What makes a leader successful? As the Director of Research at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's (VICC) Clinical Trials Office, the author had to think of new ways to engage employees when becoming the director nearly 15 years ago. The staff started a GLUE (Greater Loyalty Utilizing Empowerment) Committee. The committee was established to…

If one looks at the different philosophies on leadership, each espouses various attributes that are essential to create a bond between the leader and the followers who are being led. This article is intended to focus on how the bond is created that provides the leader with the vehicle for success. Trust is the glue which binds the leader to…

With the arrival of online survey tools that are low-cost, readily available and easy to administer, all organizations have access to one of the most effective mechanisms for determining quality improvement priorities and measuring progress towards achieving those priorities over time. This case study outlines the use made of this simple tool by a…

Bullying may be more common than most people think. According to a study commissioned by the Workplace Bullying Institute, one in three employees experience bullying in the workplace either as a victim or as a witness suffering collateral damage. Bullying is a serious problem. Directors, managers, and staff members need to ensure that it does not…

Leadership is defined as "the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group" (Dictionary.com). Most think of a leader as the head of an organization. I challenge that: every single person is in a position to be a leader even if they are not the head of an organization and do not have direct reports. There are…

Servant leadership is a critical concept for understanding the ongoing importance of research administration as a central profession of service within the culture of research itself. The leadership of research administrators is both a unique gift and a challenge to the research culture. To ensure the continued productivity of the research…

This study investigated the correlations between science research group members' perceptions of power bases used by their group (lab, team) leader (coercive, reward, legitimate, expert and referent) and the effect of those perceptions on group members' attitudinal compliance, behavioral compliance, and satisfaction with supervision.…

Research managers at science-intensive institutions appear as a continuously evolving group of professionals whose identity is somewhat fragmented, even to themselves. In Portugal, specialized research manager roles have rapidly emerged over the last years alongside the development of a small but consolidated scientific system. In order to get an…

Academic institutions modified their financial conflict of interest policies (FCOI) in response to the Public Health Service's (PHS) 2011 revised regulations (42 CFR 50 Subpart F) on "Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research and Responsible Prospective Contractors" (45 CFR 94), which were to go into effect…

Although the Faculty Learning Community is not a new structure or initiative in the higher education arena, adapting this model for faculty development focused on grant proposal writing is relatively new. This article describes how the concept developed by Milt Cox of Miami University has been successfully modified and implemented twice on the…

Call it innovation, creativity, imagination, cutting edge, paradigm shift, or any other term for new information, an assessment of innovation may now impact the final decision on awarding grants to investigators. What exactly is innovation and how does the reviewer perceive innovation in the research approach? Procedures, the approach, and…

The Certified Research Administrator (CRA) certification has enjoyed success and recognition among research administration professionals. However, this recognition is parochial and does not extend much past the walls of research administration. Results of a recent research study showed that Principal Investigators value and expect certain aspects…

Communicating with investigators about financial compensation in the area of statistical collaboration represents an important but often underemphasized component of biomedical research. The more complex the area, the greater the need for sound and effective communication strategies. Ittenbach and DeAngelis (2012) recently compared two…

This study explored the types of stressors prevalent in the self-reports of university research administrators (URAs) and examined whether or not the degree or type of role stress was influenced by: a) the affiliation of their office unit within their institution, or b) their type. Randomly selected members of NCURA were invited via e-mail to…

Many statisticians are uncomfortable with discussions about the financial implications of their work. Those who are comfortable may not fully understand the policies and procedures underlying the financial operations of the department. The purpose of the present paper is twofold: first, to describe two predominant models of compensation used by…