Keywords
higher education leadership, university presidents, crisis leadership, covid-19
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique shared challenge for all HEIs leaders around the world. Besides balancing institutional tasks and ensuring the health and safety of the campus community, university presidents were challenged with promoting equity and showing empathy in their leadership. Framed by Henry Mintzberg’s (1973) theory on managerial roles, this study uses in-depth interviews of 14 university presidents in eight countries, to understand how they enacted different roles in leading their institutions through a global crisis. Despite differences among presidential leadership styles in diverse contexts, findings from the study show that leadership roles shifted from securing their institution’s financial and academic stability to securing the well-being of the people within and outside their organization in the face of crisis.
Recommended Citation
Castiello-Gutiérrez, Santiago; McNaughtan, Jon; Schiffecker, Sarah Maria; and García, Hugo A.
(2023)
"Leading for What, Leading for Who? An International Comparative Analysis of University Presidents’ Leadership Amid COVID-19,"
Journal of Research on the College President: Vol. 7, Article 4.
https://doi.org/10.54119/jrcp.2023.070103
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jrcp/vol7/iss1/4
Included in
Educational Leadership Commons, Higher Education Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons