Holistic View of Intuition and Analysis in Leadership Decision-Making and Problem-Solving

Making decisions is a key task for leaders and managers. Senior leaders are currently exposed to increasing amounts of data which they must process quickly in our current dynamic world. Complex factors in the business world are not always best approached through an analytical framework. Using tacit knowledge gained through intuition can enable a more holistic understanding of the deep nature of today’s problems. This paper takes an expansive view of decision-making with intuition right at the centre and canvasses understandings of intuition arising from philosophy, psychology, Western and Eastern beliefs; and proposes a model that relates intuition to other problem-solving approaches. The paper presents the results of interviews with senior leaders who must make difficult decisions in complex turbulent environments. The interview schedule is based on questions raised in a prior literature search concerning the relationship between intuition and analysis in complexity decision-making and problem-solving, the usefulness to this group of respondents, the possibilities of combining both approaches and any conflict arising from that combination, and understandings of the concept of intuition by these respondents. The resultant model presents a visual description of a process that moves from exterior assessment achieved via sensing and analysis, through to deeper understandings and a more holistic discernment gained through intuition. The model has the potential to assist leaders faced with difficult-to-solve problems in providing a better understanding of the steps involved in tackling problems of increasing levels of complexity.

The role of leadership in promoting and supporting the Basic English curriculum design and delivery at two Vietnamese universities

<p>The purpose of this research study was to explore the role of leadership in supporting the Basic English curriculum design and delivery at two selected Vietnamese non-language major universities specialising in Finance and Accounting. Studies on academic leadership and distributed leadership in higher education are well documented in Western literature (Bolden, Gosling, O’Brien, Peters and Haslam, 2012; Bryman, 2007; Cardno, 2012); however leadership in higher education is largely under-researched in developing countries like Vietnam. Moreover, curriculum design impacts on the wellbeing and effectiveness of higher education (Barnett & Coate, 2005). Leadership is necessary to effect change (Oliver & Huyn, 2010) and therefore potentially to impact on curriculum design and delivery. The role of leadership in making the Basic English curriculum more relevant for graduate students and ensuring that they are better prepared for the workplace is of particular interest in the Vietnamese university context. This qualitatively-focused case study design, with a small quantitative component, guided by an interpretivist/ constructivist theoretical framework aimed to explore how academic leaders promote the Basic English curriculum design and delivery in the Vietnamese university context. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with senior academic leaders and company directors, focus group interviews with English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers, observations of a curriculum meeting, and an online survey by graduates from the two selected universities. The study employed thematic data analysis techniques. Research shows that the curriculum framework in Vietnamese universities promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) results in heavy workloads for academic staff (Gropello, Thomas, Yemenez, Chchibber, & Adams, 2008; Van, 2011). This negatively affects their wellbeing and may reduce their effectiveness as teachers and researchers. The findings from the study provided evidence that leadership practices in Vietnam were influenced by Confucian values. It also showed that the personal barriers academic leaders and EFL lecturers face vary according to gender. However, academic leadership in Vietnamese higher education contexts in this study reveals a mixture of distributed and collaborative leadership in curriculum design and delivery which can provide insights for other Vietnamese universities. It also revealed that senior leaders and EFL lecturers appear to work collaboratively to solve the issue of curriculum design and delivery. The findings have implications for policy development and practice. Suggestions made by employers and graduates to institutional leaders, curriculum developers and lecturers are to consider redesigning the curriculum to have a more communicative focus and more oral practice to ensure graduates are better prepared for work. The study has brought insights for senior leaders on how to create successful collaboration with their colleagues and partners in curriculum design and renewal and provided guidance on the enhancement of educational leadership practices in the two chosen universities. The results of this study have contributed to closing the current gaps in understanding how leadership at all levels in higher education impact on curriculum design and delivery. This study will be useful not only in the Vietnamese context but also in other countries where English is taught as a second or foreign language.</p>

The role of leadership in promoting and supporting the Basic English curriculum design and delivery at two Vietnamese universities

