Leadership Agility and Employee Performance in Hybrid Work Environments in Nigeria: Why Human Resource Practices Matter

Abstract

Hybrid work has become an established feature of Nigerian organizations since the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns about employee productivity, engagement and coordination. This paper examines how leadership agility and human resource practices jointly shape employee performance in hybrid work environments in Nigeria. Adopting a conceptual approach, it synthesizes the existing literature through the lenses of Adaptive Leadership Theory and Social Exchange Theory. The review indicates that leadership agility supports the management of uncertainty and the coordination of dispersed teams, but that its effect on performance is constrained where adaptive, employee-centred human resource systems are absent. Infrastructural deficits, digital inequality and economic uncertainty further weaken this relationship in the Nigerian context. The paper concludes that human resource practices are the mechanism through which leadership agility translates into sustained performance, and recommends flexible work policies, digital training, wellness programmes, transparent communication and outcome-based appraisal alongside deliberate leadership development.