Virtual Leadership in Uncertain Times: A Case Study of Higher Education Leaders' Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This qualitative case study was designed to explore how student services leaders adapted their leadership behaviors and practices in response to moving to the virtual working environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study site was a midsized university in southwestern Ontario. The data collected for the study came from three sources: interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. Study participants were leaders of teams that delivered student services, including a vice president, associate vice presidents, directors, and managers. Four themes were revealed from the results that reflected the changes leaders made in response to moving their team to the virtual working environment: reimagining communication, reconstructing work using technology, reframing team support, and reorienting toward hybrid work. This included changing the ways they communicated with their teams (e.g., modality and frequency), updating processes for service delivery and work within the team to suit the virtual modality, and an emphasis on team support to suit the new needs of the team that resulted from the stresses of the pandemic as well as working physically apart from each other. At the time of the study, teams were moving forward to work in a hybrid capacity. Leaders shared how much of what they changed to suit the virtual-only environment has continued but some nuanced challenges have emerged. More research is recommended to study hybrid work teams, specifically, additional research would be beneficial regarding work conventions and communication practices in hybrid teams.