Leadership Challenges In Today’s Academia

Dima, Alina Mihaela and Vasilache, Simona and Agoston, Simona and Ghinea, Valentina and Stamule, Tanase (2011): Leadership Challenges In Today’s Academia.

Abstract

Starting from the anecdotic hypothesis that “leading academics is like trying to herd cats”, the paper reviews the main challenges and barriers to present academic leadership. The context is that of the on-going Bologna transformation of the university, and of the renewed quest for competitiveness. The method employed is that of the individual case-study, with a single-embedded design. The case study is exploratory, as we don’t know from sure which the effects of leadership in the university are, and to what degree are they alike, across sub-units of study. The case study is also intrinsic, as its main outcome is not theory-building, but understanding the particularities of a phenomenon strongly tied to its context. Our unit of study is the largest business university in the country, with its faculties and departments. The main data sources are short structured interviews with members of the academic staff. The analysis implies both explanation-building and cross-case synthesis. The results of the study give insights on the context of leadership, enablers and barriers, as well as on the content of leadership, in the particular setting of the academia. Conclusions connect our research with similar endeavours, outlining the particularities and patterns of educational transition in a transition country.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: academic leadership, structural equation model of academic leadership, Romanian academia
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics > A23 - Graduate

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