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Full Length Research Paper
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Organizational complexity and departmental leadership:
Perceptions of leadership and teaching/learning in a US
research-intensive academic department
Fabio Bento
Programme for Teacher Education, Faculty of Social Sciences
and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, NTNU, 7491 Trondheim, Norway. E-mail:
fabio.bento@plu.ntnu.no.
Tel: 47 41276799.
Accepted 15 June, 2010 |
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Abstract |
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This study aims to contribute to the discussion about the role
of leadership in academic departments in research-intensive
universities. The objective here is to understand how leadership
and teaching are perceived in the context of an academic
department of one elite US research-intensive university.
Semi-structured interviews carried out in a dialogical manner
aimed at grasping faculty perceptions of leadership in their
academic department were the main data gathering method.
Complexity theory which involves the investigation of how
apparently random patterns of behaviour form complex dynamic
systems, constitutes the theoretical framework of this study.
The contribution of this school of thought is the emphasis on
non-linearity as the main approach to understanding living
systems. The main finding of this study is that participants
identified self-organization as their main organizational
strength. Dispersed, non-hierarchical leadership was described
both as an outcome and as major factor contributing to what was
perceived as organizational success.
Key words:
Leadership, complexity theory, systems thinking, higher
education. |
