Women in educational leadership in higher education in South Africa and the United Kingdom

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

Women and management

The study of women and leadership/management is a recent phenomenon, chiefly because historically, leadership has been concerned with the study of political leadership, of “great men” who defined power, authority, and knowledge (Klenke 1996). Leadership as Sandler (1993:193) puts it, “has been generally associated with men and with male styles of behaviour, and because women have not been in leadership positions in great numbers, the mental image of a leader held by most people is male”. Klenke (1996: 15) 23 notes that “most leadership research prior to the 1980’s was carried out by men and dealt almost exclusively with male leaders…because women have been largely absent in the study of leadership, much of our knowledge of leadership has been derived from the description and analysis of male leaders reported by male researchers…leadership has been synonymous with masculinity”.

Female leadership style

The debate about whether or not women have a unique leadership style is an interesting area in leadership research. It is even more interesting for feminist researchers who are inclined to believe that women do indeed have different leadership styles than men. Perhaps it might be useful at this point to define leadership style. Style has to do with how a person relates to people, tasks and challenges. A person’s style is usually a very personal and distinctive feature of his or her personality and character. A style may be democratic or autocratic, centralised or decentralised, empathetic or detached, extroverted or introverted, assertive or passive, engaged or remote.

Roles and responsibilities of the academic head of department.

Academic HoDs have numerous roles and responsibilities to perform during their term of office as academic leaders and managers. In their performance of the academic leadership role, HoDs are expected to promote and encourage excellence in teaching and research (Moses & Roe 1990) and to provide long term direction and vision for the department (Gmelch & Miskin 1993). As academic managers, they are expected to perform the maintenance functions of preparing budgets, maintaining departmental records, supervising non-academic staff and maintaining finances, facilities and equipment (Gmelch & Miskin 1993).

Challenges of headship

Three major transitions experienced by new HoDs were identified by Bennett (1998:134). The first is a shift from specialist to generalist. The HoD has to change from focussing on her/his own discipline to representing a broader range of inquiries within the department. In other words she/he has to be advocate for different sub-disciplines. The second transition is a shift from being an individual to looking at whole departmental operation. The span of responsibility is expanded, and the HoD’s expertise in her/his own subject matter is no longer sufficient in and of itself. She/he needs to cultivate other resources for leadership. The third transition involves supplementing staff loyalties to colleagues, the discipline and the department with loyalty to the broader campus enterprise.

Women academic leaders and their leadership experience

To recap, women leaders are believed to be more transformational in their leadership style than men. They also exercise power differently to men. This section takes this discussion further by highlighting experiences of women academic leaders based on a case study by Omar (1996). Omar points out that an academic leader in this contemporary age has to have academic and managerial skill as she has to open up avenues in research projects and introduce new courses and new degrees. These courses and new degrees have to be market driven.

Chapter :

• 1 Problem formulation, aim and method
  • 1.1 Introduction
    • 1.1.1 Background of the study
  • 1.2 Significance of the study
  • 1.3 Problem statement
  • 1.4 Aims of research
  • 1.5 Explanation of key concepts and terms
  • 1.6 Research methodology
  • 1.6.1 Literature study
    • 1.6.2 Empirical investigation
    • 1.6.2.1 Phase one: the survey
    • 1.6.2.2 Phase two: the interviews
    • 1.6.2.3 Issues during research
    • 1.6.2.4 Trustworthiness of data
    • 1.6.2.5 Limitations of research
    • 1.6.2.6 Particular problems encountered during research process
  • 1.7 Chapter division
  • 1.8 Summary
• 2 Leadership and management in universities
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Academic women and the ‘new managerialism’
  • 2.3 Women in leadership and management – an overview
    • 2.3.1 The leadership and management distinction
    • 2.3.2 Women and management
    • 2.3.3 Female leadership style
    • 2.3.3.1 The debate concerning a female style of leadership
    • 2.3.3.2 Critique of female style of leadership discourse
  • 2.4 Leadership and management in the academe – theoretical and practical perspectives
• 3 Women in educational leadership in higher education in South Africa and the United Kingdom
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 The position of academic women in higher education in South Africa and the United Kingdom
  • 3.2.1 Current position of academic women in SA
    • 3.2.1.1 Staff composition
  • 3.2.2 The position of women academic staff in the UK
  • 3.3 Women in management and leadership: obstacles to their advancement
  • 3.3.1 Overview of statistics on women’s under representation
  • 3.3.2 Explanations advanced for the under representation of women in management and leadership positions
• 4 Research Design
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Research Design and methodology – a theoretical basis
  • 4.2.1 Survey research – general orientation
  • 4.2.2 Data collection techniques
    • 4.2.2.1 The questionnaire
  • 4.2.3 Analysis of data
  • 4.3 Choice of methodology
  • 4.3.1 Technical considerations
    • 4.3.1.1 Triangulation
  • 4.3.2 Personal rationale for choice of methodology
    • 4.3.2.1 Usefulness of the comparative study of women in management in universities
  • 4.4 Design of present study
  • 4.4.1 Introduction
  • 4.4.2 The survey
• 5 Presentation of findings
• 6 Synthesis of findings, conclusions and implications for policy and research

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM