Leadership

  • Roles: Directors, supervisors, budget authorities, hiring authorities, etc.  
  • Environments: Offices, meetings, marketing and communications, etc. 
  • Responsibilities: Supervision, organizational design, policy design, budget design, communicating vision and mission, etc.

Eli and the Design Committee – Bringing Extra Seats to the Table

Eli is a mid-level manager in the division of Student Affairs. He is appointed to serve as the project manager to oversee the design and construction of a new student union. Now that funding approval is complete, Eli convenes facilities and program leaders to collaborate with architects and designers to review, revise and finalize blueprints for the future student union.

Stephanie and Adam – Discerning Organizational Implications of Public Policy

Stephanie is the department chair for Mechanical Engineering. Her duties include faculty and graduate student payroll and budget administration. Stephanie’s administrative assistant, Adam, calls her to inquire whether she is aware of the rollout of travel restrictions issued by the federal government and its potential impacts on graduate employees. She was not. Adam explained that the federal administration would shortly announce a formal travel ban that would prohibit immigration of Iranians to the United States.

Bill and Carina – Connecting the Global with the Local

Bill is a dean in the College of Education and he is preparing to set the agenda for the upcoming all-hands faculty and staff meeting. Over email, one of the faculty suggests an agenda item to discuss recent incidents of terror in Nigeria, which are targeting schoolgirls. In reviewing the request, Bill is confused and does not regard the events as a faculty and staff matter.

The Academic Affairs Team – Enabling Critical Inquiry

Across the country, multiple public colleges and universities are engaging in dialogue and self-examination of problematic histories related to the inclusion and full participation of African American students, faculty and staff. Media coverage on these institutions is reaching a fever pitch. In addition to conversations being ever-present in television programs and periodicals, the academic discourse in journals and conferences is increasingly engaging the conversations initiated by student, faculty and staff activists.

Williama and the Student Life Team – Leading Change Proactively

Wiliama was recently hired as the Dean of Students and overseas all operations in the office of Student Life, which includes multiple functions related to student care, crisis response, leadership development, as well as campus programming and events. One of Wiliama’s first projects is to convene departmental leaders to proactively manage the unit’s climate related to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Deans Team – Aligning with Organizational Values

A committee of assessment administrators and institutional diversity leaders presents the findings of the annual faculty, staff and student climate surveys to the Provost and dean of each college. In addition to presenting on trends revealed in the quantitative measures of the instrument, the committee presents the synthesized findings of the qualitative portion of the survey. Evident in the qualitative data is a growing lack of confidence that the campus climate survey will be actualized into any tangible institutional change.

The Office of the President - Exploring What’s in a Name

A group of student activists has organized on campus to address the adverse conditions for students of color, specifically their experience with a hostile campus climate. The group has spent several months researching the institution’s history of white supremacy and lineages to chattel slavery and the abhorrent policies of the Jim Crow era in Oregon. The students request time with the university president to share concerns about the namesakes of several campus facilities and their connection to white supremacists and histories of racism.

Keith - Learning to Listen First

Keith is an assistant dean in the Graduate School and serves as the lead hiring authority for more than a dozen professional faculty. Keith is passionate about recruitment and retention of staff of color and aspires to lead an organization where practitioners with diverse racial identities feel like they belong and thrive.

Ryan – Constructing Effective Metaphors

Ryan is a project team manager in the institutional risk and compliance office. Ryan has been working with his team for more than a year, and in recent weeks he has received indirect feedback on his leadership style. In particular, Ryan is made aware that his heavy reliance on sports analogies and metaphors during staff meetings and during individual supervision is often disengaging, ineffective or even confusing.

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