Leadership & Institutional Change
Readings & Websites

• Avolio, Bruce J. 1999. Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. [234 pp.]
  • Avolio and his colleague Bernard Bass have been trailblazers in helping to understand the concepts of transactional (quid pro quo relationships) and transformational leadership. To be visionary and transformational, leaders must use the four I's - Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized Consideration. Use of the four I's has been demonstrated to result in greater productivity and employee satisfaction.
• Beyond Dead Reckoning: Research Priorities for Redirecting American Higher Education. 2002. Stanford, CA. National Center for Postsecondary Improvement. [25 pp.]
  • Recommends the focus of reasearch at colleges and universities be on those areas that will directly address improving the impact of higher education and the lines of students and on the vitality of society.  Specific recommendations for action by institutional leaders and policy makers are included.
• Bok, Derek. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. 413 pp.
  • The author, a former long-time Harvard University president, surveys the condition of American higher education with respect to its ability to educate its students at a high level and thus serve the human development needs of society. Bok reviews the evolution of American colleges and undergraduate education, faculty attitudes toward undergraduate education, and its purposes. He then devotes eight chapters to various aspects of undergraduate education. These include communication, thinking, character-moral development, citizenship, dealing with diversity and a globalized society, and career development. Bok’s arguments are well-thought out, and he demonstrates command of the relevant professional research literature. The realities beneath public perceptions of undergraduate education in America "are not as impressive as they seem…. When one moves from opinion polls to direct evidence of student learning in college, the reasons for concern grow clearer" (pp. 310-311). His book skillfully illuminates these problems, describes his view of what institutions should be doing in undergraduate education, enumerates important barriers to reform, and makes proposals for change
• Burke, Joseph C. (editor). 2004. Achieving Accountability in Higher Education: Balancing Public, Academic and Market Demands.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass: [400pp.].
  • Guidelines for developing a quality accountability program. Describes a number of approaches and their strengths and shortcomings.
• Change: The Magazine of Higher Education, Washington, DC. Heldref Publications.
  • Published by the Helen Dwight Reid Foundation under the editorial leadership of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Change is the premier publication reporting on the major issues facing higher education in such areas as affordability, national and international competition, academic, student and fiscal affairs, and diversity among institutions.  Should be read by everyone in a leadership role.
• Collins, James C., and Jerry I. Porras. 1994. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. New York: Harper, Collins. [322 pp.]
  • Although focusing upon business, the authors provide examples and insightful narrative on the power of these successful organizations. Chapter 5, "Big Hairy Audacious Goal," and Chapter 11, "Building the Vision," are particularly useful to thinking about vision, mission, and goals. The essentials from the book have also been reproduced in the Harvard Business Review for Change as "Building Your Company's Vision" (from Harvard Business School Press, 1991).
• The Department Chair: A Resource for Academic Administrators. Bolton, MA. Anker Publishing.
  • Designed for deans and chairs, this quarterly publication should be circulating within every school and college.  Covers a wide range of topics from dealing with conflict, ethics, and faculty recruitment to technology and budget development.
• Eckel, Peter, Barbara Hill, Madeleine Green, and Bill Mallon. 1999. On Change: Reports from The Road: Insights On Institutional Change. An Occasional Paper Series of the ACE Projects on Institutional Transformation, no. 2. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education. [12 pp.]
  • The second in a series on 26 wide-ranging institutional transformational initiatives supported through the Kellogg Foundation. A fundamental emphasis is that change is not an event but an "ongoing process in which one change triggers another, often in unexpected places, and through which an inter-relationship of the component parts leads to an unending cycle of reassessment and renewal." The report suggests a number of principles to follow and missteps that prevented change.
• Effective Practices for Academic Leaders
  • This series from Stylus Publishing is an electronic monthly publication that can be networked on your campus, once you subscribe, without permission. Practical and worth a look. http://www.styluspub.com/journals/epal.aspx
• The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century. 2004. Washington, DC. The National Academics Press.
  • This small volume, published by the National Academy of Engineering is must reading for anyone in the sciences and engineering.  It not only addresses the challenges being faced by schools and colleges of engineering in the US but describes, in some detail, the competencies that will be required by engineers in the future.  Has implications for faculty and administrators in all the arts and sciences.
• Field Guide to Academic Leadership 2002 (Robert M. Diamond, Editor.) Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
  • The following chapters in the Field Guide are brief, to the point, and directly related to the content focus of this section:
    • Chapter 2. Requisites for Sustainable Institutional Change by Robert M. Diamond, Lion F. Gardiner and Daniel W. Wheeler. A discussion of the specific knowledge and skills that academic leaders need to institute major institutional change. Introduces the concept of integrated leadership
    • Chapter 3. Leadership and Change by Dale W. Lick. Discusses the distinctions between leadership and management and the leaders role as a change agent in the age of transformation within the academic culture and in a learning society. A number of leadership models are described.
    • Chapter 4. Mission and Vision Statements: An essential First Step by William G. Tierney. Describes the functions of the mission and vision statements, the importance of communicating priorities, and introduces a process for reviewing the clarity of your institution’s mission and vision statements.
    • Chapter 5. Moving Mountains: Institutional Culture and Transformational Change by Judith Ramaley. The questions you should ask before undertaking transformational change. Discusses the conditions required to bring about change, various styles of leadership and the politics of the process. Cultural issues of the institution are addressed as well of the common barriers to change you will need to overcome.
    • Chapter 18. Supportive Financial Systems by Susan Stetson Clarke. A discussion of the components and the desired qualities of an effective and supportive financial system with an emphasis on the relationship and integration of academic and financial operations. Includes an institutional checklist on the integration of budgeting procedures, resources and innovation.
    • Chapter 19. Enhancing Student Learning Through Collaboration Between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs by George D. Kuh and Sara E. Hinkle. Highlights the important relationship between academic and student affairs and reviews what research tells us about the conditions that promote productive collaboration. Includes a discussion of your role in overcoming obstacles and in developing a fruitful collaboration.
    • Chapter 21. Diversity Issues by Joseph H. Silver, Sr. Discusses transforming a culture to support diversity, Includes procedures for assessing your present climate and for getting an initiative underway with the roles of individuals by position. The characteristics of a health climate for diversity are discussed. Strategies for hiring, retention, and common pitfalls are also discussed.
    • Chapter 29. Some Final Observations by Robert M. Diamond. Learning from others, getting initiatives started, selecting your leadership team, and common barriers to change and overcoming them and types of resistance you can expect. A discussion the essential role of the development office in the support of academic and institutional priorities and a look at the future are also included. Concludes with some final thoughts on academic leadership.
• Folkman, Joe. 1996. Turning Feedback into Change: 30 Principles for Managing Personal Development through Feedback. Provo, Utah: Novations.
  • The author presents thirty principles of feedback and the rationale for those principles. Since change is the basic reason for giving feedback, Folkman explores when the situation will be more amenable to making changes. In a field that tends to emphasize book knowledge, here are some practical ways to reach a more integrated skill level.
• Freed, Jann E., Marie R. Klugman, and Jonathan D. Fife. 1997. A Culture for Academic Excellence: Implementing the Quality Principles in Higher Education. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports: Vol. 25, No. 1. Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, Graduate School of Education. [177 pp.]
  • For a college or university to move from being a semi-controlled anarchy to being a purpose-driven institution, there has to be an understanding of stakeholder needs and expectations and of the necessity for an organizational discipline based on the cause-and-effect relationships of the quality principles. This comprehensive review of the quality literature carefully details the eight interrelated and interdependent principles that undergird a quality institution.
• Gardiner, Lion F. 1996. Redesigning higher education: Producing dramatic gains in student learning.  ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report vol. 23, no. 7. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass [225 pp.] Available at http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-187838063X.html.
  • This review and synthesis of research on student learning and development describes how students develop important abilities, the institutional qualities required for this development to occur, and the educational effectiveness of academe, specifically of curricula, instruction, academic advising, and campus climate, and suggestions of researchers for substantially improving educational quality—using research to produce "dramatic" gains in student learning.  The primary purpose of this book is to provide conceptual tools and empirical evidence for raising the level of urgency for change on campuses, and a wide array of resources for improving quality and for designing assessments to monitor quality.
• Gardiner, Lion F. 2005. "Transforming the Environment for Learning: A Crisis of Quality." To improve the academy, 23, pp.3-23. (Note: available on this website in Readings Section.)
  • The lead chapter in this volume on improving learning in higher education, this article addresses academic leaders and summarizes research that indicates the conditions required to reliably produce societally important types of learning and development among college students, and our relative success in doing this.  It enumerates blockages to optimal learning and describes 10 key elements for managing learning in higher education and eight essential steps that must be taken to lead successful transformative change, and provides resources for further guidance.
• Gardiner, Lion F. 1998. Why We Must Change: The Research Evidence. Thought and Action, 14(1), pp.71-88.  Available electronically at http://www2.nea.org/he/heta98/s98pg71.pdf. Reprinted in 2000 in a retrospective volume of this journal: http://www2.nea.org/he/heta00/f00p121.pdf.
  • Intended to help increase the level of urgency for change on campuses, this article reviews research on aspects of college student development and the effectiveness of higher education in fostering that development.  Numerous barriers to learning and development are identified.  The author suggests systematic application of modern, research-based professional practices can help all of our students develop to a high level, with a marked impact on society and the world more widely.
