This qualitative study focuses on the perceptions of two academic deans and their leadership styles. The leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire is used as a frame for analyzing data. Using qualitative methods, observation and interview data were collected. Two themes emerged, Initiating Structure, and Consideration. The Initiating Structure…

The development of an oath for business managers, similar to the Hippocratic Oath, has inspired meditation upon similar oaths for academics and university managers. Such oaths are concerned with formulating and asserting the professionalism of the groups that might take them. This paper argues that, while a legitimate heuristic to help university…

The author reports on a promise to name a chief academic officer as second in charge of the New York City schools which paved the way for Cathleen P. Black to succeed Joel I. Klein as the district's next chancellor. The compromise plan, announced amid intensifying debate over her selection by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, won a state waiver…

The future of the community college system will depend on sound leadership, and its success will rely on how well academic deans effectively direct their units. The study investigated the dean's leadership styles using Bolman and Deal's Leadership Orientation Instrument to discover their primary leadership frame with a focus on how data may be…

This article presents the attitude of lecturers towards the visually impaired students in one of the universities in the Limpopo Province. First, it is argued that the experience of a visual impairment by a student has a greater effect on the strategies and methodologies used for instruction than on the curricular content to which the student is…

The organizers of the conference on Renewing Mission and Identity in Business Education invited me to offer a description of the efforts made at the University of Dayton to institutionalize its Catholic identity. Until 2006, when I left Dayton to begin leading full-time the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the preparation methods experienced by academic library deans and which methods they perceived to be most valuable. Rosser, Johnsrud, and Heck (2000, 2003) defined the theoretical constructs of effective academic leadership upon which this study is based. The instrument--a modified version of…

For the last half century, faculty in higher education has embraced unionization in its profession in a significant way. Both administrators and faculty in unionized college environments have a stake in the interactions between the two entities and a vested interest in understanding the factors that can influence working relationships. Despite…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which universities use the "GRE"® General Test scores to award merit-based fellowships to first-year graduate students in doctoral programs. While GRE use in fellowship award decisions is a common practice, there is very little validity evidence to support its use in this context.…

Managers at Spanish universities are having to deal with increasingly complex managerial tasks as a result of current changes in higher education. This paper presents the results of a study into the professional development of deans and department heads at universities in Catalonia. At management level, these universities are typically based on an…

Declining public finances and ever increasing national and international competition force state-owned German universities to adapt to an increasingly competitive environment. In a first phase the universities have concentrated their efforts on the optimisation of budgeting processes and on the development of strategies and goals to come to a more…

This article is a retrospective description of the decisions, strategies, and context of program changes made at the USC Rossier School of Education, related specifically to the education doctorate. The primary purpose is to highlight the change process from the perspective of the academic dean. Drawing on work in systems change and strategic…

As candidates in the 2012 election debated issues raised by the state of the US economy, unemployment statistics and job creation took center stage. The problems under discussion posed (and continue to pose) a particularly clear and pressing challenge to the nation's graduate schools. While the US enjoys a reputation for having the most dynamic…

Leadership is a multifaceted skill as it requires the alignment of body, spirit and mind (Brown & Moshavi, 2005). Furthermore, it is a combination of behavior, actions and interaction between leaders and followers. It is characterized by the leaders' decisions' ability to influence followers' performance and achievement through their…

In our professional work, many of us are involved in university service and politics and some of us enter administrative positions. As political scientists who became associate deans of colleges of liberal arts and sciences, our observations from our administrative perches and our disciplinary knowledge have provided insights on how faculty can…