A Western University Leadership Response to Man-made and Natural Crises.

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Leadership and decision making in improving school quality

Proposal

Abstract
Natural disasters, conflict, turmoil, riots, terrorism, and health warnings dominate today’s headlines and highlight the reality that social or geographical boundaries no longer limit the reach of crises. A situation that one region faces today will likely affect another community, country, or continent tomorrow (Gainey, 2009). Higher education institutions are not exempt nor immune from these crises. Whether an organization survives a crisis with its condition intact is determined less by the severity of the crisis than by leadership, timeliness, and effectiveness of response (Demiroz & Kapucu, 2012). Leaders in higher education will need to become crises leaders, and develop competencies to effectively manage, determine risk, get people out of harm’s way, and provide some form of safety and normalcy. If ever there was a time for crisis leadership in higher education it is now because the stakes are high, therefore, this research is timely and expedient. This narrative inquiry explored how senior leaders in a Western University in Canada responded to man-made and natural crises. Data sources were semi-structured interviews, researcher field texts and documents. The findings, insights, and experiences from this study will be useful in advancing the knowledge base in the field of crisis leadership and response to man-made and natural disasters in higher education. As well as provide a learning tool for current and future educational leaders as they better understand situations that they can prepare for but can never truly predict.
Topic relevance to comparative and international education
This topic is relevant in this age of “immense social change and increasing limits” (UNESCO, 2018) of natural and man-made crises. Research in higher education helps better understand the impact of crises on higher education and expand the dialogue concerning crisis-leadership. On this note, this study provides information on higher education leaders’ experiences, challenges, and strategies in handling crisis. In the form of narratives, leaders in a large western university in Canada shared their experiences in how they handled man-made and natural crises.
Research Question
How do senior leaders in a large western higher education respond to unpredictable man-made and natural crises?
Theoretical framework
Leadership Theories
Leadership theories endeavored to explain emergent factors of leadership, the nature of leadership, and implications of leadership practices. Early in leadership research literature, leadership was based on the idea that certain individuals were endowed with traits and attributes that distinguished them as leaders (Stogdill, 1974). Over the years other leadership theories have emerged such as contingency theories (Horner, 1997), transformational and transactional leadership (Bass, 1990; Martin de Bussy & Paterson, 2012), servant leadership (Gandolfi & Stone, 2016; Greenleaf, 1977) and crises leadership (Boin &’t Hart, 2003; James & Wooten, 2011).
Crises leadership
Crises are marked by chaos, time constraints, ambiguity, remarkably unusual circumstances, limited or conflicting information, media pressure, curious onlookers, stress, and a need for immediate and decisive action (Boin &’t Hart, 2003; James & Wooten, 2011). Leadership is often overlooked in discussions of crises management (James & Wooten, 2010). Northouse (2013) defined “leadership as a process whereby an individual influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p.5). During a crisis, leadership can have a major impact on the effectiveness of crisis management. Crises leadership is defined as a series of dynamic behaviors, from prevention, to response, to post events through management levels to protect the organization (Boin & t’ Hart, 2003). Crisis leadership is a frame of mind and good crisis leaders are open to new experiences, willing to learn and take risks, and have a belief that even in times of crisis, people and organizations can emerge stronger after the crisis (James & Wooten, 2011).
Crisis Leadership Competencies
Leadership may cover various responsibilities and competencies, however, in a crisis, specific competencies are required (Kapucu & Van Wart, 2008). Three core areas that crisis leaders be competent in (a) leadership and team building, (b) networking and coordination, (c) management (Blanchard, 2005). In addition, the ability to reflect, learn & adapt, scanning and seeing possibilities, quick and ethical decision making, and establishing trust (James & Wooten, 2011). Developing these competences is crucial, because the crisis leader is faced with five key challenges: (a) sense making, (b) decision making and coordinating implementation, (c) meaning making, (d) terminating, and (e) Learning (Boin, t’ Hart, Stern & Sundelius, 2005).
Sources of information, data collection and analysis
This qualitative research employed a narrative inquiry methodology to investigate how senior leaders in a large western higher education institution responded to unpredictable man-made and natural crises. Connelly and Clandinin (1990) argued that narrative inquiry were essential and important in studies of educational experience, because of its focus on experience, the qualities of life and education thereby, allowing for practical, specific insights into the phenomenon to be studied (Creswell, 2015). Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with higher education administrators, with the goal of exploring the topic more openly and to allow interviewees to express their stories, opinions, and ideas in their own words (Chase, 1995; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Data were analyzed by retelling allowing for analyzing for key elements of the story within the narrative inquiry space.
Research methods and results
The use of narrative inquiry provides a method to better understand the lived experiences of higher education leaders’ response to crisis and allows for the creation of deep, holistic, rich, and detailed descriptions while offering practical, and specific insights (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). To date interviews are still on going with preliminary analysis to be conducted.
Educational Importance
As situations of crises continue to increase, higher education leaders will continue to be tested for their competence in governing, preventing, and managing these crises. Well-prepared and successful crisis leaders can minimize damage to students, faculty, staff, and parents and play crucial, specific, and strategic roles as they determine necessary key tasks, terminate crisis, ensure that the organization returns to normalcy and learn from the crisis.

Author

• Glory Rita Ovie, University of Calgary