Reconfiguring Leadership in the United Kingdom: A Scoping Review of Remote Leadership in the Post-Covid-19 Era
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote and hybrid working across the United Kingdom, reshaping leadership practices and organisational design. Despite the increase in empirical studies on remote leadership, the breadth, patterns of methodology, and conceptual development of the evidence base are still patchy. This scoping review maps, critically appraises, and synthesises UK-focused evidence on remote leadership. Using the Arksey and O’Malley review methodology and Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, a structured search was conducted on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases for studies published between 2020 and 2026. Following PRISMA-ScR guidance and incorporating a structured quality appraisal, we analyse 38 studies across sectors. Findings indicate that effective remote leadership is a system-level capability defined by communication architecture, trust-based autonomy, relational capability, wellbeing orientation, and digital orchestration. However, the evidence base is methodologically heterogeneous, dominated by cross-sectional designs, and limited in sectoral breadth and longitudinal depth. We advance an integrative, multi-level framework and a research agenda for theory development and empirical testing in hybrid contexts.
References
Avolio, B.J., Kahai, S. and Dodge, G. (2000) E-leadership-implications for theory, research and practice. The leadership quarterly : LQ ; an international journal of political, social and behavioral science. - Amsterdam : Elsevier, ISSN 1048-9843, ZDB-ID 11216414. - Vol. 11.2000, 4, p. 615-670
Avolio, B.J., Kahai, S. and Dodge, G. (2014) ‘E-leadership: Re-examining transformations in leadership source and transmission’, Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp. 105–131.
Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1997) Full range leadership development: manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Mindgarden, Palo Alto, Calif.
Bass, B.M. and Riggio, R.E. (2006) Transformational Leadership. New York: Psychology Press.
Bloom, N., Han, R. and Liang J. (2024) Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance, Nature, 630, 920-925.
Bradbury et al. Relationality in organizational research: Exploring the “space between.”Organization Science (2000)
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2023) Flexible Working Practices in the UK. Survey report, https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/flexible-hybrid-working/ (Accessed 03/03/2026)
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2021). Embedding new ways of working: Impacts on people, productivity and leadership. CIPD. https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/flexible-hybrid-working/
Contreras, F., Baykal, E., & Abid, G. (2020). E leadership and teleworking in times of COVID-19 and beyond: What we know and where do we go. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 590271. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590271
Cummings, G.G., et al. (2010) Leadership Styles and Outcome Patterns for the NursingWorkforce and Work Environment: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 47, 363-385.
Dalton, L. (2025). Working from home statistics UK: The 2025 report. https://www.workingfromcoffeeshops.co.uk/blog/working-from-home-statistics-uk(Accessed 04/03/2026)
Durham University Business School. (2025). Remote leadership and employee engagement in the UK. Durham University Press.
Eyiolawi, S. A., & Aremu, O. A. (2026). Effectiveness of Remote Leadership before and after Covid-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom. Leadership and Organizational Insights, 1(3), 39-49. https://doi.org/10.64229/mf5w8q83
Felstead, A., & Reuschke, D. (2020). Homeworking in the UK: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Work, Employment and Society, 34(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017020961998
Harper, S. (2025, October 6). Latest remote & hybrid work statistics 2025 | UK & global trends. IT Desk UK. https://www.itdeskuk.com/latest-remote-hybrid-work-statistics
House, R. J., and Shamir, B. (1993). Toward the integration of transformational, charismatic, and visionary theories. M. M. Chemers, & R. Ayman (Eds.), Leadership theory and research: Perspectives and direction, (pp. 81–107). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Hunt and dodge (2000). Leadership déjà vu all over again. Leadership Quarterly 11 435–458. 10.1016/s1048-9843(00)00058-8
Kniffin, K. M., Narayanan, J., Anseel, F., Antonakis, J., Ashford, S. P., Bakker, A. B., … & Van Vugt, M. (2021). COVID-19 and the workplace: Implications, issues, and insights for future research and action. American Psychologist, 76(1), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000716
Marstand, P., Epitropaki, O., & Kapoutsis, I. (2025). Leadership behaviours and effectiveness in remote work: Longitudinal evidence from UK organisations. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 98(2), 212–231.
McLeod, S. (2024). Doing a scoping review: A practical step-by-step guide. https://www.simplypsychology.org/steps-for-conducting-a-scoping-review.html (Accessed 03/02/2026)
Munn, Z., Stern, C., Aromataris, E., Lockwood, C., & Jordan, Z. (2018). What kind of systematic review should I conduct? International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 16(4), 300–304. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6044655/
Oakman, J., Kinsman, N., Stuckey, R., Graham, M., & Weale, V. (2020). A rapid review of mental and physical health effects of working at home: How do we optimally support employees? BMC Public Health, 20, 1825. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09875-z
Office for National Statistics. (2022). Homeworking and hybrid working in the UK: Trends and implications. UK Government.
Office for National Statistics. (2024). Who are the hybrid workers? https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/whoarethehybridworkers/2024-11-11
Peters, M. D. J., Godfrey, C., McInerney, P., Munn, Z., Tricco, A. C., & Khalil, H. (2020). Chapter 11: Scoping reviews. In E. Aromataris & Z. Munn (Eds.), JBI manual for evidence synthesis. Joanna Briggs Institute. https://doi.org/10.46658/JBIMES-20-12
Spurk, D., & Straub, C. (2020). Flexible employment relationships and wellbeing in remote work. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 29(6), 847–860.
Tricco, A. C., Lillie, E., Zarin, W., O’Brien, K. K., Colquhoun, H., Levac, D.& Traus, S. E. (2018). PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and explanation. Annals of Internal Medicine, 169(7),
Uhl-Bien, M. (2006) ‘Relational leadership theory’, Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 654–676.
Wang, B., Liu, Y., Qian, J., & Parker, S. K. (2021). Achieving effective remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applied Psychology, 70(1), 16–59.
Authors retain copyright of their published work and grant the International Journal of Social Science Research and Review (IJSSRR) the right of first publication.
Articles published in IJSSRR are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
Authors are permitted to share, archive, and distribute the published version of their work, provided that proper acknowledgement of the original publication in IJSSRR is given.
