Managers building team resilience in times of uncertainty

Abstract

When operating in uncertainty, it is important to adapt and stay functionable in a complex environment. Team resilience is a rising phenomenon in modern working life, as teams have become a prevalent structure of arranging work in every kind of organizations. Team leaders have a significant role in influencing team’s operations and fostering team resilience. Managers implement their leadership by various leadership practices, and it is therefore sensible to pay attention to what kind of practices managers utilize in ordinary settings.

This thesis aims to increase the understanding of the phenomena of team resilience, and especially what kind of leadership practices there is to foster team resilience. The thesis focuses on transformational leadership practices as previous literature supports it to be a leadership style that positively affects resilience. The research is carried out as qualitative research, as a case study, and the empirical data is collected by interviewing team managers, leading teams that operate in uncertainty. The data offers insights on how team managers, in ordinary settings, lead their teams and what kind of transformational leadership practices there appear, that according to previous literature, fosters team resilience.

The empirical data is analysed with thematic analysis approach, which allows for the systematic identification and interpretation of several patterns of meaning appearing from the data. This approach helps in providing a rich and detailed understanding of the research topic.

The key findings of the study state that team managers leading a team that operates in uncertainty utilize variety of transformational leadership practices, such as fostering learning, motivation and intellectual stimulation and other practices, from which extensive communication and autonomy were the most emphasized in the data.

This study demonstrates what kind of leadership practices managers implement in everyday life, when managing a team operating under uncertainty. The findings of this study increase consciousness of the issues and can be utilized as in developing managerial practices in team leadership, especially when operating with a team during uncertain times, when the need for resilience is emphasized.