Decision Making in Crisis: Presidents’ Decision-Making Strategies during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of university presidents in private nonprofit institutions through the decision-making strategies they employed during the COVID-19 pandemic to navigate the related challenges of institutional sustainability.Methodology. A phenomenological research design was used for this study. The researcher used purposeful sampling methods to select university presidents from private colleges who experienced the phenomenon to inform this study’s focus. Data were collected through one-on-one semistructured interviews with seven presidents who served as such during the pandemic.Findings. The study identified four major themes and findings related to the phenomenon of university presidents’ decision-making strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) university presidents made decisions with inclusive and participatory input, assuming responsibility and ownership for their choices, (b) presidential decision making can be impacted by a broad group of influencers who need to be acknowledged and planned for in decision-making strategy, (c) communication was a critical factor in the overall success of the decision-making strategy, and (d) decision-making outcomes evaluation.Conclusions. This study supports the concept that university president crisis decision making is contextual in nature and that no single decision-making theory fully encapsulates the decision-making strategies that are required to navigate successfully though a crisis.Recommendations. The findings of this study can be used to enhance or create a framework for higher education training in crisis and crisis decision making, with a focus on (a) the creation of crisis management teams in preparation of potential future crises, (b) the role of well-being of all impacted university constituents, and (c) decision-making strategies that lead to the most successful crisis decision outcomes.Future Research. To advance knowledge in this area, future research could increase the number of participants or add public university presidents as well as include universities with larger numbers of students. Different research designs could expand this knowledge, such as other qualitative designs, for example, case studies or quantitative designs that could create a more statistically accurate sample. As the pandemic status was just beginning to be lifted across the nation, a longitudinal continuation of the study may also be appropriate.