee engagement on trust and organizational adaptability. Quantitative research method is used in the study, which consists of a survey carried out among employees of organizations going through organizational crises. The current study attempts to examine the impact of leadership communication effectiveness on employee trust and organizational resilience.   The use of open and empathic communication decreases uncertainty, increases commitment, and facilitates cooperative crisis management. This research adds to the body of knowledge related to organizational behavior and human resource management through the identification of leader communication as a managerial skill that will help manage expectations in uncertain situations. Practical implications for organizations include the importance of communication-focused leadership training and employee-oriented crisis communication strategies.