Leading universities in COVID times: the leadership style of university presidents in Mexico

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to universities around the world. These hardships range from the governance of an organization, the management, and the daily life of academics. Leadership is a critical element needed to achieve these objectives. Especially prevalent in the context of a global pandemic: health emergency. Education leadership suffers from atypical conditions that demand assertive action with little information. Our research uses a mixed methodology approach, carried out through a content analysis of speeches offered by 40 presidents of Mexican universities, regarding their actions due COVID-19. The speeches are from April to October 2020. We used the theory of The Full Range of Leadership to first code the leadership styles reflected in the speeches. Next, we use the MAXDA software to quantify and analyze the content. Leaders of Mexican universities used a combination of transformational and transactional leadership to act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on their institutions. This report suggests how the use of individualized consideration prevails in the presidents' speeches, followed by inspiring the university community.