From the ground up: building a system-wide professional development and support program for academic department chairs

ABSTRACT

Actions of academic chairs can dramatically affect a university's effectiveness and productivity, yet many department heads move into their roles without having experienced any training on many key aspects of the job. Within one multi-campus university system, it became evident that the system lacked a consistent tool, resource, or experience benefitting its 160+ department heads. Thus, the objectives of this study were to: (1) identify existing and needed training and support opportunities for academic chairs; (2) determine the content, commitment, and delivery preferences of the department heads for such a program; and (3) inform the design of a new initiative that addresses the department heads’ needs and preferences. Findings revealed a clear need for the development of interpersonal skills and departmental planning abilities, as well as a strong preference for informal, face-to-face programming.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• leadership
• professional development
• department chair
• system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 To ensure anonymity of the respondents, one demographic question asked department heads to identify with one of six major disciplinary categories; (1) STEM fields; (2) Humanities, History, and Fine Arts; (3) Social & Human Sciences, Education, and Communications; (4) Agriculture and Natural Resources; (5) Medical, Health, & Veterinary fields; and (6) Professional Schools. All six disciplinary categories were well-represented in the survey responses.