Strategic Leadership of Change in Higher Education

What's New?

Stephanie Marshall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429888731
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The contributors to this book are all leaders in their field – senior executives who have successfully led pan-university initiatives. Providing examples of bold initiatives and an analysis of their implementation, this book helps the reader reflect on how they might wish to proceed, authentically, in leading and supporting wide-scale change in the future. Each chapter highlights the power of the narrative of change.

In particular, this second edition demonstrates a change in considering global factors; it:

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• Uses a case study approach to examine global higher education institutions

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• Reflects the huge change in the global higher education landscape over the past 10 years

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• Reflects on initiatives from the first edition in terms of how they were scaled up and draws on the advantages and disadvantages of each

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• Includes a conclusive 'Where to Next' section that ensures responsiveness and agility to the rapidly changing landscape and flags up a new paradigm for leadership: E4 leadership (engaging, energised, empowering and engaged).

Strategic Leadership of Change in Higher Education is crucial reading for all those involved in leadership and management positions in higher education. With an emphasis on behaviours, alongside passion, ambition and a commitment to shared values as key ingredients to the success of strategic leaders, this book provides expert commentary and global insights. This is a cutting-edge book that will continue to provide higher education leaders and managers with the information necessary to stay ahead of the curve.

Part I

Chapter 1

Global context

Stephanie Marshall

Overview

In setting out the context for this second edition (the first published over a decade ago) of a text on strategic leadership of change in higher education, Seldon’s observation in the Foreword provides a most apposite scene-setting. Additionally, Seldon’s deconstruction of the omnipresent Fourth Education Revolution, in his recent publication (2018) of the same name, takes the discussion well beyond notions articulated a decade ago, encapsulated in ‘An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead’, in which Michael Barber et al. foretold the ‘unbundling’ of the university (2013). The relentlessness of challenge and requisite change is one of the key defining concerns for those in strategic leadership positions today.

Since the publication of edition one of Strategic Leadership of Change in Higher Education: What’s New? in 2006, global feedback on the text suggested that it had been well received, and that an updating would be welcomed. The success of the previous text was in part because it considered and critiqued change models from other sectors, primarily the private, but also proposed a model for higher education. This model was deployed to assist consideration of how best to lead and manage major pan-university strategic projects. These projects focused on specific areas – e.g. strategy development, new ways of gaining staff engagement, embedding internationalisation – concerns that a number of universities were grappling with. In the decade that has passed, many of the then so-called ‘challenges’ have been addressed and embedded in day-to-day practice. And, as such, past ‘change projects’ are now common practice, only requiring on-going upgrading to ensure they remain current and effective. Higher education institutions today are much more adept at seeking out exemplars of best practice, for example in the UK, as a result of the plethora of awards, kitemarks and recognition for different aspects of ‘best in class’, e.g. the Times Higher Education and Guardian University Awards, Advance HE’s Global Teaching Excellence Award and the Athena SWAN Charter.

The challenge of effective change has been accelerated well beyond many of the predictions made a decade ago. This is due to a number of factors that are explored in the next section. This new edition, therefore, intends to provide the reader with not only an overview of the current context and case study approaches, but also with a reflection on the skills and behaviours successful leaders and managers will require for the future. The reader will note, in this edition, an emphasis on behaviours, alongside passion, ambition and a commitment to shared values, as key ingredients to the success of strategic leaders. Basic skill-sets of management are taken as read. Universities that stand out from the rest consider not only how to hold their own in the marketplace, but, equally, and perhaps more importantly, what higher role they are seeking to serve: i.e. making the world a better place.

The authors of the chapters in this book are all leaders in their field – senior executives who have successfully led pan-university initiatives. All authors share two common attributes: they are absolutely passionate about the vision for the future they hold dear, and, all are most believably authentic individuals, seeking to empower others. Each and every chapter highlights the power of the narrative of change. There is no ‘textbook’ speak here. This book provides a range of examples of bold initiatives, to include analysis of their implementation, so as to help the reader reflect on how they themselves might wish to proceed, authentically, in leading and supporting wide-scale change in the future. This is certainly the intention.

