KKJKT Project: An investigation into crisis leadership at Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences using panel discussions and surveys


Perkins, Marc; Saarinen, Taina; Siekkinen, Taru; Pekkola, Elias; Laine, Kati; Minkkinen, Laura. (2024). KKJKT Project: An investigation into crisis leadership at Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences using panel discussions and surveys. University of Jyväskylä. https://doi.org/10.17011/jyx/dataset/96664.


JYU authors: 
  • Contact person (yes/no): Yes
  • Contact person (yes/no): Yes
  • Contact person (yes/no): Yes
  • Contact person (yes/no): No
  • Contact person (yes/no): Yes

All authors: Perkins, Marc; Saarinen, Taina; Siekkinen, Taru; Pekkola, Elias; Laine, Kati; Minkkinen, Laura

Funders: Finnish Work Environment Fund

Right-holders: 


Availability and identifiers

Availability: Access request

Publication year: 2024

URN identifier in original repository: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202408195557

DOI identifier in original repository: https://doi.org/10.17011/jyx/dataset/96664

URN identifier in JYX: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202408195557

DOI identifier in JYX: https://doi.org/10.17011/jyx/dataset/96664


Description of the dataset

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic period illustrated that the continuity of education is strived for, even in exceptional circumstances, and that the crisis resistance of the education system is highly valued. Before COVID, educational crisis leadership studies typically focused on only a subset of the wide range of crises that face educational organizations today, with relatively little work being done in the Finnish higher education context. The primary research goal of this project is to evaluate the current state of crisis leadership at Finnish higher education organizations (both Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences) and develop recommendations to facilitate Finnish higher education organizations’ future crisis planning, response, and recovery. The project’s aim is to further the scientific understanding of crisis leadership while facilitating development of crisis leadership at higher education organizations, in the hope that organizations will be better able to maintain operations and support the well-being of all during future crisis situations.

We conducted panel interviews with a range of staff from Finnish higher education institutions and organizations related to higher education. Twenty five people participated in at least one of our two sets of panels: the first panel set (consisting of 6 panels) explored panelists' conception of crisis and their crisis leadership experiences, and the second panel set (consisting of 4 panels) discussed what is needed for crisis leadership. Participants were drawn from universities (17), universities of applied sciences (4), and organizations related to higher education (4; e.g., unions and the Ministry of Education and Culture); a total of 14 unique organizations were represented by the panelists (6 universities, 4 universities of applied sciences, and 4 other organizations). Higher education staff participant positions varied widely, and included teaching and research staff (10), higher education management (5), and professional and expert staff (6). Four panelists were of international origin.

All panel discussions were held via Zoom, recorded, and transcribed; in total, 23.75 hours of audio was transcribed. Two panels in each round were conducted in English, the rest of the panels were conducted in Finnish. Finnish-language panels were translated to English. Initial coding of the dataset was conducted by two researchers independently coding separate sets of interviews (English vs. Finnish) using theory-based codes as a starting point while creating codes inductively during coding. The researchers regularly met to discuss the themes they were observing and codes they were using, allowing the codes and themes to develop over time. Panel discussion analysis is still in progress as of this publication. Panel recordings and transcripts cannot be released publicly due to the presence of personal data; however, we have attached the full bilingual (Finnish and English) communications we distributed to panelists before and after the panels.

We conducted a nationwide survey of higher education leadership at both universities and universities of applied sciences. The survey was distributed at 10 universities and 11 universities of applied sciences in Finland (a total of 21 unique organizations). At most institutions the survey was distributed by an internal contact, who was informed that the survey should be distributed to "all academic and administrative leadership from department chairs to the rector," though at five organizations the researchers were given (or compiled) email lists for all leadership from department chairs through rector at the organization and emailed the survey directly to those individuals. The survey was available between February 26, 2024 and March 18, 2024. The survey was conducted via JYU's Webropol service, and was distributed solely via a non-trackable generic web link.

The survey was bilingual, available in both Finnish and English, with an option to create a Swedish version upon request (no requests for such a version were received). The full text of the survey in both languages is available as an attachment to this publication.

A total of 150 responses were obtained, but one of these rejected consent, 15 failed to answer any questions other than the (first) consent question, and 8 included answers solely to background questions. After excluding responses that did not include any answers to core survey questions, we were left with a sample size of 126 responses, 87 of which listed a university as their employer and 39 of which listed a university of applied sciences as their employer.

Survey analysis is still in progress as of this publication in August, 2024; our goal is to publish an anonymized version of the survey responses once our analysis has been completed.

Attachments to this publication include
1 - the full text of the materials we sent panelists, in both Finnish and English
2 - the full text of emails and fliers we sent to survey invitees in both Finnish and English
3 - the full text of the survey in both Finnish and English
4 - the full text of PowerPoint slides we made for each panel round.

This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Language: Finnish; English

Free keywords: educational leadership

Keywords (YSO): crisis management (leadership); crisis management; crisis communication; crisis preparedness; administration of higher education; institutions of higher education; studies in an institution of higher education; leadership (activity)

Fields of science: 516 Educational sciences

Follow-up groups: School of Wellbeing (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Well; Finnish Institute for Educational Research (Finnish Institute for Educational Research KTL) KTL; Teacher education research (teaching, learning, teacher, learning paths, education) (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Edu; Formerly JYU.Ope

Do you deal with data concerning special categories of personal data in your research?: No


Projects related to dataset


Last updated on 2024-19-08 at 16:05