Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma

Andi Clemons

doi:10.29333/ajqr/15877

Andi Clemons ¹ ^*

More Detail

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 9, Issue 1, pp. 16-31

https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877

OPEN ACCESS 448 Views 151 Downloads

Download Full Text (PDF)

Abstract

In the face of increasing major emergencies, higher education administrators must strategically recalibrate institutional policies and leadership practices to enhance resilience. While contemporary scholarship underscores the pivotal role of leaders in fostering resilience, further evidence is needed to understand this relationship within higher education, and the impact of department chairs on faculty resilience remains underexplored. This phenomenological study utilized semi-structured interviews with full-time instructional faculty to explore faculty's lived experiences during recurring traumatic events, COVID-19 and Hurricane Ian, at a public university in Southwest Florida, achieving data saturation through the depth and richness of the interviews. Themes emerged through constant comparative thematic analysis, revealing the significant role of department chairs in fostering faculty resilience. Positive leadership support strengthened resilience and community cohesion, while inadequate support weakened the relationship between faculty and the institution, thus impacting the resilience of the faculty and organization. These themes underscore the need for academic leaders to develop strategies that bolster faculty support, positioning department chairs as central to fostering and cultivating resilience in higher education.

Keywords: COVID-19, faculty, department chair, Hurricane Ian, resilience

References

Acosta, D. (2023, January 24). Months after Hurricane Ian hit Florida, many in Fort Myers are living in tents. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/months-after-hurricane-ian-hit-florida-many-in-fort-myers-are-living-in-tents-11674526871
Athota, V. S., & Malik, A. (2019). Managing employee well-being and resilience for innovation: Evidence from knowledge-intensive service industries. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06188-3
Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? American Psychologist, 59(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.20
Brooks, M., Creely, E., & Laletas, S. (2022). Coping through the unknown: School staff wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3, Article 100146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2022.100146
Caniëls, M. C. J., & Hatak, I. (2022). Employee resilience: Considering both the social side and the economic side of leader-follower exchanges in conjunction with the dark side of followers’ personality. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(2), 297–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1695648
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, August 16). CDC Museum COVID-19 Timeline. https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html
Chakradhar, K., Waddill, P. J., & Kleinhans, K. A. (2018). Resilience and the multigenerational academic work environment in the United States. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 16(4), 374–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2018.1489332
Chansky, R. A. (2019). Teaching Hurricane María: Disaster pedagogy and the ugly auto/biography. Pedagogy, 19(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-7173718
Cherkowski, S., Kutsyuruba, B., Walker, K., & Crawford, M. (2021). Conceptualising leadership and emotions in higher education: Wellbeing as wholeness. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 53(2), 158–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2020.1828315
Clemons, A. (2024). Exploring academic resilience: A phenomenological study of lived experiences during COVID-19 and Hurricane Ian. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 46(5), 563–578. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2024.2334986
Cohen, A., & Kisker, C. (2010). The shaping of American higher education: Emergence and growth of the contemporary system (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
de los Reyes, E. J., Blannin, J., Cohrssen, C., & Mahat, M. (2022). Resilience of higher education academics in the time of 21st century pandemics: A narrative review. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 44(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2021.1989736
Felix, E. D., You, S., & Canino, G. (2013). School and community influences on the long term postdisaster recovery of children and youth following Hurricane Georges. Journal of Community Psychology, 41(8), 1021–1038. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21590
Finewood, M. H., & Henderson, J. A. (2019). What higher education can bring to resilience: Reports from Pace University’s water resilience conference. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 9(3), 316–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-019-00557-w
Gilmer, T. P., Center, K., Casteel, D., Choi, K., Innes-Gomberg, D., & Lansing, A. E. (2021). Developing trauma resilient communities through community capacity-building. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11723-7
Greer, T. W., & Shuck, B. (2020). Mounting the new guard: The golden rule as a basis for organizational culture change in response to challenges in academia. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 22(1), 102–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422319886298
Gu, Q., & Day, C. (2007). Teachers resilience: A necessary condition for effectiveness. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(8), 1302–1316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.06.006
Guth, L. J., Surinon, C., Puig, A., Nitza, A., Georgiana, B., & Freytes, I. M. (2021). Perceived impact of Hurricane Maria on educators and students in Puerto Rico. Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, 33(3), 65–99.
Holt, D. T., Self, D. R., Thal, A. E., & Lo, S. W. (2003). Facilitating organizational change a test of leadership strategies. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24(5), 262–272. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730310485761
Kuntz, J., Malinen, S., & Näswall, K. (2017). Employee resilience: Directions for resilience development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 69(3), 223–242. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000097
Kuntz, J., Näswall, K., & Malinen, S. (2016). Resilient employees in resilient organizations: Flourishing beyond adversity. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(2), 456–462. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2016.39
