Seng Kiat Kok
Underpinning excellence in higher education – an investigation into the leadership, governance and management behaviours of high-performing academic departments
Kok, Seng Kiat; McDonald, Claire
Authors
Claire McDonald
Abstract
The changes in government funding alongside external pressures of increased international and national competition have meant that higher education institutions need to excel in a turbulent environment. The leadership, governance and management (LGM) of academic departments are key concerns. This study investigates the correlation between behaviours, attitudes and competencies at a department level and overall departmental performance in terms of hard data measures. The research question this paper seeks to address is: what are the LGM behaviours that are associated with high-performance in academic departments? More than 600 people across 50 academic departments in 5 UK universities were surveyed through the use of three research phases consisting of open-ended questionnaires, critical case sampled semi-structured interviews and a fixed-response survey. Synthesising the data and findings of the study revealed a thematic framework of eight broad themes that contribute to excellence in academic departments. These were in the areas of change management, research and teaching, communication, strategy and shared values, leadership, departmental culture, rewards and staffing. The behaviours associated with each of these themes were used to construct the Underpinning Excellence model.
Citation
Kok, S. K., & McDonald, C. (2017). Underpinning excellence in higher education – an investigation into the leadership, governance and management behaviours of high-performing academic departments. Studies in Higher Education, 42(2), 210-231. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1036849
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Online Publication Date | May 8, 2015 |
Publication Date | Feb 1, 2017 |
Deposit Date | Jul 3, 2017 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 19, 2017 |
Journal | Studies in Higher Education |
Print ISSN | 0307-5079 |
Electronic ISSN | 1470-174X |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis Group |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 42 |
Issue | 2 |
Pages | 210-231 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1036849 |
Files
Accepted Journal Article
(579 Kb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in higher education on 08/05/2015, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1036849
You might also like
Risk Management.
(2017)
Book Chapter
Underpinning Excellence: Understanding the Way Things are Done.
(2012)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search