Criticality of change leadership to business survival in a vuca environment: - A case study of Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (Zse) – Listed Companies in the Covid-19 era

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to ascertain the criticality of change leadership to business survival in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment focusing on the case of Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)-listed companies in the COVID-19 era. It arose from the growing pressure that 21st-century VUCA environments are exerting on businesses and sought to verify the extent to which change leadership practice could provide a panacea to VUCA’s adverse impacts on viability. SPSS v.20 bivariate analysis was used to test the study’s alternative hypothesis and establish a correlation between the quartet of change aspects encompassing vision, understanding, clarity, and agility and business survival in a VUCA environment. Theoretical and empirical literature showed broad consensus on leadership’s importance for the success of organizational change initiatives, especially in today’s turbulent environments. A mixed-methods approach was used due to the study’s qualitative and quantitative nature. The study found that change leadership has been widely and often practiced in ZSE companies during the COVID-19 era and that most change and change leadership interventions were highly feasible. It also found that the interventions were largely inevitable and significantly effective and that change leadership is crucial to business survival in a VUCA environment. Other factors besides change leadership were also found to have largely accounted for the survival of ZSE companies in the COVID-19 era. The establishment of business-led corporate sector resilience initiatives towards empowering local businesses to sustain themselves against growing VUCA pressures was recommended. This move could also help to boost potential local and foreign investor confidence in the sector. Further, the creation of inclusive business change leadership educational and awareness forums or institutions should also help to capacitate local businesses to survive inevitable future VUCA episodes.