Hongjie Yin*†
Jia Liu*- Yangzhou University, Hubei Preschool Teachers College, Yangzhou, China
The educational transformation in China has introduced unprecedented complexity and uncertainty into school organizations, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for educational leadership. This qualitative study single-case study explores the antecedents and development of resilient leadership by examining the case of a female vice-principal at a higher vocational college, utilizing three in-depth interviews supplemented by a 2-months period of naturalistic observation. The findings underscore the importance of individual traits, past successes, and external factors in nurturing resilient leadership among female principals. By integrating the trait and behavioral perspectives of resilience theory, female resilient leadership can be categorized into three domains in Chinese contexts: perceptiveness and planning, resistance and adaptability, and inspiration and growth potential. Drawing on resource conservation theory, the study delineates the development of female resilient leadership in schools and provides recommendations for enhancing leadership practice.
1 Introduction
Education, like many other sectors, is facing increasingly uncertain changes in both internal and external environments, where opportunities and challenges coexist. As the core figure in school management, the principal’s perception of the new era’s educational changes can influence school decision-making and risk-taking due to individual differences. In this process, relying solely on the power granted by the position is unlikely to be effective; a greater emphasis on leadership is needed. Humanized, flexible management is triggering the second revolution in the field of management. Resilient leadership, a new type of leadership that has evolved from flexible management, has been proposed as a means to help organizations effectively cope with the uncertainties and complexities brought about by continuous social and environmental changes (Ferrer and Caridad, 2017). For this study, resilient leadership is defined as a leader’s capacity to anticipate, adapt to, and grow from adversity by leveraging internal traits and external resources, particularly within the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) context of China’s vocational education reform. In addition, female leaders, who possess all the qualities required for flexible management, are increasingly demonstrating prominent leadership roles across various fields and have become an important force in organizations. However, due to the existence of the glass ceiling, female principals face far more complex obstacles and challenges arising from gender bias and stereotypes compared to their male counterparts. How female principals can better help schools adapt to external changes amid pressure and adversity has become a new research perspective, with resilient leadership emerging as a novel leadership model in Chinese contexts.
This study focuses on female principals and explores how they can leverage the advantages of flexible management to address the uncertainties and complexities brought about by educational changes in China. How can female principals better exert their leadership to adapt to external changes? How does their resilient leadership develop, and what specific capabilities support it? This study selects a Chinese female vice-principal from a college as the research subject and employs qualitative methods to explore the causes and dimensions of female resilient leadership in educational management practice.
2 Review of the literature
Resilience, a characteristic deeply embedded in the Chinese national character, is significantly shaped by local culture. In traditional Chinese culture, women are often perceived as possessing greater resilience due to their inherent personality traits. Gender role theory posits that female leaders are typically more empathetic, resilient, and capable of enduring hardship than their male counterparts, potentially displaying greater resilience. Women are also recognized for their dedication, strong sense of responsibility, intuitive thinking, effective communication skills, and tenacious mental fortitude. A hallmark of their leadership style is the ability to find opportunities in crises. Resilient leadership, as an interdisciplinary concept, has yet to reach a consensus on its definition.
Current research on resilient leadership primarily concentrates on individual traits and behaviors, with the subjects mainly being entrepreneurs, hospital nurses, and military leaders. In China, studies on resilient leadership seldom incorporate a gender perspective and are infrequently seen in the field of educational management. This gap is particularly notable given that recent, context-specific international research, such as Nhłumayo’s (2025) work on female principals in rural South Africa, powerfully demonstrates the value of exploring resilient leadership practices through a gendered lens to understand how leaders navigate unique systemic challenges.
2.1 The trait perspective of resilient leadership
The trait perspective posits that resilient leadership is an essential capability enabling leaders to recover swiftly from adversity and drive organizational performance. Empirical studies conducted have demonstrated that leaders’ resilience traits significantly enhance subordinates’ work enthusiasm and performance, particularly under conditions of high problem complexity (Avey et al., 2011). Key characteristics of leadership resilience include positive thinking, accountability, flexibility, and the ability to maintain a balance between work and personal life (Kim and Windsor, 2015). The effectiveness of leaders’ problem-focused and emotion-focused coping mechanisms post-crisis is closely tied to their resilience, self-efficacy, hope, and optimism (Fang et al., 2020). Some scholars have emphasized, through phenomenological studies examining cultural adversity, the importance of resilient leadership as a significant trait among Black women leaders in higher education (Chance, 2022). Researchers have also observed that resilient leadership serves as a vital factor for principals, enabling them to transform adversity into opportunity, foster their personal growth and professional advancement, and help schools effectively navigate and overcome challenges (Olmo-Extremera et al., 2025).
2.2 The behavioral perspective of resilient leadership
The behavioral perspective views resilient leadership as a behavioral response system for leaders in crises or multiple adverse situations, emphasizing the action plans and management strategies that leaders should adopt to assist organizations in mitigating the effects of crises (Giustiniano et al., 2020). Resilient leadership ensures the orderly conduct of organizational management and tasks under normal conditions, facilitates timely emotional resilience and adaptive responses in the face of risks or disasters, and promotes organizational growth through continuous adaptation and response (Patterson et al., 2009). Resilient leadership is based on a leader’s positive attitude and ability to adapt to the surrounding environment, harmonizing personal strengths and environmental demands (Lombardi et al., 2021). Contemporary research further refines this behavioral view by framing resilience as a dynamic process of sensemaking and sensegiving during crises, where leaders must interpret events for themselves and their organizations to foster collective adaptation (Elomaa et al., 2025). Research conducted in non-Eastern cultural settings has demonstrated that resilient leadership is grounded in leaders’ improvisation and emergency management skills. Leaders’ improvisation primarily involves continuous preparation before a crisis and learning ability during a crisis, which together represent the central components of resilient leadership, enabling organizations to navigate crises and achieve post-crisis growth.
2.3 The gendered and structural perspective
Research on resilient leadership has primarily focused on theoretical and empirical discussions rather than empirical studies, offering significant potential for in-depth and systematic exploration of the causes and dimensions of resilient leadership (Eagly and Karau, 2002). Analyzing from a gender perspective how female leaders in educational management foster resilient leadership presents a crucial angle for studying leadership in the VUCA era. This gendered perspective is substantiated by a growing body of international research, which underscores that the exercise and development of female leadership in education are profoundly shaped by gendered systemic barriers and identity negotiation processes. Studies across diverse cultural contexts reveal that female leaders often navigate a complex landscape of gender bias and familial challenges in their career progression (Akinola and Naidoo, 2024). Concurrently, the construction of their leadership identity is not a neutral process but is intricately linked to socially imposed gender constructs. As Carrasco Sáez and Palma (2025) argue, female principals often develop “multiple identities”–integrating roles as caregivers, mothers, and leaders–and may consciously cultivate a leadership style characterized by empathy and collaboration, which simultaneously differentiates them from traditional masculine norms and validates their authority. This body of literature situates female resilient leadership not merely as an individual trait, but as a dynamic response to and negotiation with these gendered expectations and structural constraints.
3 Methodology
3.1 Research design and rationale
This study employs a qualitative single-case study design to explore the complex and context-dependent phenomenon of resilient leadership. The research aims to delve into the origins and components of resilient leadership by examining the adversity-navigation journey of a female leader. A qualitative approach was deemed most appropriate due to its process-oriented nature and capacity for in-depth inquiry into complex social phenomena (Sampath and Dash, 2025). A single-case design was selected to facilitate a detailed, holistic understanding of the leadership practices within their authentic context.
3.2 Participant profile and context
The study focuses on a single participant, vice-principal M, a female leader in a Chinese higher vocational college. Her selection as a typical case is grounded in a remarkable 40-years career at the same institution, a period encompassing significant organizational transformations, including a school upgrade, merger, and relocation. Her demonstrated positive mindset and rapid adaptability in navigating these challenges made her an exemplary subject for investigating resilient leadership.
Her professional background reveals a consistent pattern of perseverance and self-initiated development. Beginning her career after being admitted to a secondary vocational school, she proactively pursued multiple further education opportunities. These included upgrading her qualification to an associate degree through full-time study, a 2-years study visit abroad, and subsequently obtaining a bachelor’s degree and completing graduate courses via correspondence and part-time study. This trajectory, transitioning from awarded opportunities to self-motivated career enhancement, underscores a foundational commitment to growth that informed her later leadership practices.
3.3 Data collection
Data were collected through two primary methods to ensure depth and trustworthiness:
In-depth Interviews: Three semi-structured interviews were conducted, with each interview lasting approximately 70 min, resulting in a total of 224 min of audio data. The data collection process spanned from August to November 2024. The interview questions were revised to focus more deeply on the participant’s unique experiences, decision-making dilemmas, and the systemic factors influencing her leadership. Key interview questions were designed to elicit rich, narrative data and included:
Can you describe any challenging or critical events you encountered as a school leader?
