Abstract:

Good leadership is always important to the success of a company, but it becomes critical during periods of uncertainty, when leaders are required to provide guidance and reassurance. Previously, we have described leadership behaviors exhibited by authentic higher education leaders that are essential for navigating adaptive challenges that are not well defined, difficult to identify and initially easy to ignore. These behaviors are establishing trust, being humble in position and providing a realistic and attainable vision for the institution. This earlier work was timely, since we now find ourselves navigating a once-in-a-generation adaptive challenge, the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease it causes (COVID-19).

COVID-19 has affected every industrial sector of the global economy and the highly competitive and diverse higher education industry has been significantly impacted, bringing into sharper focus the importance of higher education leadership. A retrospective consideration of academic leaders across higher education reveals the emergence of a new breed of transformative higher education leaders, allostatic leaders able to learn new behaviors from their experiences during the pandemic and implement positive change. This article extends our earlier work and describes additional leadership behaviors that are important for navigating uncertain times, leading positive change, and organizational growth. These behaviors are connecting with people, distributing leadership, and communicating clearly and constructively to ensure the well-being of all stakeholders.

In the past year and a half, the most resilient higher education leaders with the adaptive capacity to acquire new skills and capabilities have become globally minded localists and strategic long-term thinkers. A distinguishing feature of the most successful allostatic higher education leaders during these uncertain times has been the ability to view the pandemic-induced pivot to remote work as an opportunity to implement positive mission-driven changes related to course delivery models, pedagogy, student choices, affordability, access, equity, and opportunity to better meet the changing needs of today’s global learners.

Allostatic higher education leaders challenged long-held opinions of online education and organizational norms. Consequently, the post-pandemic institute of higher education will be different, as allostatic higher education leaders have taken what they have learned from the crisis-induced disruption to transform their institutional value proposition. We anticipate that the post-pandemic institute of higher education will be more student-centric, providing students with more options for course delivery than ever before. More online courses may be employed to assist “non-traditional” students returning to education for post graduate vocational work or certifications at scale. Online master’s degrees, non-degree programs and certification programs to upskill or re-skill graduates in the workforce could also be a central feature of the post-COVID-19 institute of higher education. Organizationally, the post-pandemic institute of higher education will hopefully be more democratic, transparent, responsive, and accountable. Administrative and academic structures will be leaner and more agile making the post-pandemic institution of higher education a better place to work and study.

Keywords:

Allostatic Leadership, Coronavirus pandemic, Higher Education, Positive Change.