Building Resilience in High Education: The Case Study of FEB

The field of high education management has a central role in every society, even more so in times of crisis. While the digital economy requires organizations and individuals to possess both full-fledged digital competencies and swift adaptability to virtual business, the management must demonstrate high responsibility and readiness to develop a new form of organizational culture tailored to the needs of the post-pandemic era. Crisis-resilient organizations encourage constant learning processes, anticipate changes, and are generally more flexible yet stable and self-dependent. During the pandemic, educational organizations, including higher education organizations, have faced numerous challenges while striving to maintain their mission: to ensure the undisturbed continuation of classes and research projects and coordinate the demands and interests of many stakeholders. This chapter explains the importance of building resilience in high education, considering the case study of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) University of Zagreb in Croatia, where the topics of leading and managing the Universities during the COVID-19 crisis are considered. It is significant to understand and define the regulatory framework for higher education institutions at the EU level. Such an approach embraces the shared values of all member countries and facilitates the transfer of knowledge between teaching and research staff and students of different higher education institutions. Effective implementation and incorporation of values into the statutes and curricula of individual HEIs is one of the important tasks of the management of these organizations. The success of this process is reflected in periods of crisis. Unforeseen situations then test the organization’s readiness and resistance to environmental challenges.