Evolutionary Mechanisms of Leadership Adaptation During Organizational Crises: A Multi-Case Analysis
Keywords:
leadership adaptation, organizational crisis, evolutionary mechanisms, multi-case analysis, organizational resilience, qualitative research;, crisis leadershipAbstract
This study aimed to develop a qualitative understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms through which leaders adapt their roles, decision-making patterns, and relational practices during organizational crises. A qualitative multi-case design was used to examine leadership adaptation across five organizations in Tehran that had experienced acute operational, financial, technological, or market-related crises during the previous three years. Participants were selected through purposive sampling from senior managers, middle managers, crisis-response coordinators, and experienced employees directly involved in crisis management. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 26 participants until theoretical saturation was achieved. Interviews focused on crisis interpretation, leadership responses, decision authority, emotional management, resource mobilization, organizational learning, and post-crisis change. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. Within-case and cross-case comparisons were conducted to identify recurring adaptation patterns and case-specific variations. The analysis generated five main categories: rapid sensemaking and signal recomposition, redistribution of decision authority, improvisational resource recombination, relational containment and trust preservation, and post-crisis learning with routine transformation. The findings showed that leadership adaptation during crises did not occur as a single planned intervention but as an evolutionary process involving variation, selection, and retention of leadership practices. Leaders first reconstructed ambiguous signals into actionable meanings, then shifted from centralized control toward distributed responsiveness, recombined limited resources, stabilized employees emotionally, and institutionalized effective crisis practices after the immediate threat declined. Leadership adaptation during organizational crises is best understood as a dynamic evolutionary capability rather than a fixed competency. Effective crisis leaders create adaptive space, preserve trust, mobilize distributed intelligence, and transform crisis-driven improvisations into durable organizational routines.
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