Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Research in Business, Management and Economics
Year: 2026
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Crisis Leadership in An Emerging Economy: Insight from Nigerian Leaders and Followers
Patricia Okorodudu, Prof. Christian Harrison
ABSTRACT:
Crisis leadership is an essential competency for organizational sustainability, especially within an emerging economy such as Nigeria where socio-economic volatility, weak institutional framework and resource constraint exposes organizations to recurrent crises. This study examines the experiences of crisis leaders and their followers in Nigeria to understand their experiences on crisis leadership and how leaders interpret and respond to challenges during the times of crisis and to investigates how their competencies influence follower’s perception and shape organizational outcomes.
Data for this study is collected through semi-structured interview from 45 participants across two Nigerian companies. By capturing the subjective experiences of both leaders and followers, the study highlights the relationship between leader’s behavior and follower response during crisis which is often overlooked. The findings from this study are expected to provide valuable insight into how followers contribute to organizational resilience during crisis and how leaders’ competencies demonstrated during crises impact both their perception and organizational outcomes.
The study contributes to leadership domain by contextualizing crisis leadership within an emerging economy beyond the Western centric narrative and offers practical guidance for organizations, policy makers and practitioners by strengthening crisis preparedness and bridging the gap between theory and practice by developing an integrated context-sensitive framework tailored for emerging economies.
Keywords: Crisis leadership, Emerging Economies, Leaders, Followers, Nigeria