e-Leadership during COVID-19: Challenges for Municipal

Administration Employees

Vita Jukneviciene

, Rita Toleikiene

and Irma Rybnikova

Institute of Regional Development, Siauliai Academy, Vilnius University, P. Visinskio 25, Siauliai, Lithuania

Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Marker Allee 76-78, Germany

Keywords: e-Leadership, Administration, Municipality, Leaders, Employees, Covid-19.

Abstract: e-Leadership was a practice of the business sector and just recently it found the applicability in

organizations of the public sector. For a long period e-leadership was rather a random case than a common

practice in municipalities. Covid-19 pandemic has affected the change of organizational practices globally,

forcing even municipal administrations to look for ICT tools helping them to keep their internal processes

continuing. Laws and regulations have been changed to legalize remote work, therefore, e-leadership as a

common practice gained the peak of practical importance. The aim of the article is to reveal main challenges

of e-leadership for municipal administration employees during Covid-19. The article is based on the

summarizing of empirical results of the case study, conducted in Lithuanian municipal administration. The

sudden turn to e-leadership required leaders and employees of municipal administration to adapt new tools,

time planning and working culture, which had some positive and negative effects on leaders and employees

in municipal administrations. It influenced the decrease of time wasting, increased rational and targeted

communication, and the careful and trustful control of tasks’ implementation. On the other hand, the

changed situation and leadership methods had a negative impact on the psychology of employees (constant

tense and uncertainty), increased work-life imbalance, etc.

1 INTRODUCTION

E-leadership as the phenomenon was caused by the

development of information and communication

technologies (hereinafter ICT) and their integration

to various organizational processes (including

relations between the leader and employees). E-

leadership is understood as the leadership of

employees using digital, virtual channels and media,

such as e-mail, video conferencing and virtual task

implementation platforms (Lexa, 2021). Social

influence on employees and such processes as

communication, motivation, transmission of values

and formation of attitudes, influenced by the leader,

are going using ICT (Avolio et al., 2014; Kahai et

al., 2017; Van Wart et al., 2019). It started the

existence in business companies (Torre, Sarti, 2020),

which were quite open for different ways of acting

to reach their goals, enabling the remote work as

acceptable form, and it has reached its popularity in

the period of Covid-19 pandemic in all sectors,

including the public one.

Due to legal regulations, the traditional way of

the performance (face-to-face) in municipal

administrations was a common practice. Integration

of ICT was gaining popularity in relations between

governmental organizations and clients (citizens,

institutions or business companies) - e-democracy,

e-government, e-services, e-citizen, etc.

(Twizeyimana, Andersson, 2019). However, the

organizational process of leadership was based on

the direct communication between the leader and

employees.

The Covid-19 pandemic made a huge impact and

it has affected the change of organizational practices

globally, forcing organizations to look for ICT tools

helping them to keep their performance continuing.

In the majority of cases, the public sector

organizations (including municipalities) had to

change their regulations to legalize remote work. As

the pandemic period was challenging, the e-

leadership process has been expanded and it had a

huge effect on employees’ working style,

communication and even motivation. As there is still

a lack of scientific knowledge about how the

Jukneviciene, V., Toleikiene, R. and Rybnikova, I.

e-Leadership during COVID-19: Challenges for Municipal Administration Employees.

DOI: 10.5220/0011073100003168

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Finance, Information Technology and Management (ICFITM 2021), pages 33-37

ISBN: 978-989-758-576-0

pandemic has affected the leadership in public sector

organizations (especially, municipal

administrations), this research has been conducted.

The aim of this article is to reveal main

challenges of e-leadership for municipal

administration employees during Covid-19. The

qualitative research was based on the case study (in

Lithuanian municipal administration). Due to

limitations of the article scope, it presents just

summarized results of the research

2 THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

To analyze challenges of e-leadership on employees

during the Covid-19, e-leadership phenomenon has

to be explained and its specifics in municipal

administration identified.

