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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Serie: J-B Anker Resources for Department Chairs
- Sprache: Englisch
The go-to reference for academic leaders seeking practical answers to everyday challenges The Essential Academic Dean or Provost explains the "how" of academic leadership, providing a practical, comprehensive, reality-based reference for almost any problem, challenge, or opportunity. This updated second edition includes new chapters on the difference between leadership and management in higher education, leadership in politically charged environments, effective strategies for making decisions, and working with associate deans or provosts, plus new case studies, new research, and ten additional chapters available on the companion website. Each topic deals concisely with the most important information deans and provosts need when faced with a particular situation, providing both a comprehensive guide to academic leadership as well as a ready reference to be consulted as needed. The role of a dean or provost at a modern university is extremely complex, involving budgeting, community relations, personnel decisions, management of a large enterprise, fundraising, and guiding a school, college, or entire institution toward a compelling vision of the future. The details academic leaders have to deal with are numerous and critical, and every little thing matters. This invaluable guide provides the answers you need when you need them, and gives you framework for successfully navigating your job's many competing demands. * Build support for a shared vision of the future * Interact effectively with different internal and external constituencies * Learn decision-making techniques specific to the academic environment * Set, supervise, and implement a budget that allows your programs to flourish Academic leaders need a handy, focused reference that provides authoritative answers to the many issues and questions that arise every day. With proven solutions to a multitude of challenges, The Essential Academic Dean or Provost shows academic leaders what they need to know in order to successfully guide their institutions into the future.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Preface
Part One: The Academic Leader's Role
Chapter 1: Being #1 in the #2 Business
Principle 1: Develop Collegial Candor
Principle 2: Clarify Your Vision
Principle 3: Be Neither a Lackey nor a Shop Steward
Principle 4: Be Consistent without Becoming Inflexible
Principle 5: Try to See Issues from the Perspectives of Others
Principle 6: Become Known for Something
Principle 7: Radiate Positive Energy
Principle 8: Unite Your Own Dreams and Vision with Those of Others
Principle 9: Give More Than You Receive
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 2: Preparing for a Leadership Role
Why Would Anyone Want to Become a Dean or Provost?
Ten Essential Preparations
Sample Interview Questions
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 3: Identifying Your Leadership Style
Leadership Spectrum Inventory
Stark Contrasts
Your Administrative Quadrant
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 4: Creating a Shared Vision
A Visioning Exercise
Creating Buy-In
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 5: Leading Change
Never Seek Change for Its Own Sake
Expect Mixed Messages
Do Your Homework
Pay Attention to Trends, But Don't be Trendy
Get an Objective View
Go Public
Celebrate Wins along the Way
Communicate Broadly, Frankly, and Often
Remember That Costs Include Many Things
Use Focus Groups
Consider Alternatives
Follow Through
Provide Incentives
Understand Individual Differences
Be Generous
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 6: Promoting Diversity
Reasons for Promoting Diversity
Communicating This Philosophy
Promoting Diversity in Searches
Providing Adequate Infrastructure
Supporting Events That Promote Diversity
Being Holistic in Your Approach to Diversity
Long-Term Strategies
Diversity at Religious Institutions
Special Challenges for Minority Provosts and Deans
New Issues in Gender Balance
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 7: A Scenario Analysis on the Academic Leader's Role
Case Study for Deans
Considerations
Suggestions
Part Two: The Nature of Academic Leadership
Chapter 8: Leadership and Management
Distinguishing Management from Leadership
Importance of Leadership and Management for Academic Leaders
Academic Leadership as Empowering Others
Limitations of the Metaphor
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 9: Leadership with Individuals
Plan Carefully
Prepare to Be Unprepared
Concern Is Not Commitment
Stick to Your Principles
Be Willing to Repeat Yourself
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: Leadership with Groups
Master the Group's Operating Procedures
Make Meetings Task Oriented
Delegate Responsibly
Allow All Perspectives to Be Heard
Leading Informal Groups
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 11: Leadership in Promoting Teamwork
Groups and Teams
Preparing the Soil for Teamwork
The Role of Retreats
Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Maximum Collegial Flow
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 12: Leadership in Making Decisions
The Decision-Making Process
The Expected Utility Method
The Analytic Hierarchy Process
The Seven-Step Method
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 13: Leadership in Politically Charged Environments
Determining the Lay of the Land
The Academic Leader's Ecosystem
The Ambitions of the Upper Administration
The Ambitions of Others
Emergent Leaders
Diverging Expectations
The Academic Leader as Threat
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 14: A Scenario Analysis on the Nature of Academic Leadership
Case Study for Provosts
Considerations
Suggestions
Part Three: The Ecosystem of the College or University
Chapter 15: Students
Are Students Our “Customers”?
Setting Boundaries
The Student Perspective
When You Must Act
Including Students on Committees
Partnerships between Academic and Student Affairs
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 16: Parents
What Parents Often Don't Know
Parental Rights to Information
Helping Students Succeed
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 17: Faculty
Faculty Development and Developing a Faculty
Strategic Hiring
Faculty-Friendly Policies
Merit and Equity in Setting Salaries
Workload Equity
Faculty Senates and Assemblies
Curricular Committees
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 18: Department Chairs
Provide Training
Provide Mentoring and Coaching
Informal Meetings
Focused Meetings and Mini-Retreats
Effective Retreats
The Internal Advisory Council
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 19: Staff
A Staff Audit
Assess Skills
Appointing and Developing Staff Members
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 20: Assistant and Associate Deans
Appointing the Right People
Providing the Right Training
Staff Meetings
Office Politics
Good Cop/Bad Cop
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 21: Peers
Meet Together Informally
Seek Common Ground
Express Disagreements in Private
Constructive versus Destructive Conflict
Peers and Other Stakeholders
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 22: The Provost
Sharing Information
The Three Cs
Assuming the Provost's Perspective
Aligning Objectives
Respecting Boundaries
Repairing a Relationship
Being Undermined
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 23: The President
Building a Relationship with the President
Managing Up
Possible Warning Signs
The President as Mentor
Special Projects
Maintaining Perspective
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 24: Friends of the College
Using and Abusing Advisory Councils
Conducting Travel Programs with External Stakeholders
Offering Special Premiums
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 25: Donors and Potential Donors
Using a Team Approach
Identifying Your Best Prospects
Raising More Than Money Alone
Dreaming Creatively
Doing Your Homework
Thinking Sideways
Demonstrating Support
Following Through
Conclusion
Glossary of Terms
Resources
Chapter 26: Boards, Trustees, and Legislators
Seeing Issues from the Board's Perspective
Seizing the Teachable Moment
Promoting Diversity
Listening Effectively
Keeping the President Informed
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 27: A Scenario Analysis on the Ecosystem of the College or University
Case Study for Deans
Considerations
Suggestions
Resources
Part Four: The Academic Leader as Supervisor
Chapter 28: Evaluations of Faculty
Developing Appropriate Standards
Clarifying Expectations
Empowering Evaluators
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 29: Evaluations of Chairs and Deans
Looking to the Future
Interviewing Faculty Members
Giving Clear and Specific Advice
Making Possible Sanctions Clear
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 30: Position Requests and Descriptions
Being Holistic
Setting Priorities in Screening
Writing Ads with Applicants in Mind
Asking for the Application Materials You Truly Need
Should Position Advertisements Mention Salary?
Checklist for a Position Request
Position Descriptions for Internal Use
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 31: Policies and Procedures
Always Ask, “What Problem Are We Trying to Solve?”
Don't Reinvent the Wheel
Focus on Clarity
Seek Appropriate Guidance
Plan for Appeals
Communicate the Policy to Those Affected by It
Pay Attention to the Politics of It All
Conclusion
Reference
Resources
Chapter 32: A Scenario Analysis on the Academic Leader's Responsibilities as Supervisor
Case Study for Provosts
Part Five: The Budget of the College or University
Chapter 33: Setting Budgetary Priorities
Budgetary Planning
A Guide to Decision Making
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 34: Budget Proposals
Who Is My Audience for This Proposal?
What Are the Primary Concerns of That Audience?
What Do You Do in the Case of a Genuine Need That Can't Be Tied to the Strategic Plan?
Which Other Factors Strengthen the Case for a Budget Proposal?
How Might Alliances Help Your Budget Proposal?
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 35: Supervising a Budget
Tracking Expenditures
Budgetary Intervention
Greater Challenges
Proactive Intervention
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 36: Implementing Budget Cuts
Develop Contingency Plans
Don't Abandon the Strategic Plan
Think Like a Chess Player
Transparency Is Essential
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 37: A Scenario Analysis on the Budget of the College or University
Case Study for Deans
Considerations
Suggestions
Part Six: The Opportunities and Challenges of Being an Academic Leader
Chapter 38: Dealing with Employee Challenges
Step 1: Clarify the Problem
Step 2: Create an Action Plan
Step 3: Look for Underlying Causes
Step 4: Provide Specific Expectations
Step 5: Focus on the Positive
Step 6: Use Mentoring to Build on Progress
Step 7: Reward Ongoing Progress
Step 8: Keep a Paper Trail
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 39: Terminating a Faculty Member
A Term Employee Is No Longer Needed
A Term Employee Is Dismissed for Other Reasons
A Term Employee Is Dismissed for Good Cause
A Tenured Faculty Member Is Terminated for Good Cause
A Faculty Member Is Terminated Because of Financial Exigency
A Faculty Member Is Terminated Due to Elimination of a Program
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 40: Replacing a Chair
Factors to Observe
Circumstances Requiring Action
Steps to Take
Actions to Maintain Progress
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 41: Responding to Emergencies
Disaster Preparedness Plans
Safety Always Comes First
A Second Set of Three Cs
Treat the Media with Care
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 42: Dealing with the Media
In All Situations
When You Have Time to Prepare for an Interview
When the Interview Is Impromptu
When You Want Publicity
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 43: The Unionized Environment
Take Full Advantage of Legal Counsel
Issues of Academic Freedom
The Importance of Clear, Regular Communication
Union Contract Limitations for Staff
