Human Resource Development International

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rhrd20

Flattening the learning curve of leadership

development: reflections of five women higher
education leaders during the Coronavirus
pandemic of 2020

Julie Gedro , Nicola Marae Allain , Desalyn De-Souza , Lynne Dodson & Mary
V. Mawn

To cite this article: Julie Gedro , Nicola Marae Allain , Desalyn De-Souza , Lynne Dodson & Mary
V. Mawn (2020) Flattening the learning curve of leadership development: reflections of five women
higher education leaders during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Human Resource Development
International, 23:4, 395-405, DOI: 10.1080/13678868.2020.1779911

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779911

Published online: 09 Jul 2020.

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HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL
2020, VOL. 23, NO. 4, 395–405
https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779911

ARTICLE

Flattening the learning curve of leadership development:

reflections of five women higher education leaders during the
Coronavirus pandemic of 2020
Julie Gedroa, Nicola Marae Allainb, Desalyn De-Souzac, Lynne Dodsond
and Mary V. Mawne
a
School of Business, Empire State College/ State University of New York; bSchool of Arts and Humanities,
Empire State College/ State University of New York; cSchool of Human Services, Empire State College/ State
University of New York; dHarry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies, Empire State College/ State University
of New York; eSchool of Science, Math and Technology, Empire State College/State University of New York

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

For an adult, non-traditional student focused college, the pandemic Received 27 May 2020
brought into stark reality the challenges that the dislocation Accepted 4 June 2020
brought ‘home,’ literally, for many people. This article presents KEYWORDS
a set of reflections of five women leaders at a public institution of Leadership development;
higher education. Through their reflections, they discuss their women and leadership;
responses to the challenges faced by faculty, staff and students effective crisis management
during the pandemic. Issues of gender, race, class, precarious work, and leadership
technological access, and related challenges are raised to the sur­
face. We offer three implications for HRD and leadership develop­
ment research and practice.

Introduction
It would be consistent with the design of Empire State College, whose heritage relies in
part upon the recognition that learning occurs in multiple contexts including but not
limited to the college classroom, and whose model includes an expert framework for
facilitating students in the identification, development, submission, and evaluation of
prior learning, that leadership development is a dimension of Human Resource
Development that can occur in a variety of ways. The COVID-19 pandemic thrust
upon the world, the workplace, and in this case, higher education, the necessity for
a virtually immediate adaptation to remote work and remote learning. While lessons of
leadership will likely emanate from the pandemic for months and years ahead, we have
responded to the call for contributions to this special issue of Human Resource
Development International in an efficient timeframe in order to make a contribution
to the literature of HRD and leadership development while the crisis continues. Five
higher education administrative leaders – all women – offer their reflections on what they
have learned and perhaps continue to learn about leadership during crisis. Of note is that
our institution is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, and that we

CONTACT Julie Gedro Julie.Gedro@esc.edu

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
396 J. GEDRO ET AL.

have offices across the state, including Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. New York City
has been an epicentre of the coronavirus in the United States (McKinley 2020).

Discussion
Julie Gedro, Dean of the school of business
On Thursday afternoon of March 12th, I was in Manhattan to conduct a professional
development workshop the next day at our New York City location. That evening,
I looked out my 8th floor hotel window onto an eerily quiet Hudson Street. My hotel
room did not have housekeeping service for the duration of my stay; housekeeping was
only for the time a guest vacated a room, until the next guest checked in. This was to limit
the exposure of the staff. I had a sense that things would only get more intense, and they
did. I conducted the workshop, which was a profound experience for all of us – the
participants and me – because we explored the subject of workplace civility within
a context of a city on the brink of a crisis. I then safely returned home to upstate
New York the next day. On March 20, our college president announced that in response
to Governor Cuomo’s executive order, New York State on PAUSE (Policies Assure
Uniform Safety for Everyone),1 our college had to shift to remote work and remote
teaching arrangements. What followed in response to this executive order, is aptly
described in the following reflections presented by my wonderful, capable, skilled and
wise women colleagues. Therefore, for the sake of concision, I will end my leadership
narrative here, and introduce my colleagues whose respective areas of leadership repre­
sent the span of disciplines within our undergraduate academic programmes.

