Framing research into university governance and leadership: Formative insights from a case study of Australian higher education

Croucher, Gwilym; Wen, Wen; Coates, Hamish; Goedegebuure, Leo

doi:10.1177/1741143219893101

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…, 2020), it is important to highlight that the most studied dimension over the years, according to the present study, has been performance in teaching and learning activities. This result is understandable, since this is one of the traditional missions of higher education (Croucher et al. , 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

What research tells us about leadership styles, digital transformation and performance in state higher education?

Carvalho

Alves

Leitão

2022

IJEM

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Purpose Considering the current importance of leadership, digital transformation and performance in the changes state higher education institutions (HEIs) have been subject to, this study aims to present an analysis of how these three concepts have been related in the literature.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposes to study the state-of-the-art of research on leadership styles, digital transformation and performance in a single study, through a systematic literature review using two major databases, ISI Web of Science and Scopus.FindingsThe results reveal that the most common leadership style in the articles analysed is transformational; the most studied dimension of performance is the one representing teaching and learning activities; and the most discussed aspects of digital transformation are those concerning online learning systems and various types of technology. Identifying gaps in the literature, a future research agenda is formulated.Originality/value Amongst the theoretical implications of this study are the importance of understanding leadership styles and digital transformation for better understanding of state HEIs' performance as well as its dimensions, considering the relations found between these constructs. Therefore, there is greater theoretical advancement in the study of transformational leadership, diverse educational technologies, online teaching systems, global performance and teaching/learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

What research tells us about leadership styles, digital transformation and performance in state higher education?

Carvalho

Alves

Leitão

2022

IJEM

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“…Analysing context data revealed much about the characteristics of people who reach the presidency, what they have studied, their working years, and appointment processes. This analysis worked from an analytical framework validated by Croucher et al (2019). Most presidents are in their 60s (average age 62) with a small number in their 50s and one aged over 70.…”

Section: Leadership Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interviews touched on the presidents' executive leadership teams. As global universities have expanded there has been a proliferation of executive and managerial roles and these teams have grown to form a very substantial and intimate facet of each president's leadership (Shattock 2013;Shepherd 2017;Croucher et al 2019). These teams are the senior managerial decision-making bodies which are vital in helping presidents develop policy and catalyse action.…”

Section: Leadership Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global university president leadership characteristics and dynamics

Liu

Hong

Wen

et al. 2020

Studies in Higher Education

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This exploratory paper articulates the development, characteristics and nature of global university presidents and their leadership. It draws insights from a growing project which so far has involved in-depth interviews with 18 presidents of major globally focused universities. Analysing and reporting these interview results reveals the enigmatic world of presidential leadership broadens this field of research beyond the Anglosphere, helps build interpretative frameworks and perspectives, and furnished insights for guiding leadership development. The exploratory findings reinforce the particular value of studying university presidents, as these people have enormous authority, expertise and prominence.

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“…Diversity of participation in sustainability decision-making or even sustainability activity can complicate the delivery of sustainable outcomes. The lack of diversity in senior management of universities (Croucher et al, 2020) can make decision-making less complicated because fewer views need to be accommodated and taken into account. Sustainability is a contested and illdefined concept, so the presence of a greater diversity of voices, and especially greater disparity between the perspectives these voices offer, means that coming to agreement and working in coordination can be challenging.…”

Section: Diversity In Participation In Sustainability Work and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

How to Repurpose the University: A Resilience Lens on Sustainability Governance

Robinson¹,

Pedersen²

2021

Front. Sustain.

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Universities have an important role in moving society towards a more sustainable future. However, this will require us to repurpose universities, reorienting and refocusing the different university domains (education, research, campus, and outreach) towards sustainability. The governance structures and processes used to embed sustainability into the activities and operations of the institution are critical to achieving the required transformation. Our current university systems which are seen as contributing to socio-ecological system unsustainability are resilient to change due to slow variables such as organisational and sector-wide prevailing paradigms and culture. Therefore, to repurpose a university requires us to destabilise our prevailing system, crossing a threshold into a new stable system of a ‘sustainable university' across all its domains. This paper utilises an adaptation of Biggs et al. (2012) resilience principles for the governance of social-ecological systems to provide a framework to consider aspects of university governance for sustainability that can be utilised to repurpose universities towards sustainability, and destabilize unsustainable elements of the system. This paper draws out examples relating to sustainability governance within universities with regards to the four principles of (i) managing diversity and redundancy, (ii) managing connectivity, (iii) managing slow variables and feedbacks, and (iv) encouraging learning and experimentation within the context of complex adaptive systems. In this article, we have shown that using resilience in a non-normative way is possible (to decrease resilience of an unsustainable system), and that it can also be valuable to help understand how to shift organisational governance towards a particular end-state (in this case, university governance that advances sustainability). This paper provides an example of how to operationalise resilience principles of relevance to the resilience literature as well as providing a practical framework to guide higher education institution governance for sustainability.

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Framing research into university governance and leadership: Formative insights from a case study of Australian higher education

Cited by 25 publications

References 21 publications

What research tells us about leadership styles, digital transformation and performance in state higher education?

What research tells us about leadership styles, digital transformation and performance in state higher education?

Global university president leadership characteristics and dynamics

How to Repurpose the University: A Resilience Lens on Sustainability Governance

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