Filling the void- creating identity content in crisis leadership

Drawing on the Social Identity Approach to Crisis Leadership (Gleibs, 2024), this paper examines how leaders construct shared identity content during crises. Using President Zelenskyy's wartime leadership as a case study, we analyze how identity content is co-created between leaders and (implied) followers. Building on our previous work on identity leadership during crisis (Gleibs, Bachmann, & Rüsch, 2024; Gleibs, 2024), this study employs dialogical analysis (Gillespie & Cornish, 2010) to examine Zelenskyy's speeches to allies (e.g., UK, USA, and Germany; N=8). Our analysis focuses on how leaders, as 'identity entrepreneurs,' craft a sense of shared identity through rhetorical strategies and category boundary construction that includes I-positions (as president and leader of Ukraine; a prototypical Ukraine) and Other-positions (as an ally, as the enemy).