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 44: The Dean as Chief Academic Officer
A Conflation of Roles
A Conflation of Decision and Appeal
Balancing Workload
Getting Perspective
Interacting with the President
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 45: A Scenario Analysis on the Challenges of Being an Academic Leader
Case Study for Provosts
Considerations
Suggestions
Part Seven: The Next Step for the Provost or Dean
Chapter 46: Knowing When It's Time to Go
A Sense of Staleness
A Lack of Fit
A Clear Lack of Support
Serious Incompatibility with Your Supervisor
Conclusion
References
Resources
Chapter 47: Changing Institutions
The Decision to Change
The Learning Curve
Conclusion
References
Chapter 48: Returning to the Faculty
Loss of Authority and Prestige
The Need to Retool
The Boss as the Boss
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 49: Planning for a Higher Administrative Role
Not All Administrative Roles Are Alike
Building Your Portfolio
National Training Opportunities
Conclusion
Resources
Chapter 50: A Scenario Analysis on the Dean's Next Step
Case Study for Deans
Considerations
Suggestions
Epilogue: A Checklist for the Essential Academic Leader
References
Index
End User License Agreement
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Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Preface
The Academic Leader's Role
Begin Reading
List of Illustrations
Chapter 3: Identifying Your Leadership Style
Figure 3.1 Administrative Quadrant Grid
Figure 3.2 Administrative Quadrant with Labels
Chapter 8: Leadership and Management
Figure 8.1 The Relationship between Leadership and Management
Chapter 13: Leadership in Politically Charged Environments
Figure 13.1 Finding Areas of Commonality
Chapter 17: Faculty
Figure 17.1 Sample Graph of Faculty Salaries
Figure 17.2 Sample Salary Trend Analysis
Chapter 36: Implementing Budget Cuts
Figure 36.1 Considering Different Combinations of Contingencies
Chapter 43: The Unionized Environment
Figure 43.1 Balancing the Administrative Role
List of Tables
Chapter 3: Identifying Your Leadership Style
Table 3.1 Scoring Guide for Stark Contrasts
Chapter 12: Leadership in Making Decisions
Table 12.1 Example of the Expected Utility Method
Chapter 28: Evaluations of Faculty
Table 28.1 Sample Faculty Flight Plan
Table 28.3 Sample Faculty Evaluation Standards
More Praise for The Essential Academic Dean or Provost
“The Essential Academic Dean or Provost is an expansive yet highly readable text for the novice as well as experienced administrators. The text provides concise advice on the breadth of issues that an academic administrator encounters on a daily basis, from interaction with department chairs to working with upper administration of the university and beyond. Buller has done an admirable job in this significant revision of his highly regarded earlier work, The Essential Academic Dean. I strongly recommend this text, particularly to department chairs seeking higher level administrative and management positions.”
—REZA LANGARI, professor and JR Thompson Department Head Chair, Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution (ETID), Texas A & M University
The Essential Academic Dean or Provost
A Comprehensive Desk Reference
Jeffrey L. Buller
Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-Bass
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buller, Jeffrey L.
[Essential academic dean]
The essential academic dean or provost : a comprehensive desk reference / Jeffrey L. Buller. –
Second edition.
1 online resource. – (Jossey-Bass resources for department chairs)
Revised edition of: The essential academic dean. 2007.
Includes index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
ISBN 978-1-118-76215-8 (pdf) – ISBN 978-1-118-76219-6 (epub) – ISBN 978-1-118-76216-5 (paperback) 1. Deans (Education) 2. Universities and colleges–Administration. I. Title.
LB2341
378.1′11–dc23
2015027575
Cover design by Wiley
Cover image: © Marilyn Nieves/iStockphoto
To my current and former colleagues at Florida Atlantic University who have taught me more about effective academic leadership than I could have learned in years of graduate seminars.
Daniel Gropper and the late Dennis Coates of the College of Business
Gary W. Perry and Russell Ivy of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
David Bjorkman and Michael Friedland of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Anne Boykin and Marlaine Smith of the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Rosalyn Carter of the College for Design and Social Inquiry
Gregory F. Aloia and Val Bristor of the College of Education
Karl K. Stevens and Mohammed Ilyas of the College of Engineering and Computer Science
Heather Coltman of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
About the Author
Jeffrey L. Buller has served in administrative positions ranging from department chair to vice president for academic affairs at a diverse group of institutions: Loras College, Georgia Southern University, Mary Baldwin College, and Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of The Essential Department Chair: A Comprehensive Desk Reference, Academic Leadership Day by Day: Small Steps That Lead to Great Success, The Essential College Professor: A Practical Guide to an Academic Career, Best Practices in Faculty Evaluation: A Practical Guide for Academic Leaders, Positive Academic Leadership: How to Stop Putting Out Fires and Start Making a Difference, Change Leadership in Higher Education: A Practical Guide to Academic Transformation (with Walter H. Gmelch), Building Academic Leadership Capacity: A Guide to Best Practices, and (with Robert E. Cipriano) A Toolkit for Department Chairs. Dr. Buller has also written more than two hundred articles on Greek and Latin literature, nineteenth- and twentieth-century opera, and college administration. From 2003 to 2005, he served as the principal English-language lecturer at the International Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany. More recently, he has been active as a consultant to the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, where he is assisting with the creation of a kingdomwide Academic Leadership Center. Along with Robert E. Cipriano, Buller is a senior partner in ATLAS: Academic Training, Leadership, & Assessment Services, through which he has presented numerous training workshops on academic leadership for deans and provosts.
