How Can Principals Successfully Navigate a Crisis? Assessing the Interplay of Exploration, Exploitation, and Innovation

• In Event: Leadership During Challenging Times

Abstract

This longitudinal study investigates how principals managed the tension between exploiting current knowledge and exploring new knowledge in the context of schooling prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this juggling of knowledge affected educational innovations in schools. Result show that principals’ exploration activities increased markedly during the pandemic, while their exploitation activities decreased noticeably. Further, a focus on the exploitation of existing knowledge in a pre-COVID-19 environment harmed principals’ readiness to explore new knowledge during the pandemic. Nevertheless, exploitation had positive consequences for the innovativeness of schools, and exploration goes along with more radical innovations. Consequently, schools that innovatively addressed the pandemic had leaders who were able to stay mindful and quickly shift between exploitation and exploration.

Authors

• Marcus Pietsch, Leuphana University of Lüneburg

• Pierre Tulowitzki, FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland

• Colin Cramer, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen