Leadership in higher education: social and communication aspects of the university image

Abstract

This paper analyses the complex of factors that influence the efficiency of the university activity in terms of image problems. The phenomenon of the image of the university leader (in this case a university rector) is considered by us as a symbolic construct based on a number of socio-psychological determinants. The paper determines the structure of the image of the university, the stages of managing the image of the university are identified, which are revealed on the grounds of the developed system of communicative integrators. We arrive at a conclusion that certain University integrators act as factors and results of communications and their system includes such aspects as: an integrator-factor (strategic goal); integrator-result (holistic image); integrators of the internal environment of the university; and an integrator as a concept uniting the communicative activity of the university. The work with these integrators is aimed at implementing an updated version of the communicative policy of the university. Based on our obtained results, we come up with some practical recommendations for managing the image of the university within each of the communicative integrators. Our results might be of special interest for higher education policy planners and regulators.• study of the role and functions of images in the social and communicative space, methods of managing various images; • creation of social technologies for image management, development of specialized image technologies.