DEANS PERSPECTIVES ON EFFECTIVE BUSINESS SCHOOL LEADERSHIP: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

Transcription

1 DEANS PERSPECTIVES ON EFFECTIVE BUSINESS SCHOOL LEADERSHIP: A CONTENT ANALYSIS Green, Ronald F., East Tennessee State University (greenr@etsu.edu) Spritzer, Allan D., East Tennessee State University (spritzer@etsu.edu) Proceedings of the 9 th Annual Meeting, American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences, February, pp ABSTRACT Business school leaders are faced with a myriad of challenges as they lead their organizations. Particularly challenged are new deans who must learn to cope with the rigors associated with the delivery of higher education today. The purpose of this paper is to share the insights of a number of successful business deans with regard to their views on what every new dean should know about being the dean. The paper reports the results of a content analysis of videotaped interviews with twenty-eight business deans and provides insights into what these deans felt to be the essence of effective business school leadership. INTRODUCTION The role of the academic dean has received increasing attention in recent years as the need for quality management in higher education has become essential (Austin,, Ahearn, and English, 1997). Business schools preparing to deal with the numerous challenges facing higher education in the twenty-first century require effective leadership. Yet business school deans face tremendous pressure, as evidenced by the large number of turnovers that occur each year (O Reilly, 199). The insights of experienced business deans with regard to the philosophies, roles and strategies of managing business colleges and schools are sometimes available for students and practitioners to use as they seek an understanding of the factors associated with success or failure in the position of business dean (Stevens, ). In order to assist new deans, AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business has re-established its New Deans Seminar program. During the development of the seminar, a number of videotaped interviews with established, successful deans were conducted and later transcribed. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a content analysis of these interviews and to provide insights into what these deans felt to be the essence of effective business school leadership. BACKGROUND In developing content for the seminar, thirty-five business deans were asked to provide videotaped advice as to what it takes to be an effective dean. Twenty-eight individuals agreed to participate in the interviews. These were held in April 1 in New York City during the AACSB International 1 Annual Meeting. The videotapes were combined and edited to provide video messages for presentation to new deans attending the New Deans Seminar, held in October 1. Before the videotaped interview, each dean was asked to review a list of topics that would be included in the seminar. They were asked to answer the question, What do you think every new dean should know about being The Dean? They were also asked to provide informative comments concerning any of the listed topics that could be incorporated into one or more of the sessions of the seminar. The topics they were provided are as follows: Success Factors for New Deans: Short Term Versus Long Term Careers Planning and Organizing the Business School Mastering the Inside Game Friend Raising, Fund Raising and Fun Raising AACSB Accreditation: Myths, Legends and Realities Challenges and Challengers: Managing in the Cross Hairs Staying Out of Court When the Thrill is Gone

2 When taping the deans comments, the authors identified a number of common themes that emerged. Likewise, there were a number of themes or issues where the deans expressed diverging thoughts. Given the richness of the comments, the authors of this paper decided to conduct a content analysis of the videotapes to identify What every new dean should know about being The Dean. EMERGING AND DIVERGING THEMES During the interviews, a number of themes emerged. The deans consistently stated the importance of the following: Communication skills Need for a vision Need for a consistent management style Importance of trust Developing relationships While the deans expressed the need for communication skills in a wide variety of ways, it was clear that this was a key to success for new deans. Likewise the need for a vision and the other themes listed above were consistently mentioned as being important things that a new dean should have or develop. However, while there were issues in which great consensus seemed to emerge, there were a number of other issues in which the deans seems to have starkly contrasting views. Three specific areas of diverging views were: Relationships with central administration The Best management style Role of the dean as resource gatherer versus resource allocator It was this divergence that led the authors to realize that, while there are certain key success factors of which every new dean should be aware, there are a number of other issues on which deans do not necessarily agree. In order to better quantify these issues, the authors decided to conduct a content analysis of the deans comments. CLASSIFICATION SCHEME In order to analyze the content of the deans comments, the videotaped interviews were viewed by a panel of three observers. Recurring statements of the importance of a wide range of skills that deans should possess were identified and noted. Likewise, a large number of statements reflecting what every successful dean should do were also identified. After reviewing the notations of the independent observers, the authors developed a classification scheme that classified comments in terms of the following: Skills of the dean Roles of the dean Miscellaneous traits and tips associated with good deaning The tapes were then reviewed again and the frequency of the deans reference to the importance of the various skills, roles, and other classification areas were noted. The following section reports on the frequencies for each of the classification areas. The frequencies represent the number of deans who mentioned the importance of each area. If a dean mentioned the importance of a skill or role more than once, it was still recorded as a single occurrence. RESULTS With respect to skills of the dean, four major skills were identified: communication skills, listening/feedback skills, assessment skills, and time/priority management skills. While communication skills were noted the most frequently, as reported in Graph 1: Skills of the Dean, a somewhat surprising second was listening/feedback skills. The deans frequently noted that good deans must be good listeners so that they keep in touch with the needs of the various stakeholder groups that are so important to the business school. Assessment skills were also noted as important, because deans need to quickly understand

