The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally affected personal and professional lives around the globe in 2020 and 2021, changing the demands on leaders and organizations. In this paper, we investigate how the pandemic and its associated significant disruptions and stressors impacted leaders and organizations via data analysis of nearly 300 leaders across all leader levels; we also explore the downstream consequences of the pandemic on leaders, and how to use those insights to inform future actions in the midst of changing and challenging times. Specifically, we explore the following research questions:
- Has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted leaders differently depending on their background (e.g., gender) and circumstances (e.g., remote work status)?
- Is COVID-related stress negatively related to job satisfaction and wellbeing and/or positively related to burnout?
- Is COVID-related stress related to resilience, gratitude and intolerance of ambiguity?
- Do resilience, gratitude, and intolerance of ambiguity influence the relations between COVID-related stress and work-related outcomes?
Results of the study confirmed that the answer to all four of these questions is “yes.”
