Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
6-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Jillian Skelton
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Scott Self
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Heather Rasmussen
Abstract
Despite increasing cyber threats to higher education, little research examines how administrative leaders experience and navigate these crises to keep their institutions operational. This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of seven administrative leaders in three higher education institutions following cyber attacks that disrupted normal operations. This study examined how leaders make sense of cyber crisis experiences and what factors shape their decision-making during response and recovery. Key findings reveal five critical areas of impact. First, cyber attacks can have deep emotional impacts on leaders and staff. Despite these effects, they maintain a strong dedication to enacting the educational mission of serving their students. This is accomplished in part through a reliance on the campus community. Additionally, incident severity and recovery duration are directly influenced by an institution’s degree of preparedness. Finally, critical peer support needs remain unmet as ongoing secrecy around cyber incidents discourages the proliferation of support and collective knowledge. The research identified key tensions administrators must navigate, including balancing transparency with reputation management concerns and maintaining academic continuity despite technological limitations. These findings suggest that higher education institutions need to prioritize proactive planning and a shared responsibility for organizational cyber resilience beyond the information technology sector and across the campus community. The research also recommends attention to leadership communications and broad-based community support, which extends beyond the incident into reflective and post-incident learning practices to cultivate greater institutional resilience.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Brentzel, Elizabeth R., "Organizational Cyber Resilience in Higher Education: How Administrative Leaders Experience a Disruptive Cyber Attack" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 908.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/908