Victoria Gatty

Engineering and Science (B&FC) | Year 3 | Degree: Project Management

Does a Global Pandemic, such as Covid-19, Impact the Identification Process of New and Emerging Leaders Within an Engineering Business such as BAE Systems

A hot topic within BAE Systems currently is the number and quality of leaders and how they have been impacted by COVID-19. Therefore, this research will investigate the types of leaders we have in the business and initially how COVID-19 has impacted their leadership styles and approaches from pre-pandemic to now. I have a desire to understand the issues within the organisation and I’ll be developing my relationship with the HR function to help improve the processes and procedures for identifying and developing leaders going forwards.

As this is inductive research, I have conducted informal interviews with a mix of genders, experience and cultures, to collect qualitative data. My initial findings show that communication between leaders and their teams was a key issue at the start of the pandemic, thematic analysis will allow me to identify further key themes.

To conclude, my findings will be beneficial for all organisations as they will be able to understand the key issues and blockers which arose as a result of the pandemic and how to prepare for future pandemics. We need to assist our leaders and teach them how to deal with such situations to ensure high levels of productivity and efficiency continue.