This study measures the perceptions of departmental culture from both the adjunct faculty and departmental administrator perspectives. The preparation for this study included the development of a validated survey designed to collect mirrored perception data from both groups. Multiple factors in higher education have led to an overreliance on…

More than 40 years ago, Hicks and Ridley (1979) asserted the need for Black Studies in psychology across American colleges and universities. Their study is one of few, if not the only, that has examined the frequency and types of course offerings in Black Psychology. Thus, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the current state of Black…

Leadership roles in higher education are still held predominately by white male leaders while women of color, especially, struggle to be recognized, hired, and/or appointed as leaders. In popular culture, though there have been films and television series that focus on student life on campus, there have been few representations of life as a leader…

The Faculty in Higher Education Survey collects data from approximately 853 higher education institutions on over 270,000 full-time faculty (tenure track and non-tenure track), as well as academic department heads and adjunct (pay-per-course) faculty. Data collected for full-time faculty include: salary, supplemental salary, and course relief (for…

Middle-level academic managers play a central role in university management; however, their roles are not always clear and straightforward. Although this research subject has been comprehensively investigated in the last 40 years, most studies are western-biased. This study examines the roles of Heads of Department in a newly established…

Disciplines codify related knowledge and have developed powerful approaches that enable both solutions to a wide variety of problems and efficient further extension of knowledge. Individual disciplines have translated into individual departments within universities. Academic departments tend to turn inward, deepening the knowledge within the…

The head of department position has been an integral role in the organisational structure of colleges and universities for over a hundred years. Recently, many institutions of higher education have called on department heads to provide advancing quality management and leadership to academic units in response to an increasingly complex and…

There is an adage common among deans and provosts: The board is concerned with the care and feeding of the president; the faculty is concerned with the care and feeding of the faculty. The implication--and why it brings a knowing smile to any chief academic officer's face--is that no one seems concerned with the care and feeding of the CAO. Small…

When a recent accreditation review report and an assessment consultant report both identified issues with assessment and shared governance, the three faculty governing bodies of National University met with the Provost and President to brainstorm and discuss a shared governance action plan to address these issues. As a result of this meeting, the…

The role and responsibilities of the chair of an academic department in higher education is considered from the perspective of both actor and agent, within the context of the institution being served and the department being represented. The intent of this article is to further research on the role of department chair by analyzing it in the…

While women have made progress in many areas of higher education, institutions still need to focus attention on the advancement and retention of women at the highest academic ranks. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education's 2005 Fall Staff Survey, women represent only 40.6 percent of full-time faculty and 25.1 percent of full…

Observing that the chairperson must at minimum be able to reconcile the role expectations of the institution and department with those of the individual, the author discusses the chair's specific role in establishing missions and goals, in communications, and in decision making. A sampling of twenty-nine specific functions is also presented. (DTT)

The Biglan model, a theoretical framework for empirically examining the differences among subject areas, classifies according to three dimensions: adherence to common set of paradigms (hard or soft), application orientation (pure or applied), and emphasis on living systems (life or nonlife). Tests of the model are reviewed, and a further test is…

This book presents 11 contributed papers which examine communication aspects of the department chair position in academia. It is noted that most academic department chairs are not trained in management skills, including communication strategies. After an introductory chapter by Christopher H. Spicer and Ann Q. Staton, the following papers are…

The role of department chair is not one of power or authority, but rather one of service to the community and one's colleagues. The chair must commit to work diligently and balance the often conflicting needs of students, staff, faculty, and administrators. (LB)