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The powerful and disruptive changes associated with digital transformation make leadership more complex than before, which results in new and demanding challenges for companies and leaders alike. Thus, building on the competing values framework (CVF), which postulates that leaders must adopt multiple roles and behaviors, the current research aims to identify leadership roles appropriate in digital transformation and subsequently investigate whether the existing CVF roles are still relevant. A qualitative study was conducted to identify appropriate leadership behaviors in digital transformation. Additionally, a measurement scale for the identified leadership roles was developed and tested. Furthermore, multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to test the degree‐of‐fit between the identified leadership roles in digital transformation and the four CVF quadrants. The results reveal that new leadership roles emerge in the context of digital transformation. Some original CVF roles are still relevant, but others should be modified. Overall, the findings indicate that leaders need a broad behavioral complexity to master the emerging leadership challenges in digital transformation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way people work and live. More people than ever work from home. Due to the sudden changes, leaders are faced with various challenges, such as the fear of loss of control or keeping their teams motivated. In this study, we explore the daily experiences of leaders aiming to work effectively while using digital tools and working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching purpose of our study is to gain a better understanding about how leaders navigate the complexities of crisis-induced remote leadership by the use of digital tools by addressing the following questions: (1) Which practices do leaders use to deal with the complexities of day-to-day remote leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How do different digital tools fit the diverse leadership practices? (3) What drives and inhibits leaders’ effectiveness in dealing with the complexities of remote leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic? To explore these research questions, we draw on longitudinal data from 155 qualitative diaries written by 31 leaders over a five-work-day period. We identify four categories of leadership practices, namely (1) solve problems collaboratively and monitor team progress, (2) create space for socialising and teambuilding, (3) make the team feel supported and encourage feedback and (4) communicate to build a virtual culture of trust. Our findings reveal that leaders demonstrate a broad repertoire of leadership practices, whereby relation orientation is more pronounced than task orientation. Moreover, leaders tend to focus on operational and team-oriented leadership practices, and they encounter the challenge of choosing the right digital tool to match their message. Our study’s results show that they use a variety of digital tools, but video conferences seem especially suitable for supporting remote leadership practices. However, several factors have impacts on remote leadership effectiveness, which we consider in the managerial implications.

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