This text is organised into three sections, or parts. Part I provides a supporting background, based on practical concerns in terms of grounding, i.e. proper underpinnings to ensure that any change embarked upon has the greatest likelihood of success. Three chapters provide a brief update (further to edition one) and overview of the global environment, moving on to a new chapter that highlights the importance of the linkage between leadership and strategy. Part II provides the real substance of this text: seven case studies, or ‘narratives’, compiled by their respective executive leaders. All are from globally recognised excellent universities, reaching across four continents (North America, Europe, Asia and Australia). A precis of each is provided in the last section of this chapter. Let’s move on first, to put these chapters into the global context.

Higher education in global context

It is worth recapping key considerations in the global external environment. What is going on in today’s external environment requires constant sense-making on the part of executive strategic leaders. Higher education has moved into an era of unprecedented change, with institutions facing uncharted challenges that include: widening access and new forms of tertiary education, daily technological advances, constant sustainability issues – all contributing, in part, to the ‘unbundling’ of traditional higher education. Concurrently, there have been major changes in the ecosystem to include numerous political, social and economic imperatives (Ernst & Young, 2012; British Council, 2016; van der Zwaan, 2017). The onslaught of leagues tables, causing universities to constantly question their positioning, has led to the race to chase an ever higher profile and impact for institutions. The imperative to innovate and change, to not only keep up, but accelerate and be a leader in the sector, has never been greater.

No longer does the past offer a guide to the future. Competitive advantage comes from undertaking futures thinking, determining one’s distinctiveness and potential niche market areas, and being on the constant look-out to seize opportunities and make the right choices. Making sense of this complexity requires the best brains, combined with a mindset that is agile, flexible and grounded in clear values. This, alongside authentic leadership and management of organisational change, is crucial to gain followership to maintain the focus on an institution’s core vision. Only then can a higher education institution remain responsive to these ever changing circumstances. How the on-going challenges are interpreted, and ‘made sense of’ (Weick and Sutcliffe, 2007), is crucial to the success of an institution, and, indeed, the higher education sector as a whole. Indeed, those leaders who have responded in a positive and constructive manner to international, national and institutional drivers of change have found it easier to engage their staff in the journey (Gibbs et al., 2009).

With this increased global competitiveness in the higher education market, combined with greater staff capabilities in strategic planning (Strike, 2017), more senior leaders are engaging with the thorny issue of how best to bring about transformational, agile and continuous change. Increasingly, higher education leaders recognise that a precondition of success is a values-driven culture with a clear vision offering the beacon for direction, thereby assisting their organisation to not only survive, but thrive.

Reflections on the first edition

Against this backdrop of complexity and uncertainty, the key messages and strategic approaches outlined in edition one now seem almost simplistic. Today, executive leaders endeavour to deliver a number of major pan-university change projects simultaneously (often underpinned by new processes and systems to streamline and provide connected relevant data in real-time), and do so effectively. Now, as never before, higher education institutions grapple with a myriad of change projects, across the full spectrum of activity. The use of dashboard approaches to monitor the progress of the major metrics (determined through the process of strategic planning, goal-setting and identification of key performance indicators) is beginning to be the norm. Going beyond this infrastructural approach, this edition highlights the importance of relationships and narrative. What is not always recognised is that the metrics are not what inspires staff to passionately engage with change, but the narrative, which subsequently motivates them to go the extra mile to be part of this narrative and to deliver excellent results.

Edition one was right for its time (encouraging strategic leaders to recognise that, in actual fact, leading and managing change in higher education was not radically different to other sectors) and there are still some basic and fundamental lessons to learn from those case studies and their analysis. These basics – as offered in edition one – will be revisited in Chapter 3.

