Leadership Behaviour and Effectiveness of Academic Program Directors in Australian Universities

Abstract

This study focused on leadership behaviour and effectiveness of university Academic Program Directors who have responsibility for managing a program or course 1 of study. The leadership capabilities were assessed using the Integrated Competing Values Framework as its theoretical foundation. Data from 90 Academic Program Directors and 710 Significant Others within four Australian Universities were analysed. The results lead to the conclusions that these Academic Program Directors were reasonably effective and had the ability to implement and further develop their leadership capabilities, even though they had no formal authority. In their role, these Directors mainly focused on "getting the job done" and "working with people". At the same time, they placed less emphasis on monitoring their programs, maintaining networks and introducing changes, thereby putting their programs at risk.

Leadership Behavior of Deans And Its Impact on Effectiveness for Quality in A High Ranking University

“…However, their overall effectiveness is found to be negatively skewed which is in agreement with earlier findings by Scott, Coates and Anderson (2008) and Vilkinas and Ladyshewsky (2011). Since many Malaysian universities are striving to achieve high international rankings, most of the efforts by the deans focus on securing research grants and recruiting highly-promising faculty members who can provide excellent teaching and produce high-quality research and publications.…”

“…In order to overcome such resistance, deans must encourage lecturers to discard old values and embrace new ones (Elwood & Leyden, 2000). Although many scholars have emphasized the leadership behaviors that lead to organizational effectiveness in school systems and business (Vilkinas & Ladyshewsky, 2011), little research in higher education has been conducted on the dean's role in program quality. Therefore, this study intends to identify the leadership behaviors to fill this research gap.…”

“…This influential framework has been utilized as a map for delineating organizational leadership portraits and conducting comprehensive studies (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, & McGrath, 2003;Trivellas & Dargenidou, 2009b;Vilkinas & Ladyshewsky, 2011). This framework comprises four major leadership orientations that describe eight distinct roles as shown in Table 1.…”

‘If there is a job description I don’t think I’ve read one’: a case study of programme leadership in a UK pre-1992 university

“…Vilkinas & Ladyshewsky, 2012), I sought to gather data from PLs themselves. Following an exploratory discussion with a PL from another institution, which suggested key areas for inquiry, I engaged seven PLs in semistructured interviews.…”

“…For example, Howson (2012) Researchers have identified a lack of recognition and respect afforded to the role, which might reflect the comparative 'invisibility' of PLs' service efforts for students (see Figure 1). It has led to feelings of isolation in their work (Howson, 2012), and is consequently regarded by some academics as a 'career killer' (Vilkinas and Ladyshewsky, 2012).…”