Truth and Consequences: Internal Stakeholder Perception of Higher Education Leadership Crisis Communication Competence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This exploratory mixed methods case study examined internal stakeholder’s perceptions of internally distributed COVID- 19 related crisis communication during the three stages of crisis (Coombs, 2019): pre-crisis (January to March 2020), crisis event (March 2020 to May 2021), and post-crisis (June 2021 to March 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic was an unforeseen crisis with yet unknown lasting impacts on institutions of higher education. Internal stakeholder perception of leaderships’ communication competence during a crisis event, and the leadership communication challenges during a world-wide pandemic are new areas of research (Bohn, 2022; Çelebi, et al., 2018; Coombs, 2010; Jong, 2020) It was important examine perceptions because the preponderance of literature had been written about requisite skills for engaging in quality leadership (Argyris & Schön, 1974; Bass, 1990; Maxwell, 1998; Northouse, 2010; Spillane, 2006) and about the qualities, such as openness, supportiveness, honesty, consistency, transparent, etc., that demonstrate leadership communication competence (Arokiasamy, et al., 2019; Bouilloud, et al., 2019; Johansson, et al., 2013; Üstüner & Kiş, 2014; Veil, et al., 2017). This study sought to contribute additional knowledge on internal stakeholder perceptions of leadership crisis communication competence and the challenges inherent in developing and delivering quality crisis communication not only during a pandemic, but in the midst of whatever crisis du jour affects a college campus (Coombs, 2000; Gigliotti, 2020; Talu & Nazarov, 2021