"Developed from the author's extensive background in administration, organizational communication, and conducting training sessions, this book presents communication strategies tailored to the specific responsibilities and contexts of the department chair's position. The strategies are applied in real-life case studies that develop critical thinking and communication skills. Practices, questions, prompts, and analyses walk the reader through the case situations to possible solutions to problems. This is a practical and engaging resource for anyone who communicates with multiple constituencies"--Back cover.
This handbook examines the communication aspects of the management position in academia. Most academic department chairs are not trained in management skills, including communication strategies. While previous works have dealt with personnel and time management issues, this book illustrates how to communicate with faculty, students, consultation teams, and other administrators in ways that improve the workings of a department while decreasing the workload and tension that often accompany the appointment.
As a new department chair, you face many challenges?chief among them that you likely received little or no formal training in academic leadership. You may feel that you face these challenges alone, but in fact a wealth of information and time-tested techniques have been collected over the years from experienced academic administrators. For the first time, this booklet brings together some of the best guidance and strategies that have appeared in The Department Chair, resulting in a collection that is highly relevant to a new chair?s work. The advice contained in these pages can help you build the skills necessary to successfully lead your department. This booklet is full of practical advice that can be put to use immediately, and each article is concisely written so you won?t have to spend valuable time searching for a solution or technique. Whether you?re looking for information on how to work more effectively with your dean, how to better manage your time, how to conduct successful department meetings, or how to best facilitate change, this booklet will help?it covers all these topics and more, from the basics to the specifics. This booklet is structured to provide guidance in four critical areas: chair as leader, getting started, managing conflict, and helping faculty and students thrive. The articles were selected to provide you with timely, comprehensive information. They detail effective practice and represent the best, most innovative thinking on topics and situations you will regularly encounter. This essential resource will become your personal guide as you navigate the responsibilities of your new role as department chair.
THE ESSENTIAL DEPARTMENT CHAIR This second edition of the informative and influential The Essential Department Chair offers academic chairs and department heads the information they need to excel in their roles. This book is about the "how" of academic administration: for instance, how do you cultivate a potential donor for much-needed departmental resources? How do you persuade your department members to work together more harmoniously? How do you keep the people who report to you motivated and capable of seeing the big picture? Thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded, this classic resource covers a broad spectrum of timely topics and is now truly more than a guide it's a much-needed desk reference that tells you "everything you need to know to be a department chair." The Essential Department Chair contains information on topics such as essentials of creating a strategic plan, developing and overseeing a budget, key elements of fundraising, preparing for the role of chair, meeting the challenges of mentoring to increase productivity, and creating a more collegial atmosphere. The book also explores the chair's role in the search process, shows how to conduct a successful interview and what to do when it's time to let someone go. And the author includes suggestions for the best practices to adopt when doing an evaluation or assessment. The Essential Department Chair, Second Edition, contains a wealth of new, realistic case studies to equip leaders in this pivotal position to excel in departmental and institutional life.
Effective communication will make or break a department chair. Get a primer on the essential communication and conflict management skills that every department chair needs. With illustrative scenarios and a toolbox of practical strategies, this book will help department chairs build seven essential skills: - Active listening- Supportive communication- Receiving, evaluating, and acting on complaints- Building rapport- Improving problem solving- Improving meetings- Building buy-inDepartment chairs can use this book as a guide to improve the effectiveness of your communication in your role as a departmental leader, a manager, a coach, and a mentor. Academic deans will find this book to be a useful training guide for all new department chairs
Authors Gmelch and Miskin have focused their academic careers on supporting and training chairs for one of the most challenging jobs in academia. Both have written extensively and have conducted training workshops throughout the country. Here they focus their efforts on the specific skills needed by chairs in order to effectively lead their departments. In the first chapter, authors Gmelch and Miskin, clearly assert their concern for chairs and for their work: The time of "amateur administration"--where professors play musical chairs, stepping occasionally into the role of department chair--is over. Too much is at stake in this time of change and challenge to let leadership be left to chance or taking turns. The department chair position is the most critical role in the university, and the most unique management position in America.... The search for solutions to academia's leadership dilemma leads us to realize that the academic leader is the least studied and most misunderstood management position in America. Leadership in academia has evolved into a complex array of specialized skills. For department chairs, this book becomes an individual leadership seminar, complete with strategies and exercises that will foster growth and encourage professional fulfillment.
A Toolkit for Department Chairs is designed to give academic administrators the skills they need in order to do their jobs more effectively. Combining case studies, scenarios, practical advice, and problem solving activities, the book offers chairs a valuable resource for negotiating the real-life challenges they face as academic leaders. Many of the case studies and scenarios included in this book have been field tested by the co-authors in over thirty years of administrative training workshops. Current and aspiring department chairs will discover many new tools that they can include in their administrative toolkits from this practical, accessible book. A Toolkit for Department Chairs works well as a personal resource as well as a training manual for leadership programs and textbook for pre- and in-service education for department chairs. Some additional key features of this book include: Practicality in that it offers specific strategies to address the many challenges faced by department chairs. Adaptability for use as an individual study guide, textbook for leadership programs, or discussion guide for groups of academic administrators. Utility in that it fills a demonstrated need in the field of higher education since 96-97% of current department chairs have received no formal training in their administrative responsibilities. Easy of use through short, sometimes humorous scenarios and case studies that cause readers to reflect on their own administrative approaches.
With department chairs providing a critical link between faculty and administration, their leadership impacts universities on a broad level. However, chairs often report dissatisfaction with the position and experience rapid turnover. In an effort to help understand the role that communication plays in effective leadership for department chairs, this study provides an empirical test of Gibb's theory of defensive vs. supportive communication. As such, this project investigated the communication and leadership behaviors of university department chairs as evaluated by their faculty members. Specifically, 202 randomly selected faculty members from colleges and universities affiliated with the Council of Independent Colleges, Washington, D.C., comprise the sample. Respondents completed a multi-page survey assessing supportive and defensive communication, Bureaucratic, Machiavellian, and Transformational leadership behaviors of their department chair, and in addition, faculty members evaluated perceived chair effectiveness, their own relational and job satisfaction, as well as organizational commitment. T-tests revealed that more effective chairs utilized all six supportive communication behaviors more and five of six defensive behaviors less than their more negatively evaluated peers. Furthermore, multiple regression procedures explained 53% of the variance in perceived chair effectiveness showing that the supportive behaviors of problem orientation and description and the defensive behaviors of strategy and control were the most powerful predictors. Secondly, a series of regression procedures were used to explore the three types of leadership included in this study; communication behaviors explained 17% of the variance in bureaucracy scores, 69% of the variance in Machiavellianism, and 62% of the variance in Transformational leadership. Lastly, the study explored faculty job satisfaction and commitment using regression models; communication behaviors explained 56% of the variance in faculty job satisfaction and 41% of the variance in organizational commitment. Based on the findings of this study four implications are discussed. The first implication is that communication does indeed matter. The second implication gleaned from this study is that leadership is a communication phenomenon. The third implication discusses the need for policy implementation of training for department chairs. Finally, it is recommended that Gibb's original instrument be utilized in more empirical research to continue to test his concepts validity.