Desalyn De-Souza: Dean, school of human services

For nearly five years Empire State College has been engaged in a major organizational
change effort that has transformed the institution from regional operations to a more
centralized model. During the 2019–2020 academic year we welcomed a new president,
new members of the senior leadership team, and developed new operational strategies,
processes, and procedures. Consequently, adapting to change has been a continuous
expectation for faculty, staff, and administrators at the college.
Being that we are a distributed campus with over 30 locations, Empire State College
was structurally well-situated to handle the transition to telecommuting and moving
course offerings to a virtual learning environment when the pandemic struck. In the
School of Human Services, the use of virtual platforms is essential for day-to-day
operations and in the implementation of the academic programme. With over 40 faculty
and staff located in offices across the state, virtual meeting platforms are regularly used
for activities such as monthly staff meetings, professional development sessions, deter­
mining the course schedule, reviewing curriculum, peer review processes, and outcomes
assessment activities.
Although telecommuting, virtual meetings, and distance learning have long been
central practices at Empire State College, removing the opportunity to engage in face-
to-face interactions at local offices amidst a pandemic has been an exercise in adapting to
change like no other. The first two weeks of transitioning to telecommuting were
 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL 397

primarily focused on serving students with as few disruptions to the learning experience
as possible. Faculty and staff spent countless hours connecting with students, securing
remote desktop access, and creating a space at home conducive to teaching and meetings.
Paper files, textbooks, tools, and resources were left behind. Seeking help with computer
challenges or consulting with colleagues to support students was no longer a quick walk
down the hall or as easy as picking up the phone and dialling a direct extension. The
rhythm of accomplishing routine activities was completely interrupted.
The next wave of challenges, dealing with the direct impact of the virus, materialized
for both students and colleagues alike. Students who are essential workers were working
overtime at their place of employment while those categorized as non-essential were
furloughed due to the shutdown. They worried about family members that are immune
compromised and caring for loved ones who had fallen ill. Many individuals contracted
the virus themselves and were no longer able to focus on their studies or work. Those
who remained physically healthy were isolated at home, anxious, and experiencing
depression. Parents were managing their own work schedule with competing demands
to support their children with schooling at home. Frightening statistics, uncertainty, and
grief and loss created an immense emotional burden and left students and colleagues
feeling overwhelmed and fatigued.
It quickly became apparent that a leadership approach to counteract the disorganizing
environment that had unwillingly enveloped us all was critical. Although I could not
remove the stressors associated with illness, financial insecurity, job loss, and changes to
daily family life; I could promote a virtual work environment that encourages support
and self-care. Creating a supportive virtual work environment for faculty and staff of the
School of Human Services involved several actions with varying intent. For our regularly
scheduled meetings, rather than pretend that things were business as usual, I consciously
created time at the beginning of the meeting for colleagues to engage in informal
conversation. The 10 to 15 minutes of unstructured time, not formally articulated on
the meeting agenda, allowed colleagues the opportunity to connect with one another and
to share thoughts and experiences they encountered. Creating a space where individuals
could share whatever topic was on their mind and be heard/listened to allowed for less
chance of distraction and improved concentration on the tasks at hand.
Hosting drop-in office hours was another means to create a supportive virtual work
environment. Scheduled approximately two to three times a month for 30 minutes, drop-
in office hours provided an avenue outside of email for faculty and staff to engage in real-
time conversation with the Dean, ask questions, and discuss a particular challenge and
brainstorm possible solutions. Separate sessions were held for adjunct faculty in the early
evening hours to cater to their unique needs. Establishing a series of unstructured
opportunities where there is no agenda, individuals are free to attend and just listen,
and there is no obligation to stay beyond the time needed to get an answer to a particular
question, utilizes a just-in-time method of support. In many instances it was apparent
that colleagues would drop in for the sole purpose of seeing a familiar face and to share
a laugh. Having leadership accessible and virtually nearby was critically important for
guidance and reassurance during uncertain times.
By the nature of their discipline, faculty and staff in the School of Human Services are
deeply involved in community service. Colleagues contributed to statewide efforts by
volunteering to provide mental health counselling for the New York State COVID-19
398 J. GEDRO ET AL.

Emotional Support Hotline and to support the re-opening of communities through the
New York State Contact Tracing Initiative. They also sought to promote the health and
wellness of members of the college community by offering live virtual sessions on topics
including yoga, mindfulness writing, managing anxiety, self-care in times of crisis, grief
and loss, and addressing substance use disorders during COVID-19. As they give of
themselves to support others and share their knowledge of health and wellness with
students, staff, and faculty; it is also important that they are supported in order to avoid
burnout. In an effort to foster a climate of self-care, I encouraged faculty and staff to plan
vacation time. Admittedly, taking a vacation sounds strange while in quarantine and
many colleagues did not initially think about this as a viable option. However, a vacation,
whether travelling or staying at home, still means time spent away from a computer
screen and email. During stressful and uncertain times, it is important to shift the locus of
control so the individual has the power to decide how to spend the day.
Now that we are nearing three months of telecommuting and still uncertain of when
or how we will resume face-to-face activities with students and colleagues at the office,
cultivating a sense of togetherness is an essential responsibility of those in a leadership
role. Several years ago, as we embarked on a major change initiative to transform the
institution, we were challenged to reimagine new operational strategies and systems.
Now faced with a pandemic, we continue to reimagine what a new normal will involve.
Establishing a new work-life balance and creating innovative ways for social interaction
with others is important as we encounter change in a flurry of uncertainty. Creating
a culture of self-care in a collegial and supportive virtual work environment is crucial for
guarding against change fatigue and burnout.

Nicola Marae Allain, Dean of the school of arts and humanities

The School of Arts & Humanities encompasses three departments, Arts and Media,
Literature, Communication, and Cultural Studies, and Historical Studies. The school is
responsible for seven of ten SUNY General Education areas: basic communication,
American history, other world civilizations, foreign languages, humanities, the arts,
and western civilization. Our programs address 6 of 7 college-wide learning goals: active
learning, breadth and depth of knowledge, social responsibility, communication, critical
thinking and problem solving, and information and digital media literacy. We serve
many students from the other schools, including nursing students, health care workers,
and front-line employees.
I directly supervise the school’s 63 faculty, staff, and 50 adjuncts across 34 locations.
My tenure spans eighteen years in roles as a director of curriculum and instructional
design, faculty member, and now dean. I was an early adopter of instructional technol­
ogies and online learning and serve on the Steering Committee of the SUNY Innovative
Instruction Research Council, and the Editorial Board of the Online Learning Journal.
Virtual community building is one of my areas of research and teaching, which stood me
in good stead during this crisis.
On January 22. 2020, I attended the American Conference of Academic Deans
Institute. The opening plenary by Dr. Bonnie Irwin, Chancellor, University of Hawai’i
at Hilo, focused on Leading with Aloha: Finding Grace in Turbulent Times. As a British-
Polynesian raised in Tahiti, French Polynesia, I deeply resonate with this leadership
 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL 399

