Dr Cedwyn Fernandes shares lessons in leadership during the pandemic at global forum in Dubai
- Friday, 15 April 2022
Dr. Cedwyn Fernandes, Pro Vice Chancellor and Director of Middlesex University Dubai, took part in the 25th Global Forum held in Dubai in March 2022. The Global Forum on Leadership, Learning and Strategic Change is a not-for-profit "community of practice", involving participants from major companies and organisations from around the world, who, in a collegial spirit, discuss strategic transformations, leadership, and learning for individuals, teams and organisations.
Dr. Cedwyn's presentation at the Forum focused on "A Crisis Leadership Model for the Future: An International Study of Lessons Learned During the COVID Pandemic." In his presentation, Dr. Cedwyn shared his experiences of steering Middlesex University Dubai during the pandemic and how in the face of challenges learning never stopped, student numbers increased, and staff employment and salaries were protected.
The talk also included results from a global study conducted along with Dr. Sreejith Balasubramanian entitled "Confirmation of a crisis leadership model and its effectiveness: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic". The study explores the desired leadership attributes during the initial phase of a crisis from the point of view of the employee.
Compassion and Care, Resilience & Courage, Openness & Communication, Empowerment, Decisiveness, Adaptiveness and Consultation & Collaboration were the top ranked leadership attributes. The study found that leaders across organisations displayed admirable Resilience & Courage and Decisiveness, but were below expectations from an employee point of view on Compassion & Care. The full paper with free access is available at