University Crisis Leadership Through Caring: An Examination of Students' Perceptions in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria

Introduction

At some point in time, all universities face the challenges of crises. Crises are caused by external events such as human conflicts, man-made mishaps, socio-economic problems and/or natural disasters (storms, earthquakes, fires, illnesses). Found in the work of Ozanne et al. (2020), a university crisis is also an internal condition. Some common internal university crises are cyber-attacks, grave human error, criminal employee behaviors, unethical academic practices, and IT breakdowns (Brennan & Stern, 2017). A university crisis can be the result of disruptions to operations, services, and the very mission of the institution. A university crisis can jeopardize “the well-being of personnel, property, financial resources, and/or reputation of the institution” (Zdziarski, 2006, p. 5).

University crises are becoming normal occurrences, and the primary responsibility of administrators. Zhang (2011) described university administrators as having the duty to properly shepherd institutions through events, such as public health emergencies, decline of professional ethics, crisis of campus security, diminishing legal rights of faculty and students, as well as disasters. Furthermore, university administrators must also adopt leadership styles that are contextually sensitive to the crisis. Wisittigars and Siengthai (2019) noted that there are distinct differences between leadership in non-crisis situations and crisis situations.

Overall, university crisis leadership is best described as the process by which university leaderships’ efforts are geared directly to handling difficulty, trouble, or dangers that threaten the institution and its stakeholders. More specifically, university crisis administrative leadership is the leadership skills, competences and roles that help university administrators to weather and learn from crisis events. Crisis leadership is necessary in dealing with the scrutiny of stakeholders. There is a low probability of the university fully resolving a crisis due to exigencies or demands of stakeholders. However, stakeholders expect the university and its leadership to perform effectively and bring about amicable and effective resolutions.

Although there is a growing body of knowledge on crisis leadership, there is still limited research that examines the topic within university crisis management. University crisis management is a system of established joint management processes performed by the university to respond to a crisis event. There is also a scarcity of research that focuses on university crisis leadership within the context of hurricane disasters and more notably caring. Caring within crisis settings or crisis caring should be viewed as a quantum-level or communal concern for stakeholders’ welfare and well-being prior to, during, and in the aftermath of a crisis or disaster. This chapter examines students’ perceptions of caring university administrative leadership and its association with authentic university academic caring (AUAC) in the aftermath of two category five hurricanes. Unlike most leadership research that one-sidedly examines the perspective of the leadership efforts, this chapter sought insight from students. Students are regarded as primary university stakeholders and an invaluable source of data. The overarching question motivating this research is: “In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, did UVI students perceive caring administrative leadership as playing an important role in their receipt of AUAC?” This chapter offers a synthesis of literature review, methodology, data analysis, empirical findings, limitations, and conclusion.