How many of us have had someone, usually a faculty colleague, say to us, “I couldn’t stand doing administrative work” or “I wouldn’t want your job”? Job descriptions for administrative posts include impressive-sounding requirements like “outstanding scholar/teacher with administrative experience” and “creative visionary with proven record of academic leadership,” and position descriptions talk about “leading and providing vision, leadership and oversight of the maintenance and development of quality academic programs,” and promise such things as working with “a visionary president, a highly productive and engaged faculty, and an exceptionally strong senior leadership team.” Yet somehow the day-to-day work seems much more humble as we spend our days and too many of our evenings and weekends running from meeting to meeting and event to event, mediating disputes that run the gamut from banal to absurd, and dividing our energy among the competing demands of students, faculty, public entities, and our immediate supervisor. The reality of the day-to-day tasks is often at odds with the ideal.
Many administrators were recruited into administration from faculty positions because of a need to help out in a time of crisis, filling a position that suddenly became vacant. That was the scenario that drew the two of us into the administrative life. Neither of us ever intended to become academic administrators; in fact, when the opportunity arose, we faced it with a healthy dose of skepticism. In spite of our reluctance to leave the classroom and our scholarly endeavors, we accepted the challenge because we were team players who wanted to help our departments in a time of need, and we also believed that we could make a difference, we could make things better through administrative channels, and in our years at this type of work, we have made things better in many ways. However, we continue to ask whether the struggle to do so has to be so great. What is it about higher education administration that makes us feel like Sisyphus, always rolling a boulder uphill? Why is it that we so often feel that our gains are minimal in relation to the effort we expend?
The leadership challenges in higher education administration differ from those of administration in the business/for-profit sector. One unique challenge of academic leadership involves the dynamic of leading peers. As we noted, a great many academic administrators began their careers as faculty and continue to hold rank and tenure
in their academic departments. As academic leaders we work with our peers; they are highly intelligent individuals who have been trained to be skeptical and critical, who do not accept new ideas without challenge, and who do not necessarily hold academic leadership in high regard. One does not “boss” a tenured professor. The penchant of academics to thoughtfully consider and examine in detail every proposed change and the necessity of prolonged discussion and debate about issues make rapid response to environmental pressures nearly impossible for institutions of higher education. Yet, flexibility and rapid response to environmental factors is a requisite for survival in the twenty-first century.
A further difficulty we have in higher education is defining and measuring our outcomes, our product. A computer company or a restaurant has clearly defined goals and can usually pinpoint with fine accuracy where and how to address loss in sales or glitches in production. Higher education is being called on to perform similar feats, but creating a graduate for the twenty-first-century workforce is a very different kind of operation, one that has suffered from attempts to compare it with a factory or business enterprise.
These challenges in addition to mounting pressures for higher education to change have led to growing cynicism and frustration for all of us in higher education. Many academic administrators feel increasingly dissatisfied working within a system that at times appears to preclude change, making their effort seem unrewarding.
Many administrators were recruited into administration from faculty positions because of a need to help out in a time of crisis, filling a position that suddenly became vacant. That was the scenario that drew the two of us into the administrative life. Neither of us ever intended to become academic administrators; in fact, when the opportunity arose, we faced it with a healthy dose of skepticism. In spite of our reluctance to leave the classroom and our scholarly endeavors, we accepted the challenge because we were team players who wanted to help our departments in a time of need, and we also believed that we could make a difference, we could make things better through administrative channels, and in our years at this type of work, we have made things better in many ways. However, we continue to ask whether the struggle to do so has to be so great. What is it about higher education administration that makes us feel like Sisyphus, always rolling a boulder uphill? Why is it that we so often feel that our gains are minimal in relation to the effort we expend?
The leadership challenges in higher education administration differ from those of administration in the business/for-profit sector. One unique challenge of academic leadership involves the dynamic of leading peers. As we noted, a great many academic administrators began their careers as faculty and continue to hold rank and tenure
in their academic departments. As academic leaders we work with our peers; they are highly intelligent individuals who have been trained to be skeptical and critical, who do not accept new ideas without challenge, and who do not necessarily hold academic leadership in high regard. One does not “boss” a tenured professor. The penchant of academics to thoughtfully consider and examine in detail every proposed change and the necessity of prolonged discussion and debate about issues make rapid response to environmental pressures nearly impossible for institutions of higher education. Yet, flexibility and rapid response to environmental factors is a requisite for survival in the twenty-first century.
A further difficulty we have in higher education is defining and measuring our outcomes, our product. A computer company or a restaurant has clearly defined goals and can usually pinpoint with fine accuracy where and how to address loss in sales or glitches in production. Higher education is being called on to perform similar feats, but creating a graduate for the twenty-first-century workforce is a very different kind of operation, one that has suffered from attempts to compare it with a factory or business enterprise.
These challenges in addition to mounting pressures for higher education to change have led to growing cynicism and frustration for all of us in higher education. Many academic administrators feel increasingly dissatisfied working within a system that at times appears to preclude change, making their effort seem unrewarding.