philosophy. The values are ones I embody: love for others, working with intent and
purpose, seeking ‘best life’ for all, persevering, personal excellence, hospitality, seeing
others as family, teamwork, collaboration and cooperation, harmony and unity, com­
municating clearly ‘for all of us,’ sense of responsibility, commitment to learning,
humility, honouring the dignity of others, cultivating respect, leading with initiative
and by example, stewardship, gratitude, integrity, rightness and balance, and optimism
(Say and Thompson 2016).
These values set the tone and tenor for the difficult task of leading the school and my
colleagues through the coronavirus crisis. Leading with care and compassion through the
pandemic became the hallmark of my approach, within the urgency of effectively assur­
ing instructional continuity, moving to remote instruction, managing the regular work of
a large school and addressing fiscal and regulatory constraints – all this during our ten-
year Middle States Accreditation review.
I balanced my responsibilities to the school and the college while providing remote
teaching clinics for arts colleagues across SUNY, and swift action to ramp up our few
faculty who were not yet teaching digitally. Most were in Manhattan and Brooklyn, areas
hard-hit by the virus. My definitions of crisis and urgency changed as we addressed helping
colleagues in distress, and reassigning students and courses from faculty too ill to teach.
The School’s three Department chairs and our operations coordinator,played key roles
in orchestrating outreach initiatives, interventions, and ensuring instructional continu­
ity. We used tools such as MS Teams and Skype to stay in constant contact while
coordinating our response to changing ground conditions. Immediate challenges centred
around supporting faculty in the city. I soon realized that a few were isolated, without
family support. Two were high-risk and unable to get groceries and supplies. I reached
out through networks and HR to make sure they had needed support. We all pulled
together, with remarkable speed and grace, to assist anyone in need.
Because anxiety levels among faculty and staff rose dramatically, our school leadership
team created opportunities for everyone to connect virtually, providing a sense of
community, continuity and connection. These included twice weekly social sessions,
my open office hours, and a weekly ‘Meet with the Dean,’ discussion for adjunct faculty.
In addition, each of the three department chairs set up weekly drop-in hours. Our faculty
led a weekly collegewide ‘Creative Expressions’ arts events. I plan to continue these
sessions once we return to whatever normal becomes.
The emotional burden of leading during a pandemic affected me most the week I spent
hours on the phone with a colleague experiencing COVID symptoms and extreme
anxiety. Soon after, the Student Life Director called to let me know that a young student
in NYC had passed away from COVID. I spent that evening calling his instructors to
notify them personally. The other challenge has been my schedule, which leaves little
time for life/work balance. Long walks with the dogs while participating in our HR
department’s Walk/Run Challenge have made a difference.
Leading with Aloha during this pandemic reaffirmed my commitment to this philo­
sophy. I learned to keep in mind the day to day challenges employees and students are
facing. Eventually the coronavirus threat will diminish, but I expect the direct impact
from this crisis, with its economic and societal effects, will continue to affect us all.
400 J. GEDRO ET AL.

Lynne Dodson: associate Dean of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. school of labour
studies
I was hired as the Associate Dean of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labour Studies
(HVASLS) after serving as a labour leader for many years. I think of leaders as falling into
one of two categories – pastor or preacher. While I’m compelled by the servant-leader
style of the pastor, I tend towards preacher, seeking to inspire a vision of a more just
world. In my previous environment, change is accepted as necessary for survival; at the
HVASLS, established practices ensure stability and success. I dedicated my first months
to listening, and quickly learned that my leadership style had to be adjusted. For the
program to grow, the 20 core faculty and staff needed to drive the change. I had to find
my inner pastor.
The HVASLS is intensely mission-driven. As our faculty note, ‘ . . . it is a part of
a progressive and inherently political tradition in adult education that has sought not
only to provide access to an education to those who otherwise would not have it, but to
democratize education . . . and to work together with other community groups . . . such as
trade unions to promote a more just and democratic culture.’ (Szymanski and Wells
2013)
The majority of students are apprentices in New York City. We serve over 1500
students with three full-time faculty, four part-time annual faculty, a dozen staff, and
over 100 adjunct faculty. Our classrooms are filled with construction workers, just off
the day’s job, debating and reflecting on the issues. The physical classroom experience is
critical to our model, students and faculty personally participate as learners and teachers.
Until they can’t. In March, NYC became the epicentre of the pandemic. Staff relocated
to their homes, we switched to distance learning, but anxiety was high. Students were
fearful of losing their jobs, and fearful of going to work. Faculty and staff were not only
anxious about their health, their families, and their students, but about changing to an
unfamiliar pedagogy. Used to operating in a high-touch environment, staff worked alone.
The world upended.
In my experience as a labour leader, crises are not unusual. Focusing on the immediate
need, marshalling resources, and establishing clear policies are essential. Though the staff
may have been surprised to see their consensus-building dean suddenly putting forth
directives and new structures, moving forward creatively in a crisis is familiar territory to
me. With the college’s excellent resources for online learning, we were lovingly sup­
ported. The transition wasn’t flawless, but with the resiliency of faculty, staff, and
students, and the help of colleagues, it worked. A week after shutting down, staff were
carrying on, classes were virtual, students were engaged.
We learned. Syllabi were adjusted to explore the current crisis. Faculty give space for
students to share strategies for dealing with unemployment, fear, illness, home-
schooling. Successful classes continue weekly ‘virtual’ meetings. The consistency of
scheduled class meetings give students power over one aspect of their lives. Creating
multiple ways for faculty and staff to share information and resources quickly establishes
a safe environment to try, fail, and learn. A running list of shortcomings and a survey of
faculty enable us to respond quickly. Our processes and procedures are automated, and
being part of a larger institution is essential. While the logistics are taken care of, there
remains a leadership challenge.
 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL 401

