The impact of digital leadership on organizational agility in the crisis environment caused by the covid-19 pandemic: A case study in a higher education institution

In this thesis, it is aimed to investigate the effect of digital leadership competencies on organizational agility in a crisis environment. The global epidemic, which was first seen in our country in 2020 and affected the whole world in a short time, created a crisis environment for all businesses. Higher education institutions, as all other organizations, have confronted various problems that emerged as a result of this crisis environment with several uncertainties. In this study, the performance of a higher education institution, which has managed this process well and continued educational services in a short time after the effect of the pandemic, was examined. The administrators and managers of the academic units (faculties, faculty departments), who experienced the process most intensely, were included in the interviews of this qualitative study. In-depth interviews were conducted with the faculty deans, vice deans and department heads, who are the addressees and the implementers of the instructions given by the Higher Education Institution. It is concluded that the pursuit of change and innovation, planning, implementation and control, supporting and inspiring the development of subordinates, mastery over the system and the organization, are among the digital leadership competencies that are vital to address the needs in a higher education organization. The competencies such as knowledge in many subjects, and executing complex mental processes were found to be partially important in managing this process. It was also observed that the managers and the administrators exhibited an open-minded attitude to discuss the ideas on the methods, technology, tools and equipment to be used in case their digital competencies are insufficient.