Academic leadership : a qualitative postmodern study of five university deans

Abstract

This research examines the leadership attributes of deans and their critical success factors (CSFs), as well as the main features of deaning (what deans do), to address the paucity of literature about academic leadership in Hong Kong. Effective deaning makes a significant difference to the management of universities, contributing to economic growth and innovation, which can bring further investments to education. The research purposes are to understand the multiplicity of perspectives of five deans, gain a deeper appreciation of contemporary deaning practice, and to encourage academic leaders to equip themselves for leading in higher education. Adopting Holliday’s postmodern framework (2016), this investigation employed interview research, incorporating case and narrative approaches, to analyze the experiences of five deans from four top universities in Hong Kong. Semi-structured interviews were supplemented by triangulation focus group (TFG) sessions, document analyses and observational data. 19 compelling stories contributed by the elite informants were full of rich, thick descriptions, and analyzed to highlight the nuances of leadership attributes in higher education. The results corroborate overseas studies on academic leadership attributes and highlight relevant characteristics under contemporary challenges. The research may also appeal to academics overseas, especially those interested in working in Asia. The study identifies eight main features of deaning: Becoming a Dean, Role and Responsibilities of a Dean, Bad Deaning, Cross-cultural Leadership, Women Leadership, Deans’ Worries, Future Deaning and Recommendations on Equipping for Leadership. They provide a more holistic understanding on the practice. The main significance of this study is the theoretical contribution towards an effective deaning framework, adapting Spendlove’s competencies (2007) and informed by a practice-based perspective grounded in the deans’ CSFs. This conceptual framework comprises three elements: Attitudes, Behaviours and Core knowledge (henceforth ABC), to guide competency development for academic leaders. The ABC of Effective Deaning Framework synthesizes the multiple perspectives of the deans by focusing on what did or did not work for them in practice, to inspire a vision of excellence, contributing to personal career aspiration and talent enhancement within university management. Regarding practical significance, the co-constructed stories with deans were based on their “everyday life” experiences, which serve as authentic examples of social constructivism with contextual factors. Examining the deans’ self-reporting of their lived experiences and CSFs combines their emic perspectives with the researcher’s etic lens. It is illuminating in terms of understanding leadership attributes which can be effective for achieving a university’s organizational goals. The 19 stories featured provide compelling insights on leadership in higher education, which may be relevant to academic leaders for reflexive learning. Future research topics are suggested in the conclusion, ending with some personal reflections.