The department chair is a complex middle-management position located at the organizational fulcrum between faculty and senior administration. This qualitative study sought to develop a deeper understanding of chairs' experiences when enacting their dual roles as managers and scholars. Using a basic interpretative study design, we interviewed 10…

Advances in technology and a shifting demographic of post-graduate students have resulted in a larger than ever number of off-campus PhD students. These students tend to be less satisfied than their on-campus counterparts with their candidature experience. Improving the current situation requires effort from multiple university stakeholders,…

The paper is informed by a research study exploring middle leadership as experienced by Chairpersons of Departments within one faculty in a university in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is argued that middle leadership in higher education needs to be understood as a highly complex relational endeavour, characterised by compromises that are negotiated…

This paper presents the findings of a research project that examines how middle leaders in Singapore schools understand "quality education" and how they think quality education can be achieved. From the perspective of these middle leaders, quality education emphasises holistic development, equips students with the knowledge and skills…

This study aims to analyze how the middle management at university handle with the order versus freedom dilemma--bureaucratic discipline, professional expertise; coordination, communication; managerial planning and individual initiative by giving a university case. A survey was applied on two different sample groups. 607 middle managers and…

The purpose of the current article is to reflect systematically on articles published in Leadership and Policy in Schools (LPS) since its foundation in 2002 to the present time (2016). Based on qualitative content analysis of the journal's articles, it was found that "LPS" has published articles about clear and demarcated areas of study,…

The purpose of the study was to determine if there was a difference in the ratings among senior administrators/managers, middle managers and classroom teachers of the four dimensions of leadership performance related to high-performing principals in the Jamaican public school system. The study showed that there were differences in how senior…

The purposes of this study were to identify factors of midlevel student affairs administrators' professional identity and to examine the association of those factors to career commitment, career entrenchment, and demographic characteristics. Principal axis factor analysis derived 3 dimensions of professional identity: career contentment, community…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between middle level managers' quality of leadership and good governance, and organization performance of Wolaita Sodo University. The study employed descriptive survey method and used quantitative approach. College/school Deans, Department heads and Coordinators were source of data.…

Although "talented employees with unique knowledge and skills are increasingly being viewed as a valuable asset and a source of competitive advantage" in the private sector (Yukl, 2008, p. 710), identification, selection, and development of potential leaders are often inadequate or too late in public institutions (Bisbee, 2007). Studies…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate ethical leadership in the context of the Arab educational system in Israel. It questions the relations of ethical leadership dimensions with decision making as well as background characteristics of the educational leaders. Design/methodology/approach: Arab educational leaders (n=150) from…

This paper reports on a study that investigated the appraisal of middle leaders in three New Zealand secondary schools in order to determine what constituted effective performance appraisal and how this practice could be improved from the perspective of this middle tier of leadership. Overall, appraisal was variably practised and seen as a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the findings from research on the relationship between leadership theory and policy reform in Malaysia. Distributed leadership is normatively preferred in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), the country's major policy reform document. The research was conducted in two dissimilar…

The inspectorate's judgements about a school's educational quality in the Netherlands are to a large extent based on sophisticated desk research, risk analyses and analyses of the school's self-evaluation reports. This relatively distant mode of inspecting schools relies on rational ideas about organizational management and control while aspects…

Academic values and norms have as a consequence of the wave of European higher education reforms been put under pressure by the increasing expectations and demands of flexibility, entrepreneurialism and accountability. This article examines how these changes affect identity construction processes at department head level in the case of Danish…