Leadership for Academic Units: A Performance Improvement Model for Department Chairs, Deans, and Academic Vice Presidents (and those who aspire to be)

Introduction

Faculty at most academic institutions clamor for additional resources to support their teaching, research, and service activities. The senior administrators at those same institutions point to those faculty members and exhort the institution’s supporters to lobby for and support efforts to obtain larger appropriations from state legislatures. Senior administrators are currently devoting more of their effort to the pursuit of larger fundraising goals.

Rarely, however, is equal attention given to how effectively those dollars are being spent. This focus on more but not how was illustrated in 2003 when a former university president was appointed interim chancellor of East Carolina University. During his remarks to the Faculty Senate, ...