Agilecation: Agile Leadership in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) during the Covid-19 Pandemic a Test Case

Abstract

The current quantitative research examine how the leadership of a teacher training college in an Israeli Higher Education Institiostion (HEI) have dealt with the Covid19 crisis in an agile manner. This Perspectives presents a case study of agile leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic from the viewpoint of the college lecturers'. The Covid-19 outbreak was a ‘Black swan' events for educational institutions in Israel. Following the unprecedented transition to distance learning. The pandemic forced higher education institutions to adopt agile leadership behaviors. Previous research has given scant attention to the relationship between running an academic institution and application of an agile leadership during a crisis. The Research Goals were: 1. To analyze key processes undertaken by the leadership of the College following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure the HEI continued functioning during the crisis. 2. To examine the evaluation (degree of approval) of the lecturers regarding the steps taken by the colleges leadership. As seen from the findings: The lecturers were persistent in the remote teaching process. Their contact with the students was positive. They perceived the college’s leadership as maintaining teaching processes in a highly positive way. They were aware of the ongoing training processes. They felt comfortable contacting those in official roles. The conclusions suggest that ensuring the continued functioning of an organization during a crisis requires agile leadership with skills and competencies multifaceted and direct channels of communication. If we want to sum it up in one word, it can be expressed as Agilication = agility + education + action in higher education.