Preface
If academic leaders in higher education were like their depictions in the movies, few of us would willingly show our faces in public. Consider, for instance, the following unfortunate role models:
Dean Peter Morgan Sr. (Charles Coburn) in
Vivacious Lady
(1938)
Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon) in
Animal House
(1978)
Dean Bradley (Eddie Albert) in
Stitches
(1985)
Dean Martin (Ned Beatty) in
Back to School
(1986)
Dean Walcott (Bob Gunton) in
Patch Adams
(1998)
Dean Carl Cain (Obba Babatundé) in
How High
(2001)
Dean Gordon “Cheese” Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) in
Old School
(2003)
Dean Van Horne (Anthony Heald) in
Accepted
(2006)
Dean Leakey (William Bogert) in
Tenure
(2008)
You can probably add several more of your favorite fictional deans to this list. Every single one of them is stuffy, stupid, mean, or all three. If a dean appears in most American movies, that dean will be the character who stands in the way of the young hero's desire to fulfill a dream. Fictional deans are often symbols of a hidebound tradition that undermines the true spirit of higher education; they end up as figures of ridicule because they're proven to be completely wrong about absolutely everything.
This is a book about how not to become that sort of dean.
Being a provost is even worse. Academic vice presidents are practically nonexistent in movies and on television. Outside of higher education, very few people even know that they exist. I once served with the title “dean of the college” and, in a year without raises, was asked if I wanted a title change since my work couldn't be compensated with added salary. “Sure!” I remember replying, “Make me the provost.” When I was asked why I wanted that particular title, I replied, “Because every angry parent who calls the school always says, ‘Get me the dean!’ No one ever says, ‘Get me the provost!’” Sadly, however, that anonymity is one of the few redeeming features of the position. At many institutions, being provost can feel like the worst job on campus. If a faculty member wins an award, the president gets to convey the honor; if a faculty member has to be fired, the provost has to convey the news. If someone receives a promotion, the letter comes from the president; if someone is denied a promotion, the letter comes from the provost. You get the picture: service as chief academic officer can often be a thankless business. But it's also a very important business, and the consequences of not being effective in the job are enormous.
While there are all kinds of differences in the work that deans and provosts do, there is one overriding similarity: they are the leading academic officer of a complex organization, either an independent college, a college within a university, or the university itself. It's also the case that although there are many career pathways to a presidency, the vast majority of provosts once were deans. Many of the personnel and budgetary issues that deans and provosts deal with are similar in nature even if they occur at different organizational levels. For this reason, it makes sense to address many of their responsibilities in the same book, and that's the approach I pursue here. I'll occasionally use the term dean as a shorthand way of saying “chief academic officer of an entity such as a college or university” because you can imagine how annoying the latter expression could become in a book of this length. While I'll try as much as possible to point out where strategies might diverge between what the provost or the dean does, in most cases I'll trust readers to make appropriate mental translations when my use of the word dean means something more like provosts, deans, directors, or anyone else in charge of a complex academic program.
Like its two companion volumes, The Essential Department Chair: A Comprehensive Desk Reference (2012) and The Essential College Professor: A Practical Guide to an Academic Career (2010), The Essential Academic Dean or Provost presents not academic theories about administrative leadership, but real-life situations that academic leaders face day in and day out. Its intended audience includes:
Graduate students who are studying higher education administration and want to learn about the actual practice of college leadership as a complement to the theories they encounter in other works
Faculty members and department chairs who are considering whether they might wish to pursue a higher administrative role and want to know how to prepare for these responsibilities and understand what they entail
Current deans and provosts who want a reference manual in which they can find brief but highly informative discussions of the topics most relevant to their success as academic leaders
I recommend that those who are not yet deans or provosts consider working their way through this book sequentially; the first three chapters provide these readers with a good introduction to what they'll need to know in order to be prepared for a higher administrative role. The subsequent parts build on this earlier material and cover many duties that deans and provosts have. More experienced administrators will probably want to plunge right in and start with whatever topics are of immediate interest to them. This second edition contains an index (an important feature, missing from the first edition, which truly makes this version a comprehensive desk reference), as well as updated sources, material reflecting some recent changes in higher education, and improved cross-references designed to help those who read the book out of sequence locate where technical terms have been defined or related concepts have been discussed.
A number of resources have appeared since the release of this book's first edition, and I've benefited greatly from the insights of these authors and administrators. Since provosts and deans can benefit from their own library of important books on academic leadership, I acknowledge the following recent works that were particularly helpful to me and recommend that readers of this book also explore them:
Dianne Dorland and Patricia Mosto's
A Toolkit for Deans
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
Larry Nielsen's
Provost: Experiences, Reflections, and Advice from a Former “Number Two” on Campus
(Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2013)
The third edition of Laura Behling's
The Resource Handbook for Academic Deans
(San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014)
Each chapter of The Essential Academic Dean or Provost is as brief and self-contained as possible. My goal has been to provide readers with clear, concise recommendations that can be absorbed in ten minutes or less. You're busy, and I know that time is of the essence. One special feature of this book, pioneered in the first edition, is the scenario analysis that concludes each major part. In a scenario analysis, academic leaders are provided with a hypothetical case study designed to apply the principles explored in the previous chapters in that part, several considerations that may cause them to reevaluate how they might handle that situation, and a few recommendations about where to begin solving the problem presented by the study. It can be particularly beneficial to discuss a scenario analysis with a fellow administrator or a trusted mentor in order to determine how different administrative approaches might be brought to bear on the same challenging problem.
