A professor of higher education emeritus at the University of Maryland argues that college presidents have lost stature by adopting business practices. Urges them to be storytellers, conveying the unique social legitimacy and meaning of higher education. Andrew Sorensen of the University of South Carolina and William Troutt of Rhodes College offer…

The aims and methods of the National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance research team that has been studying institutional leadership are described. (Author/MLW)

If leaders make a real difference, institutions should change as leaders change. Data collected from colleges and universities between 1970 and 1980 indicated that scores on the Institutional Functioning Inventory did not change when their presidents were replaced. Some implications of these findings for understanding organizational leadership are…

Theories implicit in college presidents' definitions of leadership are examined, since understanding presidents' leadership models may affect how they interpret their roles and the events they encounter. The source of the theory that is analyzed is the organizational leadership literature. Research traditions in organizational leadership are…

The extent to which formal campus leaders shared consistent goals was investigated during 1986-1987, along with the relationship between presidential communications and goal consistency. Four concerns were examined: the expressed goals of college presidents; the extent of agreement (goal consistency) or disagreement (goal diversity) between…

A comparative case study of 32 institutions of higher education indicated that 75 percent of newly appointed presidents, but only 25 percent of presidents with longer terms of office, enjoyed full faculty support. The tenure trajectories of exemplary, modal, and failed presidents are described, and presidents are encouraged to remain enthusiastic…

Based on data from American Council on Education surveys, developed four career trajectories to a college presidency and how they are related to the demographic and professional backgrounds of presidential incumbents in different types of institutions; findings suggested how presidential aspirants and institutions may increase gender and ethnic…

The search for a leader is seen as a symbolic process through which institutional goals are discovered, political influence is negotiated, organizational values and myths are confirmed, uncertainty is reduced, and processes of choice are simplified. (Author/MLW)

Interviews with 32 presidents of diverse colleges and universities revealed three basic views of quality: meritocratic, social, and individualistic. It is proposed that these three views correspond to different dimensions of quality and that, to achieve quality in one dimension, institutions may have to make trade-offs in the others. (MSE)

The idea that different meanings of "quality" in higher education (meritocratic, social, and individualistic) may influence the assessments of college presidents of their institutions is explored. These three dimensions are combined in a model that allows a more complex view of institutional quality. (MSE)

A study of college presidents' goals for educational quality and educational access suggests a greater commitment to quality and supports a view of college leadership that is essentially reactive rather than proactive. External forces promoting attention to access issues appear stronger than internal forces. (Author/MSE)

The cognitive processes through which college presidents make inferences and learn may bias their judgments under uncertain conditions. Data indicate that these biases may cause them to overestimate their own effectiveness. Leadership is in part a social attribution used by leaders and by followers to explain unusual organizational processes.…

A survey of board chairmen, presidents, academic vice presidents, and faculty senate or union presidents investigated (1) their expressed goals, (2) the extent of their agreement (consistency) or disagreement (diversity), (3) organizational characteristics associated with consistency or diversity, and (4) how campus constituents see presidents as…

An interpretive analysis is presented based on a comparative case study of the relationships between college and university faculty and their presidents in 32 institutions of higher education. Data were collected through interviews during campus visits in 1986-87. The study divided the institutions into six different groups, and looked for…

Cognitive biases that may affect learning by college presidents and the effects of these biases on the presidency and higher education were studied. Based on a recent study of presidential judgment under uncertainty, data were obtained on the perceptions of 252 campus chief executive officers concerning institutional leadership and quality, and…