Leadership, power and activity systems in a higher education context: will distributive leadership serve in an accountability driven world?

Abstract

Leadership often becomes a topic of analysis when discussing challenges faced by higher education in an increasingly accountability‐driven world. This article examines leadership practices in one New Zealand higher education context. Rather than examining the traits and practices of strong leaders, however, it explores the effectiveness of a community‐centred distributive approach to leadership. It asks what role distributive leadership might play in higher education today and how effective it might be in preserving collegial cultures. The article first theorizes distributive leadership and associated concepts such as accountability, activity systems and power. Then, using a critically reflexive process, it presents three vignettes in a case study of distributive leadership in practice to assess its effectiveness in maintaining collegiality. Finally, in the article, I tentatively answer the research question by discussing how distributive leadership might mitigate the effects of an accountability‐driven higher education world.

Notes

This article has constructed one view of distributive leadership, illustrated it through a case study and addressed, but not completely answered, the research question ‘what role might distributive leadership play in higher education today and how effective might it be in preserving collegial cultures?’ The very tentative response to the question is that it can play a considerable role, provided the meaning of accountability is reframed to mean being mutually responsible to all other actors in the higher education enterprise, rather than merely meeting auditable standards. People and their relationships matter.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Zepke

Nick Zepke is an Associate Professor at the School of Educational Studies, Massey University College of Education, Private Bag 11035, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Email: n.zepke@massey. ac.nz. He researches within adult education, with a special interest in higher education, with divided interests in the sociology of knowledge, futures, leadership and policy studies on the one hand, and learning, teaching and assessment, on the other. He has published widely in these areas with his most recent work focusing on improving student outcomes and policy studies with special reference to accountability.