Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'College presidents College presidents Leadership'

Institutions of higher education have a glass ceiling: women are underrepresented in the college presidency with 30% of college presidents as women, 83% white and 17% women of color. By nature, the culture of higher education has been traditionally male centered, with female professors and researchers struggling to advance in their careers. Contributing factors that may lead to the lack of women college presidents may be linked to long-held systemic views of women and gender biases that create barriers in career advancement. The objective of this qualitative study is to explore the ways in which women, from their perceptions, navigated opportunities and managed obstacles as they advanced into the college presidency. For the women who did advance to the highest level of leadership in IHE—the college presidency—what did they experience as they advanced in their career, and what enabled them to navigate the system and transcend the barriers? Qualitative data were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis process through convergent and divergent coding tools. Four key findings emerged from this study: (1) Women were intelligent, talented, successful, savvy, and brave; (2) Servant Leadership; (3) Gender Fluid Characteristics; and (4) Support and Well-Being for current college presidents. This study offers an increased awareness of barriers that are limiting women from progressing to the college presidency in institutions of higher education. It also offers an increased awareness of the phenomenology of women college presidents and the ways that they managed obstacles and took advantage of opportunities as they advanced in their careers.

Leadership has entered an age of chronic unrest. Scholars have emphasized the impact of healthy and effective leaders on organizations (Crother-Laurin, 2006), yet recent studies reveal high stress and burnout in the contemporary workplace (Walsh, 2005, 2013). The academy faces their own organizational challenges, (Archibald & Feldman, 2010) calling into question the health and effectiveness of leaders, especially at the presidential level (Duderstadt, 2010). While the study of college president wellness has been explored through multiple lenses (McNair, Duree, & Ebbers, 2011; Tekniepe, 2014; Walker & McPhail, 2009), some researchers highlight the unique needs of mid-career presidents of private institutions. To date, minimal research has been conducted on wellness for this population. Using the presidential office as the pivotal point of inquiry, this qualitative interpretive constructivist study sought to answer the following research questions: RQ1: How do mid-career college presidents perceive personal wellness? • RQ1a: What value does wellness play in the lives of mid-career presidents? • RQ1b: How do mid-career college presidents apply wellness techniques in their lives? • RQ1c: Have these wellness practices changed throughout their time as president?

Interviews with (N = 10) mid-career private college presidents were conducted, as well as an (N = 1) elite interview with an executive coach. These data were analyzed using Giorgi’s (2009) analytical strategy. Interview observation data and document analyses of various institutional documents (websites and presidential social media) supplemented the data set. Boyatzis’ (1998) data analysis strategy was applied to observation and document data. Hettler’s (1976) six dimensions of wellness were used to guide study design, develop instrumentation, and contextualize the definition of wellness used in this study. Five themes emerged from this study: mid-career college presidents identified the continuous challenges of their position, transitional issues and the need to mitigate stressors, their conscious acknowledgement of wellness, their need for social connections and family, and their efforts to pursue personal wellness in a taxing environment. These findings highlight the complexities of the mid-career college president’s quest for personal wellness. This study may assist academic leaders and board members with the knowledge to develop programs and resources for presidents, supporting wellness for future leaders.

SHARPLES, RUSSELL HORTON. The Importance of Leadership Competencies: Perceptions of North Carolina Community College Presidents. (Under the direction of George A. Baker III) This research investigated the relationship between certain institutional characteristics and perceptions of North Carolina community college presidents about the importance of leadership roles, values and emotions, and skills. Those characteristics were the size of the institution, the growth rate of the institution, and the geographic setting of the institution. The perceptions of three groups of presidents were studied. One group consisted of the presidents of large community colleges and the presidents of small community colleges. The second group consisted of the presidents of high enrollment growth colleges and the presidents of low enrollment growth colleges. The final group was comprised of presidents of urban community colleges and rural community colleges. Fifty-one of the 58 presidents participated in the study, a participation rate of 87.93 percent. The participants completed the Leadership Competencies Assessment Instrument, responding to 30 specific leadership competencies by estimating the degree of energy they expended in addressing each competency, and by estimating their effectiveness in addressing that competency. The means of responses from the first set of presidents in each group was compared to the means of responses from the second set of presidents in each group using the t-test for the difference between means. It was hypothesized that, for each of the three groups, there were no differences in perceptions about the importance of leadership roles, leadership values and emotions, or leadership skills. The results of the tests indicated that there were no differences in perceptions in any of three groups about which leadership roles, values and emotions, and skills were most important. It was recommended that future research address expanding the study population to include other community college systems; conducting future studies using different methodologies in order to increase validity; and additional study of individual leadership competencies and how they affect presidential leadership perceptions.

While progress towards advancing women to private college and university presidencies now stands at 27.3% (Gagliardi, Espinosa, Turk, & Taylor, 2017), more needs to be done to encourage women to pursue these top leadership positions. This study's purpose was to more fully describe the relationship between the inner lives/spiritual practices of current female private college and university presidents and their leadership. This study may serve to explicate the connection hypothesized by Fry (2008) in his Spiritual Leadership Theory between inner life/spiritual practices of spiritual leaders and the spiritual leadership components of hope/faith, vision, and altruistic love. This study may also provide insight on how spiritual practices support successful presidencies. The research design was a transpersonal phenomenological study using intuitive inquiry methods as developed by Anderson (2011), with roots in Moustakas's (1990) heuristic research and feminist approaches. It features a five-cycle hermeneutical process. The methodology included purposively sampling current female college and university presidents for semi-structured interviews. Intuitive inquiry includes the discernment of preliminary lenses held by the researcher regarding the topic and revised lenses developed during the analysis of the data (Anderson, 2011). Preliminary lenses included intimacy, alignment, immediacy, being present, and resilience. Of the preliminary lenses, all were included in the final presentation of lenses. One, alignment, was unchanged in its definition, while intimacy, immediacy, being present, and resilience were revised. Three new lenses emerged from the Cycle Four process: authentic calling, calling to members, and formation. Linkages between the lenses were also identified and explained in Cycle Five. The Cycle Three findings identified eight overarching themes and 23 related categories of meaning in the data. Theoretical implications of the study confirm the hypothesized relationship in Fry's (2008) Spiritual Leadership Model between spiritual practices and altruistic love. Less evidence was apparent to support hypothesized connections between spiritual practices and hope/faith or hope/faith to vision. Spiritual practices did impact the development of vision for participants working to shift attention to firmer missional and financial footing. The relationships affecting followers' Spiritual Well-Being were also confirmed through the connections evidenced between vision and calling and between altruistic love and membership.

American community colleges are facing the dual dilemma of replacing the increasing number of presidents who are retiring, and promoting more diversity among their successors. Mentoring is viewed as a way of helping minority faculty and administrators acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to advance successfully into senior leadership roles. This study utilized a mixed-methods phenomenological approach to explore the differences in the perceptions of preparedness for their first presidency among Black/African-American community college presidents, who were mentored through an afro-centric leadership development program; other formal, national leadership programs, or mentored informally. The study was framed by five research questions exploring possible differences in participants’ backgrounds, career paths, and perceived impact of mentoring. Survey findings revealed few demographic differences among the respondents. Themes emerging from qualitative interviews of 12 randomly selected presidents indicated differences in perception regarding the impact of the psychosocial and career development aspects of mentoring in preparing for the presidency. The study identified the importance of context in determining the types of mentored relationships, and may offer insights regarding the role of mentoring in developing future minority presidents.

Higher education is an immense sector with more than 20.4 million students, 4 million employees including 1.6 million faculty members, and estimated aggregate expenditures exceeding $400 billion not including the for-profit institutions. Colleges and universities are among our nation’s most important social institutions, knowledge generators, and economic drivers, and they have a vital role in the shaping of our global world. There are intense external and internal factors, and many stakeholders with diverse and often competing perspectives, with which college and university presidents must effectively engage in their critical leadership role.