What was the specific context and circumstance of these events?
How did you respond, and what measures did you take? What was your rationale?
What was your personal experience and the impact of these events on you?
How do you evaluate your handling of these events in retrospect? What were the strengths and areas for improvement?
Naturalistic Observation: To mitigate potential recall and social desirability biases, a 2-months period of naturalistic observation was conducted by the author, who held a direct subordinate role to Participant M. This provided a unique vantage point to observe leadership behaviors in authentic settings, including routine meetings, cross-departmental coordination, and crisis management. The focus was on documenting specific manifestations of resilient leadership, such as emotion regulation, communication tactics, and team motivation under pressure. Detailed field notes were compiled immediately after each observation.
3.4 Data analysis
The interview transcripts and field notes were analyzed using a holistic-content and holistic-form approach (Lieblich et al., 1998). The holistic-content analysis was employed to identify recurring themes related to the antecedents and dimensions of resilient leadership across the entire dataset. Concurrently, the holistic-form analysis was applied to specific adversity narratives to examine their temporal structure and progression. For a clearer presentation, these narratives were conceptually segmented into three phases–before, during, and after the adversity–based on established literature. This analytical process enabled us to delineate the constituent dimensions of resilient leadership as presented in the findings.
To ensure the trustworthiness of the analysis, several measures were implemented. First, data triangulation was achieved by integrating insights from both interviews and observations, which enhanced the robustness and nuance of the interpretations. Second, member checking was conducted by sharing a summary of the key findings with Participant M to solicit her feedback and confirm the credibility of our interpretations. Finally, although this is a single-case study, theoretical saturation within the case was pursued through iterative interviews until no new thematic information emerged from the data.
4 Findings
To elucidate the resilient leadership structures emerging from the data, this study followed a systematic three-stage coding procedure. First, five complete “key behavioral segments” were extracted from interview transcripts and observation notes as analytical units. Subsequently, open coding generated a wealth of initial concepts. Through repeated comparison, clustering, and integration via axial coding, higher-order categories were formed. Finally, selective coding distilled these categories into six core theoretical dimensions. This rigorous process revealed six dimensions of resilience leadership consistently demonstrated by principals along the adversity timeline: perceptiveness, Planning abilities, Resilience, Adaptability, Inspirational power, and Capacity for growth. The findings section below unfolds around these dimensions.
4.1 Theme 1: origins of resilient leadership
4.1.1 Personality traits and abilities
The family environment exerts a profound influence on the formation and development of personality traits among Chinese children, with over 80% of their personality characteristics being a reflection of the family context. M grew up with Chinese traditional family values, describing her parents as having the aloofness and scholarly demeanor typical of intellectuals. She mentioned that her father was a person who could endure hardships and always taught her that relying on oneself is better than depending on others. Influenced by her father, M inherited this ability to endure difficulties and maintained a stable emotional state when facing challenges.
Leadership theories initially focused on the personality traits and abilities of leaders. Some researchers, through interviews with 27 leaders, found that personal traits and abilities have a significant impact on the formation of resilient leadership, including elements such as rationality, optimism, confidence, openness, communication skills, stress resistance, professional competence, cognitive abilities, and social skills (Förster and Duchek, 2017). This study found that personality traits and abilities serve as the foundation for the formation of female resilient leadership, helping leaders maintain a positive mindset and calmly devise strategies when facing adversity and unexpected situations.
4.1.2 Past successful experiences
Resilient leadership emerges as a dynamic process where leaders recover and learn from a series of setbacks (Ferrer and Caridad, 2017). Its formation relies on the self-efficacy derived from past successful experiences in overcoming adversity.
During M’s tenure as vice principal in charge of student affairs, she faced a significant challenge in the fall of 2015 when the school relocated to a new campus. The campus was not fully renovated by the start of the school year, and freshmen could not conduct their military training there. Instead, they had to be “migrated” to a training base after registration. At that time, M’s school had just merged with another provincial school a year earlier, and the middle-level administrative staff were still in the process of integration. Many tasks were not proceeding smoothly. Moreover, the training base’s director had misrepresented the situation, leading to significant dissatisfaction among students. The previous batch of freshmen from another institution had just finished their training the day before, and M’s school’s freshmen moved in immediately afterward, with damaged dormitory items not yet repaired. This situation could have potentially led to a public opinion crisis.
