The evolution from new faculty to department chair, through tenure and promotion, has been widely studied, yielding ideas for success. The move from department chair back to faculty status is less studied, with fewer insights in the literature. This article offers a brief review of literature related to becoming and stepping down from the role of…

Department chairs serve a vital function at community colleges. They are middle managers, mid-level leaders, and faculty members. They serve a unique position within the organization because they interact with nearly every unit: academics affairs, student affairs, senior administrators and students. At a time when professional organizations are…

This paper provides a small-scale exploration of the evolvement of leadership roles in higher education academic units (AUs), namely Departments, Schools & Faculties. A literature review provides theoretical examples of the evolution of professional services (PS) staff. Changes in PS leadership roles are also explored alongside the emergence…

As excellence in teaching and learning, in combination with a focus on student performance rates, are guiding the demands placed on higher education institutions, modern universities are attributing strategic importance to leadership of teaching and learning. Previous studies on educational leadership have, nevertheless, identified significant…

The purpose of this study was to understand the extent to which novice department leaders believe they have been supported in their roles. Previous research has suggested that department leaders have unique needs due to the lack of clarity in their roles and responsibilities. The literature further reflected the inconsistent support provided to…

Knowledge management is one of the valuable dimensions essential for the educational institution to support teachers' performance. Therefore, the role of leaders in encouraging teachers to create and share knowledge is vital to earn a competitive advantage. This research was planned to find the relationship among leadership styles…

This article takes the author's personal experience of being a Head of Department (HOD) in an English University, and frames this experience as a transition narrative. The format draws on the work of Sandra Acker, who framed her own experience as a Head of Department in Canada, in three areas. Utilising literature both on Higher Education…

The research presented here contributes to research and practice focused on faculty leadership development by examining the leadership pipeline for mid-career faculty in a consortium of 13 liberal arts colleges. Research findings revealed that mid-career faculty members are in the leadership pipeline, with the department chair position serving as…

The role of faculty in gathering, analyzing and using student learning data is growing and changing, but still underrepresented in the higher education research literature. While faculty are often expected and required to participate in assessment work, some faculty go beyond assessment work as service to take leadership roles. Using data…

In the present phenomenological qualitative research study, we conducted interviews with 14 professors whom returned to full-time faculty positions after having served in department chair positions at a Midwest, comprehensive, private university. Interviews explored the professors' experiences as they reflected on their time working as chair, and…

This paper critically explores the opportunity for leadership development in higher education within an interpretative inquiry paradigm from the perspective of middle-level academics transitioning into leadership/management roles in Australian universities. Middle-level academics are described as being at a mid-point in their careers and…

Effective role adjustment is crucial for the successful transition of chairs from faculty to academic leaders. Drawing on the data from semi-structured interviews with a select group of Filipino department chairs, this qualitative grounded theory inquiry applies Weick's framework of sensemaking to the analysis of their role adjustment process. The…

Professor James Wang was chosen by his department colleagues to chair the university department, but he soon realized that leading his colleagues and driving departmental growth were more difficult than teaching and conducting research. Departmental student enrollment had been unsatisfactory in the past few years. Professor Wang met various…

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…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate sustainability research collaborations between the City of Vancouver and the University of British Columbia (UBC), as a case study to better understand how to use city-university partnerships to advance effective urban sustainability policy and practices. The study compiles a basic inventory of partnerships…