The study aim was to investigate the perceptions of senior leaders within the sector to determine their views of the key challenges in contemporary academic leadership and to inform practice for the future. Academic leadership is a key component of the success or otherwise of an academic institution. There is significant literature around the issue of academic leadership the emphasis of which is based around the perceptions of academic staff and how they would wish to be led. The work was undertaken from an interpretivist perspective using a phenomenological research design to elicit an understanding of the views of senior managers through conducting semi-structured interviews and a focus group with senior university leaders. The interview process afforded the respondents the opportunity to recount their own experiences in their own terms with their own emphasis on what was important to them within the broad structure of the four core categories drawn from the literature: definitions of leadership; leadership in an HEI; academic leadership and leadership development. The findings from this study provides a contribution through considering senior leaders perceptions on how best to lead the academic staff to maximise their contribution to the institution and ultimately to better serve the needs of students. Practice implications include the forwarding of a framework for the consideration of the development of academic leaders within the Higher Education context.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study compares what we know through academic research about organizational leadership communication and what non-academic sources say about leadership communication. Moreover, this study seeks to understand if academic leadership communication research is effectively being translated to non-academic leadership communication advice and to what degree the advice given in the self-help books or blogs many leaders count on to enhance their leadership communication skills align with the findings from academic studies on leadership. Based on grounded theory, a qualitative thematic content analysis was conducted. Six academic articles, two blog sites, and two self-help books about leadership communication were analyzed individually in an attempt to explore what themes emerged about leadership communication and the qualities of a leader. The five nonacademic themes found in the blogs and self-help books were take care of yourself, embrace uncertainty, know who you are, practice interdependence, and be approachable. The four academic themes were two-way communication, organizational culture, confident leadership, and transformational leadership. The final themes from nonacademic and academic sources were compared to see how they were similar and how they differed among sources.

Abstract Academic Leadership and Development Academy (ALDA) was instituted by the Tau Lambda-at-Large Chapter Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI). In 2011-2012 ALDA intended goal was to emancipate participants to be able to take professional leadership positions, generate a funded research project, professional networking muscle and collaboration, including publishing in an accredited journal. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the needs of the fellows enrolled for the 2011-2012 ALDA leadership programme. The word ‘fellow’ refers to all candidates who were selected to participate in the ALDA programme. The programme was tailor-made to develop and prepare professional nurses for middle or high level leadership positions within the academic environment. Four African universities and colleges were involved. The research design was qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive in nature. The target population included all 2011-2012 fellows of the ALDA of the Sigma Theta Tau Lambda-at-Large Chapter Africa. The sample consisted of all 14 fellows of the 2011-2012 ALDA who were involved in programme. This programme was the first of its kind in Africa engineered by ALDA in Africa in 2011. Data gathering was a self-report through naïve sketches. Tesch’s eight steps of data analysis were applied. An independent coder was engaged to improve trustworthiness of the data. The results showed that fellows needed professionalism and recognition; communication and setting the stage; and more collaboration with research expects. At first the programme did not have a clear curriculum content outlined and as such fellows were dissatisfied for some time which affected the progress as expected by both the fellows and the faculty. Faculty refers to experts involved in the programme. However, fellows managed to work cooperatively with one another, thus promoting a social learning environment and providing opportunities of collaborative research studies in the future.

My research explores the leadership challenge faced by contemporary higher education institutions. Globally, the need for high quality academic leadership has never been greater. Yet growing evidence suggests few academics are keen to engage. In this study, I investigate academic educational leadership (AEL) at the University of Exeter (UoE) from organisational and academic perspectives. My purposes are to clarify early career academics’ (ECAs) attitudes and stances towards AEL, what may lie behind these and to make recommendations about how to nurture their future interest in AEL. My study adopts a theoretical and methodological pluralistic approach. Theoretically, I draw on the leadership research of Mats Alvesson and Richard Bolden, relating to organisational culture and structure. In particular, I adapt Alvesson’s model of ‘multiple cultural configurations’. I also draw on the socio-cultural theories of Margaret Archer relating to ‘agentic reflexivity’. Methodologically, I adopt the role of ‘bricoleur’ (Kincheloe, 2001), drawing on an eclectic range of perspectives and principles derived from pragmatism and applied critical realism. By synthesising these, I create a ‘personal enquiry paradigm’. My theoretical research outcomes add to growing evidence about academic ‘defensive routines’ (Martin, 1999). I suggest that ECAs adopt diverse and nuanced attitudes and stances towards AEL, summarized in a ‘reluctance to lead’ typology. I identify a wide range of influential mechanisms and causal powers (M&CPs) which I summarise in an elaborated three dimensional framework. Influential M&CPs include attitudinal dissonance and misalignment between institutional strategies and processes which help explain reluctance. I argue that nurturing future AELs needs to reflect more closely the priorities of ECAs, set in a wider context of institutional cultural reconciliation and strategic realignment. Adopting a normative stance, I provide an example of how this might be possible. My methodological contribution develops through a series of three dimensional frameworks that suggest that multiple configurations of influences operate at different levels and through time at UoE. Overall, my research contributes strongly to the growing body of theories and methodologies investigating higher education cultures. Whilst the case study findings may not be generalizable, other institutions might benefit from some of the insights provided.

