Mapping the leadership development of UK (full) professors in terms of cognitive, experiential, humanist and social learning

ABSTRACT

This article applies Walker’s Global Leadership Development Ecosystem to the leadership development offered to and/or valued by (full) professors at UK universities. It draws on 1,282 survey responses and 42 one-hour interviews. The survey data indicate that approximately 39% of respondents felt adequately prepared for the role, on appointment, whereas 29% did not, with a further 28% feeling it ‘to some extent’. Male (full) professors were statistically more likely than their female counterparts to say they felt adequately prepared. The qualitative data reveal a small amount of cognitive/formal learning (whose value was sometimes disputed), some experiential learning, very little humanist learning (which may reflect distinctive features of the academy) and widespread social learning (which was universally praised). Most participants thought preparation was important and that informal, self-initiated, self-directed and personalised learning opportunities (particularly coaching and mentoring) were more valuable than formal training courses. The article concludes by arguing that focusing on leadership development (as opposed to leader development) may help the professoriate avoid burn-out and achieve greater organisational development.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• leadership development
• full professors
• social learning

Acknowledgements

The research was funded by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS). The Principal Investigator was Professor Linda Evans (University of Manchester). Dr. Matt Homer (University of Leeds) provided some statistical support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Throughout this paper, I will refer to ‘UK higher education’ because the data come from all four jurisdictions (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). Without doubt, the four systems are becoming more distinctive as a result of different funding regimes and accountability structures. However, with regard to academic labour, the similarities still outweigh the differences. I am using the term 'professors' for those who have achieved the highest academic rank in UK academia and who would be deemed full professors in USA academia. This term excludes academics of lower ranks e.g., 'assistant professors' or 'associate professors'. Similarly, the term 'professoriate' is used as the collective noun for all (full) professors at a university (excluding all lower-ranked academics).

2 r(64) = .36, p < .05

3 r(64) = .26, p < .10

4 r(64) = .28, p < .10

5 r(64) = .28, p < .10

6 The item asking respondents to rate the importance of professorial academic leadership from 1 (‘not at all important’) to 10 (‘extremely important’) had skewness -1.834 (SE = .069) and kurtosis .030 (SE = .138).

7 The item asking respondents to rate their current work-related morale, from 1 (‘very low morale’) to 10 (‘very high morale’) had skewness -0.852 (SE = .069) and kurtosis 5.230 (SE = .138).

8 The Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference in the proportion of males and females answering ‘definitely’, ‘to a large extent’, ‘to some extent’, ‘not really’ and ‘not at all’ when asked if they felt adequately prepared in their earliest days as a professor. U(male=879, female=332)=(131722, z=-2.720, p=0.007).

9 The Athena Swan Charter was established in 2005 to encourage more women to pursue HE careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine. The Charter now aims to address gender inequality more broadly.

10 To avoid compromising anonymity, the academic disciplines of respondents from Newcastle University have not been given.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Leadership Foundation for Higher Education; British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS).