The Impact of Leadership Competencies on Employee Performance in Malaysia during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
Employee performance is essential to ensure the survival of many businesses. The literature has indicated that employee performance may be enhanced through leadership competencies. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, leaders have been the navigators for teams, departments and organizations, and it is through their competencies that employees may have felt motivated and productive even if they were working from home (WFH). As such, the purpose of this research was to study the influence of leadership competencies (cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and social intelligence) on employee performance in Malaysian businesses due to the limited studies available in the Malaysian context. This research may have an impact on the implementation of policies that would facilitate the training of leaders to enhance these competencies. Furthermore, this study would allow scholars to have a deeper understanding of the different competencies needed in a leader to enhance employee performance. The study used a deductive approach with questionnaires distributed online to 200 employees in Selangor. SPSS was used to conduct the data analysis and in studying the relationships between the three leadership competencies and employee performance in Malaysia. The results of the study showed that cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and social intelligence all had significant positive relationships with employee performance. The study found that employees in Malaysia want a leader who has all three of these leadership competencies, especially during a time of crisis, which is the scientific novelty of this study. Implications of the research findings are presented as well.
Keywords: employee performance, cognitive intelligence competency, emotional intelligence competency, social intelligence competency.
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