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In an atmosphere of declining support, rising costs, and an increasing emphasis on quality education, the need for effective fund-raising is important to American higher education. During the past decade, institutions of higher education, both public and private, faced difficult financial problems with no apparent end in sight. A growing number of colleges and universities have been threatened by the unstable economy and shrinking applicant pools and are faltering under this threat. Private higher education seems to be especially vulnerable to financial difficulty and has been historically dependent upon philanthropic support to complement traditional revenues in an effort to remain financially viable. As a result of this changing environment, the identification and development of enhanced and more diversified fund-raising strategies have emerged as one of the most significant and far-reaching needs presently confronting American higher education. This study investigated and analyzed academic leadership and management of advancement activities in American higher education with particular attention given to schools of dentistry. It focused on how American schools of dentistry may organize and manage their fund -raising programs to maximize voluntary financial support. With the prospect of declining support and rising costs, an aggressive and effective fund-raising program is arguably crucial to their survival. The study addressed the predominant organizational structure and management practices in the area of fund-raising at American schools of dentistry; the perceptions held by the deans and senior development officers in these same institutions as to the effectiveness of certain practices relating to fund-raising sources and constituencies, and methods and techniques used in their fund-raising programs; and the emerging pattern which might serve as a model for development programs at American schools of dentistry or other institutions of higher education. The study is composed of the entire population - a census of American schools of dentistry. Forty-five institutions (45/55) in thirty states, including Puerto Rico (30/34), participated in the survey and thirty-five deans (35/55) and thirty-five development officers (35/55) responded to the survey . The questionnaire is the principal means of data collection with a structured personal interview limited to the deans and development officers of the five California schools of dentistry. The deans and development officers cooperating in this survey give evidence that their major development-related functions are consistent with trends toward greater specialization in fund-raising. A high percentage (87.5 percent) of the dean respondents acknowledge affirmatively to making use of strategic planning as a management tool for the school's advancement activities. The dean respondents characterized the alumni as the most important giving constituency and the annual fund as the principal funding source. They also regard personal visits as the most effective method of soliciting funds for their institutions. The development officer respondents emphasized ideas, goals, and directions of their school's advancement program while being most aware of the specific mechanics of fund-raising. The guiding outlines of a model development program for American schools of dentistry appear to emerge from this exploratory study.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to advance the literature on leadership by investigating the Full Range Leadership Model (FRLM) Bass and Avolio (1994-1997) in the context of the Colleges of Technology (CoTs) in Oman. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve the research objective and answer the research questions, a qualitative study was undertaken. The data was obtained by two methods, namely semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The semi-structured interviews were held with College Deans, Heads of Departments (HoDs) and teachers. The focus groups were carried out with seven groups of students from four CoTs. The data was analysed by a thematic approach, following the systematic steps outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). Findings – Significant relationships were found between the transactional leadership approach and institutional theory (Isomorphism and legitimacy). The findings advance leadership knowledge by exploring the relationship between the components of FRLM, transformational and the transactional leadership approaches in hierarchical levels of leadership in the context of the CoTs in Oman. Both the Deans and the HoDs employed transactional leadership approaches to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Ministry of Manpower. Moreover, the study extended the leadership literature by exploring the interaction between leadership approaches of the Deans and the HoDs on multi-national teachers and Omani students. Originality/value – The originality of this research lies in its exploration of the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership approaches in hierarchical levels of academic leadership and its identification of the characteristics of effective leadership in HEIs from a multicultural perspective. / Ministry of Manpower (MoMP)