It was extremely challenging at the time. I hardly slept for 3 days. On the first night, I was here (at the new campus) to calm everyone down, as I was in charge of the entire organization of student registration, including boarding the buses and arranging the students. The students arrived sporadically, not in their class groups. Whoever arrived and filled a bus would go over to the training base. The workload was enormous when they arrived there, as we had to determine which class they belonged to before they could enter their dormitories. We also needed a team to manage this process. On the first day, I was in charge here (at the new campus), while someone else was responsible there (at the training base). Problems began to emerge, including coordination issues. On the second day, I had no choice but to go there directly and hold a discussion with the freshmen and their counselors. Some counselors, who had to stay there, were also experiencing significant emotional fluctuations. I went there to encourage them and address the issues directly.
The freshmen’s military training eventually concluded successfully. This shared experience helped the middle-level administrators, who were still integrating after the school merger, to begin working more cohesively. The counselors from the class of 2015 gradually moved into management positions within the school’s functional departments over the next 5 years and became key members of the school. For M herself, her previous experience in the student affairs office gave her the “confidence” to handle this situation.
During M’s tenure as vice principal, the departments she oversaw were mostly those she had previously worked in. It must be said that the adversity she experienced in these functional departments played a significant role in developing her resilient leadership. The successful experiences she accumulated had an important impact on her work and development after becoming vice principal. This self-efficacy became the foundation for M’s resilient leadership practice, enabling her to face difficulties and lead her team forward.
Role congruity theory suggests that for female leaders, the incongruity between gender roles and other roles (especially leadership roles) often leads to perceptions of lower leadership effectiveness and lower social evaluations compared to male leaders. The process of constructing a professional identity that can withstand these pressures is thus critical. Recent studies identify a distinct “resilient” profile among principals, characterized by a strong sense of commitment and adaptability forged through such adversity (López-Yáñez et al., 2024). The process of reaching higher leadership levels is also more challenging for them, resulting in more setbacks and obstacles in their career development. However, past successful experiences in overcoming adversity can help leaders extract “key experiences” for future challenges from their direct experiences and enhance the self-efficacy of female leaders.
When you achieve something through effort, it gives you positive feedback and encourages you to keep moving in the direction you believe is right.
4.1.3 External environmental factors
Throughout M’s 40-years career, the relationships with colleagues and the working atmosphere have been very harmonious, and M has developed a deep affection for the school where she worked.
This school has given me so many opportunities and nurtured me. I’ve been here for such a long time that whenever the school needs something, I don’t hesitate. I don’t discuss anything else; I just get the job done.
During M’s tenure as the head of the student affairs office, the students in the secondary vocational school were young and difficult to manage, with frequent emergencies.
I lived on the third floor of the faculty building, and my deputy was on the first floor. Whenever there was an incident, I would ring his doorbell, and he would know (that something happened again). He would ride his bicycle to pick me up, and after we dealt with the situation, he would take me back. Our cooperation was really good, and I owe him a lot.
The harmonious working atmosphere and support from colleagues, subordinates, and family members have built a strong social support network for M, enabling her to actively respond to adversity and emergencies. Scholars have pointed out that resilient leadership is a dynamic process that combines personal resilience traits with the work environment, achieving positive outcomes through the interaction between the individual and the environment (Förster and Duchek, 2017). This process is influenced by factors such as a positive working atmosphere, like-minded colleagues, recognition, support from within and outside the organization, and organizational resilience (O’Neill et al., 2020). In addition to these factors, encouragement and resources from colleagues, subordinates, family, and a broader social network provide stable social support for leaders. This support can offer emotional comfort and assistance to female leaders, effectively alleviating the biases and challenges they face in the workplace due to gender stereotypes.