<p>The purpose of this research study was to explore the role of leadership in supporting the Basic English curriculum design and delivery at two selected Vietnamese non-language major universities specialising in Finance and Accounting. Studies on academic leadership and distributed leadership in higher education are well documented in Western literature (Bolden, Gosling, O’Brien, Peters and Haslam, 2012; Bryman, 2007; Cardno, 2012); however leadership in higher education is largely under-researched in developing countries like Vietnam. Moreover, curriculum design impacts on the wellbeing and effectiveness of higher education (Barnett & Coate, 2005). Leadership is necessary to effect change (Oliver & Huyn, 2010) and therefore potentially to impact on curriculum design and delivery. The role of leadership in making the Basic English curriculum more relevant for graduate students and ensuring that they are better prepared for the workplace is of particular interest in the Vietnamese university context. This qualitatively-focused case study design, with a small quantitative component, guided by an interpretivist/ constructivist theoretical framework aimed to explore how academic leaders promote the Basic English curriculum design and delivery in the Vietnamese university context. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with senior academic leaders and company directors, focus group interviews with English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers, observations of a curriculum meeting, and an online survey by graduates from the two selected universities. The study employed thematic data analysis techniques. Research shows that the curriculum framework in Vietnamese universities promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) results in heavy workloads for academic staff (Gropello, Thomas, Yemenez, Chchibber, & Adams, 2008; Van, 2011). This negatively affects their wellbeing and may reduce their effectiveness as teachers and researchers. The findings from the study provided evidence that leadership practices in Vietnam were influenced by Confucian values. It also showed that the personal barriers academic leaders and EFL lecturers face vary according to gender. However, academic leadership in Vietnamese higher education contexts in this study reveals a mixture of distributed and collaborative leadership in curriculum design and delivery which can provide insights for other Vietnamese universities. It also revealed that senior leaders and EFL lecturers appear to work collaboratively to solve the issue of curriculum design and delivery. The findings have implications for policy development and practice. Suggestions made by employers and graduates to institutional leaders, curriculum developers and lecturers are to consider redesigning the curriculum to have a more communicative focus and more oral practice to ensure graduates are better prepared for work. The study has brought insights for senior leaders on how to create successful collaboration with their colleagues and partners in curriculum design and renewal and provided guidance on the enhancement of educational leadership practices in the two chosen universities. The results of this study have contributed to closing the current gaps in understanding how leadership at all levels in higher education impact on curriculum design and delivery. This study will be useful not only in the Vietnamese context but also in other countries where English is taught as a second or foreign language.</p>

Improving Policy Capability and the Quality of Policy Advice with Initiatives: Lessons from New Zealand Public Sector Agencies

<p>There continues to be discourse about declining policy capability at high government levels in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Over the past 25 years, New Zealand public sector agencies have taken various initiatives intended to change policy practices with a view to professionalising policy analysis and advice. Policy practice refers to the activities of policy staff and agencies to contribute to policy analysis and policy advice. The initiatives indicate an ongoing resolve to improve policy capability and the quality of policy advice to the satisfaction of advice clients. This thesis examines the initiatives developed by the central government agencies and three agencies (two policy ministries and one council, a local government, which are collectively referred to as ‘agencies’) in New Zealand. The central government initiatives developed between 1990 and 2015 are examined to identify the concepts and ideas used to improve policy capability and the quality of policy advice and explain the contexts that influenced the initiators’ choice and use of initiatives. The initiatives developed between 2008 and 2015 by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry for the Environment and the Auckland Council are examined in depth to identify and explain the initiators’ choice and use of initiatives. ‘Initiatives’ are used as a means to study organisational choices and activities, centred on the development, use and consequences of initiatives to build, improve or maintain policy capability and ensure high-quality policy advice. The research question addresses what initiatives are developed, why and with what consequences. A qualitative inquiry draws on evidence from the literature on policy analysis, policy advice and policy capability, focusing on the knowledge, skills, competencies and behaviours required to produce policy analysis and advice. Similarities and differences in the drivers, designs and approaches of the initiatives across three cases are analysed using data from documents and interviews with policy staff and experts outside the case-study agencies. The findings relating to central agency initiatives suggest that the focus of policy capability initiatives sought to standardise policy practices, ensure the quality of policy inputs with special attention to the use of evidence, tools and frameworks, bring a future focus to policy analysis, and promote collaborative policy analysis. Overall, these initiatives respond to the contextual conditions emanating from state sector reforms. The findings relating to agency initiatives suggest that policy capability initiatives are driven, approached and designed by the circumstances specific to the organisations (internal influences) and the expectation–response relation between the producers of and clients for policy advice at different levels (external influences). The similarities of the forms of the initiatives with slight modifications in their design but differences in their approaches across the organisations, imply that the initiators are influenced by the contextual conditions. The initiators’ used their insights and experiences to contextualise initiatives and mixed several ingredients for policy capability to ensure both policy analytical and management capability of policy staff. In some instances, they followed local and international practices considered ‘effective’ in other public-sector organisations. At other times, they responded to the circumstances specific to the agency and external influences on policy capability, and focused on meeting the clients’ quality expectations from policy advice. The findings confirm that improving policy capability is strongly reliant on the senior leaders’ and policy managers’ ability to identify and apply an appropriate analytical style to policy analysis and bring practical and contextual considerations to bear on policy advice. The appropriateness of the analytical style is determined by a range of factors such as the nature of clients, nature of the problem, political views on the problem, and the demand and supply of policy skills. The significant influences of contextual variables suggest that policy capability discourse can also be framed as the ability of the policy managers and senior leaders of the organisations to choose policy analytical styles that are fit-for-purpose. This conclusion reveals that the conventional understanding of declining policy capability as due to analytical deficiency is limited in its ability to account for the innovative efforts in New Zealand to improve both policy analytical and management capability at individual and organisation levels.</p>

Improving Policy Capability and the Quality of Policy Advice with Initiatives: Lessons from New Zealand Public Sector Agencies