Scattered throughout the book are a number of essential principles that are formatted as follows.
Essential principles are the key rules that can help you succeed in a variety of administrative situations. These are the principles to which you'll want to give extra attention when you face your own administrative challenges. If you remember nothing else from this book, be sure that you've mastered all of these suggestions.
Essential principles are designed to be short and easily remembered, but they're not mere platitudes. They've all been tested in actual administrative situations and have proven their value. Even if you end up disagreeing with a few of these guidelines, they deserve your serious and thoughtful attention. Don't ignore them. At the request of many readers (including the anonymous reviewers for this edition), this edition has significantly more essential principles than the first edition did. They can provide a useful way of identifying parts in the book that are most relevant to your position. As you flip through the pages, notice which essential principles catch your eye. They're often keys to the chapters you'll find most valuable. If several of these observations have a particular resonance for you, consider writing them on sticky notes and attaching them to your door or computer monitor. They'll provide a daily reminder of what you can do to make continual progress in improving your academic leadership.
There are many people I want to thank for their roles in making The Essential Academic Dean or Provost possible. Carolyn Allard and Sheryl Fullerton, who served as editors for the first edition, and David Brightman, who served as editor of the second edition, made many valuable suggestions (and sometimes just resigned themselves to the inevitable when I was too stubborn to change). Lawrence Glick, senior associate general counsel at Florida Atlantic University, was a useful resource on issues that had legal implications, which means pretty much every issue a dean or a provost ever deals with. D. Parker Young, professor emeritus of higher education at the University of Georgia, has provided workshops on higher education law for more than thirty years, greatly influencing my approach to legal issues at colleges and universities and reinforcing my respect for what he routinely calls “creating a climate where the incentives for legalism are reduced.” I also thank Magna Publications for allowing me to adapt and reuse in chapter 8 some material that originally appeared in Academic Leader. (Reprint permission was granted by Magna Publications and Academic Leader.) Sandy Ogden deserves some kind of canonization for proofreading the entire manuscript (in addition to a slew of other manuscripts while also doing her day job) since I'm simultaneously the world's fastest writer and worst typist. (The two achievements are not unrelated.)
Whether you're hoping to serve as a university provost or academic dean someday, have recently accepted such a position, or are already well along in your administrative career, you're certain to discover that academic leadership offers you exciting, frequently changing opportunities to apply your creativity, initiative, and problem-solving skills. While this book has been designed to focus on the day-to-day nuts and bolts of being an academic administrator, remember that it does so primarily to make you more efficient at these tasks so that you can develop your own vision for your college. College administration shouldn't be a matter of rudimentary problem solving and paper shuffling. It should be about building toward a vision of the future. So if you have problems to solve and papers to shuffle, why not get those tasks out of the way as quickly and effectively as possible?
Each day in our administrative careers may be regarded as merely a step we take in an extended pilgrimage of self-discovery. As you turn the page to continue your journey, I hope that it's an amazing and fruitful trip wherever your own path takes you.
Jupiter FloridaJanuary 1, 2015Jeffrey L. BullerFlorida Atlantic University
The premium online content for this book includes additional scenario analyses, along with field-tested advice for working in unique academic environments. To access this bonus content, visit www.wiley.com/go/Buller.
Part One
The Academic Leader's Role
Chapter 1Being #1 in the #2 Business
Harry Carter, who long served as provost at Georgia Southern University and the Citadel, loved to mention the septic tank company that posted a large billboard greeting drivers as they entered Augusta, Georgia, along Highway 25: “We're #1 in the #2 Business.”
There are all kinds of ways in which university provosts and academic deans can feel as though they're in the #2 business. Many of the issues they have to deal with may make them feel as though they're wading into the academic equivalent of a septic tank. But even more important, they're always #2 to someone else who's #1: the person who serves as the visible face and symbol of the institution. Larry Nielsen even devotes an entire chapter to the topic of “Being Number Two” in his book Provost (2013). And so although they're often lumped together with other members of “the upper administration” by students, faculty members, and even at times department chairs, the nature of the position held by the provost or dean is intended to be middle management. While provosts and deans may have a great deal of independence in certain areas, they ultimately report to someone—a specific person who serves as their supervisor—rather than to a governing board, as presidents and chancellors do. At the same time, they are themselves supervisors, evaluating the performance of others, recommending appropriate salary adjustments, and trying to unite them all into a single academic team.
Hundreds of books have been written about the principles of leadership or how to get things done from the top. There's also an expanding literature on how to serve most effectively as an employee, mastering the techniques of followership, a term coined by Robert E. Kelley (1992) and elaborated on in more comprehensive studies by Kellerman (2008), Riggio, Chaleff, and Lipman-Blumen (2008), and Bligh and Kohles (2012). But how can provosts and deans be expected to lead from the middle? How can they become #1 in the #2 business?
