Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world

This study investigated how agile leadership played its role in managing inter-role conflicts during the chaotic period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was much more than the survival of the fittest and coming out of it alive. Organizations were under immense pressure to resume their...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Saima Aftab, Komal Khalid, Ajmal Waheed, Asma Aftab, Aisha Adnan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.979792/full
_version_ 1811251372871385088
author Saima Aftab
Saima Aftab
Komal Khalid
Ajmal Waheed
Asma Aftab
Aisha Adnan
author_facet Saima Aftab
Saima Aftab
Komal Khalid
Ajmal Waheed
Asma Aftab
Aisha Adnan
author_sort Saima Aftab
collection DOAJ
description This study investigated how agile leadership played its role in managing inter-role conflicts during the chaotic period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was much more than the survival of the fittest and coming out of it alive. Organizations were under immense pressure to resume their normal operations in not-so-normal situations. This period of turmoil and agony brought a broad array of inter-role conflicts, which posed challenges for leaders to manage them effectively. The satisfaction at job and the satisfaction in life were the two most important endeavors for the employees to fight. This study explores how leadership agility helped employees manage their work–family and family–work conflicts, consequently impacting life satisfaction and job satisfaction simultaneously. Moreover, role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload are important intervening role stress factors that impact inter-role conflict management. So, role stress is a moderating factor in the direct relationship between agile leadership and inter-role conflict. This is a two-phased time lag study with a quantitative design for data collection. The first phase of data collection comprises of analyzing the impact of agile leadership on inter-role conflict management, keeping in view the intervening impact of role stress. The second data collection phase examines how inter-role conflicts impacted life satisfaction and job satisfaction during COVID-19. The data were collected from faculty working in higher education institutions in Pakistan, as the education industry was the second major sector that was affected because of COVID-19 after the health care industry. This research found that agile leadership plays a significant role in determining job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Agile leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic helped to manage work–family (AgileL -> WFC -> JS β = 0.1020, p = 0.0112 and AgileL -> WFC -> LS β = 0.1361, p = 0.0014) and family–work conflicts (AgileL -> FWC -> JS β = 0.1598, p = 0.0017 and AgileL -> FWC -> LS β = 0.1160, p = 0.0093) and reduce role stress. Future researchers might include marital satisfaction, as the inter-role conflicts highly impacted marital satisfaction and resultant imbalances among dual-earning couples. Comparative studies in this regard, explaining how dual-earning couples managed to sustain marital health and the role of leadership in developed and developing countries would be enlightening.
first_indexed 2024-04-12T16:19:29Z
format Article
id doaj.art-d8c3a325742b46bb948c54427d953c2a
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1664-1078
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-12T16:19:29Z
publishDate 2022-10-01
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format Article
series Frontiers in Psychology
spelling doaj.art-d8c3a325742b46bb948c54427d953c2a2022-12-22T03:25:37ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-10-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.979792979792Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA worldSaima Aftab0Saima Aftab1Komal Khalid2Ajmal Waheed3Asma Aftab4Aisha Adnan5Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Wah Cantt, PakistanFoundation University, Islamabad, PakistanDepartment of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaDepartment of Business Administration, Foundation University, Islamabad, PakistanDepartment of Ophthalmology, Wah Medical College, Wah Cantt, PakistanBoots UK Limited, Nottingham, United KingdomThis study investigated how agile leadership played its role in managing inter-role conflicts during the chaotic period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was much more than the survival of the fittest and coming out of it alive. Organizations were under immense pressure to resume their normal operations in not-so-normal situations. This period of turmoil and agony brought a broad array of inter-role conflicts, which posed challenges for leaders to manage them effectively. The satisfaction at job and the satisfaction in life were the two most important endeavors for the employees to fight. This study explores how leadership agility helped employees manage their work–family and family–work conflicts, consequently impacting life satisfaction and job satisfaction simultaneously. Moreover, role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload are important intervening role stress factors that impact inter-role conflict management. So, role stress is a moderating factor in the direct relationship between agile leadership and inter-role conflict. This is a two-phased time lag study with a quantitative design for data collection. The first phase of data collection comprises of analyzing the impact of agile leadership on inter-role conflict management, keeping in view the intervening impact of role stress. The second data collection phase examines how inter-role conflicts impacted life satisfaction and job satisfaction during COVID-19. The data were collected from faculty working in higher education institutions in Pakistan, as the education industry was the second major sector that was affected because of COVID-19 after the health care industry. This research found that agile leadership plays a significant role in determining job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Agile leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic helped to manage work–family (AgileL -> WFC -> JS β = 0.1020, p = 0.0112 and AgileL -> WFC -> LS β = 0.1361, p = 0.0014) and family–work conflicts (AgileL -> FWC -> JS β = 0.1598, p = 0.0017 and AgileL -> FWC -> LS β = 0.1160, p = 0.0093) and reduce role stress. Future researchers might include marital satisfaction, as the inter-role conflicts highly impacted marital satisfaction and resultant imbalances among dual-earning couples. Comparative studies in this regard, explaining how dual-earning couples managed to sustain marital health and the role of leadership in developed and developing countries would be enlightening.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.979792/fullCOVID-19agile leadershiprole stresswork–family conflictsfamily–work conflictslife satisfaction
spellingShingle Saima Aftab
Saima Aftab
Komal Khalid
Ajmal Waheed
Asma Aftab
Aisha Adnan
Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world
Frontiers in Psychology
COVID-19
agile leadership
role stress
work–family conflicts
family–work conflicts
life satisfaction
title Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world
title_full Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world
title_fullStr Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world
title_full_unstemmed Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world
title_short Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world
title_sort role of agile leadership in managing inter role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during covid 19 in a vuca world
topic COVID-19
agile leadership
role stress
work–family conflicts
family–work conflicts
life satisfaction
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.979792/full
work_keys_str_mv AT saimaaftab roleofagileleadershipinmanaginginterroleconflictsforasatisfyingjobandlifeduringcovid19inavucaworld
AT saimaaftab roleofagileleadershipinmanaginginterroleconflictsforasatisfyingjobandlifeduringcovid19inavucaworld
AT komalkhalid roleofagileleadershipinmanaginginterroleconflictsforasatisfyingjobandlifeduringcovid19inavucaworld
AT ajmalwaheed roleofagileleadershipinmanaginginterroleconflictsforasatisfyingjobandlifeduringcovid19inavucaworld
AT asmaaftab roleofagileleadershipinmanaginginterroleconflictsforasatisfyingjobandlifeduringcovid19inavucaworld
AT aishaadnan roleofagileleadershipinmanaginginterroleconflictsforasatisfyingjobandlifeduringcovid19inavucaworld