4.2 Theme 2: dimensions of resilient leadership
The theoretical foundation of resilient leadership lies in resilience theory. When introduced into the field of leadership science, it has given rise to different research perspectives. The capability perspective views resilience as the positive adaptation and ability to overcome difficulties and return to normalcy in the face of adversity (Masten, 2018). The outcome perspective sees resilience as the result of an individual or organization’s proactive adaptation to a crisis environment and subsequent positive development (Rao and Greve, 2018). The trait perspective regards resilience as a personal quality that drives individuals to pursue happiness after experiencing trauma (Pretsch et al., 2012), enabling flexible responses in challenging situations and repeated setbacks. The process perspective views resilience as a dynamic interaction between internal and external systems (Mansfield et al., 2016), influenced by both personal and environmental factors (Mansfield et al., 2014). Integrating these core views of resilience theory, this study posits that female resilient leadership is a composite of various capabilities that support leadership behavior and practice, with a dynamic developmental trend. Considering the relatively explicit work cycles of school organizations and analyzing the adversity events mentioned in M’s interview based on the leader’s performance at different stages of risk and adversity, resilient leadership can be seen as a comprehensive ability in a multidimensional dynamic process, involving interaction between the individual and the environment. It can be divided into perceptiveness and planning ability before an event, resilience and adaptability during an event, and inspirational and growth-oriented capabilities after an event. The six core dimensions identified through this analytic process are not isolated traits but are dynamically interconnected across the temporal flow of adversity. To map this dynamic interplay and present a holistic model of the process, we constructed the structural sequence of resilient leadership (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The structural sequence of resilient leadership (self-drawn).
4.2.1 Perceptiveness: sensing risks and adversity
Risks and adversity events inevitably show subtle signs during their incubation, occurrence, and development, which require leaders to detect and capture them in a timely manner to make accurate analyses and judgments. In terms of resilient leadership, perceptiveness refers to the principal’s ability to sensitively sense disturbances before risks and adversity events occur (O’Neill et al., 2020). For female principals, their innate sensitivity and keen observational skills, due to physiological differences, enable them to perceive things more acutely and accurately than males. This perceptiveness is not merely an intuitive response but is based on long-term detailed observation of environmental changes and deep insight into potential problems. For school organizations, which have relatively stable work cycles, the occurrence of events within these cycles often provides leaders with the possibility of preemptive judgment.
When facing the situation where the new campus was not yet completed near the start of the school year, M proposed at a leadership meeting that returning students should have their semester delayed by 1 month, with makeup classes held on weekends to meet the required weekly class hours. Meanwhile, freshmen would conduct their national defense education courses at an off-campus military training base, and the tendering process would be initiated immediately. This created an additional month for the new campus’s final preparations and ensured a smooth return to work for faculty and a smooth return to school for students in the new semester. M had been serving as vice principal for nearly 5 years before the event. Due to the limited space of the school, she had experienced the practice of renting new campuses and relocating students almost every academic year. These previous experiences provided opportunities for learning and experience accumulation, enabling her to face risks and uncertainties in leadership with greater composure and confidence, and to make preemptive decisions to avoid risks.
4.2.2 Planning ability: strategic planning for stability and balance
Some scholars have pointed out that planning ability is an essential quality for a principal’s professional development, characterized by its forward-looking, comprehensive, leading, and scientific nature. Although some researchers believe that women are less capable in macro and strategic control and are less effective than men in leading change, this study argues that for female principals, people-oriented, flexible management aligns well with the school’s educational mission of cultivating virtue. In the leadership process, adopting a more inclusive and collaborative flexible management approach for decision-making actually compensates for their shortcomings in macro strategic planning. Moreover, female principals place greater emphasis on the importance of communication, often seeking broader input from organizational members and striving to reach consensus, making the planned goals more achievable and resource support more secure. In terms of planning ability in female resilient leadership, it refers to the ability of female leaders to effectively plan and guide the future development direction of the school based on prior organizational consensus, enabling them to face uncertainties and challenges in the future internal and external environments. Planning ability is more prominently reflected in the vision, organizational plans, and resource support established by leaders before adversity events occur.
During the school’s battle for the certification of the preschool education major, the leadership team faced a sudden absence of the vice principal in charge of teaching. The principal temporarily took over the teaching affairs, but the actual coordination of the certification work was undertaken by M. Given that over half of the school’s students were in the preschool education major, the certification process was not only a significant challenge to the school’s systemic quality but also a severe test of the leader’s strategic planning ability. M led a special team to deeply analyze the certification standards, formulated a scientific and rational certification work.
4.2.3 Resilience: rapid recovery and adaptation to external disturbances
Resilience, as a concept studied across disciplines, originated from psychology’s focus on risks and vulnerable populations. As a key component of psychological capital, resilience enables individuals to better cope with challenges or adversity in the workplace (Luthans and Youssef, 2007), especially in fast-paced, high-pressure, and unstable working environments (Siu et al., 2009). Female leaders, with their stronger endurance, demonstrate stable emotional management in their management practices. In terms of female resilient leadership, the demonstrated resilience often involves maintaining psychological and physiological stability during adversity and leading the school to effectively respond to and adapt to these challenges (Bonanno, 2004). Resilience in principal leadership, as part of resilient leadership, is not only a personal trait but also a critical capability for turning crises into opportunities for the school organization.
