Flattening the Hierarchy Curve: Adaptive Leadership during the Covid-19 Pandemic – A Case Study in an Academic Teacher Training College

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic forced institutions of higher education to adopt agile leadership behaviors. The current research aims to examine how the leadership at the Ohalo teacher training college in Israel dealt with the crisis caused by the pandemic. The research hypothesis, predicting a positive relationship between the college leadership’s decisions and lecturers’ positive evaluations regarding these decisions, was confirmed.
 
 Previous research has given scant attention to the relationship between running an academic institution and applying principles of adaptive leadership during a crisis. This article presents a case study of adaptive leadership at an academic institution during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conclusions suggest that ensuring the continued functioning of an organization during a crisis requires skills and competencies reflecting multifaceted and adaptive leadership, agility, and direct channels of reciprocal, cooperative communication. Opportunities for initiative taking should be provided, and a consistent policy must be maintained that aims to “flatten the hierarchy curve.”

Workforce Experiences of a Rapidly Established SARS-CoV-2 Asymptomatic Testing Service in a Higher Education Setting: A Qualitative Study

“…The leadership style described by our participants involved a 'flattening of the hierarchy' with regular, reciprocal, and co-operative communication. Such adaptive leadership styles have been recognised as important for ensuring the continued functioning of academic institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic [51].…”

Leadership in Education: The Impact of Leadership on the Successful Implementation and Support of Remote Teaching, Learning and Assessment

“…By directing their attention to intricate processes of collaboration and exploring solutions for problems "in order to construct an appropriate response" adaptive leadership can have a positive impact on HEIs [9]. Adaptive leadership assists collective leadership at all levels and across academic leadership structures like faculties, departments and professional support teams to "adjust to and thrive in challenging environments" [11]. These authors found that the pandemic caused both a crisis and realization among leaders of HEIs.…”

“…These authors found that the pandemic caused both a crisis and realization among leaders of HEIs. They also found that changes and activities "based on broad, systemic thinking" were necessary to be driven by leadership but "undertaken by many people together" [11].…”

“…One respondent used collaboration as an important aspect of adaptive leadership with the comment 'that online educational practices are in fact implemented by staff on the ground'. Adaptive leadership should be adopted by the collective leadership of all levels of academic faculties, departments and professional support teams so that the institution can adjust and thrive in the changing environment brought about by the pandemic [11]. What follows is a thematic analysis of leadership gathered from the interviews conducted with academic leaders of faculties, departments and professional support teams.…”