The influence of new leadership styles on employee performance in an automotive industry of Indonesia

Organizations began adapting to remote working patterns in the early pandemic, while human resource management faces new challenges in adapting to these changes. Leadership is the key to maintaining and improving employee job performance. Therefore, this study aims to find effective new leadership styles for adapting to the new work era. The paper analyzed employee perceptions of the leadership style (transformational, servant, and empowering) and measured their effects on employee job performance in current conditions. The survey was conducted online among 387 employees who had worked for at least five years and at least two years had worked virtually in an automotive manufacturing company in Indonesia that had implemented a virtual work pattern for most of its employees. Then, the data were processed using SEM Amos 25.0. Subsequently, the results showed that employee job performance has two critical dimensions, courtesy and sportsmanship, and is positively and directly influenced by the new leadership style. This study found an effective new leadership style for virtual leadership in the automotive industry with nine dimensions: openness, orientation to problem-solving, freedom at work, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, coaching, participatory decision-making, and showing concern. The contribution of this study for organizational managers is as a soft reference for functional leadership competencies during the new work period and a new reference for leadership science in human resources management.