Luthans, F., Vogelgesang, G. R., & Lester, P. B. (2006). Developing the psychological capital of resiliency. Human Resource Development Review, 5(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305285335
Luthans, K. W., Luthans, B. C., & Chaffin, T. D. (2019). Refining grit in academic performance: The mediational role of psychological capital. Journal of Management Education, 43(1), 35–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562918804282
Malik, P., & Garg, P. (2020). Learning organization and work engagement: The mediating role of employee resilience. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(8), 1071–1094. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1396549
Mannarini, T., Rizzo, M., Brodsky, A., Buckingham, S., Zhao, J., Rochira, A., & Fedi, A. (2022). The potential of psychological connectedness: Mitigating the impacts of COVID‐19 through sense of community and community resilience. Journal of Community Psychology, 50(5), 2273–2289. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22775
Marlowe, J. (2015). Belonging and disaster recovery: Refugee-background communities and the Canterbury earthquakes. The British Journal of Social Work, 45(supplement 1), i188–i204. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv090
Masten, A. S. (2014). Ordinary magic: Resilience in development. The Guilford Press.
Masten, A. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2016). Resilience in development: Progress and transformation. In D. Cicchetti (Ed.), Developmental psychopathology, risk, resilience, and intervention (3rd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 523–640). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D. M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14(1), 6–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6629(198601)14:1<6::AID-JCOP2290140103>3.0.CO;2-I
Merriam, S. B. (2004). The role of cognitive development in Mezirow’s Transformational Learning Theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 55(1), 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713604268891
Minello, A. (2020). The pandemic and the female academic. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01135-9
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. SAGE Publications.
Nandy, M., Lodh, S., & Tang, A. (2021). Lessons from Covid-19 and a resilience model for higher education. Industry and Higher Education, 35(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950422220962696
Näswall, K., Malinen, S., Kuntz, J., & Hodliffe, M. (2019). Employee resilience: Development and validation of a measure. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 34(5), 353–367. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-02-2018-0102
Neuwirth, L. S., Jović, S., & Mukherji, B. R. (2021). Reimagining higher education during and post-COVID-19: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 27(2), 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477971420947738
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (2022, October). Hurricane Ian special summary. Monthly National Climate Report for September 2022. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/national/202209/supplemental/page-5
Norris, F. H., & Kaniasty, K. (1996). Received and Perceived Social Support in Times of Stress: A Test of the Social Support Deterioration Deterrence Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(3), 498–511. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.3.498
Nyaupane, G. P., Prayag, G., Godwyll, J., & White, D. (2021). Toward a resilient organization: Analysis of employee skills and organization adaptive traits. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(4), 658–677. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1822368
Plimmer, G., Berman, E. M., Malinen, S., Franken, E., Naswall, K., Kuntz, J., & Löfgren, K. (2022). Resilience in public sector managers. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 42(2), 338–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X20985105
Richard, E. M. (2020). Developing employee resilience: The role of leader-facilitated emotion management. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 22(4), 387–403. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422320949143
Richardson, G. E. (2002). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(3), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.10020
U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. (2023). [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.25921/STKW-7W73
van Breda, A. D. (2016). Building resilient human service organizations. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 40(1), 62–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2015.1093571
van Manen, M. (1990). Beyond assumptions: Shifting the limits of action research. Theory Into Practice, 29(3), 152–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849009543448
Watermeyer, R., Crick, T., Knight, C., & Goodall, J. (2021). COVID-19 and digital disruption in UK universities: Afflictions and affordances of emergency online migration. Higher Education, 81(3), 623–641. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00561-y
Watermeyer, R., Shankar, K., Crick, T., Knight, C., McGaughey, F., Hardman, J., Suri, V. R., Chung, R., & Phelan, D. (2021). ‘Pandemia’: A reckoning of UK universities’ corporate response to COVID-19 and its academic fallout. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(5–6), 651–666. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.1937058
Zhang, X., English, A. S., Li, X., Yang, Y., Stanciu, A., & Shuang, W. (2023). International students’ collective resilience in crisis: Sense of community reduced anxiety via social contact and social support during lockdown. Heliyon, 9(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15298

Citation

Clemons, A. (2025). Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 9(1), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877

Clemons, A. (2025). Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 9(1), pp. 16-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877

Clemons A. Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2025;9(1), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877

Clemons, Andi. "Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma". American Journal of Qualitative Research 2025 9 no. 1 (2025): 16-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877

Clemons, Andi "Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma". American Journal of Qualitative Research, vol. 9, no. 1, 2025, pp. 16-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877

Clemons A. Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2025;9(1):16-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15877