Developing Management Skills of Academic Professionals

Abstract

In the higher education setting, managers function in a variety of ways and with a variety of titles. While Vice Presidents for Finance or Academic Affairs are managers, so are deans and department chairpersons. Also, principal investigators, research team leaders, and graduate advisors perform specific management roles. Faculty members manage the time and efforts of large numbers of students in the learning process. The faculty also makes management decisions regarding curricula and professional and support personnel. A common thread in this variety of management roles is that the individuals involved are academic professionals. Much of what is called management training in other settings is missing in academia. Academic decision making traditionally depends upon the development of consensus of approaches among professionals, but typically few institutions have programs for developing needed skills.At Texas Tech University, as in other institutions of higher education, we have a continuing turnover of academic professionals across the spectrum of positions with management responsibilities. Chairpersons, deans, advisors, etc. don't remain in their positions permanently. So, the development of consensus in decision making is complicated by changing players. From To Improve the Academy: Resources for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Development, Vol. 7. Edited by J. Kurfiss, L. Hilsen, S. Kahn, M.D. Sorcinelli, and R. Tiberius. POD/New Forums Press, 1988. 204To Improve the Academy Initiation An associate vice-president for research, with prior service as a department chairman and associate dean, first suggested the need for a program to assist in developing academic leaders. He invited me, his counterpart in academic affairs, to help in developing a program. The idea grew as needs for better academic managers were discussed. In the usual academic tradition we looked at needs and goals expressed in professional writings. Institutions in such diverse places as South Africa and Thailand (Kapp and Kaewsonthi, 1982) and, more recently, the United Kingdom (Sizer, 1987) have noted similar needs and aims. We accepted meeting the need for improved human relationships as a primary goal.Next, we approached the president with an outling plan for organizing a program for development of academic management skills. With his approval we then invited individuals who represented several levels of management within the lJ Diversity to serve as an Advisory Board. That advisory board team quickly expanded itself to include members from the adjacent Health Sciences Center (HSC). The team discussed needs and began to set sub-goals as foci for training activities. As the goal setting discussions developed, the group expanded itself again to include members from the regional campuses of the HSC. Within a few weeks and a few meetings we had gone from a conversation between two administrators to a formal structure with an Advisory Board of over a dozen participants and a target group of over 200. The Advisory Board, at an early meeting, d...