• Groccia, James E. and Judith E. Miller (editors): 2005. On Becoming a Productive Universities: Strategies for Reducing Costs and Increasing Productivity in Higher Education. Bolton, MA. Anker Publishing: [384pp.].
  • Recommendations for action to increase productivity in all academic operations. Practical and down to earth.
• Guskin, Alan E. 1996. "Facing the Future: The Change Process in Restructuring Universities," Change 28 (July/August): 27-37.
  • Helpful insights, based upon extensive experience and careful analysis, into basic issues in the change process, including resistance, leadership, kind of change, and the type of institution. The author suggests building a working consensus (particularly around a vision of the future), working with those committed to change, and using a phased implementation process.
• Heifetz, Ronald A. 1994. Leadership without Easy Answers. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. [348 pp.]
  • A particularly useful concept is the distinction between leading with authority (through the formal position) and leading without authority (through the informal leadership structure). The book presents numerous in-depth examples of effective leadership and insights into leadership challenges.
• Hersh, Richard H., and Merrow, John (Eds.). (2005). Declining by degrees: Higher education at risk. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 244 pp.
  • This book, critical of the educational performance of American higher education, is composed of topical chapters written by 16 different authors, each treating an important area of concern for quality in higher education. These include, among others, media coverage of higher education, public attitudes toward the academy, admissions, liberal education, educational goals, a disconnection between students and their colleges, and minority group students. Each editor provides a concluding afterword.
• Hirsh, Sandra Krebs, and Jean M. Kummerow. 1998. Introduction to Type in Organizations, 3rd ed. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.[32 pp.]
  • Useful in both understanding the results of the MBTI and applying them for effective teambuilding. Largely in list format, the booklet includes the characteristics and groupings of preferences (dichotomies), descriptions of the sixteen individual types, and type dynamics.
• Hubert, Mary Taylor and Pat Hutchings, 2005. The Advancement of Learning: Building on the Teaching Commons. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass [208 pp.]
  • A publication of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, this book builds on the work of Ernest Boyer and the activities of the foundation to improve both the quality and the importance of teaching in colleges and universities.  Provides an update and a foundation for anyone addressing the issues of scholarship in the advancement of teaching quality in higher education.
• The Jossey-Bass Academic Administrator's Guide Series. 2002 . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • This series of easy-to-read booklets for academic leaders addresses such topics as conflict-resolution, running successful meetings, budget and financial management and hiring.
• Kotter, John P. 1996. Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press. Boston. [187 pp.]
  • While designed originally for business and industry, the 8-step model for creating major change presented in this book has proven to be ideal for use in colleges and universities. Direct and practical, it should be read by anyone leading or involved in a major change initiative at their institution.
• Kotter, John P. 1995. "Leading Change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail." Harvard Business Review March-April: 61-73.
  • Kotter provides and expands upon eight reasons why transformational efforts fail. These eight aspects are suggested to represent stages or benchmarks that must be addressed for changes to be successful. The article is extended in the book Leading Change, published in 1996 by Harvard Business School Press.
• Kouzes, James M., and Barry Z. Posner. 1995. The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [405 pp.]
  • Helpful ideas, strategies, and examples around inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart. The authors suggest that the most important role of visions in organizational life is to give focus to human energy. The last chapter, "Become a Positive Force: The Leader Who Makes a Difference," provides some useful questions, ideas, and strategies for continuing self-development.
• Marchese, Theodore J., "Whatever Happened to Undergraduate Reform?" (2006). Carnegie Foundation Perspectives #26. Palo Alto, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Improvement of Teaching.
  • A succinct review of the last two decades of higher education reform and of the challenges now being faced by colleges and universities.
• Massey, William F. 2003. Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Contain ment in Higher Education. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing: [384 pp.]
  • Improving quality without increasing costs. Analyses the causes of misperceptions about higher education and discusses a number of key issues. An action plan and numerous recommendations for action are included. Research based and certainly worth reading.
• Mediocre Grades for Colleges. 2006, Inside Higher Education.
  • A review of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education report "Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education," and the news isn't good.
• Minogue, John P. The 20th Century University Is Obsolete. 2006. Inside Higher Ed. [10 pgs including readers comments]
  • Presents a case for why the traditional university is not structured or prepared to meet the challenges now facing higher education. The letters from readers that follow are certainly worth reading.
• Morrison, James L., Allan Sargison and Debbie Francis, (updated 2005) "Using the Futures Program as a Tool for Transformation", from Mobilizing for Transformation: How Campuses are Preparing for the Knowledge Age. 1997. Donald M. Morris and James L. Morrison,Eds. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
  An excellent case study in institutional change. While it describes transformation of an institution in New Zealand, the reasons for change, the steps that were followed and the questions that were asked, provide an excellent model for institutions anywhere. One strength of this model is the active involvement, from the very beginning, of administrators, faculty, staff and external consultants. (http://horizon.unc.edu/courses/paprers/transforming.htlm/)
• Newman, Frank, Lara Couturier and Jamie Scurry. The Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of the Market. 2004. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass. [303 pps.]
  • Discusses the forces for change, the changes that are taking place and what institutions and academic leaders must do to address them if higher education is to maintain it compact with the public.
• Recommendations for Urgent Action: Transforming America’s Scientific and Technological Infrastructure. 2006. Washington, DC. Project Kaleidoscope. [30 pp.]
  • Reviews the recommendations and the rational behind them of nearly 20 recent reports addressing America’s capacity as a world leader in addressing societal problems through scientific and technological innovation.  Must reading for anyone involved in the design of courses and curricula in business, engineering and science.
• Senge, Peter M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday Currency. [429 pp.]
  • The author provides a framework and five basic skills sets for leaders to use in order to move toward creating a "learning organization." One of the five is personal visioning: providing background and ways to encourage individual visions within a collective vision. In addition, Senge provides practical examples and activities to develop the learning organization in: Senge, Peter and others. 1994. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York Doubleday Currency. [593 pp.]
• Servant Leadership
  • A non-traditional approach to leadership based on the premise that service is a prerequisite to leading.  Servant ledership provides a philosophy that emphasizes contributions to society and developing people in addition to meeting organizational goals. Take a look at: www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1481/build/g1481.pdf
• Shaw, Kenneth A. 1999. The Successful President: "Buzzwords" on Leadership. Phoenix: ACE/Oryx Press.
  • Through his numerous administrative experiences, the author reflects upon leadership, personal competence in tasks of effective leadership, group needs, and a set of do's and don'ts. Of particular interest is his personal example of the context at Syracuse and his effort there to develop vision and mission. The collection of "Buzzwords" (short pieces on a variety of topics) is a useful model for communicating with the university community. [130 pp.]
• Tierney, William, G. 1999. Building the Responsive Campus - Creating High Performance Colleges and Universities. Sage: Thousand Oaks, Calif. [185 pp.]
  • Written with a focus on higher education, the author integrates the concepts of organizational redesign, leadership, performance, and culture. Through a series of examples and questions, readers are challenged to examine these aspects of their institutions and are provided strategies to shape their institutions in the 21st century.
• Tomorrow’s Professor
  • One of the best list-servers in higher education and the price is right: it’s free.  From the Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning, this on-line series will provide you with carefully selected excerpts from a wide variety of sources.  Subscribe by sending the e-mail message "subscribe Tomorrow’s Professor" to majordomo@lists.Stanford.edu.
• Wergin, J.F. 2003. Departments That Work: Building and Sustaining Cultures of Excellence in College Departments. Bolton MA.  Anker Publishing.
  • Describes the characteristics of effective departments and provides specific recommendations for academic leaders.  Attention is paid to the collection and use of qualify information.
• Tomorrow's Professor
  • Published 100 times a year this newsletter, which is free to subscribers, highlights a single publication in each issue. Each issue, approximately four to six pages, may include an entire essay but more often is all or part of a carefully selected chapter of a recent publication, an article in a newsletter or a research report. It is an excellent way for you to get a sense of the focus and writing style of books before purchasing. Below are specific issues that address the focus of this resource section. They may be retrieved by number thru the following link (http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings.html). Issues are posted two weeks after publication. On this site you can also find a complete list of all past publications in the series.
    • #779: Change Management: Applying the Kotter Modal to Leading Change. Daniel W. Wheeler
    • #775: "Code O: How to Recover from Overwhelm" by Susan R. Johnson.
    • #774: "Without Followers, Leaders are Just Out for a Walk" by Joseph Barwick.
    • #770: "The Challenges and Opportunities of Technology in Higher Education" by Donald E. Hanna and Michael J. Johnson.
    • #768: "Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capitol" by Ray Bachette and Thomas Ehrlich.
    • #734 A Whole New Mind for a Flat World. Richard M. Felder.
    • #732 Whatever Happened to Undergraduate Reform? Theodore J. Marchese
    • #731 Challenges to the Academy -New Colleges, New Students, New Challenges. Barbara Leigh Smith, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. Matthews and Faith Gabelnick.
    • #723 The Creativity Imperative: A National Perspective. Deborah L. Wince-Smith
    • #664: Building Alliances-Communications Skills for Department Chairs. Mary Lou Higgerson
    • #649 Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education. William F. Massey
    • #645 A Call for a Miracle Model. Katherine Lyall
    • #642: Institutions with First Year Excellence: Five Criteria. Betsy O. Barefoot and others.