This research identified and described the trait emotional intelligence of college and university presidents. The study was grounded in the functionalist paradigm. Core components of the theoretical framework were the trait emotional intelligence theory (Petrides & Furnham) and the concept of effective leadership (Kouzes & Posner). Using a census strategy and survey research design, 300 presidents participated and completed the TEIQue-SF. Key findings and conclusions included: (1) the majority of college and university presidents have high well-being, self-control, emotionality, and sociability factor and global trait emotional intelligence, (2) the majority of college and university presidents have higher emotional intelligence than the general population, (3) the majority of college and university presidents demonstrate leadership effectiveness, and (4) there are opportunities to enhance trait emotional intelligence in a subgroup of college and university presidents, thus enhancing the leadership effectiveness of those presidents.

The new empirical knowledge about the emotional intelligence of college and university presidents provides a foundational springboard for future research to elucidate and expand knowledge in the areas of authentic leadership, charismatic leadership, the full range of leadership (transformational/transactional), leadership effectiveness, and higher education. Also, this new knowledge may be helpful to learning more about how to work with loosely coupled systems, change organizational culture, identify and deal with perceived resistance to change, and leadership development (Burke, 2011). Findings of this study may be beneficial to college and university presidents, boards of trustees/regents, search firms, higher education associations, and consultants.

The study achieved a large study sample. Strategies contributing to the successful recruitment of the large sample are described and are transferable to other studies—especially dissertation research—and other study populations.

An imminent wave of community college president retirements is well-documented in the literature, which will likely contribute to a serious leadership void on American community college campuses (American Association of Community Colleges [AACC], 2013; Eddy, 2013). To address this impending leadership crisis, governing boards must focus on how to develop leaders prepared to meet the unique and increasingly complex challenges of community colleges. In keeping with Katz’s (1955) three-skill conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe trustees’ and presidents’ perceptions about the importance of technical, human, and conceptual competencies to a successful 21st-century community college presidency. In addition to data collected from in-depth, semi-structured interviews, participants ranked a list of 16 common duties of the community college president that occupy the majority of the president’s time. Based on interviews with 15 trustees and eight presidents serving at Missouri community colleges, themes were identified specific to technical, human, and conceptual competencies. Trustees and presidents similarly ranked two common presidential duties: enrollment management and state and federal relations. However, noteworthy differences in trustees’ and presidents’ perceptions were found with six common duties: budget and finance matters, faculty and academic issues, fundraising and alumni relations, governing board relations, personnel and human resources, and strategic planning. Implications for practice were discussed specific to the trustee-president relationship, community college president competencies, institutional fit, succession planning, and the impact of underprepared trustees on the 21st-century president’s success and the institution’s effectiveness.

The study examined California Community College president’s (CCCP) perspective on strategies for generating alternative revenue. The research revealed the CCCPs changing leadership roles, identified best practices in generating alternative revenue, and uncovered future strategies for California community college (CCC) leaders to be less dependent on state and local funding. The study advances the understanding of how community colleges are responding to declining state funding, rising operating costs, and the expanded mission of CCC to serve more students with less funding. A three round Delphi policy survey was conducted to determine what current and future revenue generating strategies are the most effective for community colleges. The research revealed that CCCPs have identified three thematic resource development strategies to develop effective approaches to generate alternative revenue. Thematic strategies for generating current and future revenue generation include (a) Expanding public/private partnerships with business and industry including increasing workforce contract education (b) Expanding the capacity of the colleges foundations and fundraising programs including cultivating diverse donors, and (c) Expanding and utilizing resource stewardship and entrepreneurship endeavors through the development of auxiliary services. Contrary to expectations, findings indicate that the majority of CCCPs are resource dependent on the state, and not fully aware or prepared for generating alternative revenue. The findings indicate that the community college culture is a primary barrier to develop innovated and entrepreneurial strategies to generate additional income. The research supports key arguments for CCC executives to be become more innovative and entrepreneurial in their approach to generating alternative revenue. CCCs will benefit from leadership that builds a responsive entrepreneurial culture and climate. The findings suggest that community college leaders would benefit from training in resource development planning, resource management and stewardship. Additional recommendations include the need to build capacity through professional development in order to expand partnering with business and industry and fundraising. The findings conclude that the community college president’s effective abilities to change the mind-set of stakeholders, be a visible leader in the community, and be a good steward of resources, will have the biggest impact on their competence to generate future alternative revenue and to sustain and vitalize CCCs.