The COVID-19 pandemic and the role of responsible leadership in health care: thinking beyond employee well-being and organisational sustainability

Purpose The unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed an enormous challenge ever for health-care organisations to find strategies to deal with their survival. The health-care employees are the frontline soldiers to fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there is a lack of research regarding the conceptualisation of COVID-19 and its impact on health-care employees' well-being and their organisational sustainability. Extending the role of responsible leadership (RL), the purpose of this paper is to develop a multi-level conceptual model to overcome the crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and promote employee (e.g. workers, nurses and professionals) well-being and organisational sustainability. Design/methodology/approach With a comprehensive literature review, this paper presents five testable propositions and highlights the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on employee well-being and organisational sustainability. Findings The proposed model counsels that organisations need to go beyond the simple application of strategic climate and should enable RL to protect and maintain employee well-being and organisational sustainability. Research limitations/implications The proposed conceptual model is a step forward to not only explore future empirical research but also it will help the health-care policymakers to take responsible initiatives to increase employee well-being and uphold organisational sustainability. Originality/value There is a lack of research regarding the conceptualisation of the COVID 19 pandemic and its impact on health-care employees' well-being and organisational sustainability. The proposed conceptual model opens and guides a novel research avenue for the alignment of strategic management (as a moderator) and RL on the relationships among the COVID-19 pandemic, employee well-being and organisational sustainability.