2.1 The Concept of e-Leadership

e-Leadership refers to leadership processes,

including communication, social influence and

motivation, through ICT (Van Wart et al., 2019;

Avolio et al. 2014). The leader and employees use

ICT for the communication as well as for the

collection and dissemination of information,

required to support organizational duties, tasks’

implementation, monitoring and controlling

(DasGupta, 2011).

e-Leadership focuses on personal traits and

social skills, such as willingness to learn and relearn,

responsiveness, honesty, interaction, and trust-

building, etc., e-leaders have to possess (Annunzio,

2001; Savolaine, 2013). Leaders play several roles in

an organization: interpersonal roles (the head figure,

leading person (directing, ordering, guiding, etc.),

liaison); decision making roles (entrepreneur,

disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator);

informational roles (monitor and denominator,

spokesperson) (Satriadi, Agusven, 2021). In the

context of ICT usage, e-leaders must focus on such

roles as: visionary (seeing the big picture and

translating it to organization, representing the

organization in public), convener (managing

differences of a team and bringing towards clear

goads and decisions, solving conflicts), manager

(allocating organizational resources with

responsibility, ensuring the supply of needed

equipment for employees), sponsor (forming and

directing real and virtual teams), innovator (finding

new ways or tools of working), and mentor (guiding

and directing prospects of new leaders, showing the

personal example, encouraging others to use ICT)

(Satriadi, Agusven, 2021; Venus et al., 2019; Ford et

al., 2017; Han et al., 2020).

According to Montgomery et al. (2016), e-

leadership is affected by some factors such as

leader’s characteristics, situational factors, virtual

design characteristics, subordinate characteristics,

task characteristics, alignment with ethical values

and citizen trust, legal basis and requirements on the

performance of the sector. Therefore, specifics of the

work in municipal administration may affect the

success of e-leadership in it.

2.2 Specifics of e-Leadership in a

Municipal Administration

Municipality as the governmental institution is

considered to be the closest one to citizens. Every

decision is reviewed by community members or

organizations, discussed in public. So even internal

processes such as leadership are monitored. Turning

to e-leadership requires special attentiveness and

responsibility, ensuring the continuity of the

performance as well as satisfaction of citizens’

expectations on effective and trustful management

of human resources in the municipality. Municipal

administration has to be prepared to respond to any

challenge (Bryson et al., 2014) and to continue its

activity even under circumstances of uncertainty or

crisis.

It has to perform in the context of dichotomy of

politics and administration (Overeem, 2005).

Therefore, even internal processes such as leadership

and e-leadership may be affected by conditions and

requirements of both - policy making and policy

implementation structures. Besides, as the

governmental institution it has less possibilities to be

flexible and adapt new practices even to internal

processes (in majority of cases, any change has to be

approved by some entities or regulations). The

bureaucratic tradition of public administration (strict

rules, limited managerial flexibility, steady and

routine processes) may impede the e-leadership

(more flexible, innovative, non-traditional way of

acting) acceptance as the normal practice in the

municipality.

The cyber security can become another challenge

for e-leadership in municipalities, especially in the

crisis-induced situation, since social networks, free

software and open source have become popular

instruments for management processes in public

administration, with local public administrations

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rapidly becoming an attractive target for

cybercriminals (Montgomery et al., 2016).

E-leadership in municipal administration may be

affected by some challenges, which are similar to

those from other sectors. E-leaders are expected to

work openly, inspire individuals and teams to

mobilize, concentrate on problems and results, guide

rather than control, and concentrate on motivating

rather than directing; they have to find effective

ways to manage the collaboration and

communication between team members, to develop

employees’ self-management capabilities, to solve

interpersonal conflicts, to deal with isolation and

confusion of employees (DasGupta, 2011; Kapucu,

Ustun, 2018).

Leaders are dependent on getting institutional

support, such as needed equipment and license,

training, decision support system, and simulation

(Van Wart et al., 2017) to improve their ICT usage

and decision making skills, especially in the crisis

context. The lack of such institutional support may

become one more challenge for e-leadership in the

crisis-induced situation.

