When Crises Hit Home: How U.S. Higher Education Leaders Navigate Values During Uncertain Times

Abstract

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, this study investigates how U.S. higher education leaders have centered their crisis management on values and guiding ethical principles. We conducted 55 in-depth interviews with leaders from 30 U.S. higher education institutions, with most leaders participating in two interviews. We found that crisis plans created prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate due to the long duration and highly uncertain nature of the crisis. Instead, higher education leaders applied guiding principles on the fly to support their decision-making. If colleges and universities infuse shared values into their future crisis plans, they will not have to develop a moral compass on the fly for the next pandemic. This paper suggests the following somewhat universal shared values: (1) engage in accuracy, transparency, and accountability; (2) foster deliberative dialog; (3) prioritize safety; (4) support justice, fairness, and equity; and (5) engage in an ethic of care. To navigate ethics tensions, leaders need to possess crisis-relevant expertise or ensure that such expertise is present among crisis management team members. Standing up formal ethics committees composed of diverse stakeholders also is instrumental in navigating tensions inherent in crises. The next pandemic is already on the horizon according to experts. Through infusing values into future crisis plans, higher education leaders can be confident that their responses will be grounded in their communities’ shared values.

COVID-19 research in management: An updated bibliometric analysis

“… Education System(Light Yellow) Higher Education, Communication. Liu et al, 2021 , Alam and Asimiran, 2021 , Alam and Parvin, 2021 . Sustainable Development(Light Green) Sustainability, Responsibilities, Intersectionality, Emerging Markets.…”

“…An abrupt shift from traditional classrooms to online synchronous or asynchronous methods of delivering materials to the audience raises questions about threats and opportunities of e-learning for both educators and educational institutions (e.g., Alam & Asimiran, 2021 ; Klarin et al, 2021). Thus, research on the Education System theme scrutinizes the degree to which higher education institutes benefit from the new delivery methods while facing disrupting challenges such as low student engagement and constraints resulting from losing traditional financial resources (e.g., Alam and Parvin, 2021 , Liu et al, 2021 ).…”

Crisis communication and learning: the US higher education’s response to a global pandemic

“…The pandemic sent “unprecedented shocks” through higher education, challenging sensemaking and rapidly transforming core operations and threatening stability (Liu et al , 2021a; Miller, 2021). The US colleges and universities were forced to deliver courses remotely, change schedules, develop safety protocols, evaluate their values and reimagine higher education during a pandemic (Liu et al , 2021a; Miller, 2021). The need for rapid change in response to the pandemic was a significant challenge (Liu et al , 2021a).…”

“…The US colleges and universities were forced to deliver courses remotely, change schedules, develop safety protocols, evaluate their values and reimagine higher education during a pandemic (Liu et al , 2021a; Miller, 2021). The need for rapid change in response to the pandemic was a significant challenge (Liu et al , 2021a).…”

Leadership During a Pandemic: A Lexical Analysis

“…As noted in the method section, 84% of our participants are leaders at institutions that had crisis management plans. Yet, our leaders agreed that these plans were not as helpful as they could be for COVID -19 [( 37 ); emphasis added].…”