The post-Covid era: digital leadership, organizational performance and employee motivation

Purpose This qualitative study aims to identify key intervention areas for today’s leaders and the leadership skills necessary to enhance employee motivation in this digitized, post-COVID era. Design/methodology/approach An inductive qualitative approach with a semi-structured interview-based design has been adopted, inspired by previous studies that aimed to explore and shed light on the object of this study. Findings First, findings refer to actual main areas of intervention and challenges for leaders to drive organizations in the new post-Covid digitalized era. Second, the study also identifies new skills needed to lead businesses and drive employees’ motivation. Third, this work proposes a framework to explain the leadership role in the actual complex reality. Originality/value Despite the extensive body of research on leadership, current theories fall short in the complex, post-COVID environment marked by instability, constant change and pervasive technology. Thus this research strives to develop an integrated framework to better elucidate the challenges and skills essential for leading businesses in today’s complex reality, with a comprehensive perspective.