Further to contacting all the authors of the change narrative chapters of over a decade ago, with a view to gaining a sense of subsequent embeddedness of their projects, staff departures made this difficult. For those who were still around in the sector, a number were keen to articulate in detail the impact of their work. The stories of subsequent embedding (e.g. the development of institutional strategy maps; determining effective forms of governance to underpin collaborative research; gaining staff engagement; mainstreaming internationalisation) flag up the importance of a clear vision as a means of gaining followership. Additionally, a dialogic or discursive approach assists in the delivery of a ‘new’ way of working. Clearly a good number of these projects, having been successfully planned, delivered and evaluated, continue to make a lasting impact. But all those able to be contacted commented on the length of time required before impact was really achieved.

Moving on to edition two

As executive leaders assume their role as key personnel in the leadership and management of change, they deploy strategic planning approaches and distributed leadership to engage staff. Increasingly, there are more senior staff well-versed in various models of change management, with approaches that are much more sophisticated than a decade ago (Strike, 2017).

Therefore, this new, second edition, aims to assist readers in the contextualisation of their thinking, and aiding their conceptualisation not only of the proposed change project, but the higher purpose they wish it to serve. Only then should they move on to planning and determining how best to execute significant change projects. There are three main changes that the reader will note in this edition: first, the whole book is divided into three sections or parts (as highlighted earlier). Part I provides the linkage with the previous edition, updating further to the huge changes in the global higher education landscape over the past ten years. Additionally, a new chapter, written by Ewart Wooldridge, examines the sensitive relationship between leadership, strategy and the role of governance – an area perhaps rather neglected in the past, but at an institution’s peril. Finally, the third chapter in Part I is an updated chapter on leading and managing change – the only chapter ‘carried forward’ from edition one, offered as a means of revisiting the basics.

Part II comprises seven substantive chapters illustrating significant change management projects from around the globe. Chapter 4, written by Professor Ian Dunn, tells the story of the ‘Coventry Way’, which has seen the University of Coventry go from strength to strength, recognised around the globe for its high quality, with the spirit of entrepreneurialism at its fore. Coventry’s sophisticated use of data analytics to underpin decision making and action, is well recognised for having been a major contributor to the success of the organisation on all fronts, to include league table performance.

Chapter 5, written by Professor Patrick Deane, outlines his arrival at McMaster University and embarkation on a year-long immersion to determine how best to move ‘Forward with Integrity’. He outlines the building of a solid institutional discourse around a ‘changing present’, that recognises the need to address the challenges of the future. Such an approach led both staff and students to explore how they could become more rather than less of a university.

Professor Geraint Howells, in Chapter 6, illustrates his leadership journey in two world-class universities: the University of Manchester and City University Hong Kong. Through his narrative, he illustrates the paradigmatic shift he recognised as being necessary to gain the engagement of all staff with the ambition and vision, first with respect to teaching excellence, and second with respect to research excellence.

Chapter 7, written by Professors Merlin Crossley (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UNSW Sydney) and Paul Ramadge (PLuS Alliance Managing Director), presents an impressive story of the bold vision for collaboration of three world-class universities – University of Arizona, King’s, and UNSW – inhabiting three different continents. Their story emphasises the need for creative thinking, and also streamlining processes to reduce cost. The guiding vision that has kept all three universities devoted to this project has been a deep commitment to knowledge and human welfare.

Professor Dilly Fung, writing in Chapter 8 about her work at University College London (UCL), outlines how she went about a major curriculum review (aided by the Provost and Vice-Provost), based on a shared dialogue about what constitutes ‘excellence and inclusivity’, distinguishing UCL’s curriculum from others. The strap-line, ‘Connected Curriculum’, will be known by many; it has provided a powerful shorthand for the narrative around this research-led curriculum review approach, for both staff and students.

Chapter 9, contributed by Professor Jessa Rogers, outlines her own ‘yarn’, or story, emphasising the need for each and every one of us to recognise that diversity is a part of life to be celebrated. Additionally, she emphasises a point others have made, but perhaps not so forcefully, that bringing diversity to the front within universities will not only produce great opportunities for growth, but also inspire greater creativity...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Index