During her tenure as vice principal, M handled an incident where a parent’s car caught fire on the first day of student registration. The event attracted media attention. M immediately rushed to the parking lot from the registration site, stopped a security guard who was about to use a fire extinguisher, and took charge of evacuating other vehicles and securing the accident site after the fire was extinguished by firefighters. She also faced the media directly and managed the entire situation calmly and systematically. Reflecting on this safety incident, M admitted that she was “under immense pressure” at the time but had to “put other concerns aside” and quickly adjust her mindset to take effective measures to temporarily defuse the situation. In the follow-up handling of the incident, M, as the only female member of the school’s leadership team, played a key role. Leveraging the empathetic advantages of female leaders, she quickly calmed the panicked parents and students in the registration queue and “soothed the car owner and stabilized the media.” It was this resilience in the face of disturbances brought by risks and adversity that enabled M to quickly recover and adapt to external changes.
4.2.4 Adaptability: flexibly responding to changes and uncertainty
Current research on organizational adaptability is abundant, with scholars defining it as an organization’s ability to respond to unexpected events in both internal and external environments. It is not a standalone attribute but rather a process and outcome of an organization’s adaptation to changing environments, reflecting the interaction and mutual influence between the organization and external shocks. Adaptability is also considered an essential component of a leader’s competence. Faced with the uncertainties, complexities, and ambiguities of educational reforms, principals must react swiftly and be flexible to adapt to new changes, meet new challenges, implement new requirements, and solve new problems. For female leaders, who often juggle the dual roles of career women and homemakers, their thinking is more diverse compared to men who are long-term immersed in the workplace. In decision-making, they can not only think from the perspective of professional leaders but also switch roles to consider from completely opposite standpoints, making rational decisions that meet the needs of the majority.
Whether dealing with internal management issues, developmental problems, or external resource and policy concerns, she needed to focus on confronting, analyzing, and resolving these issues while trying to turn adversity into opportunities for development. The diversity and unpredictability of these emergencies demand that leaders possess high adaptability to seize positive growth opportunities and handle events correctly and swiftly, thereby maintaining the organization’s stability and development amidst change and uncertainty.
4.2.5 Inspirational power: leading the organization back to stability
In short, inspirational power is the ability to lead people to follow. In the “Five Forces of Leadership” model proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, inspirational power is considered the most fundamental leadership ability, distinguishing leaders from managers and residing at the top of the leadership hierarchy. It is closely related to the leader’s personal traits and charisma. Coaching serves as a relational mechanism that operates through two key processes: (1) promoting social learning via behavioral entrainment and contagion, and (2) providing support that enables leaders to foster resilience among their followers (Morgan et al., 2024). Female principals, with their inherent gender strengths such as attentiveness, patience, empathy, care for others, and communication skills, can inspire teachers and students to follow them, rather than relying solely on the power of their position. In terms of adverse events in principal leadership practice, their firm beliefs and noble ideals, high moral character and self-confidence, extraordinary wisdom, and rich and varied experiences, as well as their dissatisfaction with the status quo and willingness to challenge, all contribute to giving organizational members the confidence to return to a stable state, thereby promoting the school’s recovery and growth.
In the previously mentioned incident involving freshman military training, some full-time teachers who also served as class advisors experienced significant emotional fluctuations upon arriving at the off-campus training base and learning that they would have to live with the students. M rushed to the site, encouraged them, and stayed with the teachers and students for the first 3 days at the training base. Her actions effectively influenced others involved in the incident, leading the organization back to a stable state.
This phenomenon can be understood through the lens of “contagious resilience” (Caniëls and Curseu, 2024), which posits that a leader’s resilient behaviors are transmitted to followers through relational channels such as coaching and behavioral modeling. Vice-Principal M’s calm demeanor and direct support during the crisis likely served as such a vehicle, promoting resilient behaviors across her team and enhancing the organization’s overall adaptive capacity.
