Public Service Resilience in a Post-COVID-19 World: Digital Transformation in Nordic Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter draws on seminal contributions from the crisis management and resilience literature to develop and test a new framework for organisational resilience in higher education in the context of digital transformation. The study unpacks developments before and during the COVID-19 crisis and sheds light on crucial endogenous and exogenous factors likely to determine resilience outcomes. It does so by developing and testing a novel analytical framework centred on resilient antecedents, processes and outcomes. The empirical findings suggest that, in the Nordic countries, higher education institutions denote a high ability to adapt to new situations whilst retaining both function and identity, that is, they are resilient. We identify and unpack a number of key resilient drivers and reflect on the implications for research and practice going forward.