Student Number : 0106532X - PhD thesis - School of Education - Faculty of Humanities / Managerialism and collegiality are employed in this thesis as constructs through which to make sense of the changing nature of management in a South African university. The rise and dominance of the managerialism discourse is examined with respect to organisational change and restructuring. As principally a qualitative research project, a single case study of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is investigated using interviews, documentary analysis and focus group discussions as the main sources of data from 2001 to 2004. The study is exploratory and strives to establish how and why management has changed. It does so by investigating the underpinning changes in the organisational regime and the different levels of management; the role of the Senior Executive Team, the changing nature of the deanship and the head of school position as a consequence of the merger of departments and the creation of a school structure. Although management in higher education is recognised as having existed for as long as the establishments themselves, the thesis is concerned with the changes in power and authority of academic leaders, the struggle with their ‘lived’ tension between academic leadership or collegiality and managerialism and the implications of this for academic practice. The thesis illustrates that changes in management at Wits demonstrate efforts towards an era of post-managerialism, in this specific case best described as ‘contrived collegial managerialism’. The concept of ‘contrived collegial managerialism’ refers to how the domination of managerial practices from above has altered collegial relations from below. This has resulted in the weakening of academic leadership with profound implications for academic work and practice. Only through strengthened academic leadership at the different levels of university management and primarily school and disciplinary levels, can the university survive the indignities of the increasing corporatisation of its strategies, processes and management practices which constrain the opportunities for meaningful engagement and development of intellectual projects. It is only at disciplinary level, through strengthening the position of heads of department as academic leaders, that collegial relations can be developed and pressure towards upward accountability structures counteracted. Without this, the university risks being consumed by corporate practices at the expense of its unique quality and contribution to society, academic and intellectual advancement.

This is a dissertation on education that focuses on leadership making at the departmental level of higher education. The aim of this dissertation is to generate knowledge about the making of leadership, seen as identity development in the discourse on academic leadership. This by studying the logic and tensions of discourse, what leadership identities the discourse expresses at different times and by describing an understanding of different processes of leadership identity development. The frame of reference in this study is based on a relationistic and non-dualistic theoretical framework, which suggests that discourse theory can help us understand the reality as discursive and the view on leadership in higher education as socially constructed through talk and other actions within a specific discourse. Two empirical studies were performed by making interviews and then a multivariate correspondence analysis of the nodes (symbolic areas of talk) that the informants attached significance were carried out. Study I focuses on the discourse on academic leadership expressed by 15 departmental heads at five occasions, from the time where the heads were novices to a time four years later when they were more experienced. These interviews were used for the construction of three empirically based study objects; the novice discourse, the problem discourse and the experience discourse. Study II was conducted in four case departments. Its aim was to shed light on the discourse on academic leadership from the point of view of staff members, rather than from that of departmental heads themselves. Totally, in these four departments, 33 interviews with different categories of staff members were performed. The empirically based study object was here the staff members’ discourse. Each discourse construction may be said to be built up by the discourse episteme, subepisteme and subject positions and a relational analysis of the discourse structure have been used to describe the discourse’s logic and tensions and its identity expressions. By contrasting the discourse constructions over time also identity development was illuminated. For study I, one of the aspects of the logic of discourse on academic leadership is that in the course of time it goes from being a heterogeneous discourse with only a few common episteme nodes towards being a more homogeneous, unified and coherent discourse with a larger common core. The shared leadership identity base is thereby made more extensive. Six central symbolic areas of talk recur in similar ways at the three points of time for the analysis of study I: the handling of the economy, staff management (HRM), laws, ordinances and rules for the headship, the heavy workload and time shortage, delegation of tasks and responsibilities and support through leadership training and education. Examples of three relatively common identity development processes in the discourse on academic leadership are: 1) a vague development process where a non-head of department leadership identity is strong over time, 2) a process of development from an uncertain and fuzzy to a positive and obvious manager identity, and 3) a process of development from an uncertain and fuzzy to a gender-related and problem-orientated leadership identity. Thus the main result of the studies is the visualisation of the gender segregation process that the discourse makes possible and the different ways in which academic leadership is expressed in the male-dominated versus the female-dominated positions. The discourse logic for staff members in study II also shows a partly gender-separated discourse. On the other hand, there are not much content similarities, through nodes, in the gender-separated relational structure in the sense that the female staff/heads and the male staff/heads in both studies express similar symbolic areas of talk.