4.2.6 Capacity for growth: learning from experience for renewal and improvement
In research on crisis leadership, the capacity for growth is often considered a crucial factor, encompassing abilities such as self-reflection, seizing opportunities, and learning. Influenced by traditional gender culture, society tends to be tolerant and encouraging of women learning from men, while holding a dismissive attitude toward men learning from women. This provides women with ample space to optimize their gender roles. In practice, successful female leaders are often better at absorbing the strengths of men. In the context of resilient leadership in school organizations, female leaders, as participants rather than leaders of adverse events, are good at learning from others’ successful experiences. When they lead through adversity, they can promptly review and reflect on the entire event, summarize experiences and lessons, and more easily turn adverse events into opportunities. This enables them to creatively solve problems in subsequent work and lead the school toward high-quality development.
Before conducting the formal interview with M, we sent her the interview outline a week in advance. On the day of the interview, she carefully reviewed and identified key terms. When discussing each event, she often made similar remarks such as, “Looking back, this incident was a point deduction,” “The point deduction for this incident is…,” “I think the overall planning and coordination were still insufficient,” and “If I were in this situation now, I definitely wouldn’t think that way; I would…” After experiencing adverse events, she places great emphasis on a systematic reflection process, which has helped her achieve cognitive and experiential growth to some extent.
5 Discussion
Hobfoll (1989) first introduced the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory as a stress theory, explaining the psychological and behavioral changes of individuals under stress from the perspective of individual resource changes. He categorized “resources” into four types: material, conditions, personal characteristics, and energy. Brummelhuis and Bakker further divided Hobfoll’s four types of resources into intrinsic personal resources and extrinsic situational resources, with the latter originating from the social context in which the individual is situated. A qualitative study based on the Conservation of Resources theory on M’s resilient leadership as a female leader in a school organization revealed that when M began her career as a teacher in a vocational school, she perceived a gap in educational background compared to her colleagues who had undergraduate degrees. This perception led to a depletion of cognitive, psychological, and emotional resources, threatening her positive self-perception. However, her openness to experience and internal motivation acted as a resilience factor, repairing the depletion caused by these deep-seated differences. Particularly in school organizations, educational background is often seen as a key indicator of a teacher’s professional competence, which undoubtedly exacerbated M’s perception of the educational gap. However, with enhanced self-efficacy and a stable social support network, M was able to identify opportunities and creatively integrate resources in her interactions with the environment when facing adversity, leading to the acquisition and growth of resources. The development of female resilient leadership within an organizational context depends on both individual resources and external situational resources.
First, female resilient leadership originates from the perception of individual differences. Existing research has shown that women exhibit greater resilience and flexibility in coping with stress, being more capable of positively controlling their emotions and adjusting their mindsets compared to men. In the context of female resilient leadership in school organizations, if leaders can sensitively detect the depletion of cognitive, psychological, and emotional resources caused by individual differences, they may be prompted to adjust their internal motivations, open up their personal experiences, and actively seek resources to enhance their leadership capabilities. In other words, on one hand, this deep exploration of internal drive helps female principals reassess whether their goals and values align with the needs and trends of school organizational development, enabling them to better meet the challenges of school management. On the other hand, female principals are more inclined to share their experiences and emotions, which in turn provides opportunities for deeper self-awareness and gains the understanding and trust of others. This resource gain spiral, where individuals with sufficient resources not only have the capacity to acquire more but are also more willing to invest resources to generate greater increments, encourages leaders to continue this behavioral pattern in practice while continuously acquiring additional resources. Particularly in school organizations, these differences are more clearly and explicitly visible.
Second, female resilient leadership is nurtured by stable social support. Conservation of Resources (COR) theory suggests that individuals with abundant resources are better at avoiding resource loss and more likely to acquire new resources (Hobfoll, 2001), which helps enhance their resilience and promotes positive psychological and behavioral development (Halbesleben and Wheeler, 2008). For female principals, stable social support, especially from the family, can mitigate the negative outcomes of work-family conflict. In traditional Chinese culture, women are often expected to “sacrifice” other roles beyond their gender roles to resolve conflicts between family and work, making the family a more fundamental resource compared to work. In terms of female resilient leadership, when facing adversity or challenges, female principals can use their abundant resources to avoid losses. Their families, as fundamental resources, provide necessary emotional and material support, enhancing their psychological capital and resilience. This helps them recover and move forward more quickly, encouraging them to work harder to accumulate more resources and, in turn, support their families.
