Crisis Leadership and Organizational Resilience for Sustainable Healthcare: The Moderating Role of Agile Leadership in Iraq’s Private Hospitals

Ibraheem Ali Saadi

doi:10.63540/kijme.v13i48.4295

Authors

Ibraheem Ali Saadi Department of Supervision and Follow-up, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Baghdad, Iraq. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8163-1888

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63540/kijme.v13i48.4295

Keywords:

Crisis leadership, Organizational resilience, Sustainable Healthcare, Leadership agility, Private hospitals, Iraq

Abstract

This study investigates the role of crisis leadership in fostering organizational resilience and its subsequent influence on sustainable healthcare in Iraq’s private hospitals. It further examines the moderating effect of leadership agility on the relationship between organizational resilience and sustainable healthcare. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Usable data were collected from 158 leaders and managers across nine major private hospitals in Baghdad, Erbil, Basra, and Najaf. Validated measurement scales were employed, and data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 28) through hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The results show that decisiveness and communication significantly enhance organizational resilience, whereas empathy (ET) does not exhibit a significant effect. Organizational resilience has a positive and significant impact on sustainable healthcare. Moreover, leadership agility significantly moderates the resilience–sustainability relationship, strengthening the translation of resilience capabilities into long-term sustainable healthcare outcomes. This study contributes to the limited empirical evidence on crisis leadership and healthcare sustainability in developing-country contexts. It highlights the critical role of organizational resilience as a driver of sustainability and identifies leadership agility as a key enabler. The findings also call into question the universal assumption that ET directly strengthens organizational resilience, suggesting the need to consider contextual and cultural factors in leadership research.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Ibraheem Ali Saadi, Department of Supervision and Follow-up, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Baghdad, Iraq.

Department of Supervision and Follow-up, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Baghdad, Iraq.

References

Akpinar, H., & Özer-Çaylan, D. (2023). Organizational resilience in maritime business: a systematic literature review. Management Research Review, 46(2), 245–267.

Al-Kilidar, H., Al-Khafaji, Y., & Abbas, H. (2024). Crisis management practices in Iraq’s healthcare sector: A leadership perspective. International Journal of Health Governance, 29(1), 15–32.

Al-Salem, M., & Abdulrahman, K. (2023). Healthcare leadership in fragile contexts: Navigating complexity and uncertainty. Journal of Health Management, 25(2), 112–130.

Armstrong, J. S., & Overton, T. S. (1977). Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. Journal of Marketing Research, 14(3), 396–402.

Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120.

Bolin, J. H. (2014). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. JSTOR.

Bundy, J., Pfarrer, M. D., Short, C. E., & Coombs, W. T. (2017). Crises and crisis management: Integration, interpretation, and research development. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1661–1692.

DeRue, D. S. (2011). Adaptive leadership theory: Leading and following as a complex adaptive process. Research in Organizational Behavior, 31, 125–150.

DuBrin, A. (2013). Principles of leadership (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Hair, J. F. (2021). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). sage.

Heifetz, R. A. (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA.

Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The theory behind the practice. Harvard Business Press.

Initiative, G. R. (2020). Consolidated set of GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards 2020. Amsterdam: GRI (www. globalreporting. org/how-to-use-the-gri-standards/gri ….

James, E. H., Wooten, L. P., & Dushek, K. (2011). Crisis management: Informing a new leadership research agenda. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 455–493.

James, E., & Wooten, L. (2010). Leading under pressure: From surviving to thriving before, during, and after a crisis. Routledge.

Jan, B. K., & Maulida, M. (2022). The role of leaders’ motivation, entrepreneurial leadership, and organisational agility in social enterprise sustainability. The South East Asian Journal of Management, 16(2), 5.

Joiner, W. B., & Josephs, S. A. (2006). Leadership agility: Five levels of mastery for anticipating and initiating change. John Wiley & Sons.

Krejcie, R. V, & Morgan, D. W. (1970). Determining Sampel Size for Research Activities, Educational and Psychological Measurement. NEA Research Bulletinvo L38.

Linnenluecke, M. K. (2017). Resilience in business and management research: A review of influential publications and a research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), 4–30.

Mallak, L. (1998). Putting organizational resilience to work. INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT-CHICAGO THEN ATLANTA-, 8–13.

Mandal, S. (2020). Exploring the impact of healthcare agility and resilience on sustainable healthcare performance: Moderating role of technology orientation. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 8(1), 3–23.

Martins, H., & Erhard, S. L. (2025). Leadership Competencies and Inherent Attributes in Times of Crisis. In Power, Politics and Influence: Exercising Followership, Leadership, and Practicing Politics (pp. 227–251). Springer.

Meyer, P. (2016). Agility shift: Creating agile and effective leaders, teams, and organizations. Routledge.

Organization, W. H. (2024). WHO delivering on its commitment to protect and improve people’s health: stories of healthier populations, access to services and emergency response. World Health Organization.

Pallant, J. (2020). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS. Routledge.

Pereira, R., Oliveira, T., & Mikalef, P. (2022). Understanding the role of digital transformation in promoting healthcare sustainability. . . Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Rott, C., Segers, M., & Van den Bossche, P. (2025). Expected to be calm in any storm: An exploration of the stress experiences of crisis team leaders. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 123, 105445.

Saadi, I. A. (2023). Effect of Organisational Strategy on Sustainable Competitive Advantage of Manufacturing SMEs: Mediating Role of Managerial Creativity.

Saadi, I. A., & Razak, R. C. (2019). Organizational Change and Organizational Sustainability: The mediating effect of Innovative Human Capital. Opción: Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, 89, 180.

Saadi, I. A., Sawadi, Z. T., & Al-Salami, Q. H. (2023). An evaluation study on leadership styles and its impact on academic employees’ job satisfaction (Private Iraqi universities as an example). Journal Port Science Research, 6(3), 240–250.

Sarkar, A., Selway, K., Ascroft, J., & Wingreen, S. (2023). Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through organizational culture of collaborative networks among information workers.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students (8th ed.). Pearson.

Somers, S. (2009). Measuring resilience potential: An adaptive strategy for organizational crisis planning. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 17(1), 12–23.

Thorndike, R. M. (1995). Book review: psychometric theory by Jum Nunnally and Ira Bernstein New York: McGraw-hill, 1994, xxiv+ 752 pp. Applied Psychological Measurement, 19(3), 303–305.

Weyant, E. (2022). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches: by John W. Creswell and J. David Creswell, Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2018, $38.34, 304pp., ISBN: 978-1506386706. Taylor & Francis.

Yağmur, Ö. B., & Myrvang, N. A. (2023). The effect of organizational agility on crisis management process and organizational resilience: Health sector example. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 96, 103955.