Leadership and Governance

Abstract

There is a diverse flow of decisions and requests within the multilevel architecture of universities. The ecosystem level reinforces the values and norms of the overall enterprise while also deciding on policies and allocating resources. Campuses, colleges, schools, and departments also decide on policies and allocate resources, as well as approve hiring, promotion, and tenure of faculty members, based on recommendations emerging from the process and practice levels. As discussed in Chapter 7, there are processes for hiring, promotion, and tenure that are usually carefully followed to avoid subsequent objections. There are also processes for approving curricula and courses, scheduling courses and classrooms, and so on.All of the above is facilitated via a mixture of leadership and governance. Leadership facilitates creating the vision, choosing directions, and securing and allocating resources. Without a good measure of top-down leadership, typical academic cultures would lead to a fragmented enterprise that tried to be all things to all people. As elaborated in the next section, success depends on leaders not becoming just managers. University faculty members can be inspired by good leadership, but alienated by strong management.Governance is the process whereby decisions get made. Universities typically operate via shared governance between the administration and board of trustees or regents and the faculty. The administration and board govern securing and allocating resources for budgets, facilities, etc. The faculty governs curricula and courses, awarding of degrees, and hiring, promotion, and tenure. The faculty governs in the sense that they make recommendations to the administration and board. Usually, but not always, the recommendations are approved.