Article
Leadership for Hybrid Organizations: How Structure and Belonging Drive Engagement and Performance
The introduction of hybrid working has also reshaped organizational leadership in the post-pandemic world, going against the grain of what we believed about engagement, coordination and visibility. This study examines the impact of employee engagement and performance on hybrid teams of employees due to the nature of the leadership behaviours involved, namely identity leadership, rhythm-setting and communication clarity. Based on the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) Model and the theory of e-leadership and psychological safety, the study follows a mixed methods approach, which includes survey data (N = 318 hybrid employees) and 18 semi-structured interviews with leaders from five knowledge intensive organizations. Results of quantitative analyses show that identity leadership and rhythm-setting are significant predictors of engagement and perceived performance (β = .34, p < .001 and β = .21, p < .01 respectively). Psychological safety partially mediates the above effects and trust partially moderates the relationship between remote days and perceived fairness (β = .18, p < .01). The qualitative analyses show three mechanisms of leadership that keep the hybrid teams cohesive and psychologically safe: predictable rhythms, deliberate identity work, and explicit practices of fairness. The study contributes to theory by bringing together concepts of identity leadership and rhythm-setting within the JD–R framework, and by further understanding the contextual moderating role of trust within hybrid work. On a practical level, the results highlight the need for intentional design of the hybrid leadership, which includes structured rhythms, identity practices that make sure everyone is included, and transparent evaluation. Leaders who create a psychologically safe space can turn the flexibility of hybrid working into an engagement and performance edge that can last for the long haul.