This important new work will help department chairs, faculty, and administrators understand and address the increasing complexity of relationships within higher education, as well as the growing influence of external factors. The Department Chair as Academic Leader is a completely updated revision of Allan Tucker's seminal contribution, Chairing the Academic Department, last published in 1992. This work reflects the approach used in the ACE Workshops for Division and Department Chairs and Deans.

This collection of chapters presents research focused on emerging strategies, paradigms, and theories on the sources, experiences, and consequences of stress, coping, and prevention pertaining to students, teachers and administrators. Studies analyze data collected through action research, program evaluation, surveys, qualitative interviewing, auto ethnography, and mixed methods gathered from students and educators in the United States, Italy, Holland, Turkey, and Australia.

With the imminent demographic shifts in our society and the need to prepare students for citizenship in a global, knowledge-based society, the role of the academic department chair in creating diverse and inclusive learning environments is arguably the most pivotal position in higher education today. In the United States, increasing minority student enrollment coupled with the emergence of a minority majority American nation by 2042 demands that academic institutions be responsive to these changing demographics. The isolation of the ivory tower is no longer an option. This is the first book to address the role of the department chair in diversity and addresses an unmet need by providing a research-based, systematic approach to diversity leadership in the academic department based upon survey findings and in-person interviews. The department chair represents the nexus between the faculty and the administration and is positioned uniquely to impact diversity progress. Research indicates that more than 80 percent of academic decisions regarding appointment, curriculum, tenure and promotion, classroom pedagogy, and student outcomes are made by the department chair in consultation with the faculty. This book examines the multidimensional contributions that chairs make in advancing diversity within their departments and institutions in the representation of diverse faculty and staff, in tenure and promotion, in curricular change, in student learning outcomes and in departmental climate. The scope and content of the book is not limited to institutions in the United States but is applicable to academic institutions globally in their efforts to address the access and success of increasingly diverse student populations. It addresses institutional power structures and the role of the dean in relation to the appointment of chairs and their impact on the success of chairs from non-dominant groups, including female, minority, and lesbian/gay/transgendered individuals who serve in predominantly white male departments. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the book analyzes predominant structural and behavioral barriers that can impede diversity progress within the academic department. It then focuses upon the opportunities and challenges chairs face in their collaborative journey with faculty and administration toward inclusive departmental and institutional practices. Each chapter provides concrete strategies that chairs can use to strengthen diversity in the academic department. Addressed to department chairs, deans, faculty, and administrative leaders in higher education in all Western societies facing demographic change and global challenges, this book offers a critical road map to creating the successful academic institutions that will meet the needs of our changing populations.

With the imminent demographic shifts in our society and the need to prepare students for citizenship in a global, knowledge-based society, the role of the academic department chair in creating diverse and inclusive learning environments is arguably the most pivotal position in higher education today. In the United States, increasing minority student enrollment coupled with the emergence of a minority majority American nation by 2042 demands that academic institutions be responsive to these changing demographics. The isolation of the ivory tower is no longer an option. This is the first book to address the role of the department chair in diversity and addresses an unmet need by providing a research-based, systematic approach to diversity leadership in the academic department based upon survey findings and in-person interviews. The department chair represents the nexus between the faculty and the administration and is positioned uniquely to impact diversity progress. Research indicates that more than 80 percent of academic decisions regarding appointment, curriculum, tenure and promotion, classroom pedagogy, and student outcomes are made by the department chair in consultation with the faculty. This book examines the multidimensional contributions that chairs make in advancing diversity within their departments and institutions in the representation of diverse faculty and staff, in tenure and promotion, in curricular change, in student learning outcomes and in departmental climate. The scope and content of the book is not limited to institutions in the United States but is applicable to academic institutions globally in their efforts to address the access and success of increasingly diverse student populations. It addresses institutional power structures and the role of the dean in relation to the appointment of chairs and their impact on the success of chairs from non-dominant groups, including female, minority, and lesbian/gay/transgendered individuals who serve in predominantly white male departments. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the book analyzes predominant structural and behavioral barriers that can impede diversity progress within the academic department. It then focuses upon the opportunities and challenges chairs face in their collaborative journey with faculty and administration toward inclusive departmental and institutional practices. Each chapter provides concrete strategies that chairs can use to strengthen diversity in the academic department. Addressed to department chairs, deans, faculty, and administrative leaders in higher education in all Western societies facing demographic change and global challenges, this book offers a critical road map to creating the successful academic institutions that will meet the needs of our changing populations.