As a way of answering these questions, it might be useful to begin with recognizing that no one is ever #1—not really. They may think they are, or the organization chart may say they are, but shared governance in higher education means that no one person has authority over every aspect of what goes on at a college or university. As one way of viewing this idea, the first essential principle in this book is perhaps the most important one you'll encounter when it comes to academic administration:
All leadership entails leadership from the middle. When you understand how organizations really work, you realize that everybody reports to somebody.
Standard organizational charts, adapted as they are from military and corporate environments where they often make more sense, tend to distort this issue. On paper, faculty members report to chairs. Department chairs in turn report to you, if you're a dean, or to your deans, if you're a provost. Either way, you eventually report to the president, directly or through the chief academic officer. The president reports to a board. The board is subject to bylaws and other applicable regulations. You can never climb to the top of this chart and be in charge of it all.
Climbing to the pinnacle of each organizational pyramid simply takes you to the base of the next pyramid.
Moreover, authority is decentralized in higher education in a way that's not practical in other organizational cultures. The faculty is ultimately responsible for the curriculum. The president and governing board are ultimately responsible for the budget. When people overlook that longstanding division of power, problems start to arise. And yet the system usually works. Decisions are made. Policies are developed. New initiatives get under way. But those initiatives don't always come from the top. We've all known a provost, dean, department chair, or faculty member whose energy, insight, or personal charm completely transformed a school. Institutional leadership can arise from any level of the hierarchy. You don't have to be in charge to be influential.
That's a good thing, because provosts and deans have always had a view from the middle. The English word provost is ultimately derived from two Latin roots, pro- (“in front of”) and positus (the perfect-passive participle of the verb ponere, “to put.” Provosts were thus originally officers who were “put in front of” other people in ecclesiastical, academic, or political life. But they didn't occupy the highest rung on the organizational ladder. In a church, the provost might be the minister of the largest church in a town. At a university, the provost might be the head of a particular college or school. And in government, the provost might be something like a mayor. In each case, the provost's position, while important, did not possess ultimate authority and always reported to someone else whose powers and responsibilities were considerably greater.
In a similar way, our word dean comes to English from Norman French via the Latin word decanus, meaning an officer in charge of ten people (from the Latin decem or the Greek deka, “ten”). A dean thus had far less authority, in etymological terms at least, than a centurion, who was in charge of one hundred people. At the same time, the dean had far more responsibility than any of the ten subordinates. During the Middle Ages, deans ceased to have a military connection, and the term became adopted by the church to describe the priest who supervised ten monks in a monastery, the head of a chapter in a cathedral church, or a member of the religious hierarchy through whom clerics reported to an archbishop. Given the religious origins of universities like Oxford and Cambridge, the word required only a slight shift in emphasis as it moved from ecclesiastical to academic circles. The dean thus became the administrator in charge of the behavior and academic progress of students in a college. As the organizational structures of colleges and universities became more complex, deans became elected members of the faculty who provided administrative guidance, management, and vision to their institutions. By the twentieth century, deans in the United States were already being viewed more as administrators than teachers. They almost always had academic backgrounds, but they were appointed (and less frequently elected) because they demonstrated potential for making their colleges and schools run effectively.
From their origin, therefore, provosts and deans have always had responsibilities that draw them in two directions simultaneously: they are advocates for and supervisors of the people over whom they have authority; they report to and serve as the representatives of some higher administrative level that sets the limits within which they themselves can operate. Performing both responsibilities effectively is one of the perennial challenges facing provosts and deans. Few other aspects of their role are as important as the ability to see the needs of the institution from the middle and to address those needs adequately. So how do you do that? Here are nine basic principles to keep in mind as you begin developing your own approach to providing leadership from the middle.
Principle 1: Develop Collegial Candor
As an academic leader, you want your own supervisor to treat you with respect, give your views a fair hearing even if they're not ultimately accepted, and share information with you freely, particularly when having that information is essential for you to do your job. Is it unreasonable, therefore, to assume that those who report to you are looking for the same considerations from your office? Your method of interacting with department chairs, division directors, and the faculty members at your institution should be a reflection of the role you wish to play in the larger institutional structure. In fact, how you treat others may even help shape that role.
Developing an atmosphere of collegial candor means taking steps to create a working environment where individuals feel safe to provide their perspectives on various issues, understand that you'll agree or disagree with these views on the basis of their arguments' merits and not the individual advancing them, and recognize that the overall mission of the institution is the guiding principle behind all deliberations, not the personal convenience of a particular administrator. You therefore have an obligation to apply this philosophy to all your discussions with your president, governing body, and members of the community. You have no less of an obligation to adhere to these same principles when dealing with the members of your school or college.