3 the college or school s strengths and weaknesses and be prepared to move the school forward. Specifically, the deans interviewed felt that it is important that deans be able to assess the organization s ability and needs, faculty/staff, the college or school s leadership team, and its change potential Graph 1: Skills of the Dean Communication Listening/Feedback Assessment Time/Priority Mgt. A number of different roles of the dean were mentioned. The primary role was that of relationship developer. Virtually every dean mentioned that successful deans must have the ability to develop relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders. Graph : The Relationship Developer Role lists those with whom deans should develop relationships. Note that deans who mentioned relationships with more than one individual or group were recorded more than once Faculty Central Adminisration Graph : The Relationship Developer Role Students Other Deans or Experts Board of Advisors External Stakeholders Secretary or Assistant One role that must be discussed that illustrates a divergence of opinion on the part of the deans is the role of developing relationships with the institution s central administration. A number of deans felt that the dean should be a strong advocate for the business unit in dealing with the central administration. Carrying the needs of the faculty and the college or school to central administration decision-makers such

4 as the provost or vice president for academic affairs was seen as critical to being a successful dean. Others represented the dean as being a political appointment serving at the call of the central administration. Carrying out their wishes so that the college helps achieve the university s goals was described as an important responsibility of the dean. Other deans took a more balanced approach, describing the dean as an advocate of the college, but needing to recognize the need for the college or school to be a good steward of resources provided by the university. Graph 3: Additional Roles of the Dean, lists the other roles of the dean and the number of times they were mentioned. The dean s overall responsibility for keeping the college to its shared vision was the dominating role that was mentioned. One point of concern is the relative low frequency listed for the role of accreditation leader. One rationalization is that, in today s mission driven accreditation process, the dean who has the primary role of keeping the vision of the college is acting as a focal point for the accreditation process. Graph 3: Additional Roles of the Dean Keeper of the Vision Accreditation Leader Change Agent Fund Raiser Reconciliator Developer of the Faculty Fac. Recruiter& Retentioner In addition to the categories of skills of the dean and roles of the dean, a number of the comments were classified into a third category called miscellaneous traits and tips associated with good deaning. Graph : Various Attributes of Good Deaning, lists a number of attributes and the number of deans that mentioned them. Having an appropriate management style was discussed by ten of the business deans. This is significant in that there was no consensus on what that style should be. Primarily the concern was that each dean must decide what works best for him or her and be consistent in dealing with others. Deans who constantly change management styles appear to be inconsistent and indecisive.

5 Graph : Various Attributes of Good Deaning 1 1 Apprpopriate Mgt. Style Patience Trust/Fairness/Respect Making Tough Decisions Avoiding Litigation Appropriate Fac Socialization A Personal Life Understanding Culture Another attribute that was stressed by eight deans was that of having patience. Too often, deans feel pressured to make things happen upon moving into a new position. One dean expressed this by sharing that being a dean is more like a marathon than a sprint. Only by showing patience can a dean allow new programs meeting the needs of stakeholder to emerge. CONCLUSIONS To summarize, the business deans interviewed mentioned a wide range of skills, roles, and attributes that is associated with good deaning. A composite of the advice provided by these business deans would show that successful deans should: have a clear vision be patient communicate well and listen well foster environments of trust, fairness, and respect have a consistent management style work to develop relationships with a wide variety of constituents have an appropriate relationship with central administration. While it may be extremely difficult for any dean to incorporate all of these tips into their leadership of the business unit, those who model themselves after the advice provided by the successful business deans interviewed are more likely to successfully lead their organizations in dealing with the challenges facing higher education in the twenty-first century. REFERENCES Austin, Ahearn, and English (1997). The Professional School Dean: Meeting the Leadership Challenges. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

6 O Reilly (199). What s Killing the Business School Deans of America? Fortune, Volume 13, Number 3, August, 199, -5. Stevens (). The Art of Running a Business School in the New Millennium: A Dean s Perspective. SAM Advanced Management Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3, Summer, 1.