As a leader, I’ve learned:

● It’s not about me; it’s about ensuring staff have the resources, flexibility, and
structure they need to find a way to facilitate individual power and control.
● It’s about courage – to experiment, and to risk unpopularity.
● It’s about compassion – leading with love and assuming others are doing their best.
● It’s about being realistic and resilient – online learning and a remote workplace are
not ideal for our program, but we are capable of providing our students, faculty, and
staff with what they need during this crisis.
● It’s about hope and the Big Picture – COVID19 has shown the real crisis in our
social structures, the plagues of racism, income inequality, xenophobia, inadequate
health care, a torn safety net. Our students need housing, health care, living wages.
They need safe childcare, and access to healthy food. Their jobs provide much of
these, but what happens when they are out of work? The psycho-social toll of
COVID19 has to be addressed in order for our students to continue their education.
We can adjust to a worldwide pandemic in a matter of weeks. So too can we address
the policy failures that have exacerbated the crisis for working people.

Mary V. Mawn: Dean of the school of science, mathematics and technology

As the Dean for the School of Science, Mathematics, and Technology (SMT) at SUNY
Empire State College, I oversee a diverse group of faculty with expertise ranging from
Applied Mathematics to Zoology. School faculty are also dispersed across every region of
New York State, yet the focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics) provides an interconnected framework for our everyday work. My role
as Dean is to provide direction, support engagement, and promote communication
across the departments of Natural Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science and
Technology. The core leadership team of the school includes department chairs, aca­
demic professionals, and a college governance liaison. I rely on their professional judge­
ment and expertise to help guide school initiatives and provide on-the-ground
perspectives to inform decision-making.
As the academic leader for the School of SMT, it is important to understand the needs
of the school by gathering the necessary information, identifying program strengths and
opportunities, anticipating what is needed, and implementing initiatives that move the
group forward in positive directions. This strategic approach proved to be highly
beneficial as colleges and universities rapidly shifted to remote instruction due to the
COVID-19 crisis.
For example, a significant number of the courses in the School of SMT are offered in
the online format, but unlike many other institutions, the school has a robust catalogue of
online science courses that include kit-based laboratories. In my previous leadership role
as an Academic Area Coordinator, I led a team of science faculty in expanding our online
science offerings that included at-home laboratories. More recently as an academic Dean,
I supported the faculty as we moved towards ‘modularizing’ the lecture and lab compo­
nents to provide maximum flexibility to students. This resulted in the development of
stand-alone one-credit, online laboratory courses designed to serve students who
402 J. GEDRO ET AL.

