A Guide for Leaders in Higher Education

Concepts, Competencies, and Tools

Brent D. Ruben, Richard De Lisi, Ralph A. Gigliotti

• Publisher: Stylus Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781642672473
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Istruzione superiore

FIRST EDITION SPECIAL RECOGNITION:

Winner of the 2018 Sue DeWine Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, National Communication Association, Applied Communication Division

REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION

"The book provides frameworks and resources that would be highly relevant for new and aspiring department chairs. In fact, this text is ideally designed to serve as a selection for a book discussion group."— The Department Chair

"Succeeds in providing accessible and useful resources to individuals across different leadership roles… As a midpoint between textbook and reference work, it is successful at both and provides a clear and unbiased background to issues facing current leaders."— Reflective Teaching

During a time of unprecedented challenges facing higher education, the need for effective leadership – for informal and formal leaders across the organization – has never been more imperative.

Since publication of the first edition, the environment for higher education has become more critical and complex. Whether facing falling enrollments, questions of economic sustainability, the changing composition of the faculty and student bodies, differential retention and graduation rates, declining public confidence in the enterprise, or the rise in the use of virtual technologies – not to mention how COVID-19 and an intensified focus on long standing issues of racial and gender representation and equity have impacted institutions and challenged many long-standing assumptions – it is clear that learning on the job no longer suffices. Leadership development in higher education has become essential for advancing institutional effectiveness, which is the focus of this book.

Taking into account the imperative issues of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, and the context of institutional mission and culture, this book centers on developing capacities for designing and implementing plans, strategies, and structures; connecting and engaging with colleagues and students; and communicating and collaborating with external constituencies in order to shape decisions and policies. It highlights the need to think broadly about the purposes of higher education and the dynamics of organizational excellence, and to apply these insights effectively in goal setting, planning and change leadership, outcomes assessment, addressing crises, and continuous improvement at both the level of the individual and organization.

The concepts and tools in this book are equally valuable for faculty and staff leaders, whether in formal leadership roles, such as deans, chairs, or directors of institutes, committees, or task forces, or those who perform informal leadership functions within their departments, disciplines, or institutions. It can be used as a professional guide, a textbook in graduate courses, or as a resource in leadership training and development programs. Each chapter concludes with a series of case studies and guiding questions.

PART ONE

LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

A Critical Need in a Complex and Challenging Landscape

1

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP

Toward an Integrating Framework

In This Chapter

• What are the disciplinary and organizational approaches to leadership in academic settings?

• What are the key sources of influence available to leaders?

• What are the four major dimensions of leadership in academic settings?

• In what ways might considerations of centralized/decentralized strategies and broad/narrow stakeholder engagement be useful for leaders as they address challenges and opportunities?

Leadership has only recently become a topic of great interest within the higher education community. The absence of skilled leadership is often lamented as a root cause of many of the challenges confronting institutions of higher education across the United States. The argument has often been made or implied that more capable and better prepared leaders are needed within colleges and universities.

Those who follow higher education trade publications are accustomed to the seemingly endless coverage addressing the topic of leadership and the corresponding surge in the number of leadership seminars and professional development programs offered by colleges and universities and by national professional and academic associations. The many topics in which more effective leadership is an identified need include strategic planning, access, retention, assessment, diversity, finance, communication, efficiency, innovation, technology, student and faculty/staff relations, crisis management, fundraising and development, university–government relations, and succession planning.

The distinctive nature of higher education as a sector complicates the work of academic leaders and adds a layer of complexity to an already challenging set of circumstances. Academic leaders contend with multiple and sometimes seemingly incompatible organizational missions and aspirations, a broad array of diverse constituencies who often possess differing priorities and perspectives, loosely coupled and relatively autonomous operational systems and units, and traditions of academic freedom and shared governance. These circumstances combine to create significant leadership challenges within academic institutions, which are further complicated by the absence of well-defined markers of excellence and limited incentives or rewards for members of the faculty serving in these roles. The bottom line is that academic leadership is an extremely difficult undertaking, particularly for those dedicated to facilitating meaningful improvement, and successful leadership in higher education tends not to be an inevitable outcome.

In the unusual circumstances that arose during 2020, leaders in higher education were tested in ways few could have imagined. The perilous array of emergent concerns related to campus and societal health and safety, deepening awareness of the need to more forcefully address inequities related to race and ethnicity, along with a widening set of economic and social issues, all interacting in complex ways, exacerbated the already daunting agenda of challenges higher education leaders face. The need for leaders who are sensitive to the broad array of intersecting challenges and who can effectively guide their academic and administrative colleagues and organizations through difficult times has never been greater.

At a time when higher education leadership arguably has never been more critical for the viability and future of these institutions, an understanding of clear and comprehensive concepts and having tools for engaging in the work of academic leadership is essential. Two basic questions take on particular significance if higher education is to successfully navigate this turbulent environment and provide value to an increasingly questioning society: What exactly do we mean when we talk about leadership in academic settings, and what capabilities are required to successfully engage in the work of academic leadership? This chapter previews a leadership framework that begins to address these questions, and in so doing sets the stage for more detailed coverage in subsequent sections of the book.

