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Roles and responsibilities of higher education academics (educators) have dramatically changed since COVID-19 outbreak. Considering this, the present study applies servant leadership and social cognitive theories to test three determinants of pedagogical resilience, i.e. servant leadership, professional self-efficacy and workplace thriving. The study also tests moderation of professional self-efficacy between servant leadership and pedagogical resilience.

Applying snowball sampling, time-lagged data were collected on T1 and T2 through survey questionnaire from 205 employees of six higher education institutes (HEIs) in Sindh, Pakistan. For data analysis, the study employed structural equation modeling using SmartPLS.

Results indicate that servant leadership and professional self-efficacy predict pedagogical resilience of educators. Moreover, professional self-efficacy moderates the relationship between servant leadership and pedagogical resilience.

This study has a few limitations. The study was conducted in HEIs of Pakistan, which are non-profit organizations. Given this, generalizability of findings in profit-making organizations is suggested with caution. Cross-cultural and cross-regional generalizability may also be challenging.

Training, coaching and role modeling may improve efficacy of educators, which is vital to pedagogical resilience. Furthermore, servant leadership attributes (i.e. emotional support and empathy) may also enhance resilience. Rolling-out tailored training programs for boosting professional efficacy of existing faculty could be helpful in building pedagogical resilience. Fostering a culture of teamwork through adopting collaborative and state of the art educational technologies could also enhance self-efficacy, which is vital to resilience. This could be done when vice chancellors, rectors, HODs, etc., adopt servant leadership attributes to play their role by navigating a paradigm shift from traditional teaching platforms and physical meetings to digital educational tools.

Post-pandemic educational management necessitates resilient workforce to handle any uncertain situation. Given this, the authors apply servant leadership and social cognitive theory and introduce a novel construct of “pedagogical resilience”. This paper offers unique theoretical contributions and suggests universities/HEIs to adopt servant leadership model and foster professional self-efficacy of educators for boosting their pedagogical resilience in times of uncertainty. Pedagogically resilient educators may be well equipped to adopt venerable pedagogical competencies, and could contribute significantly to the quality of higher education.