Citation: Slupska, U.; Drewniak, Z.; Drewniak, R.; Karaszewski, R. Building Relations between the Company and Employees: The Moderating Role of Leadership. Sustainability 2022, 14, 8840. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148840 Academic Editors: Anne Bardoel, Melissa Wheeler and Asanka Gunasekara Received: 27 April 2022 Accepted: 24 June 2022 Published: 19 July 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Building Relations between the Company and Employees: The Moderating Role of Leadership Urszula Slupska 1 , Zbigniew Drewniak 1 , Rafal Drewniak 2, * and Robert Karaszewski 3 1 Faculty of Management, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, 85-790 Bydgoszcz, Poland; urszula.slupska@pbs.edu.pl (U.S.); zbigniew.drewniak@pbs.edu.pl (Z.D.) 2 Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, 87-100 Torun, Poland 3 College of Business Administration, American University in the Emirates, Dubai 503000, United Arab Emirates; robkara@umk.pl * Correspondence: rafald@umk.pl Abstract: The relationships between employees and the actions taken by leaders have become critical. The purpose of this paper is to highlight activities that may improve internal relations in an enterprise, and how managers and employees perceive such actions. The study was conducted between 2018 and 2020 and focused on the importance of relational competencies in creating enterprise value and the importance of leadership. The analysis included 10 large companies operating internationally. Both managers (N = 10) of the surveyed companies and employees (N = 185) participated in the study. It can be stated that it is not uncommon for the studied businesses to take steps to improve their internal relationships. The evaluation of the steps taken to improve internal connections, on the other hand, differs between the groups tested. Cluster analysis revealed that managers’ views of the importance and application of the provided measures in their organizations were similar, whereas employees’ assessments of the researched phenomena were not. Building intra-organizational relations plays an important role in ensuring the sustainable operation of modern enterprises. It is of great importance, especially in the crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical uncertainty in the world currently. Keywords: internal relational capital; human capital; sustainable leadership; intra-organizational relations 1. Theoretical Background Internal relational capital refers to a company’s intellectual property, work processes and techniques, executive procedures, databases, communication and information infras- tructure, and so on. Employee relations and leadership activities become pivotal in this context. All company employees may increase the chances of success by performing delib- erate and systematic actions [1–4]. The organization can create synergistic effects thanks to staff expertise and internal collaboration. Internal relations in modern businesses should be improved, both with employees and among them [4–6]. According to social capital theory, when people sustain connections with others and repeatedly act together to achieve shared goals, it leads to lasting benefits for individuals and strengthens the bonds between them [7]. Corporate social capital is a category resulting from participation in a network of relationships which grants the participants access to the resources of cooperating en- terprises and those jointly produced on the basis of shared norms, principles, values, and trust. Consequently, this promotes improved operational efficiency and builds competitive advantage [7,8]. Building internal networks of dependencies and relationships helps in the execution of formal structures, allows for creative and inventive thinking, encourages knowledge transfer, and promotes corporate circumstances to gain agility and flexibility, which translates into the formation of external relationships, improves efficiency, and allows a company to survive and develop in a changing environment [5]. Sustainability 2022, 14, 8840. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148840 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability