Turning points in chair‐faculty relationships

Abstract

Researchers have generally ignored the role of communication in academic leadership as it relates to chair‐faculty relationships. A turning point analysis was employed to examine what types of communicative events influence the construction, maintenance, and alteration of chair‐faculty relationships. Seven types of turning point were discovered: (1) performance evaluation, (2) recognition, (3) support, (4) trustworthiness, (5) job interference, (6) outside interaction, and (7) interpersonal discussion. Trustworthiness turning points promoted the greatest negative change in faculty perceptions of the chair‐faculty relationship and significantly decreased the amount of personal information a faculty member would share with the department chair. Subsequent analysis revealed that department chairs pursuing benevolent goals (e.g. helping socialize the faculty member regarding department expectations) were perceived as moving the chair‐faculty relationship in more positive directions while department chairs pursuing impersonal or selfish goals (e.g. lying to the faculty member in order to gain information) were perceived as moving the chair‐faculty relationship in negative directions.