Third, female resilient leadership benefits from human-oriented flexible management. For female resilient leadership, a human-oriented organizational culture that emphasizes the liberation of human nature and respect for personality is crucial. It helps female principals learn from their own and others’ adversities, acquire knowledge and experience, and enhance resource integration and development, turning adversity into opportunities for personal and organizational growth. Therefore, organizations should strengthen the culture of flexible management, create a positive organizational culture, and foster an inclusive and harmonious work environment. This can inspire team members’ enthusiasm and creativity and promote the growth and development of the entire organization. At the same time, deepening the practice of flexible management can improve its implementation in school organizations, fully leverage female resilient leadership, and drive continuous development and innovation in schools. Female principals develop their resilient leadership through different pathways due to varying resource environments, but some commonalities exist. Based on the above discussion, the management implications of this study are mainly as follows:
1. Enhance sensitivity to individual differences and continuous learning capabilities, especially perceptiveness and planning abilities before adversity strikes. Focus on adjusting internal motivation and judgment skills to promote a positive cycle of resource gain with an open mindset.
2. Build a stable social support system. For example, other family members of female leaders can share household chores and child-rearing responsibilities, providing stable support and motivation. This strengthens their fundamental resources and allows them to fully leverage resilience and adaptability when facing adversity, better addressing work challenges.
3. Organizations should allow flexible management methods to exist. A harmonious and inclusive work environment enables female leaders to better exert their inspirational power in resource allocation and integration, maintaining continuous growth for both individuals and the organization and fully realizing the value of female resilient leadership within the organization.
6 Conclusion
This study highlights how female resilient leadership in school organizations is shaped by social support, flexible management, and proactive planning. Stable support systems, especially from family in Chinese contexts, provide a foundation that buffers against adversity and enhances psychological resilience. Meanwhile, human-oriented flexible management fosters an inclusive culture that enables female principals to learn from challenges, integrate resources effectively, and drive both personal and organizational growth. Enhancing perceptiveness and planning abilities further strengthens their capacity to anticipate risks and manage resources efficiently.
In summary, female resilient leadership thrives when supported by robust social networks, adaptable management practices, and continuous learning. These factors not only bolster individual resilience but also contribute to the overall effectiveness and innovation of educational institutions. Future research should explore how these insights can be applied in diverse settings to further support the development of female leadership.
7 Limitations and future research
Although this study offers profound insights into the development process of a female principal’s resilient leadership, its limitations must be explicitly acknowledged. These limitations also point the way for future academic exploration.
The most significant limitation stems from the single-case study design. Findings are deeply rooted in the specific context and individual experiences of a vocational college in China, thereby limiting statistical generalizability. The very depth of thick description that underpins this research conversely constrains the broad applicability of its conclusions. Second, as a qualitative study reliant on researcher interpretation, potential researcher bias exists in data coding and analysis. Although mitigated through triangulation and member checks, this bias cannot be entirely eliminated. Furthermore, the context-specific nature of the data means the resilient leadership behaviors described are deeply intertwined with China’s unique socio-cultural and educational landscape, making direct transfer to other cultural or national contexts unlikely.
To address these limitations and advance the field, future research could adopt a multi-case study design, incorporating female principals from diverse regions and school types for cross-case comparisons. Furthermore, mixed methods could be introduced by administering questionnaires to a larger sample of female leaders to validate the proposed structural sequence of resilient leadership (Figure 1). This approach would fully capture the multidimensional nature of female resilient leadership, thereby developing a more generalizable and explanatory theory of female resilient leadership.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by the Ethical Committee of Yangzhou University. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
HY: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. JL: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Formal analysis.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declared that generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.
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Keywords: China, educational transformation, female leadership, organizational behavior, principal leadership, resilient leadership, VUCA environment
Citation: Yin H and Liu J (2026) Resilient leadership in female principals: a case study of a Chinese female school leader. Front. Educ. 10:1718038. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1718038
Received: 03 October 2025; Revised: 03 December 2025; Accepted: 09 December 2025;
Published: 09 January 2026.
Edited by:
Sereyrath Em, University of Cambodia, CambodiaReviewed by:
Jawatir Pardosi, Mulawarman University, IndonesiaIndi Ramadhani, Siliwangi University, Indonesia
Copyright © 2026 Yin and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Hongjie Yin, ZHoyMjAyMjAwMjZAc3R1Lnl6dS5lZHUuY24=; Jia Liu, bGl1amlhQHl6dS5lZHUuY24=
†ORCID: Hongjie Yin, orcid.org/0009-0004-3773-2237