Leadership of small and medium-sized travel agencies during mega-crises

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, as a global public health crisis, has greatly affected small and medium-sized tourism enterprises. The pandemic lasted nearly three years in China; its impacts on the tourism industry have ranged from immediate damage to rebound uncertainty and finally to simultaneous opportunities and challenges. Small and medium-sized travel agencies’ responses to this crisis have drawn scholarly interest. However, most research in this vein has pertained to crisis management practices and a single leadership style; comparatively little attention has been given to the characteristics, changes, and coping strategies associated with leadership during crises. No one style of leadership (e.g., transformational, charismatic, responsible, or strategic) can account for how small and medium-sized travel agencies survive and develop in times of crisis. A single style also cannot capture all features of and shifts in leadership across crisis phases. Thus, based on the logic of “crisis phase leadership characteristics-leaders’ coping strategies”, this paper focuses on four small and medium sized travel agencies to perform an exploratory multi-case study. The agencies represent domestic, inbound, outbound, and new tourism businesses. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with three staff groups: leaders, middle and senior managers, and employees. Grounded theory was adopted to discern the leadership characteristics of small and medium-sized travel agencies along with leaders’ coping strategies at different phases of the pandemic. Results showed that, in major crisis situations, leadership manifested as a resilient style with nine characteristics (decisive decision making and action; individualized consideration; a spirit of innovation; personal charisma and influence; intellectual stimulation; contingent rewards; forceful promotion of changes; industry beliefs and sentiments; strategic thinking and decision making). In addition, the nature of resilient leadership in different crisis stages mirrored that of decisive, transformational, transactional, autocratic, authentic, and strategic leadership in normal situations. Such leadership behaviors, although common, sparked travel agencies’ organizational transformation and enhanced these agencies’ ability to respond to crises. Theoretically, this research expands the understanding of leadership in crisis contexts, dissects leadership within small and medium- sized travel agencies during crises, and contributes to similarly sized tourism enterprises’resilience and growth. Practically, the leaders of small and medium- sized travel agencies will benefit from greater risk awareness and encouraging critical thinking, learning, and innovation even under dire circumstances. It is critical that these leaders be able to think strategically in order to cope with future challenges. 新冠疫情对中小型旅行社产生了巨大的冲击和影响。文章采取多案例研究，选取经历3年新冠疫情并度过危机的中小型旅行社为研究对象，基于“危机阶段-领导力特征-领导力应对策略”逻辑，采用扎根理论分析重大危机情境下中小型旅行社领导力的特征及危机不同阶段领导力的应对策略。研究发现：1）重大危机情境下领导力表现为坚韧型领导力风格，呈现出果断决策与行动、个性化关怀、创新求变精神、个人魅力与影响力、智力激发、权变奖励、强力推行变革、行业信念与情怀、战略思考与决策9个特征；2）危机不同阶段领导力特征与常态化情境中果断型、变革型、交易型、专制型、真实型和战略型领导力风格相似，通过共性领导行为，引发旅行社组织变革，进而提升了旅行社应对危机的能力。研究最终揭示的坚韧型领导力风格有助于解释危机不同阶段领导力的变化，为中小型旅游企业如何应对危机、从危机中复原提供了实践参考。