Leadership as a business adaptive strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic

: a case of Grupo UIP

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represented challenging years in various dimensions – from economic to healthcare challenges, which caused powerful changes and mindset shifts in different industries. Worldwide measures such as border closures, quarantine and social distancing were employed, prompting an economic crisis. One of the most impactful industries during the COVID-19 pandemic was the hospitality industry, due to its business model. In Portugal, in 2023, there were more than 30M guests - a growth of around 10% compared to 2019, a record year for tourism- and 77M stays. Revenues of around 25B€ represented a 37% growth compared to 2019, and 18.5% compared to 2022. Despite different factors promote hotel success, the current thesis illustrates how Grupo UIP overcame the pandemic crisis, especially focusing on how leadership was a crucial factor during the crisis and an adaptive strategy for managing teams. How did leaders overcome the pandemic challenges? Which main changes happen in terms of leadership purpose and importance within the organization? How did leaders perceive this transformation? This thesis aims to provide a structured case study, applied to a group that owns hotels – United Investments Portugal - where it exposes leaders’ main challenges, the most important leadership competencies and strategies to navigate the COVID-19 crisis effectively.

Date of Award	26 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ricardo Reis (Supervisor)