Search results

Purpose: Twenty-first-century leaders operate in an unpredictable and complex business environment. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) nature of the business milieu and proved to be a real-life test for organisations and their leaders. It brought challenges and losses at personal, organisational, societal, national, and global levels. Nevertheless, some leaders and organisations thrived during and after the pandemic. This research assimilates leadership lessons from extant literature and real-life cases of leadership successes and failures. The authors aim to consolidate leadership strategies valuable in unpredictable, demanding, and complex times like COVID-19.

Methodology: The research relies on an extant literature review and opinions of four c-suite leaders captured through semi-structured interviews. The study uses content analysis to analyse the primary data collected.

Findings: The present research presents its results as a VUCA Leader Toolkit. It consolidates learnings from real-life case studies, extant literature, business reports, and experts’ opinions. It addresses the gap in existing research on VUCA-suited leadership strategies. The outcome of the present study is a clear, adequate, explicit, and well-defined list of VUCA-necessitated leadership strategies.

Originality/value: The research proves its utility in providing the VUCA Leader Toolkit. The outcomes carry usefulness for both present and future business leaders. The business environment today is ever-changing, complex, and uncertain. This unpredictability, uncertainty, complexity, and fuzziness would proliferate in the coming times. Hence, it is imperative to have a list of leadership strategies that may serve as a ready reckoner for leaders.

Purpose: As a result of the transition from the paradigm of ‘knowledge and skills’ learning to the university of uncertainty, the concept of VUCA has grown for the revision of various adaptive models of educational practices.

Need for Study: The primary goal is to explore the research field of the educational system and learning environments; the investigation of scientific knowledge is enabled by bibliometric analysis, revealing through it the fluctuations of the literature.

Methodology: To better view the historical evolution of publications in the educational system field, two data samples were integrated into this study, with the focus of the chapter being on the authors, keywords, articles, journals, subject analysis, word cloud analysis, and cluster analysis. The first includes 1,620 Web of Science-recorded documents published between 1991 and 2022, and the second sample comprises 159 Scopus-recorded papers published between 1978 and 2022.

Findings: The first empirical results show that interest in this subject escalated around 2008. The main concerns around this research field are the labour market, teaching-learning, technology, economic development, the medical field, and sustainability. After 2020, a new subject took amplitude, seemingly connected to the educational system and learning environment, that subject being ’COVID-19.

Practical Implications: The relationship between authors, keywords, and sources is illustrated through Sankey diagrams, from which valuable information can be extracted: nine of the Scopus authors have published articles in the ‘Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management’ documents that present the following list of keywords: ‘higher education’, ‘education’, ‘management’, ‘leadership’, and ‘tertiary education’.

Purpose: Leaders must come up with new ideas and motivate their people to welcome new beginnings if they are to adapt to the changing demands of the business. Organisations face challenges in navigating the vast array of possibilities and choices in the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) world. This chapter explores various leadership styles, highlighting leadership initiatives in the context of (VUCA) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology: Secondary sources were used to collect information and data, including published articles, journals, newspapers, reports, books, and websites. The logical progression was used to comprehend the idea of VUCA leadership and strategies.

Findings of the Study: The VUCA accurately depicted the global landscape after COVID-19. It offered a valuable framework for examining strategy and leadership in a swiftly evolving world. To portray the dynamic characteristics of the corporate environment and to lead, many businesses use VUCA. Furthermore, this study highlights the VUCA leadership essential skills needed for effectively navigating VUCA circumstances.

Practical Implications: This study focuses on VUCA leadership practices and strategies in the workplace. The chapter outlines six key competencies: setting goals, being prepared, putting the customer’s needs first, flexibility and adaptation, decision-making, and collaboration and teamwork. These skills are essential for corporations to endure and thrive in VUCA circumstances. Corporate leaders are encouraged to integrate these skills into their repertoire, equipping themselves to confront challenges in a volatile environment.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented, and none of the world’s think tanks could have predicted how far it would spread. People visualise the pandemic as a classic example of a VUCA environment (an environment characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Managing COVID-19 requires unique and different leadership qualities.

Purpose: This study’s rationale emphasises that VUCA demands strategic and agile leadership. Leaders across the globe must acknowledge the fact that the elements of VUCA, i.e. volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, are not synonymous and hence need differential treatment. Also, recommend adopting agile leadership to tackle the VUCA world.

Methodology: This is a conceptual study focusing on agile leadership. The study addresses the challenge of leading in the VUCA environment. The constituting components of VUCA are differentiated, followed by an extensive literature review of agile leadership.

Findings: VUCA is the new normal and is there to stay. Business leaders still need to counter VUCA due to their incapacity to distinguish and treat the components equally. Furthermore, there is an emergent need to develop an agile workforce, agile organisations, and agile leadership to combat VUCA. The study indicates that business leaders must be agile enough to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and future crises. There is a constant need to ensure agility. This study will provide a deep insight into VUCA and help business leaders emerge victorious in turbulent times.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to identify various factors that may influence the adoption of online education by students in higher education institutions (HEIs) and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) post-COVID-19.

Need for the Study: The study addresses the need to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, as emphasised by SDG4. It focuses on lifelong learning opportunities and aims to understand the impact of online education on students in HEIs. By identifying the factors that influence adoption, the study aims to contribute to the development of effective strategies for promoting online education.

Methodology: The study utilises a framework incorporating the use of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software. The framework allows for the analysis of the collected data’s reliability, validity and adequacy.

Findings: The study’s findings indicate that providing students with affordable online higher education can facilitate skill enhancement and create job opportunities. These findings highlight the potential of online education in contributing to the achievement of SDGs, particularly SDG4.

Practical Implications: The practical implications of the study suggest that promoting affordable online higher Education can have a positive impact on students, enabling them to acquire new skills and access job opportunities. By embracing online education, institutions can contribute to the advancement of SDGs and ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all.