Increasing Failure Rates in Canadian University Leadership

2017 ◽  
pp. 63-80
Author(s):  
Ross H. Paul
Keyword(s):  
University Presidents ◽  
University President ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
Institutional Fit ◽  
Increasing Failure Rate ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Presidential Success ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
Search Firms

There is growing concern in Canada about the increasing failure rate of university presidents. Institutional boards invest significant time and money into presidential recruitment, engaging professional search firms and consulting with a vast array of stakeholders. Given this intense scrutiny, why are more and more Canadian university leaders failing? What changes can be made to reverse this trend? Based on his almost 20 years of experience as university president, a longitudinal study of presidencies in 47 Canadian universities and other current research, the author provides an overview of the issues involved, explores them in more detail through mini-case studies and identifies “institutional fit” as the key variable in presidential success. The chapter concludes with suggestions to Boards and prospective presidential candidates as to how they can increase the likelihood of success in such crucial appointments.

scholarly journals Why Age Matters to Higher Education: Age-Friendly Tools and Techniques for Culture Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 551-551
Author(s):  
David Burdick ◽  
Karen Rose ◽  
Dana Bradley
Keyword(s):  
University Presidents ◽  
Steering Committee ◽  
State University ◽  
Community Members ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
Drexel University ◽  
College Of Nursing ◽  
Tools And Techniques ◽  
The University ◽  
Oregon State University

Abstract Momentum is growing for the Age-Friendly University Network as proponents, primarily gerontology educators, have successfully encouraged university presidents to sign nonbinding pledged to become more age-friendly in programs and policies, endorsing 10 Age-Friendly University Principles. While this trend is inspiring, more is needed to fully achieve benefits for universities, students, communities, and older adults. Four presentations discuss innovative ways of deepening university commitment, weaving the principles into the fabric of the university. The first paper describes thematic content analysis from five focus groups with admissions and career services staff at Washington University in St. Louis and the recommendations that emerged for the provision of programs and services for post-traditional students. The second paper describes efforts to utilize community-impact internships and community partnerships to build support for Age-Friendly University initiatives at Central Connecticut State University, particularly in the context of the university’s recent Carnegie Foundation Engaged Campus designation. The third paper describes how Drexel University became Philadelphia’s first Age-Friendly University and current efforts in the Drexel College of Nursing and Heatlh Care Profession’s AgeWell Collaboratory to convene university-wide leadership for an AFU Steering Committee working on four mission-driven efforts to ensure AFU sustainability. The fourth paper describes steps taken by AFU proponents at Western Oregon State University to gain endorsement from university leadership and community, including mapping the 10 AFU Principles to the university’s strategic plan, faculty senate endorsement, and survey/interview results of older community members’ use of the university, which collectively have enhanced deeper and broader campus buy-in of AFU.

scholarly journals University Students’ Perception of Transformational Leadership of the University President in Korea: The Role of Students’ Personality, Affect, and Affective Commitment to the University

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-184
Author(s):  
Boram Do ◽  
Seung-Yoon Rhee
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
University Students ◽  
Affective Commitment ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
University President ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

This study explores how university students’ personality and positive or negative affect influence their perception of transformational leadership of the university president. It further examines how the level of students’ affective commitment to the university moderates the relationship. Survey data were collected from 141 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a large public university in South Korea. The students answered survey questions to measure their big-five personalities, positive and negative affect, affective commitment to the university, and their perception of the university president’s transformational leadership. The results of hierarchical regression analyses show that (a) students’ positive affect is positively related to their perception of the university president’s transformational leadership, after controlling for the effect of the students’ personality and that (b) students’ affective commitment to the university moderates the relationship between negative affect and perception of transformational leadership of the university president. This study sheds light on the dynamic, reciprocal process of the social construction of university leadership with an emphasis on students’ affective state and personality traits as critical factors in understanding distant leadership.

scholarly journals Developing generic skills for students via extra-curricular activities in Vietnamese universities: Practices and influential factors

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tran Le Huu Nghia
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
Generic Skills ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Extra Curricular Activities ◽  
External Stakeholders ◽  
University Leaders

