This article explores the complex academic-administrative role of the associate dean in US higher education administration. Previous research in Australia, UK and USA indicates that these academic middle managers experience significant conflict and ambiguity due to their roles and responsibilities as faculty members and administrators. Victor…

In the context of developed countries, a lot of research has been done to uncover and identify the problems school leaders face in their work but little is known about the school leadership of underdeveloped countries. In a quest to discover contextual problems in terms of role conflict and role ambiguity of school leaders, this qualitative study…

This article examines what vice-principals in Singapore experience as constraints to their leadership practice, and how they deal with these constraints, cognisant that role misalignment for vice-principals presents barriers to schools achieving optimal effectiveness. This qualitative study seeks to hear the voices of vice-principals, to uncover…

Using a cross-sectional survey, we collected data from program coordinators at UCEA-member institutions to understand the various roles, time investments, and cost commitments associated with program coordination, including incentives institutions provide (or do not provide) for assuming such responsibilities. We seek to improve our understanding…

From the perspective of role theory and its attendant construct role strain, we examine open-ended survey responses to an online survey from 47 program coordinators at a R1 university conducted during the 2021-2022 academic year. Results suggest that beyond the era-specific challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and satisfactions realized from…

This study explored the perceptions of deputy directors about their leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres in Finland. Our aim was to look beyond task distribution and understand how deputy directors enacted leadership with their colleagues. Six deputy directors employed in one municipality in Finland participated in this study.…

Academics have historically been members of socially dominant groups--white, cisgender, heterosexual men, from middle- to upper-classes, who identify as able-bodied and able-minded. Members of other groups are often disadvantaged. In two larger studies, semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals from marginalized groups. Here we…

Academics in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), similar to their counterparts in other disciplines, receive little formal preparation when they take on academic leadership positions. Yet such career changes require different skill sets and expose academics to complex challenges of leadership. We (three academics) initiated this study to…

Universities in most countries have become more managerial, but in different ways, for different reasons, and with different results. This article explores the collegial and managerial roles and qualifications of Canadian university deans. The study analysed 223 job advertisements published between 2011 and 2015. The analysis distinguishes between…

Literature shows that the role of academic middle managers (AMMs) has been a subject of contestation for a long time the world over owing to the fact that there has not been a clear cut articulation of what exactly this role constitutes or means. Such a situation according to literature has tended to affect the way the AMMs enact their role in…

Management training in ELT organizations is often inadequate. New managers are in severe need of training, especially for tasks which are non-pedagogical, yet they operate in a milieu where there are few opportunities for support compared with colleagues in mainstream education. The purpose of this case study, a rare evidence-based contribution to…

The experience of headteacher socialization has been described as challenging and often traumatic for new headteachers. The research reported in this article provides a theoretical explanation of that experience by analysing the socialization of new primary school headteachers in England from a role boundary perspective. The role boundary is the…

This paper examines middle leadership of the heads of English, maths and science departments in four international secondary schools in Malaysia. It focuses on their roles, responsibilities, role relationships, instructional engagement and leadership involvement within the theoretical framework of instructional, distributed and teacher leadership.…

Conflict may occur in any organization (and hence school) and, for schools, conflict management style is a joint activity and the degree of its effectiveness determines the type of impact of conflict on school performance. This empirical study investigates the potential sources of conflict in Greek primary schools, determine appropriate approaches…

This article provides a detailed description and analysis of how one Canadian institution used groups of department heads as change agents to address their most acute department head role tensions. It is demonstrated that this institution's change initiative aligned very closely to the recommendations proposed, in both the literature pertaining to…