Catastrophic events can significantly disrupt businesses and, as a result, understanding how organizations adapt to a crisis is critical. Undeniably, leaders often play a crucial role in times of great uncertainty. Yet, it is unclear exactly how leaders can effectively guide organizations through a crisis. Extending theories of network brokerage and organizational adaptation research, we posit that compared to leaders creating structural holes in intra-organizational communication networks, those leaders bridging structural holes can build more effective communication networks with greater cohesion and higher efficiency. In turn, greater cohesion and higher efficiency subsequently drive organizational adaptation and business recovery in a multi-unit enterprise during the early outbreak of COVID-19. Our hypotheses are supported using multi-wave network surveys in 111 chain restaurants with over 3,000 employees. We demonstrate that, during a crisis, leaders can serve as a key architect to shape communication patterns to facilitate organizational adaptation to crises and drive business recovery with faster customer growth and continually decreasing personnel costs.

中文翻译：

---

危机中的领导力：从社交网络角度看领导者经纪策略、组织内沟通模式和业务复苏

灾难性事件可能会严重扰乱业务，因此了解组织如何适应危机至关重要。不可否认，领导者往往在高度不确定的时期发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，尚不清楚领导者如何有效地引导组织度过危机。扩展网络经纪和组织适应研究的理论，我们认为，与在组织内部沟通网络中制造结构性漏洞的领导者相比，那些弥合结构性漏洞的领导者可以建立更有效的沟通网络，具有更大的凝聚力和更高的效率。反过来，在 COVID-19 爆发初期，更大的凝聚力和更高的效率会推动多部门企业的组织适应和业务恢复。我们的假设得到了对 111 家拥有 3,000 多名员工的连锁餐厅进行的多波网络调查的支持。我们证明，在危机期间，领导者可以作为关键架构师来塑造沟通模式，以促进组织适应危机，并通过更快的客户增长和不断降低人员成本来推动业务复苏。