Critical Functions of the Educational Administrator

Abstract

Morsink identifies the functions that higher education administrators have in common with educational adminis trators in school districts and educa tional agencies; then she identifies those contextual variables from which differ ences in the critical functions of school, college, and departments of education (SCDE) chairpersons and deans might be inferred. Data were obtained in inter views with 70 educational adminis trators, 36 of whom were SCDE Deans or Chairpersons. Responses to the inter view questions were transcribed, syn thesized, and compared with previous findings on administrative "best prac tices" reported in the literature. The re sults suggest that educational adminis trators view two of four common "tasks" identified in earlier research as among their most important functions. These include (a) providing leadership in achievement of the organization's goals, and (b) supporting personnel to enable them to achieve these goals.

Using vignettes to search for education deans

“…They arrange and organise personnel and material resources to accomplish objectives of immediate importance. They help faculty move in directions that correspond to the overall mission of the institution (Morsink 1987), which requires different types of interpersonal/negotiation abilities to be able to mediate with and between faculty to help them work together to move in general alignment with college expectations. The interpersonal/negotiation abilities required for mediating between administration and faculty, and between faculty, involve different degrees of responding to critical persons in the organisation and working within and between groups within a university setting (Wepner, Hopkins, Damico and Johnson 2010).…”

Table of Contents

“…The result today, especially in large universities with large colleges, is an ill-defined midmanagerial position (Gould, 1964;Stein and Trachtenberg, 1993). Stripped of some of their original aura of power (with the inception of the provost) but delegated more responsibility, deans now seem to elicit criticism as "consequential but frequently ineffective" (Coladarci, 1980;Fagin, 1997;Morsink, 1987).…”

The Leadership Dimensions of Education Deans

“…They arrange and organize personnel and material resources to accomplish objectives of immediate importance. They help faculty move in directions that correspond to the overall mission of the institution (Morsink, 1987).…”