The role of intercultural experience in crisis management : A qualitative study in a Swedish University

Sammanfattning: Crisis management is a technique that has existed within organizations worldwide and is dictated by the response of leaders’ actions. In a classroom, the teacher can be referred to as an ‘educational leader’. With an emphasized work setting of the classroom, different leadership responses can be examined in a comparative analysis. The focus of this thesis is to explore the effect of intercultural experience when higher education leaders are dealing with crisis management within their classrooms. This exploratory study adopts a qualitative analysis with the help of deductive approach and critical realism philosophy. The primary source of this study is the interviews with professors from a Swedish University, both from local and international programs. By using intercultural crises challenges, crisis scenarios in a higher educational setting were created. These themes are ethnocentrism, scandal/misinterpretation, and culture shock. These scenarios were used in the interview process to understand how different program leaders manage the crises. Additionally, the findings of this study show that intercultural experience of higher educational leaders plays a role in how they are managing a crisis within a classroom setting.