Consequently, it should be emphasized that e-

leadership in municipalities can be affected by

various tensions connected to the nature of public

administration and challenges rising due to human-

machine interactions.

3 EMPIRICAL RESULTS

The analysis of the e-leadership practice in a

particular public administration institution under the

real crisis-induced situation may reveal what kind of

additional challenges the e-leadership has for

municipal administration employees. Therefore,

qualitative research in Lithuanian municipality as a

case study was conducted.

3.1 Method of the Research

Seeking to disclose the real situation of e-leadership

practice in municipal administration, the empirical

research as a case study (a qualitative research

strategy) has been chosen. Two semi-structured

interviews with two representatives of municipal

administration in Lithuania (both in supervisory

positions, the second interviewee has changed her

position from an employee to a vice-chairperson of

the section just recently) were conducted during the

pandemic situation in July 2020. It was a part of a

bigger research project, conducted in 2019-2020, so

interviews were the follow-up type. The interview

guide (the research instrument) was validated before

and it focused on leadership processes under

conditions of teleworking and changes in leadership

experienced by municipal employees. Both

interviews took place face-to face in the offices of

the interviewees. Both interviewed persons

represented one Lithuanian medium-size

municipality that was selected purposefully because

in 2015 it was acknowledged as the most successful

municipality implementing e-democracy in

Lithuania (Information Society Development

Committee, 2015). Their recordings were

transcribed. The summarizing results of this research

are presented in this article.

3.2 Results of the Case Study

3.2.1 Specifics of e-Leadership in

Lithuanian Municipal Administration

The Covid-19 pandemic situation has changed the

work of the municipal administration fundamentally.

During the quarantine, the form of teleworking

became mandatory for all municipal employees in a

very short two-week period. This was stressful for

the employees, as they had to learn to use various e-

tools (platforms) on their own to guarantee the

smooth operation of organizational duties.

Employees had to learn new ICT tools in a very short

period too. Due to the lack of timely institutional

support, they became self-taught experts of some

tools and even consulted each other. Leaders had to

transfer the leadership process online and to start

guiding virtual teams. They had to master ICT

specific tools, quite new in their daily performance,

and to become mentors (examples and guides) for

their employees.

It should be emphasized that during the

pandemic, the attitude of municipal leaders towards

the form of teleworking changed significantly. It

became clear that it is not as a privilege or a non-

effective time, but just another way of working. This

has increased the mutual trust between leaders and

employees; it helped to transfer the greater

responsibility and autonomy for employees, and

increased their self-confidence. Employees accepted

teleworking as the only way to continue their duties

in the crisis context. Leaders had to adapt to the role

of the mentor or guide rather than to stay the main

leading (head) person.

During this period, the municipal agenda was

complemented by “extra” issues that had to be

addressed “here and now”. Leaders and employees of

the municipal administration had to solve them in a

e-Leadership during COVID-19: Challenges for Municipal Administration Employees

short time by adopting non-standard decisions

requiring team approach and responsibility. Virtual

teams were organized for the search, adoption and

implementation of solutions, consultations and

collective decision making. Leaders had to develop

competences needed to become good conveners and

sponsors.

Such a situation required greater planning, time

management from leaders as well as from employees.

During the quarantine, there was an agreement

between leaders and employees that everyone should

be available all the time, thus extending working

hours to 24/7. The purpose of this agreement was the

need to respond quickly to “extra” (unplanned) issues

and the need for urgent decisions. Moreover, such a

requirement has helped to address the issue of

employees’ control. Leaders even preferred to

organize meetings in the very early morning or late

evening, on weekends to avoid problems of internet

connection overloads (so they have improved their

managing skills). Employees accepted this new

organizational behavior due to perceived complexity

of the situation. They started to plan their free time

according to new rules, even though it has increased

the work-life imbalance.