otherwise would be unable to study laboratory science due to time, location, or other
constraints.
Fast-forward to spring 2020, as social distancing measures were implemented in
New York State, many higher education institutions had to scale back or cancel their
laboratory courses. Our school was readily able to serve these science students, permit­
ting them to continue their education even during this time of crisis. In addition, given
their expertise in this area, school faculty were invited to lead training sessions for K-12
and higher education colleagues, helping them to implement similar approaches in their
own departments and schools. While no one could have predicted the current pandemic,
the anticipated need for online laboratory courses proved to address a gap given the
limited options available at other institutions.
One unanticipated lesson gained from the COVID-19 crisis relates to maintaining
work-life balance while telecommuting from home. As a woman leader with children
who were also home due to school closures, this presented unique challenges and
opportunities. In many ways, the communication and organizational skills needed for
leading a school helped greatly when managing the day-to-day of the ‘new normal.’ This
experience also provided me with insights into the experiences of our students,
a significant number who are parents pursuing their college degree at a distance.
Additionally, many of our school’s online adjunct instructors work remotely, as well as
school faculty and professionals, each with their own family and other outside obliga­
tions. Given increased video-conference meetings, the constant flow of emails, and all-
too-easy connectivity via smart devices, being intentional about work-life balance is more
important than ever. As a leader, it is important to provide clear and realistic expectations
so that colleagues can best manage, and be satisfied with, their work lives.
Another lesson learned during this time of crisis is the ‘cascade of support’ that
a leader can provide to colleagues, who in turn can support other individuals. During
the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the college’s academic leadership team met
daily to discuss developing situations and themes, and decisions impacting the academic
program were shared with the college community. This timely response to emergent
issues and clear messaging afterwards was key in supporting colleagues’ work with
students and each other. In addition, local opportunities to discuss specific challenges,
for example during school meetings, provided colleagues with the necessary peer support
as they navigated these uncertain times.
Many factors contributed to ‘weathering the storm’ as a leader during a time of
crisis, including maintaining solid lines of communication, having an established
leadership team, engaging in continual improvement in strategic directions, being
mindful of work-life balance, and providing support during uncertain times. With
the anticipated ‘re-opening the economy’, there will undoubtedly be additional leader­
ship lessons learned during these unprecedented times of large-scale telecommuting
and social distancing.

Implications and conclusions

This article provides a glimpse into real-time leadership development. It suggests that
a combination of direction setting, organizing, and evaluating along with collaboration,
communication, supportive and nurturing are optimal leadership styles. These
 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL 403

reflections harmonize with Eagly and Heilman's (2016) position that in times of crisis,
characteristically feminine styles of leadership are preferable. Given that climate change,
social and economic dislocation, career disruptions, organizational turbulence and future
pandemics, will likely continue and perhaps even accelerate, it would be wise to consider
leadership development that embraces feminine ways of leading and that mindfully
equips leaders to incorporate those styles into their repertoires.

First implication
The first implication for human resource developers involves creating professional
development programs at multiple levels – individual, group, organization, and society –
that challenge the norm. Binary thinking and the stigmatization of the feminine, accom­
panied by the assumption that leadership style (masculine versus feminine) naturally and
essentially aligns with gender, is limiting. These assumptions serve to limit not only
women, but everyone. The ability of a leader to build bridges, to use creativity to solve
problems related to leadership, and to persist in the face of discrimination and margin­
alization serves the leader particularly well in times of crisis. This ability is a leadership
skill that can serve all leaders. What emerged from reading the reflections of these five
women leaders who wrote their pieces independently without knowledge of the content
of the others, was actually a composite of masculine and feminine leadership traits.
Examples of professional development opportunities include workshops that focus on
gender in ways that equip managers and leaders to understand that gender/gender
expression and sex are not immutably aligned. That is, women do not necessarily
demonstrate feminine, nurturing leadership styles, and men do not necessarily demon­
strate masculine, agentic leadership styles. Such individual- level leadership development
programs could facilitate participant’s capacity to draw upon a range of styles. In the
narratives presented, the women leaders were able to draw upon their abilities to create
structure and provide direction (traditionally understood as masculine demonstrations
of leadership) and they were also able to demonstrate concern for subordinates’ well-
being (traditionally understood as feminine demonstrations of leadership). These women
leaders embodied an amalgam of masculine and feminine leader behaviours. At the
group and organizational level, organization development and change initiatives focused
on systemic hurdles that inhibit women’s career opportunities would represent the type
of HRD interventions we imagine. Another example could be a program in which women
have access to coaching and mentoring from senior executives within an organization;
the executives take pains to actively engage their proteges in shadowing their (selected of
course) meetings and functions, so that the proteges have access to first hand experiences
of executive leadership. We imagine, however aspirational this may be, a cumulative
effect of these HRD programs, that not only normalizes the presence of women in key
leadership roles across a spectrum of organizations, across the world, but that blurs the
implicit expectation that gender roles and gender styles are immutably aligned along lines
of sex, gender, and leadership style.
404 J. GEDRO ET AL.

