Leadership characteristics that come to the fore in remote working process from the employee and leader perspective

This study aims to understand the leadership experiences of 22 participants from the IT sector operating throughout Turkey during remote working processes. The participants consist of 16 employees and 6 leaders. The sample was selected using the criterion sampling method, and attention was paid to the participants having both face-to-face and remote working experience. The study was designed with a descriptive phenomenological approach and semi-structured interviews were used as the qualitative data collection method. The interviews were conducted between April 10, 2024 and August 4, 2024, and the data were analyzed with MAXQDA 2024 software. Four themes emerged in the study regarding leadership competencies: leadership skills, leadership roles within the team, crisis management, and adaptation to flexible working conditions. The findings show that remote working highlights the flexibility, digital communication skills, and supportive leadership characteristics of leaders. Perceptual differences between leaders and employees were noted; while employees expect more empathy, support, and accessibility from leaders, leaders demand more initiative and self-discipline. In parallel with all this, it has been observed that remote working reshapes leadership approaches and that the adaptation of leadership skills is of critical importance in this process. Within the scope of the research, an important perspective on the transformation of leadership perceptions in the IT sector was discovered and it was concluded that leaders need to acquire new competencies in order to adapt to changing business environments.