ONLINE AND ON-SITE - Chairing the Board in a Crisis: Board Chair Leadership Behavior, Competitive Simplification, and Firm Performance during COVID-19

20.05.2021 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR / SHORT ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown has disrupted nearly every boardroom, creating unprecedented leadership challenges for board chairs. However, neither the extant leadership literature nor the corporate governance literature offers succinct guidance on how board chairs, who possess little structural authority and must contend with powerful CEOs, should lead their boards during such a calamity. We develop a moderated mediation model of firm performance during a crisis, in which competitive simplification at the onset of a crisis positively impacts firm performance and mediates the performance consequences of board chair leadership. To test our model, we survey the boards of publicly traded U.S. firms in spring of 2020, and integrate their responses with archival data. Based on our final sample of 127 directors representing 112 firms, we find that board chair participative leadership is positively associated with effective crisis response (i.e., competitive simplification, and through it, firm performance). Directive leadership is also associated with effective crisis response if the chair is not CEO. If the chair is CEO, directive leadership is negatively associated with competitive simplification, and through it, firm performance. This research offers actionable implications for board chairs struggling to lead effectively during times of extreme and sudden uncertainty.

Lieu

Online and in:

Uni Mail (registration is mandatory)
Bd Pont-d'Arve 40, Geneva
1st floor
Room: M 1160

entrée libre