<p>There continues to be discourse about declining policy capability at high government levels in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Over the past 25 years, New Zealand public sector agencies have taken various initiatives intended to change policy practices with a view to professionalising policy analysis and advice. Policy practice refers to the activities of policy staff and agencies to contribute to policy analysis and policy advice. The initiatives indicate an ongoing resolve to improve policy capability and the quality of policy advice to the satisfaction of advice clients. This thesis examines the initiatives developed by the central government agencies and three agencies (two policy ministries and one council, a local government, which are collectively referred to as ‘agencies’) in New Zealand. The central government initiatives developed between 1990 and 2015 are examined to identify the concepts and ideas used to improve policy capability and the quality of policy advice and explain the contexts that influenced the initiators’ choice and use of initiatives. The initiatives developed between 2008 and 2015 by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry for the Environment and the Auckland Council are examined in depth to identify and explain the initiators’ choice and use of initiatives. ‘Initiatives’ are used as a means to study organisational choices and activities, centred on the development, use and consequences of initiatives to build, improve or maintain policy capability and ensure high-quality policy advice. The research question addresses what initiatives are developed, why and with what consequences. A qualitative inquiry draws on evidence from the literature on policy analysis, policy advice and policy capability, focusing on the knowledge, skills, competencies and behaviours required to produce policy analysis and advice. Similarities and differences in the drivers, designs and approaches of the initiatives across three cases are analysed using data from documents and interviews with policy staff and experts outside the case-study agencies. The findings relating to central agency initiatives suggest that the focus of policy capability initiatives sought to standardise policy practices, ensure the quality of policy inputs with special attention to the use of evidence, tools and frameworks, bring a future focus to policy analysis, and promote collaborative policy analysis. Overall, these initiatives respond to the contextual conditions emanating from state sector reforms. The findings relating to agency initiatives suggest that policy capability initiatives are driven, approached and designed by the circumstances specific to the organisations (internal influences) and the expectation–response relation between the producers of and clients for policy advice at different levels (external influences). The similarities of the forms of the initiatives with slight modifications in their design but differences in their approaches across the organisations, imply that the initiators are influenced by the contextual conditions. The initiators’ used their insights and experiences to contextualise initiatives and mixed several ingredients for policy capability to ensure both policy analytical and management capability of policy staff. In some instances, they followed local and international practices considered ‘effective’ in other public-sector organisations. At other times, they responded to the circumstances specific to the agency and external influences on policy capability, and focused on meeting the clients’ quality expectations from policy advice. The findings confirm that improving policy capability is strongly reliant on the senior leaders’ and policy managers’ ability to identify and apply an appropriate analytical style to policy analysis and bring practical and contextual considerations to bear on policy advice. The appropriateness of the analytical style is determined by a range of factors such as the nature of clients, nature of the problem, political views on the problem, and the demand and supply of policy skills. The significant influences of contextual variables suggest that policy capability discourse can also be framed as the ability of the policy managers and senior leaders of the organisations to choose policy analytical styles that are fit-for-purpose. This conclusion reveals that the conventional understanding of declining policy capability as due to analytical deficiency is limited in its ability to account for the innovative efforts in New Zealand to improve both policy analytical and management capability at individual and organisation levels.</p>

Daughter-mother perspectives on feminist activism in the academy

This article addresses feminist solidarity between a daughter and a mother in academia. We are respectively a PhD student and aspirant early career academic, and a senior academic, both identifying as feminists and engaging in forms of activism to improve gender equality. We take an autoethnographical approach, drawing from vignettes and conversational dialogues, focusing on feminist perspectives, activism, our contested identities, fears and hopes. We reflect on the challenges of living feminist lives whilst working in gendered university institutions and highlight strategies to enact feminism whilst trying to progress and maintain an academic career at different positions on the career spectrum. Our contribution is to highlight differential experiences and understandings of academic activism between daughter and mother, early-career academics and senior leaders, in order to enhance mutual understanding and action on feminist solidarity and praxis in the academy.

The Professional Development of Primary School Teachers with Leadership Responsibilities in a New Zealand Context

<p>Middle and senior leaders in primary schools have an important role with significant accountability and responsibility. They are teaching practitioners who have a large influence on the quality of learning that takes place within a school. Middle and senior leaders carry out the majority of the significant conversations about teaching and learning within a school with the teachers they lead. In 2012 the New Zealand Ministry of Education produced a publication reiterating the importance of middle and senior leaders within schools. As part of that publication they identified the need for ongoing professional development and learning for middle and senior leaders to strengthen their effectiveness as leaders. However no suggestions were made in this document as to what this may look like. The purposes of this multiple case study were to explore what professional development and learning were provided to senior and middle leaders primary schools within the greater Wellington area, how effective the principals and senior middle leaders considered the professional development and learning to be, and to identify which factors enabled effective professional development and learning within a school. To answer the research questions data was collected through an online survey, focus groups and individual interviews. The findings indicated that there were two categories of organisation of professional development and learning provided within different schools; unsystematic and systematic. The more effective systematic system involved the identification of the learning needs of the middle and senior leaders through discussion or co-construction of their job descriptions, leading to a mixture of professional development and learning structures that combined sharing, collaboration and reflection to enhance leadership capabilities. In addition regular mentoring allowed for more effective leadership learning. An important factor determining the success of the professional development and learning was the deliberate actions that were carried out by the principal.</p>