Executive Summary This briefing explores the demand for, and development of, academic departments as teams. With nearly 80 percent of all administrative decisions in universities taking place at the department level, there is a growing realization that team leadership at the department level may be more critical now than ever before. The academic leader's challenge is to create a dynamic collective culture. This briefing begins with a definition of academic teams and analyzes the team's dimensions, such as size, skills, diversity, common purposes, and accountability. Next, the briefing guides the reader through the four stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. However, because barriers to teamwork are embedded in the structural, cultural, and political fabrics of universities, the next section helps academic leaders to assess the readiness of their departments for teamwork. The final sections discuss the faculty-based model for building effective teams through leadership, goal alignment, decision-making, conflict management, and faculty excellence.
This useful book outlines the chief forms and major causes of academic stress. Practical advice shows how to distinguish negative from positive stress and how to deal with negative stressors in life and at work. The book includes exercises to help the academic understand how stress affects him or her, as well as forms to help design programmes for coping with stress.
College Deans is based on the National Deans Survey, which was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Academic Leadership and included 800 deans from all U.S. 4-year academic institutions. The book consists of two main sections: 'Deans: Their Campuses and Colleges' and 'Dimensions: Duties and Challenges.' The first section describes the deanship in general, the national study in particular, and the background of current academic deans. It then gives a profile of deans: who they are and where they work. The second section of the book discusses the position of dean itself. This section looks at academic leadership in general and, more specifically, at what deans in this study believe were their primary roles and responsibilities, where role ambiguity and conflict came into play, and how they characterized stress and its relationship to job satisfaction. In addition, this section has a separate segment devoted to gender-related issues and a final chapter that highlights the most pressing challenges deans see in the near future.
A clear, systematic road map to effective campus leadership development Building Academic Leadership Capacity gives institutions the knowledge they need to invest in the next generation of academic leaders. With a clear, generalizable, systematic approach, this book provides insight into the elements of successful academic leadership and the training that makes it effective. Readers will explore original research that facilitates systematic, continuous program development, augmented by the authors' own insight drawn from experience establishing such programs. Numerous examples of current campus programs illustrate the concepts in action, and reflection questions lead readers to assess how they can apply these concepts to their own programs. The academic leader is the least studied and most misunderstood management position in America. Demands for accountability and the complexities of higher education leadership are increasing, and institutions need ways to shape leaders at the department chair, dean, and executive levels of all functions and responsibilities. This book provides a road map to an effective development program, whether the goal is to revamp an existing program or build one from the ground up. Readers will learn to: Develop campus leadership programs in a more systematic manner Examine approaches that have been proven effective at other institutions Consider how these approaches could be applied to your institution Give leaders the skills they need to overcome any challenge The field of higher education offers limited opportunity to develop leaders, so institutions must invest in and grow campus leaders themselves. All development programs are not created equal, so it's important to have the most effective methods in place from day one. For the institution seeking a better way to invest in the next generation of campus leaders, Building Academic Leadership Capacity is a valuable resource.
What are the demands of being a dean? What leadership development do deans need as they progress through their academic careers? How are their responsibilities changing? What are institutions looking for in applicants?This book identifies the range of leadership skills required, and illuminates the process of building leadership capacity, by drawing on interviews with over 50 sitting deans, both women and men; on the insights derived from conducting professional development seminars for several hundred deans; and on the authors’ 48 years of collective experience in eight different deanships.The abundant examples and accounts of individual deans’ leadership successes and failures, and the competences they developed along their career paths, give the reader a taste of what the deanship is really like—and how the role changesover time. In the process of gathering their data, and tracing their own and others’, administrative journeys, the authors found similarities in how deans progress as leaders, in the common rites of passage they encounter, and in the evolution of their role. They describe the stages or “seasons” of the deanship, ranging from getting started – the first three years of deanship (springtime), to hitting your stride – years four to seven of deanship (summer), and keeping the fire alive – eight years and beyond of deanship (fall), through to planning to step down and leaving the role (winter). What also emerged from the authors’ research is that most deans come to their positions without leadership training, without prior executive experience, without a clear understanding of the ambiguity of their new role, or its responsibilities. This book fills a void by offering guidance on applying for a deanship, preparing for the role, and purposefully building the needed skills and knowledge. For anyone considering taking on a deanship, this book offers a unique window into the role. For sitting deans, it offers a compass for shaping the trajectory of their careers.
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