Unpacking Crisis Leader Behaviors: Exploring the Boundaries of Leader Effectiveness During Crises

While there is a large body of research on crisis leadership, this line of work lacks a systematic review of how crisis leader behaviors and crisis leader effectiveness are explored and conceptualized. More specifically, the field has underexplored the target of crisis leader behaviors and the actual beneficiaries of those behaviors. Adopting a multi-disciplinary, narrative technique, we reviewed 50 studies (2010-2020) on leader behaviors and effectiveness during crisis contexts that answer three key questions: 1) What leader behaviors are enacted in a crisis context? 2) Who are the main targets/stakeholders of leader behaviors in a crisis context? 3) Who benefits from leader behaviors in a crisis context (e.g., who are the behaviors effective for)? We report findings from our review, identifying six themes that emerged from the data: leader behaviors are context-specific, leader behaviors are primarily intended to create stability (compared to enhancement), leader behaviors are primarily internally focused, the public is a relevant stakeholder of leader behaviors, there is a target-benefit mismatch, and a general lack of clarity in the literature regarding what effective leader behaviors are and who they serve in a crisis context. We provide avenues for future research in the domains of crisis leadership, leader behaviors, and leader(ship) effectiveness - encouraging scholars and practitioners to consider the boundaries and consequences of leader behaviors.