The people who report to you rely on you as a sounding board for their ideas and insights, even if their behavior doesn't always suggest that they themselves are open to other perspectives. Disagreement with one's boss shouldn't be confrontational, and it's rarely the case that job security results from blindly accepting every suggestion your superior makes. Phrased in a collegial manner—“Now, that might be true, but another way of looking at it could be…” or, “Perhaps, though, we should also consider whether…”—disagreements can broaden a discussion and help decision makers avoid a serious mistake. Certainly administrators can be frustrated when those who report to them constantly and inconsiderately disagree with every idea they propose, every suggestion they make, or every improvement they consider. But it can also be frustrating when people see it as their responsibility to agree merely for the sake of agreement, avoiding any serious attempt to explore whether the merits of a proposal are offset by any disadvantages. Effective provosts and deans tend to be those who speak freely when it's important to do so but also understand how to provide alternatives in a constructive, consensus-building manner. It's not hypocritical to refrain from expressing a strong opinion on every subject; sometimes that's just the most diplomatic and beneficial strategy to pursue. It's a technique sometimes called strategic nonengagement.
Creating an open atmosphere in a college means making it clear that department chairs and faculty members are free to express points of view that are different from yours, even in open meetings, as long as the discussion remains civil and focused on substantive issues, not personalities, private disputes, or “ancient history.” No one should tolerate grandstanding or outright insubordination; your supervisor wouldn't tolerate such behavior from you, and you can't be expected to tolerate it from a chair or faculty member. But it's important to promote an open exchange of ideas with those both above you and below you in the institutional hierarchy. Only in this way are you likely to learn what you need in order to perform your job effectively. Open channels of communication are also the only way for the institution to avoid embarking on disastrous courses of activity because no one felt free to say that the ideas being discussed were unsound.
Principle 2: Clarify Your Vision
The president and governing board of your institution are likely to have articulated a vision for the future direction of your college or university; perhaps these ideas are contained in a formal strategic plan or in a vision statement. Your faculty members also have a vision of how they would like their academic areas to develop, their students to learn, and their research to progress. None of those visions can be realized, however, without your view from the middle. The president will need assistance in determining how his or her overarching goals for the institution are best realized and measured in academic units. The faculty will need assistance in seeing how their individual goals stand in the larger priorities of your institution and how they can play a significant role in making the strategic plan a reality.
One aspect of your job as an academic leader is thus to serve as a catalyst in clarifying or crystallizing these visions. For example, if one of the president's strategic goals is to develop more undergraduate research at the same time that students improve their understanding of global issues, how can these two issues be combined in your programs' curricula? Can you lead your programs toward the adoption of a new capstone experience for students that will include a substantial component of original research? Can you spearhead a review of all course curricula to strengthen international perspectives wherever possible? Can you suggest alternative requirements for majors so that students who study abroad are less likely to be delayed in their progress toward graduation? As a provost or dean, you understand the individual needs, methods, and philosophies of your disciplines far better than do many members of your governing board or legislature. As a result, you are in a unique position to crystallize the institution's larger vision into a plan that fits the ways in which disciplines actually work in your area.
Similarly, faculty members at your school may be interested in greater flexibility in workload, revisions to evaluation procedures that will suit their jobs more adequately, better compensation, or improved facilities. You have an opportunity to serve as an advocate for these needs—when you, in your professional judgment, see them as valid—by clarifying how they might serve to advance the institution's strategic plan. So if improved student advisement, enhanced civic engagement, and collaborative endeavors between academic affairs and the office of student life are institutional goals, how are initiatives in these areas being rewarded in your current faculty evaluation system? As Bob Cipriano, the author of Facilitating a Collegial Department in Higher Education: Strategies for Success (2011), is fond of saying:
What gets rewarded gets repeated.
You'll get more of anything you specifically measure, recognize, and compensate people for. As a result, you can help bridge the middle ground between upper administration and faculty by finding points of overlap where strategic goals (what the president wants) can be used to advance the aims of the faculty (what professors want). If you implement a reward structure in which promotions, tenure, and annual increases are based at least in part on advancing the institution's strategic goals, you're more likely to see those goals achieved in a timely manner. I have a lot more to say about clarifying or crystalizing an academic vision in chapter 4.
Principle 3: Be Neither a Lackey nor a Shop Steward
You may be asked, “Whose representative are you: the board's or the faculty's?” This question really poses a false dichotomy. It's usually asked by someone who's either trying to bait you (to see if your response will end up on the wrong side of his or her personal litmus test) or who's not particularly knowledgeable about how colleges and universities actually work. Your most important duty as provost or dean is to serve as the advocate for the academic programs you supervise. At times, this advocacy will consist of making the case for certain programs or individuals who report to you as forcefully and eloquently as you can. At other times, the best advocacy you can provide your unit is to clarify for your department chairs and faculty members why certain perceived needs can't or shouldn't be addressed. Good academic leaders sometimes have to say no. They're neither the lackeys of the president, legislature, or governing board (i.e., serving merely as a conduit that conveys to the faculty the decisions made by those at the top of the organization chart) nor the shop stewards of their faculty (pressing for the adoption of every request, demand, and desire they receive). Your view from the middle requires you to be both your own person and responsive to the perspectives of those above and below you. It's a demonstration of good judgment to know when one of these must take precedence over the other.
