Servant leadership behaviors and the level of readiness to covid-19 pandemic: evidence from USA higher education institutions

ABSTRACT

At the start of 2020, no one had predicted the challenging effects that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to have on higher education institutions. Research indicates that leaders in higher education institutions were ill-prepared to lead during the pandemic. This study explored U.S. higher education institutions officials’ servant leadership behavior and the level of readiness for the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employed a cross-sectional study design with a quantitative approach. The results show that all institution officials lacked in the ‘Leading the Way’ measure of Crisis Leadership, and the overall measure of crisis leadership did not show a significant difference between institutions. Furthermore, all servant leadership behaviors (altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship) significantly predict the officials’ level of readiness to the pandemic. This line of inquiry informs a new direction in the theory related to servant leadership and crisis leadership readiness.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ahmed Al-Asfour

Dr. Ahmed Al-Asfour is the Director of the Center for Workforce Development/Coordinator and Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University (SIU). Prior to joining SIU, he served for many years as a Business Department Chair/Professor at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota. Dr. Al-Asfour has been teaching courses in Leadership, Organizational Theory and Behavior, and HRM/HRD courses. In addition, his work has been published in several leading journals such as the Journal of Career Development, Career Development International, Human Resource Development International, and Journal of Faculty Development.

Aynur Charkasova

Dr. Aynur Charkasova is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. Her research is in the areas of adult education, skilled-immigrants, and STEM workforce

James Rajasekar

Dr. James Rajasekar is an Associate Professor of Management at Morningside University and specializes in the fields of Strategic Management and International Business. He has over thirty years of teaching, research, training, and consulting experience. He has received many commendations for excellence in teaching from multiple universities. He received the ‘Best Teacher Award’ in 2015 from Sultan Qaboos University, Oman and ‘Best Paper Award” from Emerald Insight in 2010 for the article on ‘Strategic Alliances in the Airline Industry’. He published papers on competitive strategy, strategic alliances, culture shock, strategic planning in companies, business ethics of students, and mission statements of diversified companies. He is currently studying how national culture influences business strategies of diversified firms. He presented papers in academic conferences both nationally and internationally. He was also one of the Country Coordinators for India for the GLOBE Project – Phase III. His edited book, “Culture and Gender in Leadership: Perspectives from the Middle East and Asia” was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013.

Efrem Kentiba

Dr. Efrem Kentiba is currently working as an Exercise Physiology Assistant Professor at Arba Minch College of Teachers Education, Ethiopia and as a consultant on different research areas. He received his PhD in Exercise Physiology from Mekelle University, Ethiopia, has a Masters of Education and Bachelor of Education degrees from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. His research interest focuses on exercise physiology, special education, testing, evaluation and management. In addition to his academic works, he served as administrative Vice-Dean of the college and Dean of Students. He has experience in data analysis, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, statistical models and reviewed articles in Web of Science indexed journals. He presented papers in national and international conferences and has numerous publications in reputable journals.