What are the demands of being a dean? What leadership development do deans need as they progress through their academic careers? How are their responsibilities changing? What are institutions looking for in applicants? This book identifies the range of leadership skills required, and illuminates the process of building leadership capacity, by drawing on interviews with over 50 sitting deans, both women and men; on the insights derived from conducting professional development seminars for several hundred deans; and on the authors' 48 years of collective experience in eight different deanships. The abundant examples and accounts of individual deans' leadership successes and failures, and the competences they developed along their career paths, give the reader a taste of what the deanship is really like--and how the role changes over time. In the process of gathering their data, and tracing their own and others', administrative journeys, the authors found similarities in how deans progress as leaders, in the common rites of passage they encounter, and in the evolution of their role. They describe the stages or "seasons" of the deanship, ranging from getting started - the first three years of deanship (springtime), to hitting your stride - years four to seven of deanship (summer), and keeping the fire alive - eight years and beyond of deanship (fall), through to planning to step down and leaving the role (winter). What also emerged from the authors' research is that most deans come to their positions without leadership training, without prior executive experience, without a clear understanding of the ambiguity of their new role, or its responsibilities. This book fills a void by offering guidance on applying for a deanship, preparing for the role, and purposefully building the needed skills and knowledge. For anyone considering taking on a deanship, this book offers a unique window into the role. For sitting deans, it offers a compass for shaping the trajectory of their careers.

What are the demands of being a dean? What leadership development do deans need as they progress through their academic careers? How are their responsibilities changing? What are institutions looking for in applicants? This book identifies the range of leadership skills required, and illuminates the process of building leadership capacity, by drawing on interviews with over 50 sitting deans, both women and men; on the insights derived from conducting professional development seminars for several hundred deans; and on the authors' 48 years of collective experience in eight different deanships. The abundant examples and accounts of individual deans' leadership successes and failures, and the competences they developed along their career paths, give the reader a taste of what the deanship is really like and how the role changes over time. In the process of gathering their data, and tracing their own and others', administrative journeys, the authors found similarities in how deans progress as leaders, in the common rites of passage they encounter, and in the evolution of their role. They describe the stages or "seasons" of the deanship, ranging from getting started - the first three years of deanship (springtime), to hitting your stride - years four to seven of deanship (summer), and keeping the fire alive - eight years and beyond of deanship (fall), through to planning to step down and leaving the role (winter). What also emerged from the authors' research is that most deans come to their positions without leadership training, without prior executive experience, without a clear understanding of the ambiguity of their new role, or its responsibilities. This book fills a void by offering guidance on applying for a deanship, preparing for the role, and purposefully building the needed skills and knowledge. For anyone considering taking on a deanship, this book offers a unique window into the role. For sitting deans, it offers a compass for shaping the trajectory of their careers.

This book explores the links between stress and performance in schools and helps principals actually thrive on stress for their success. Gmelch and Chan explore ways to generate the proper amounts of stress for optimum stimulation and performance: first to stimulate the principals to become effective and second to control stress in order to achieve success.

The first part of the book provides a stress check up assessment and foundation for using stress for success. The second part assists with the problems of rustout and burnout. Self-assessments and coping techniques are provided along with foundations for maintaining peak performance. The book concludes with a compilation of helpful stress resource guide material.

This collection of chapters presents research focused on emerging strategies, paradigms, and theories on the sources, experiences, and consequences of stress, coping, and prevention pertaining to students, teachers and administrators. Studies analyze data collected through action research, program evaluation, surveys, qualitative interviewing, auto ethnography, and mixed methods gathered from students and educators in the United States, Italy, Holland, Turkey, and Australia.

This book explores the links between stress and performance in schools and helps principals actually thrive on stress for their success. Gmelch and Chan explore ways to generate the proper amounts of stress for optimum stimulation and performance: first to stimulate the principals to become effective and second to control stress in order to achieve success.

The first part of the book provides a stress check up assessment and foundation for using stress for success. The second part assists with the problems of rustout and burnout. Self-assessments and coping techniques are provided along with foundations for maintaining peak performance. The book concludes with a compilation of helpful stress resource guide material.

Dr. Gmelch follows a sensible, pragmatic sequence of presentation in this book. . . . This book would be a definite asset for all academic libraries. In fact, I would urge departmental chairs and deans to issue it to each graduate student completing their program and entering higher education and each new assistant professor joining the faculty. --Academic Library Book Review Anxiety, frustration, and strain leading to stress and burnout. Who hasn't felt these pressures to some degree? Stress is a common feature of academic life--and not always a bad thing--according to education professor Walter H. Gmelch, who has studied faculty stress for 15 years. "Positive" stress can actually help make you a more productive scholar. But, how do we manage those little (and not so little) annoying moments and patterns of behavior that build up to the boiling point by the end of the week? Based on his extensive research, Gmelch outlines the chief forms of faculty stress and its major causes. He then provides concrete advice on what you can do about the negative stressors in your job and in other areas of your life. Replete with exercises to help understand how stress affects you and forms to help you build a plan to cope with this stress, this book will be welcome relief for any faculty member.