Purpose: Instructional leadership is a school leadership approach that emphasizes improving teaching and learning. This study explores how school middle leaders -- teachers holding leadership positions in schools, who are responsible for a particular area or discipline of the school's curriculum -- fulfill their instructional leadership role.…

The study focuses on the discussion of how universities middle managers perceive the effects of strategic plan's elaboration and implementation. The paper presents the institutional context of strategic thinking in the Russian higher education system, and the analysis of changes in universities' activities with the influence of the strategy…

In this chapter, we extend the conventional expectations of midlevel academic leadership to include emotional labor. To do so, we draw on examples salient to academic department chairs, who are the ultimate example of midlevel leaders: sitting between senior-level leaders and a cadre of disciplinary- and departmentally-based peers. After defining…

As middle managers in higher education, department chairs play a critical role in the university structure while operating in an ambiguous location between faculty and senior administration. This paper will take a closer look at the role of department chair, how chairs are selected and prepared for the position, what the job entails, qualities of…

Purpose: While current research is reporting on a crisis in school leadership aspirations and appointments, this research sheds light on the mediating factors that school middle leaders (MLs) attribute to their appointment as a leader and their aspirations to senior leadership positions. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data from a larger,…

There is a dissonance between the formal role of head of academic department represented in institutional discourses and the reality of heads' working practices. This paper provides insight, from the perspective of heads, about how the role is experienced and enacted in one institution. Data are derived from 20 semi-structured interviews with…

Department heads are central in the university setting as an important buffer between university leadership and academic staff. However, taking on a middle management role can lead to significant disruptions in academic careers. To investigate the career trajectories of 31 academics in middle management roles, two waves of semi-structured…

Heads of department (HoDs) are commonly made responsible for implementing gender balance change in academia. Research has found that they are often reluctant to take ownership of this problem. Our study found that department heads in Norway did take on a lot of ownership for gender balance change and we divided their leadership approaches with…

The role of the Heads of Departments (HoDs) in the school structure is to provide middle leadership. They assist the principals on the day to day leadership of the schools. They are responsible for ensuring the achievement of their departmental and school vision and mission. This study sought to explore the nature of the challenges faced by the…

On a global level, COVID-19 has shaken the foundations of every sector. In the South African education context, the traditional methods of teaching, learning, and managing schools changed drastically overnight and management roles and responsibilities were pushed to unprecedented levels. Moreover, the roles of middle leaders and managers took…

Department chairs serve a vital function at community colleges. They are middle managers, mid-level leaders, and faculty members. They serve a unique position within the organization because they interact with nearly every unit: academics affairs, student affairs, senior administrators and students. At a time when professional organizations are…

Leadership development is not considered as a core component in higher education policies specifically when we examine the higher education polices of developing countries. To fill this gap, an intervention is designed to evaluate the impact of a leadership development program in academic leaders. The prime objective of this intervention was to…

There is a wide-spread perception that universities reorganise their academic units frequently, although there is little beyond anecdote to support this. Similarly, the literature contains some speculation about what affects the success of such efforts, but there is almost no data to support various views. This study assesses the perceptions of…

Too often, instructional leadership is perceived as an area of competence for principals with less focus on teachers, especially those with subject leadership responsibilities. In the study reported on here we investigated the perspectives of subject leaders and their perceived competence in instructional leadership as a basis for its correlation.…

This study explores the experiences of department heads at Haramaya University, Ethiopia with regard to academic leadership perceptions and practices. Qualitative research approach with phenomenological strategy was employed in this study. Five department heads were selected using purposive sampling techniques. Semistructured interview,…