Mentorship as a key leadership development experience for department chairs at a West Canadian university

Abstract

The preliminary results of a study that seeks to understand how department chairs, at a publicly funded research-intensive West Canadian university, experience leadership development will be presented. The central research question asks: What experiences of department chairs were the most helpful to learning what the role entailed? Leadership is an essential determinant of success in organizations. Strong and adaptable leadership is particularly important in postsecondary institutions due to their increasingly complex and dynamic social, economic and policy contexts. Key leadership positions in the academy are department chairs who are the crucial link between the administration and faculty accountable for many aspects of education, including curriculum, research, student enrollment, budgets, and personnel. Despite their critical importance, most intuitions provide them with no formal training, making them the least prepared leadership group within postsecondary institutions. The study follows a qualitative case study design that includes a literature review, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with 19 department chairs. The findings will contribute to the academic leadership development literature originating in Canada and will inform the kinds of leadership development programs or initiatives that would be most helpful to faculty aspiring to accept department chair appointments.