Crisis response strategies of universities during the ongoing war: Beyond experience and responsibilities
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Author(s)Oleksandr SpivakovskyLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7574-4133
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Serhii OmelchukLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-7922
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Daria MalchykovaLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7197-8722
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DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.23(2-si).2025.09
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Article InfoVolume 23 2025, Issue #2 (spec. issue), pp. 121-135
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4 Downloads
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Extraordinary threats of the large-scale stage of the Russian-Ukrainian war challenged the resilience and capability of all higher education institutions. However, their influence varied with location, infrastructure damage, internal capacity for changes and academic community resilience, external support, and solidarity initiatives. The purpose of this study is to assess the implementation of crisis management decisions and the formation of a crisis response strategy for a university in wartime (on the example of Kherson State University). The assessment draws on thematic analysis, the case method, statistical data analysis, and a survey of academic community members in 2023 (664 students and 150 staff), which focused on identifying a vision of the university’s values and strategic priorities. It showed the priorities of ensuring education quality and research, expanding international cooperation, diversifying funding, and strengthening cooperation with external stakeholders, including employers. The analysis of the university management’s actions in 2022–2024 demonstrated that the university transitioned from a resistance strategy (2022) as the first situational response to the large-scale invasion and occupation to a resilience strategy and the return to progressive development in the years ahead. The paper concludes that successful crisis management follows the key principles: flexibility, value orientation, and scaling up. It offers management guidance for developing a crisis response strategy that can be adapted to the unique needs of other universities: a comprehensive analysis of the crisis situation, crisis communication, planning of resource maintenance, and transparent and participatory decision-making for crisis management based on values and ethical implications.
Acknowledgment
This study is part of project No.101129236+DigiUni-ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE). The research was partly supported by the 2024 BridgeUSA Ukrainian Academic Fellows Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), with additional funding provided by Harvard University and administered by the American Councils for International Education. The opinions expressed herein are the authors’ own and do not necessarily express the views of either the Bridge USA or American Councils.
The authors express their gratitude to the vice-presidents, deans of faculties, and academic and non-academic staff of Kherson State University who participated in the development of institutional documents that implement crisis management decisions presented in this paper and form a crisis response strategy for the university during martial law.
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JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)D81, D91, I23
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References34
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Tables5
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Figures3
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- Figure 1. Generational balance of Kherson State University (2023)
- Figure 2. Generation balance of Kherson State University’s academic staff and the results of the ranking assessment (2023)
- Figure 3. Management actions of the university in crises
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- Table 1. SWOT analysis of Kherson State University during martial law
- Table 2. Crisis decision-making in the institutional, image, and management spheres in wartime
- Table 3. Crisis management decisions for digital transformation and educational process implementation during martial law
- Table 4. Crisis management decisions to preserve the resource base and financial stability during martial law
- Table 5. Financial incentives by the results of scientific activity from the strategic funding reserve (2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic years)
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Retraction: Leaders and decision making: a study of the drivers of courage
Rasoava Rijamampianina
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(1).2018.31
Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 16, 2018 Issue #1 pp. 320-329 Views: 2124 Downloads: 203 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯRetracted on the 15th of October, 2020 by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief request dated October 12, 2020. The type of retraction – plagiarism.
The journal was asked to retract this article because of plagiarism. The request came from the author of the article. The author informed the journal that original idea published in this paper wasn’t his and asked to remove the article. -
Role of leaders in building organizational readiness to change – case study at public health centers in Indonesia
Ratna Dwi Wulandari ,
Stefanus Supriyanto ,
Mochammad Bagus Qomaruddin ,
Nyoman Anita Damayanti ,
Agung Dwi Laksono
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(3).2020.01
Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 18, 2020 Issue #3 pp. 1-10 Views: 2058 Downloads: 697 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯLeaders play a strategic role in the process of organizational change. Various studies were conducted to show the role of leaders in succeeding change. One famous concept of leaders’ role was the Mintzberg managerial role, which divides the role of the leader into three main roles: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. This research was conducted to explore the leaders’ role in creating organizational readiness to change. The study was conducted at 40 government-owned public health centers in Indonesia, involving 190 midwives as respondents. The study results show that all three leader’s roles were well implemented by the head of the public health center with the best score in the informational role. However, organizational readiness to change at public health centers is not on the same level. The linear regression test indicates that the decisional role has the largest contribution in building the organizational readiness to change. The successfully implemented role of entrepreneurs, disturbance handlers, resource allocators, and negotiators was the key to the successful implementation of changes. Therefore, the advice given was the need for leaders to improve their decision abilities so that the organizational readiness to change becomes better.
Acknowledgment
The researcher thanked the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Republic of Indonesia, for funding this research. -
Financial sustainability of private higher education institutions: the case of publicly traded educational institutions
Investment Management and Financial Innovations Volume 14, 2017 Issue #3 pp. 25-38 Views: 1963 Downloads: 629 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯPublic and private education can unlock different doors and help to flood the country with a rising power, sunlight and sustainable development. Hence, this paper argued that there is a need to sustain both public and private higher education. Financial difficulties restrict private higher education from balancing their budget and maintain a balance between a quality education and maximization of shareholders wealth. This paper outlines and analyzes a critical business model for higher education institutions, Dhofar University and Majan College, both of which are publicly traded in Muscat Securities Market. Both the educational institutions are critically examined from profitability, liquidity, long term solvency and asset management perspective using appropriate financial ratios. Five year forecasts of financial statements up to 2021 are estimated to evaluate the financial stability of the two educational institutions. The paper uses Monte Carlo simulation technique to examine the issue of financial sustainability. Overall the finding shows positive financial results for Majan College compared to Dhofar University. The key take away from the analysis is that educational institutions should be funded primarily by equity and not by debt to survive, sustain and provide high quality education.