Second implication
The second implication is that leadership during crisis necessitates a sense of timing and
the ability to toggle among a range of directive/agentic and collaborative/nurturing styles.
This article highlights the unpredictability of our current times, and the necessity for
agility and synthesis of the feminine as well as the masculine. ‘The cultural belief that
women, as the less agentic sex, are underqualified for leadership undermines women in
ways that are becoming more fully understood’ (Eagly and Heilman 2016, 351).
In addition to providing insights about the tangible aspects of leadership, such as
facilitating and leading the changes necessary to respond to New York State on PAUSE,
each of my colleagues’ offered their insights about the importance of demonstrating
sensitivity to the challenges faced by their subordinates, and developing formal and non-
formal ways to respond to those challenges. A common theme throughout each leader­
ship reflection, is the necessity to care for others. Two colleagues used the word ‘love’
when describing their leadership styles. Ryan et al. (2016) note that ‘stereotypically
masculine traits are remarkably similar to our stereotypical beliefs about good leadership,
while stereotypically feminine traits are not’ (p. 450). Referring to Schein (1973) Ryan
et al explain that feminine styles of leadership (communication skills, ability to encourage
others, p. 450) are, in experimental research, preferred for an organization in crisis, and
that masculine styles of leadership (independence and decisiveness) are preferred in the
‘context of a successful company’ (p. 450).

Third implication
Gender bias persists when it comes to women’s advancement to leadership roles (see
Heilman et al. 2004; Phelan, Moss-Racusin, and Rudman 2008; Rudman 1998; Rudman
et al. 2012a, in Vial, Napier, and Brescoll 2015, 400). Compliance-oriented programs
designed to address the limitations and obstacles that women face, are clearly insufficient
in achieving that aim and can result in stigmatization of women as well as backlash from
those who feel that they were bypassed (see Eagly and Heilman 2016, 351). The authors of
this paper were asked to reflect on their leadership during this COVID-19 pandemic. The
resulting narratives focused on the actions that they took to address the challenges related
to ensuring that employees were kept safe and well (both physically as well as emotionally
and psychologically), that students were served, and that employees were able to shift to
remote work arrangements. Therefore, there was little attention paid to the gendered
aspects of leadership, or to the gender bias that persists in organizations and in society.
However, the overall context of these narratives is one in which gender bias pervades the
workplace. This is not limited to the United States, nor are our implications limited to the
United States. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) notes that 90% of
those they interviewed (across 75 countries) demonstrated bias against women (McCarthy
2020). Power gaps persist not only in workplaces, but in larger systems and contexts such as
economics and politics (UN News 2020 para 7). Therefore, this third implication, while
situated in the United States higher education context, pertains to the international context.
The third and final implication is that HRD research and practice has not only an
opportunity, but an obligation to investigate, discover and create research and interven­
tions that disrupt the organizational inertia that defaults to a preference for masculine
 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL 405

styles of leadership (which is assumed to be embodied by a man). Human resource

developers can and should facilitate the expansion of organizational climate, culture, and
all accompanying systems that encourage and promote the selection and development of
women in leadership positions.

Note
1. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-signs-new-york-state-pause-
executive-order.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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