Leadership response to COVID-19: a comparative analysis of the education sector in USA and India

ABSTRACT As the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the world, educational leaders implemented crisis management plans to mitigate its impact on their students, faculty, staff, and their families. We studied five cases in the education sector in the world’s largest democracies: the United States of America and India. Through document analysis and semi-structured interviews, we investigated the responses of educational leadership during each stage of the crisis. In the cases we studied, leaders in USA adopted a consultative decision-making approach more often than their Indian counterparts. Moreover, group-based approach was evident only among leaders in USA. Leaders in both countries were creative and diligent in communicating, both to gather information as well as for dissemination. Leaders had to think out of the box to meet the needs of students and faculty, as well as the communities in their immediate areas. Resource identification and distribution, overcoming the digital divide between rural and urban areas, and the acquisition and appropriate allocation of safety equipment are just a few of the challenges addressed by the academic leaders. This study makes an important contribution to crisis leadership by looking at competencies needed to manage a crisis, and the influence of national culture in decision-making behaviours during a crisis.