ABSTRACT
The purpose of this qualitative descriptive multiple case study was to explore Christian organizational leaders' experiences in sustaining membership engagement and leadership sustainability when using advanced technology during the social and organizational disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Servant leadership theory, virtual leadership theory, and crisis management theory provided the conceptual framework for this study. The research questions addressed how Christian organizational leaders sustained membership engagement and led their church organizations during the disruptive change of COVID-19. A combination of 10 semi-structured interviews, document review, and member checking was used for data collection. The results from the data indicated critical interventions for sustaining membership engagement: fostering and facilitating meaningful interactions virtually, adopting advanced technology based on the receptivity of members, selecting advanced technology based on perceived messaging, and offering hybrid services to mitigate low virtual attendance. The findings also indicated that Christian organizational leaders led by constructing success parameters that were the substratum for decision-making, emphasizing internal operational efficiency and effectiveness, and limiting the number of interventions made during the crisis because of leadership exhaustion. This study provided insight that could help church organizational leaders increase attendance to a multi-generational audience, expand membership engagement through in-person and technology, and be an effective source of tangible comfort and spiritual relief in their community. Which are all measurements for evaluating effective Christian churches. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Digital revolutions and developments have been changing the way we work, socialize and experience the world. In our complex reality dynamic changes occur with an increasing frequency, where the role of IT is obvious. The COVID pandemic highlighted this development even more and made us realize that the old ways of working are no longer valid. In this conceptual paper we sketch different scientific views to offer practical solutions to deal with challenges. We focus on dynamic developments on concepts from ecology and economics, identify some traps and link the insights to management, leadership, teams and the requirements for a successful cooperation. Our goal is to identify the most crucial elements of sustainability: resilience, people and information, offer organizations developing solutions using the Adaptive Cycle of Resilience and help the reader to develop understanding social responsibility towards resilience and sustainability. © Proceedings of the 2021 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research.
ABSTRACT
The world is constantly changing and facing us with challenges to which we do not know the solutions. COVID-19 forms a clear example of this development. To be able to react properly on this type of development Life-long learning forms a crucial element in this. In this discussion paper, four inherently related concepts were brought together: life-long learning, cooperative learning, the Adaptive Cycle of Resilience (ACoR) model and ecosystems. By combining these concepts, we intend to rethink our learning structures. In this light, two questions are raised. One, how do we make sure we are prepared for unforeseen events like COVID-19? And two, what is the role of evaluation in the process of preparing for the unknown? How do we know what to evaluate? The main concepts are structured into a proposed integrated ecosystem architecture to facilitate life-long learning, which contributes to laying the foundation of the development of ecosystems in which life-long learning is the main objective. © Proceedings of the 2021 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research.
ABSTRACT
Leaders play an important role in guiding organizations through periods of disruptive change. With accelerating changes in technology, globalization, and the environment, leaders face significant challenges. Disruptive change places stress on employees and organizational cultures. Change situations have historically occurred due to diversity, increases or decreases in profitability, changes in management or leadership, or strategy changes. Change also takes place during growth or boundary expansion. Firms fail to survive following disruptive change due to their reactions at the point of disruptive change. This study was focused on determining leadership tenets that are effective based on the lived experiences of individuals who have led an organization through disruptive change. A qualitative case study using convenience sampling methods was used to explore the lived experiences of 9 individuals who led a hospital through a period of disruptive change due to Covid-19. Dealing with Covid-19 created negative emotions among staff members and the collective reaction to the human grieving process. Empathy, listening, foresight, and communication skills were required for leaders to assist staff members to overcome and eliminate these emotional challenges so they could operate effectively within the environment. Learning what these individuals found effective and ineffective can suggest developmental opportunities needed to improve practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced significant changes to academic activities, while at the same time highlighting inequalities, opportunities, and challenges to the way scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike respond to the new realities in peri- and post-pandemic times. This chapter explores digital transformations to challenge-based learning by examining three Prepr case studies to consider how digital-enabled interventions can mitigate disruptions to education. These collaborative initiatives provide rich examples of academic developments at the intersection of innovation and knowledge production. We argue that digital capacities and knowledge policies must be developed not only as a temporary stop-gap measure during periods of disruption but should explicitly foster learning pathways to complement and strengthen knowledge acquisition beyond COVID-19. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.