Principle 4: Be Consistent without Becoming Inflexible
Both your supervisor and your faculty want to know what you stand for. They want to know your core beliefs, the things that are nonnegotiable for you, and your sense of vision for your programs. In most cases, people actually feel more comfortable when they believe that an area is headed in the wrong direction than when they believe it's not headed in any direction. For this reason, you'll be expected to speak regularly about your values and vision. Be reasonably consistent in responding to these requests; academic leaders who seem enamored of every new trend that arises seem as aimless as those who can't find any particular cause to get behind. In most cases, both your president and department chairs want to know that they can predict the general thrust of your thinking on a subject. They'll feel there's a greater sense of purpose in your school if you convey a clear sense of your priorities and proceed to act on them in a consistent manner.
Being firm isn't the same as being rigid, and being authoritative isn't the same as being authoritarian. Provosts and deans need backbone, but the most valuable part of a backbone is that it's strong enough to stiffen when necessary and flexible enough to bend a little when compromise is required.
In striving to be reasonably consistent, remember that it's important to be reasonable as well as consistent. Administrators who never change their minds can be as destructive to institutions as deans who change their minds whenever they're presented with an alternative point of view. Reliability shouldn't be synonymous with stubbornness. People will excuse an occasional change of direction or the rescinding of a decision as long as they know the reasons for the change and you're candid about the process that led to the new decision. Avoid giving the impression that you simply caved in to pressure or that someone “got to you.” Be clear about why the new course is necessary and how it still fits in with your overall plan for your unit. The only proviso is that if you find yourself having to explain these changes too often, it's time to reconsider how sound your original plan for your area may have been.
Principle 5: Try to See Issues from the Perspectives of Others
Everyone at your institution has a different perspective based on his or her individual role. Thus the president wants you to see how your programs fit into the big picture. Your faculty members want you to see things in terms of their workloads and career paths. Deans often see the university as a pie: if someone gets a bigger slice, someone else's slice has to be smaller. The key to being a successful academic leader is the ability to see all these points of view simultaneously and then to move forward with the best possible judgment. No issue can ever be solely about the university; there are times when your individual school or college is going to have to come first in the decision that's being made. But your perspective can't always be limited to your individual unit either; sometimes your students will be better served if another dean receives a new faculty line or a major new facility. Being a team player means knowing the right moment to claim the glory and the right moment to share it.
Principle 6: Become Known for Something
Peter Northouse, author of one of the most widely used textbooks in leadership studies, distinguishes two types of leadership: assigned leadership, which people hold because of their titles and job descriptions, and emergent leadership, which people are granted by others because their views are respected due to what they know and how they act. (See, for example, Northouse, 2013. For more on Northouse's views on leadership, see chapter 8 in this book.) One of the secrets to leading from the middle is developing your stock of emergent leadership by being known as the expert in some area. Exactly what you're known for will depend a great deal on your own background and interests. But you might consider developing a distinctive reputation at your institution by selecting at least one of the following three areas: expertise, values, or vision. While there's a great deal of overlap among these categories, they're useful for providing a starting point in our analysis of ways in which you can develop your own niche of proficiency.
Being known for your expertise
This involves reaching a level of knowledge or skill in an area that distinguishes you from your peers. Because you know more about some particular area, you become the go-to person whenever advice or insight in that area is needed. For instance, every institution needs gurus in various areas of technology, assessment, faculty development, course evaluation, fundraising, program review, the intricacies of budgeting, and so on. By developing expertise in one of these areas, you establish your reputation not just as an effective advocate for your disciplinary area, but also as someone who works on behalf of the institution as a whole. “Oh, well,” people will say, “if your question involves distance learning, you really ought to talk to Dr. [Name]; she's the expert when it comes to anything involving online education.” Moreover, by developing an area of expertise that transcends your own college, you'll have a platform that allows you to speak quite broadly on a host of institutional issues. As a result, you'll begin to function—and to be seen—as a leader beyond the boundaries of your college.
Being known for your values
This means establishing a clear identity because of the principles and practices you advocate. Some academic leaders are known as “the conscience of the institution,” framing each discussion within its moral or ethical implications. Perhaps the values you believe in most are protecting the environment, looking out for the underrepresented, promoting professionalism, representing the interests of the faculty (or student body or staff), supporting collegiality throughout the institution, or exploring creative new solutions to perennial problems.
Perhaps your values take you in a different direction, establishing your identity as an early adopter of new technology or institutional initiatives, the person who always remembers other people's birthdays or sends congratulatory notes when good things happen in their lives, or the advocate for typographical and grammatical perfection in every public document. Whatever values most resonate with you can become the basis for a identity as the institutional specialist in that area.
Being known for your vision
This identity entails the ability to see beyond what is and imagine what could be. As the campus visionary, you would be the person who always thinks in terms of larger possibilities and future directions. Good vision is, of course, not wholly divorced from practicality, so you'll need to amass a certain amount of evidence in support of the vision you promote. For instance, based on the demographics of your region or enrollment trends at peer institutions, you could be the person who begins to position your institution in such a way as to be ahead of the curve when new developments arise. Student populations change over time in terms of their need for specific student services, their likelihood to gravitate toward particular majors, and their relationships with both the institution and their parents. As a visionary leader, you might be the person who's aware of how each new generation of students will differ from its predecessors and can help guide your institution in preparing for those changes. (See Watson, 2013, and Williams and Drew, 2012.)