Beyond Intellect and Disciplinary Expertise

The default view of leadership in academic settings often focuses on mastery of one’s discipline and significant accomplishment within core mission areas—education/teaching, knowledge generation/research, outreach/public service/community engagement, and for some professional fields, clinical excellence and translational practices. The formula is generally quite straightforward: Individuals whose records of professional accomplishment are judged to be outstanding compared with other applicants are selected to lead. Typically, when selecting a leader, a clinical department chooses an accomplished clinician, a teaching institution selects a talented educator, a research-intensive institution seeks accomplished scholars, and so forth.

Reflective of this discipline-based view of leadership, the preparation of faculty and professional staff often begins with a rigorous selection process in undergraduate years—by both the institution and prospective student—and continues with intensive disciplinary socialization throughout the many subsequent years of graduate and professional education. The implicit goal—and one that makes great sense from an academic perspective—is to become distinguished in one’s disciplinary and/or technical area and to be recognized as a thought leader, as demonstrated by a superior record of scholarly or professional accomplishments. Disciplinary and/or technical training provide a useful foundation for the assumption of leadership roles in academic settings. In addition to the documentation provided in one’s curriculum vitae (CV), another manifestation of disciplinary and/or technical excellence is to have earned distinction among one’s peers and colleagues. This might stem from a demonstrated ability to pose questions that cut to the core of the issues being discussed, to engage in a systematic approach to research and/or program development, or to explain and defend one’s work in scholarly and professional gatherings in order to advance disciplinary knowledge. Recognized professional advancement in a discipline or technical field is another foundational element for assumption of leadership roles in academic settings.

Viewed from this perspective, leadership in academic settings is related very directly to one’s disciplinary and technical knowledge, expertise, and accomplishments within a specific field and the ability to be influential in drawing on one’s intellectual knowledge and disciplinary base. No one would dispute the value of these requirements for scholarly or professional excellence and the significance of these capabilities for advancing the boundaries of thought in one’s field, as well as for furthering one’s own stature and standing in it.

That said, the capabilities that are critical for leadership excellence within a research or technical team or center, or of an academic program, department, or institution, can be quite different than those required for individual scholarly or professional distinction, and this brings us to a second way of thinking about leadership and leadership efficacy. Beyond intellectual mastery of one’s field, a broader way of thinking about leadership effectiveness centers on the abilities necessary for designing and implementing plans, strategies, and structures; connecting and engaging with colleagues and students; and communicating and collaborating with external constituencies in order to address the challenges that extend well beyond the parameters of one’s area of specialty. This way of conceptualizing leadership in academic settings highlights the need to think broadly about the purposes of higher education and the dynamics of organizational excellence and to apply these insights effectively in goal setting, outcomes assessment, and continuous improvement in one’s own leadership development efforts. It also suggests the importance of appropriate diversity among the ranks, not only of faculty and students, but also of leaders at all levels.

One approach to leading in academic settings, then, focuses primarily on disciplinary competencies, documented scholarly accomplishments, and the skills needed in planning one’s career to advance intellectual and professional goals. The second approach emphasizes cross-cutting, cross-disciplinary, and generic leadership capabilities that are essential to advancing excellence within any academic or administrative unit. These broader competencies are vital for facilitating the productivity and engagement of colleagues, for creating cultures of inclusion and belonging, for pursuing the larger purposes of the unit, and for building meaningful relationships with the various internal and external constituencies served by the organization and those on which the work of the unit depends. Contrasted with disciplinary leadership, this broader set of strategic competencies relate to what can be described as organizational leadership.

Each of these views of leading in an academic context—disciplinary leadership and organizational leadership—has value. The first highlights personal accomplishments as a scholar, teacher, clinician, and/or thought leader; the second recognizes the personal, analytic, managerial, and communication competencies necessary for strategic, organizational excellence. Research and experience make it quite evident that excellence and accomplishment in a discipline alone do not ensure excellence and accomplishment as an organizational leader. This fact reveals a weakness in the default, disciplinary view of leadership in higher education.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that, unlike individuals who assume leadership roles in other sectors, most leaders in higher education settings receive little formalized training in competencies that expand beyond the boundaries of their own fields. This helps to explain why leader recruitment, selection, planning, and mentoring and coaching initiatives in higher education generally focus on disciplinary criteria. In addition, it is far easier to document and discern the number of publications and citations, invited keynote presentations, honorary appointments, or other scholarly or professional distinctions one has amassed than it is to define and determine the extent of one’s strategic and organizational leadership expertise. But whatever the combination of factors that explains this tradition, the disciplinary approach is limiting when it comes to developing a cadre of leaders and a culture of leadership necessary to convert contemporary challenges into opportunities.

The ideal balance and blend of needed capabilities are not easy to define or achieve. Even after recognizing the critical importance of the broader and more inclusive array of leadership competencies, numerous obstacles remain: How do individuals develop an understanding and skill in each of the competencies recognized as important for leading in an academic environment? In what ways do search committees define and assess candidates’ competencies in these areas? How can institutions support the ongoing development of faculty and administrative personnel such that they are able to acquire or refine strategic and organizational competencies, and how might these insights be used for mentoring and succession planning?

Foundational Leadership Concepts

Differentiating and highlighting the value of both disciplinary and organizational approaches to leadership is a central theme throughout this book, and one that elevates the importance of leadership development across all levels of higher education. Toward th...