Liderança em processos de mudança organizacional não planeada

: o contexto da pandemia da Covid-19

Abstract

Society and organisations are constantly changing and evolving. The year 2020 was marked by a new change, in this case unplanned, with the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented pandemic context radically changed organisations and their leadership, leading to changes in the ways of working and the channels through which people work. Thus, the digital transformation in organisations had to grow exponentially for them to be able to adapt. Moreover, organisational leaders were challenged to change their ways of leading and relating to their employees, adapting internal communication when they were forced to lead at a distance. Thus, the changes driven by the pandemic had a significant impact on the daily lives of organisations and their respective leaders and employees.This dissertation aims to identify the changes that occurred in the leadership of organizations due to the pandemic of COVID-19. A qualitative research was conducted, with an analysis of exploratory and primary data, using document analysis for exploratory data and semi- structured interviews with leaders from different organisational areas for primary data.By analysing the different perspectives of leaders from various organisations, it was concluded that leaders have had to change their ways of leading due to the challenges that have arisen because of the changes in the way of working, moving from a face-to-face to a digital context. In addition, certain internal decisions of the leaders also contributed to the adaptation of new work dynamics and relationships at a distance. In parallel, internal communication has played a key role in the way to manage all these organisational changes and to strengthen trust and proximity with employees. Thus, teleworking may be permanently adapted in organisations, but in a hybrid format, as face-to-face contact is still highly valued by organisational leaders.

Date of Award	2 Mar 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Manuel Seruya (Supervisor)