Post Pandemic leadership in Latin America: responding to Wicked Problems using Adaptive Leadership in Organizational Contexts

Abstract

This paper examines the leadership approach to the pandemic in Latin America based on the traditional cultural approach to leadership in this region. Using the framework of challenges proposed by Grint (2020), a response to Covid is recommended based on its categorization as a wicked, as opposed to a tame or critical, problem. Using a framework of adaptive leadership (Heifetz, 1994) and advanced change theory (Quinn, 2000), Ricardo Semler’s transformation of Semco is explored as an example of an alternative approach to leadership to address wicked problems in Latin America.