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Leadership Succession: How New Deans Take Charge and Learn the Job

August 30, 2001

"Academic leaders may be the least studied and most misunderstood management position anywhere in the America.  The transformation to academic leadership takes time and dedication, and not all faculty can make the complete transition to leadership.  This study addresses the personal challenges academics face in successfully responding to 'the call' for academic leadership.

 To become an expert takes time.  Studies of experts in the corporate world who attain international levels of performance point to the ten-year rule of preparation (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993).  In the American university, seven years represents the threshold for faculty to attain the status of expert in order to achieve tenure and promotion at the associate professor level, and another seven years to achieve the rank of full professor.  If it takes seven to fourteen years to achieve expertise in our academic disciplines, why do we assume we can create an academic leader with a weekend seminar?  Of the over 2,000 academic leaders I have surveyed, less than 10% have leadership development programs in their universities. 

 This study addresses several questions leading to how deans successfully make this transition to leadership.

 What socialization process do academics go through to get settled into a new deanship?

1. What are the keys for successful entry into the deanship?
2. What critical events shape how academic leaders progress through these stages and how successfully they take charge?
3. What individual and organizational strategies and tactics are used to assist new deans complete a successful transition?
4. What are the surprises and challenges new deans face the first two years in their position?
5. What can new deans, universities and faculties do to make the transition period more successful and productive?

 The current ethnographic study of a dean was undertaken to investigate the organization socialization process of a new dean and draw practical implications for institutions and individuals.  The researcher began to seriously study the problems and challenges of dean transition for a very practical reason: He assumed an interim 'inside' dean position in 1997 and accepted an 'outside' dean position at another institution in 1998.  In order to understand the stages of leadership transition and how deans adapt to their transition, this three-year qualitative case study of one dean was undertaken.  A number of data gathering techniques were used to comprehensively investigate this period of transition: a personal daily journal of activities, beliefs and reflections kept over a three year period; a record of daily schedules documenting each day's activities; a series of semi-structured, open-ended interviews conducted by an outside researcher; and documents of the events and challenges facing the college during the period of study. 

 Even after the offer is accepted and the 'new' dean comes to campus, this is only the beginning.  Now that the new dean has the job, how will she or he begin the work:  The incorporation of the new dean followed a predictable pattern similar to the corporate executives as they 'took charge' of their new positions: (1) taking hold, (2) immersion; (3) reshaping; (4) consolidation; and (5) refinement (Gabarro, 1985). 

While the new dean in this study has not yet completed the incorporation phase of taking charge, several lessons can be learned from the experience of corporate successors in John Gabarro's study.

 In general, comparison of failed and effective transitions found that front-end work is critical in clarifying expectations with the bosses.

1. Effective successors kept their superiors informed, especially about changes they were proposing during the take-hold phase.
2. Successful managers were more aware of their limitations in skills and experience and compensated for them by engaging in learning activities and consulting their colleagues
3. Taking charge took time and there were no quick fixes. 
4. Socialization of academic leaders in higher education appears to be left to chance.
5. The new dean's phases of incorporation are similar to the executives' in terms of active learning and action orientation; however, the length of time and timing of each stage may be more predictably influenced by the academic calendar.
6. Both research and practice used to inform each other in the theoretical understanding of leadership succession and strategic practice of successful leadership.

The corporate sector informs us that there are three principal approaches to leadership education; individual skill development; strategic interventions that promote collective vision; and socialization of leaders values and visions (conger & Benjamin, 1999).  In higher education, the development of academic leaders is at a critical juncture.  While the corporate world complains that they have simply progressed from the Bronze Age of leadership to the Iron Age, we fear that in higher education we may still be in the Dark Ages.  It is our hope that inquiry into the academic leader's socialization sheds some light to help illuminate the way to the Building Age of our leadership capacity (Gmelch, 2000, pp. 69-87)."

 Reference:  Gmelch, W. H. (2000).  Leadership succession: how new deans take charge and learn the job.  The Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(3).

 The Journal of Leadership Studies is available on loan from the OSU Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

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Created: 2007-11-09, Updated: 2009-02-18