Interim leadership: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

Studies on interim leadership have proliferated across multiple disciplines over the past forty-five years since the first studies on non-traditional careers emerged in the late 1970s. Interim leadership tenures typically range from weeks to more than a year during critical change-induced contexts in organizations (e.g., unexpected leadership departures). Interim leadership brings benefits to both interim executives (e.g., career advancement, work-life flexibility) and organizations (e.g., the capacity to quickly adapt). Undertaking a comprehensive review of 61 articles on interim leadership published in top journals in multiple domains over almost five decades, we highlight terminologies adopted, moderating factors, theoretical perspectives and models pertinent to interim leadership explored to date. Importantly, our review identifies four emerging themes (i.e., Selection, Socialization, Success, and Succession) which represent stages of the interim leadership process, leading to the development of the resultant “4S” process framework. We subsequently explore factors which influence each of these stages that interim leaders move through from entering to exiting interim executive assignments. Following this, the review proposes a future research agenda for theoretical, empirical, and methodological advancement of interim leadership scholarship, particularly in relation to the less researched areas of socialization and success and notes practical implications to inform better practice of interim leadership for individuals and organizations.