Leading for What, Leading for Who? A Comparative Analysis of University Presidents' Leadership Amid COVID-19

• In Event: Transforming Educational Systems: Leadership and Management

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge that HEIs leaders around the world had to face. Besides balancing institutional tasks and ensuring the health and safety of the whole campus community, university presidents were challenged with promoting equity and showing empathy in their leadership. Framed by traditional management theory, this study uses in-depth interviews of 14 university presidents in eight countries, to understand how they enacted different managerial roles in leading their institutions through a global crisis. Despite differences among presidential leadership styles in diverse contexts, findings from this 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.

Authors

• Santiago Castiello, University of Arizona

• Jon McNaughtan, Texas Tech University

• Sarah Maria Schiffecker, Texas Tech University

• Hugo Alberto Garcia, Texas Tech University