Leadership and agility: What can we learn from Melbourne Quarantine Hotel during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

This case study sheds light on leadership in one of Melbourne’s luxury hotels while trying to rapidly transform its operations to meet the Australian quarantine program requirements. The case highlights how leadership emerges as the managers at ‘Hotel QH’ attempt to make sense of what is happening in the broader environment and engage in implementing the new strategy to navigate the pandemic. Developing awareness of leadership in highly disruptive times, the case study lets students identify the various leadership elements, such as transactional and transformational leadership styles, behaviours, capabilities of strategic agility, and leadership traits, to discuss the leadership effectiveness in this unique hotel context. The case study further highlights how managerial decision-making and actions can influence the hotel employees’ emotions and actions, allowing students to reflect on what potentially is effective leadership. Accordingly, students are encouraged to propose new strategies for ‘Hotel QH’ to drive new strategic renewal as the hotel emerges out of the quarantine program service and begins to enter the uncharted waters of the still uncertain hotel industry environment.