Responsibilities of different departments have

been redistributed: some departments worked

minimally because their activities were suspended,

others - worked day and night. During the quarantine,

there were a number of cases, when heads of other

administrative divisions (leaders) helped for other

leaders and took additional activities and functions

(not provided in the terms of their responsibilities).

So, leaders accepted new circumstances as the need

to show their organizational citizenship. Those

personal examples inspired other employees to help

colleagues too.

Working places moved to employees’ homes, and

it caused additional challenges for employees and

leaders, structuring the rhythm of the work. The

Covid-19 pandemic situation forced the Government

to close many organizations, including schools.

Teleworking from home has been hampered by the

coordination of family members’ working and

studying activities, the need for support to children

for their distance learning and the lack of suitable

ICT equipment. Parents (employees) had to develop

their competencies of time planning as well as

multitasking to do their operational tasks on time and

to take care of home duties. Leaders had to become

more patient and understanding as the majority of

them struggled with the same issues at home.

Leaders moved to constant performance of multi-

tasking. This required them to pay more attention

(and time) to the detailed and clear content of the

task, delivered to the employee. Therefore, the

competences of good communication (a

spokesperson) had to be improved.

Leaders even started to use multiple devices at

once to satisfy the need of participation in several

activities (meetings with other leaders, Government

representatives or even politicians, members of the

municipal council), to become fully reachable in a

case of “extra” issues. In the very beginning of the

quarantine, they had to look for best ICT tools and

platforms to work with their virtual teams, as the

institutional support came just later. So, they had to

strengthen their role as innovators.

Such a drastic change has raised some

psychological issues for employees too. The stress

caused by the isolation and the lack of live

communication has manifested in a form of the

willingness to talk to colleagues (on the phone) for

longer than usual, expressions of emotions

(including negative ones) and fears. As a result,

leaders had to spend more time listening to

employees and motivating them to perform assigned

activities. This required them to strengthen

competences and to enable their roles of the

convener and mentor. Moreover, colleagues had to

find ways to help each other psychologically too as

the implementation of the majority of tasks were

dependent on the readiness to act of all employees.

4 CONCLUSIONS

E-leadership as the process of social influence

towards employees using ICT in the public sector is

multidimensional. E-leadership in municipal

administrations can be affected by various tensions

connected to the nature of public administration and

challenges rising due to human-machine as well as

interpersonal interactions.

During the Covid-19 the performance of employees

(both leaders and their team members) in Lithuanian

municipal administration and the practice of e-

leadership was affected by some challenges:

 organizational challenges: changes of

regulations on teleworking; unplanned relocation of

activities to virtual space; acquisition and

development of ICT, adapted for teleworking;

(non)organizing of training for employees on the

management of new ICT tools and programs; new

rules for the administration of activities under

conditions of uncertainty;

 job-based challenges: between leaders and

employees: increased level of uncertainty of cared-

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out activities; creation of new traditions (work

rhythm, routine, activity structuring); greater

concentration to deal with crisis situations; increased

working days and hours; making quick decisions

“here and now”; deterioration of emotional health;

 leadership-based challenges: more emphasis on

task delivery; the need for better planning of time

and tasks working from home; constant multi-

tasking; better management of e-meetings’ flow.

The sudden turn (on a broad scale) to e-leadership

due to Covid-19 pandemic had both positive and

negative effects in the municipal administration. It

has led to a more efficient time use, as perceived by

the study participants, and increased the rational and

targeted communication between leaders and

employees. It has encouraged careful, but trustful

control of tasks’ implementation. On the other hand,

the changed situation and leadership methods had a

negative impact on employees: it increased the

work-life imbalance, the constant tense and

uncertainty has increased psychological issues,

which had to be handled with the support from

leaders as well as colleagues.

The research has some limitations. As the empirical

research (case study) is based on few interviews that

have been conducted in one Lithuanian municipality,

results cannot be generalized. However, results

contribute to the better understanding of the e-

leadership phenomenon and challenges of municipal

administration employees in the context of Covid-19

pandemic.

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e-Leadership during COVID-19: Challenges for Municipal Administration Employees