Developing generic skills (GS) for students has become central in many higher education curricula lately. However, there is still a lack of studies regarding how these skills are developed for students, especially those in developing countries. Drawing from a PhD study, this article reports the contribution of extra-curricular activities in developing GS for students in Vietnamese universities and analyses factors influencing the effectiveness of developing GS for students via these activities. A content analysis of relevant documents and 69 interviews with university leaders, academics and organisers of the Youth union and its associates (YUA) showed that extra-curricular activities were involved as an integral component of a university’s strategy for training students in GS. This was due to a lack of curriculum autonomy, which restricted most Vietnamese universities from adding skills subjects into the curriculum, and the YUA also had a long-standing tradition of developing non-discipline-specific skills for students. The YUA were found to successfully develop GS for students via extra-curricular activities; however, their operation was influenced by university leadership, student participation, external stakeholders’ support, and the leadership of the YUA. The article argues that extra-curricular activities were conducive to developing GS for students; therefore, they should be included in student skills development programs in higher education. 

scholarly journals Sexual Violence and Crisis Communication in Higher Education

1969 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Alexandra Shea Paleka
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Sexual Misconduct ◽  
Rape Culture ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
Modern Landscape

In the modern landscape of higher education, Title IX and sexual violence prevention and response are increasingly important to universities. Unfortunately, too often university leaders respond retroactively and poorly to sexual violence on their campuses. Harris (2019) utilizes a unique approach to organizational communication theory to argue that institutions create a rape culture in a society that blames individuals, rather than organizations, for sexual misconduct. Bataille and Cordova (2014) complement this research with a collection of essays advising university leaders how to practice effective crisis communication. Together, these books create discourse around how sexual violence and communication are related to the responses of university leadership and the system of shared governance within higher education. University leaders need to confront their institutions’ participation in producing rape culture and educate themselves on how to perform effective crisis communication around sexual violence.  

Inside the Push for Good Governance: Institutional Predictors of Administrative Transparency in Public Organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 027507402110319
Author(s):  
Amanda N. Rutherford ◽  
G. Breck Wightman
Keyword(s):  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
University Presidents ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
College And University ◽  
Executive Search ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Search Firms

Policy actors around the world perceive transparency as a means to achieve good governance. Research often focuses on the determinants of fiscal and economic transparency and gives less attention to administrative transparency. This study examines whether multiple types of institutional factors influence administrative transparency in the context of the hiring of college and university presidents in U.S. postsecondary education. Across 54 contracts obtained between institutions of higher education and third-party search firms, no contract explicitly referred to the term transparency, but contracts varied in attention given to issues of confidentiality. Using data for 157 presidential searches between 2010 and 2018, we find that few structural components predict indicators of transparency, though the presence of state sunshine laws and whether a governing board oversees multiple institutions can influence specific portions of the executive search process.

How to lead a successful university transformation: The case of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

2020 ◽  
pp. 174114322095360
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Change Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Change Model ◽  
University Administrators ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
Education Market ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
École Polytechnique

Research universities worldwide have been taking reform actions to enhance their competitiveness in the global higher education market; however, the implementation of new initiatives may lead to challenges for university leadership. Faculty resistance is regarded as one of the most common obstacles faced by university leaders. Taking a qualitative approach based on Kotter’s leading change model, this study adopts École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne as a case study to explore change management strategies adopted by university leadership in an attempt to ensure a planned transformational change. By analysing 22 interviews with university administrators and faculty members, this study reveals that the president of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne managed changes through approaches that included vision creation, coalition formation, communication, faculty empowerment and culture consolidation. Additionally, the study shows that Kotter’s change model, which was designed for business organizations, could not be applied to the analysis of the change management process in the context of higher education without modifications due to institutional and cultural differences.

Reclaiming the Soul of the University in an Agile Corporate World

2022 ◽  
pp. 129-143
Author(s):  
Christopher Michael Branson ◽  
Maureen J. Marra
Keyword(s):  
Production Line ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
University Culture ◽  
Corporate World ◽  
The Creation ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
The University

In today's agile corporate world, the expectation is that the university will be able to rapidly adapt and evolve in response to its ever-changing global, educational, economic, social, political, and technical environments. But, at what cost? This chapter argues that many of our universities have lost their soul in their race to become agile because their focus has shifted away from fully achieving their core purpose—the creation and the dissemination of knowledge—to production-line teaching and learning and income-based research. There is now universal apprehension arising from the belief that university leaders are more concerned with income and budgets than knowledge and people. In response, this chapter argues for a radically new understanding of what constitutes truly effective university leadership which is readily able to create an agile university culture while simultaneously ensuring it sustains its commitment to its core purpose.

Presidential candidates speak out on issues facing psychology

1976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Atkinson ◽  
Gordon F. Derner ◽  
James Leslie McCary ◽  
M. Brewster-Smith ◽  
Rogers H. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Candidates
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