Office of Academic Affairs Office of Faculty Affairs

Academic Leadership Series

Sponsored by the Office of Faculty Affairs and instructed by Dr. Stefan Niewiesk

The Academic Leadership Framework, developed by Ohio State's Stefan Niewiesk and Gates Garrity-Rokous, is adapted for faculty, and Academic Leadership Series participants benefit from seven one-hour training sessions aligned with the six domains of the framework (plus an integration session) explaining pertinent skills, knowledge and concepts. The training is directed towards daily application and does not require administrative experience.

Session outline and dates (each from 4-5 p.m.)

Values and behaviors | Feb. 13

Institutional values have to be translated into behaviors, and reverse analysis of behaviors can be used to evaluate issues of organizational climate. Different styles of leadership, management and negotiation are being discussed, the concept or motivation as emotional needs, as well as basic work skills. 

People | Feb. 20

Recruitment is explained as balancing recruitment with evaluation using structured recruitment and behavioral interviewing. For development of people, different development models and techniques are being introduced (committees, individual mentoring, peer learning, critical friends).

Decision making | Feb. 27

A formal decision making instrument is introduced, differences between shared and participatory government are explained and guidelines provided for group work and group decisions. 

Goal-setting | March 5

Strategic action planning and doing, change and crisis management are discussed. 

Organization | March 19

A review of the organizational structure of the university, college and department using simple tools (six-box model, academic unit review) supports the analysis of university organizational structures. 

Oversight | March 26

The tools for oversight of performance (productivity and professional behavior) are explained using the cycle of expectations, evaluations and consequences. 

Integration | Apr. 2

An administrative problem of general interest is used to detail how skills, knowledge and concepts from different domains can be integrated for resolution.

Academic Leadership Framework summary

The Academic Leadership Framework is a competency framework based on the general management and academic leadership literature. The proposed framework defines and treats separately the broadly distinguishable “domains” of leadership competence from the individual “competencies” that collectively compose each domain. In other words, a “competency” is an observable ability of an individual related to a specific activity that integrates knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. When integrated, these competencies coalesce into broad distinguishable “domains” of competence. Taken together, these domains of competencies aggregate into a general descriptive framework for academic leadership. 

The six domains of competence and their respective subdomains are shown in the figure to the right.

 

Academic Leadership Framework Domains and Competencies

1. Values and Behaviors

  • Institutional Values and Professional Attitude
  • Professional/Personal Development
  • Work skills

2. People

  • Recruitment
  • Development

3. Decision making

  • Individual Decision Making
  • Shared Governance

4. Goal-setting

  • Strategy
  • Change Management
  • Crisis Management

5. Organization

  • People
  • Resources

6. Oversight

  • Assurance of Productivity
  • Assurance of Professional Behavior

 

Circular workflow chart composed of six light grey arrows with red borders circling a dark grey center circle. Each arrow has text bulleting the 6 domains of the academic leadership framework which includes 1. Values and Behaviors, 2. People, 3. Decision making, 4. Goal-setting, 5. Organization, and 6. Oversight.

Spring registration closed

Applications for the fall sessions will be opening soon.