Multilocational has become a widespread practice in knowledge work following COVID-19. As leadership has been identified to be a critical factor in enabling effective multilocational work (Contreras et al., 2020), as well as supporting learning (Wallo et al., 2025) and well-being (Lundqvist & Wallo, 2023) of employees in multilocational work settings, targeted interventions that can enhance leaders’ competencies are in high demand. Although scholarly interest in this topic is growing in HR and leadership research (Mahadevan et al., 2025), to our knowledge, no existing training program has been specifically designed to address leadership in multilocational, nor has the impact of such program been empirically assessed. Our study addresses this gap by examining whether a peer group-based leader training intervention can enhance leaders’ abilities in leading multilocational. The proximal effects of the intervention were studied using pre-post survey design across four waves.

Theoretically our study relies on Bandura's (1986) Social Learning Theory and Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior. Both theories emphasize individuals’ perceptions of their specific self-efficacies as key determinants of actual behavior. Besides self-efficacy, we focus on enhancing leaders’ abilities to cope with the possible obstacles and setbacks while leading multilocational work. Leaders’ resilience in overcoming challenges is, in fact, seen as an important personal resource that enables them to cope effectively with complexity and high job demands (Leithwood, 2023). The specific abilities targeted by the training intervention are derived from studies identifying the focal leadership factors for multilocational work (e.g., Hincapie & Costa, 2024, Lacroix et al., 2025, Mühlenbrock et al., 2023, Pianese et al., 2023, Wallo et al., 2025). Accordingly, the training focuses on three core leader abilities relevant in leading multilocational work: supporting employees’ learning and development, strengthening employees’ social capital, and supporting employees’ motivation and commitment.

The change in leaders’ abilities is aimed to occur via utilizing peer learning as a primary pedagogical method. Despite its demonstrated potential to support well-being and motivation in challenging contexts (Tenenbaum et al., 2020), peer learning has remained relatively underexplored in leadership development research compared to coaching and mentoring programs (Larsson et al., 2018).

In addition to specific abilities, previous intervention studies have introduced the concept of “preparedness,” which integrates individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs related to specific tasks with their readiness to handle potential setbacks (Pankkonen et al., 2025). As applied in leadership research, leaders who demonstrate high levels of preparedness exhibit both confidence in their leadership abilities and emotional resilience when facing challenges. In line with Meichenbaum’s (2007) cognitive stress inoculation framework, the training also emphasised preparation for setbacks by prompting participants to discuss the challenges they had faced in leading multilocational teams and to co-develop practical leadership solutions.

We expected that the training intervention would increase leaders’ perceived abilities to H1) support employees’ learning, to H2) strengthen employees’ social capital, to H3) support employees’ motivation and commitment to organization, and H4) increase preparedness to handle leadership challenges in leading multilocational work. Furthermore, we expected that the increase in perceived abilities and preparedness would be maintained during and remain after the training intervention.

The study participants were 28 leaders who led multilocational work, and they came from two public organizations (n = 12) and one private company (n = 16). Participants were on average 49.25 (SD = 8.50) years old and predominantly women (n = 18, 62.1%). They had on average 11.95 (SD = 8.19) years of leadership experience. Based on participants’ schedules, five groups, comprising 3–9 participants each, were formed. There were separate training groups for each organization. The training focused on the beforementioned three themes: 1) supporting employee learning and development, 2) strengthening the social capital of employees and teams, and 3) supporting employee motivation and commitment to organization. The training was designed to have an impact by combining individual reflection, social learning, and current research information through facilitation. The same two facilitators conducted all training sessions. The training comprised six sessions (90 min per), each addressing different aspects of multilocational work: 1) introduction and identification of main challenges, 2) ways to support employees’ learning, 3) ways to strengthen social capital of employees, 4) ways to support motivation and commitment of employees, 5) leaders’ own strengths, 6) a focus group interview on the training and its impact. The sessions were held monthly (excluding summer break) from April to October 2024, face-to-face in organizations’ spaces, and in groups of up to nine participants. Additionally, participants reported their implementations of identified solutions between the sessions. Participants completed four repeated surveys assessing their perceived abilities for supporting employee learning (3 items), strengthening social capital (3 items), supporting motivation and commitment to organization (4 items), and preparedness to handle leadership challenges in leading multilocational work (4 items). The internal consistency of the scales was found to be good to excellent (ω between .79–.95). The measurement timeline included a baseline assessment in April 2024 before the training. This was followed by the first post-intervention measurement in August 2024 after the intervention phase (sessions 1.–4.) and the second post-intervention measurement after the end of the training in October 2024. Finally, a follow-up measurement was conducted in December–January, approximately two months after the conclusion of the second intervention phase. The repeated measures design was used to evaluate the changes in the measured outcomes over time. Bayesian multilevel regression models were fitted using the R package brms (Bürkner, 2017). Control variables included organization type (public or private), age, gender, and leadership experience (years).

According to the post-survey findings, the participants viewed that the training developed their abilities relatively well, provided new ideas and views, and was not overly burdensome. In addition, they perceived that there were active expression of ideas and propositions in the groups, the atmosphere was open and encouraging, and that the facilitators supported the activities well. These were important findings due to the intervention’s focus on group-based peer learning. Finally, participants reported that they would overwhelmingly recommend the training to other colleagues. Overall, the intervention demonstrated a credible positive effect on all four outcome variables, though the trajectory of change differed for each. The effects on the abilities to strengthen social capital and support motivation, as well as on the preparedness were credibly positive and sustained in all measurements during training and in the follow-up measurement. Regarding the ability of supporting learning, a short-term increase was observed after the first intervention phase, but the end measurement was not credibly different from baseline. Nevertheless, this gain reappeared at the two-month follow-up. In addition, the results suggested that the training was particularly beneficial for men in elevating abilities to strengthen social capital. The positive effect on preparedness to lead multilocational work was also influenced by participant characteristics: Women, leaders with less overall work experience, and those with more specific managerial experience reported higher levels of preparedness throughout the study. The findings highlight the importance of addressing preparedness to setbacks in order to support development of leadership skills, still a relatively under researched issue in literature. Furthermore, this study provides valuable practical information for work organizations regarding an effective and feasible method to support leaders’ abilities in navigating the complexities of multilocational work.

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall. Bürkner, P-C. (2017). brms: An R package for Bayesian multilevel models using Stan. Journal of Statistical Software, 80(1). 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. Hincapie, M. X., & Costa, P. (2024). Fostering hybrid team performance through inclusive leadership strategies. Organizational Dynamics, 53(3), 101072. Lacroix, A., Verbruggen, M., Baillien, E., De Winne, S., Delfim Andrade, M., & Van den Broeck, A. (2025). Great to speak to you in person: Face-to-face communication during office days relates to employee basic need satisfaction via job resources. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 583–599. Larsson, G., Bencker, A., Hyllengren, P., & Fors Brandebo, M. (2018). Leader development using group dynamic interventions: A systematic literature review. Scandinavian Psychologist, 5, e7. Lundqvist, D., & Wallo, A. (2023). Leadership and employee well-being and work performance when working from home: A systematic literature review. Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 1–9. Leithwood, K. (2023). The personal resources of successful leaders: A narrative review. Education Sciences, 13(9), 932. Mahadevan, J., Mayer, C. H., Bos-Nehles, A., & Syed, J. (2025). The remote work transformation: New actors, new contexts, new implications. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 36(10), 1653–1665. Mühlenbrock, I., Richter, G., Ellerkamp, A., & Wöhrmann, A. M. (2023). How does telework modify informal workplace learning and how can supervisors provide support? Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO), 54(3), 311–321. Pankkonen, O., Moazami-Goodarzi, A., & Vuori, J. (2025). Effects of a competence development intervention on informal learning and work engagement – A randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Training and Development, 49(10), 67–83. Pianese, T., Errichiello, L., & da Cunha, J. V. (2023). Organizational control in the context of remote working: A synthesis of empirical findings and a research agenda. European Management Review, 20(2), 326–345. Tenenbaum, H. R., Winstone, N. E., Leman, P. J., & Avery, R. E. (2020). How effective is peer interaction in facilitating learning? A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(7), 1303–1319. Wallo, A., Reineholm, C., Öhman, H., & Lundqvist, D. (2025). Learning-oriented leadership in hybrid work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 37(9), 152–168.