Paul Blackmore

Strategic leadership in academic development

The nature of academic work is changing rapidly, with moves towards professionalisation taking place against a background of fragmentation. Indeed, some aspects of professionalisation may have a fragmenting effect. It is suggested that there remains considerable value in the idea of an integrated faculty role. Noting that leaders in staff development face similar pressures to professionalise, the writers consider what expertise is required for the leadership in academic development role, and how role holders and those aspiring to the role may best develop their professional capabilities. They argue for an integrated conception of academic development, and a correspondingly integrated view of the developer’s professional identity and role. It is suggested that this will put leaders in academic development into a position that is more congruent with faculty self‐perceptions, and enable them to support those in faculty roles more effectively.

Motivation in academic life: a prestige economy

The introduction of performance-related pay into universities in recent years implies a belief that academic behaviours are modified by money. However, many valued academic activities are poorly paid or not paid at all. Clearly other factors are at work. Academic motivation and new working patterns are explored using the literature. An anthropological term ‘prestige economy’ is defined and located as part of a three-part model, and its application to higher education is explored, using a socio-cultural approach rooted in Bourdieu’s analyses of academic life. The implications for those who seek to bring about change in institutions are considered and further research questions outlined.

A Categorisation of Approaches to Occupational Analysis.

Abstract A number of approaches to occupational analysis are reviewed and categorised. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are illuminated by considering a number of critiques of each approach. The concept of role is introduced and defined, a distinction being drawn between a functionalist and an interactionist view of role. Role strain and role conflict are defined, showing how the concept of role may be used to illuminate some of the complexities of working in an organisation. The concept of function is briefly defined and several of the inherent difficulties of functional analysis are listed. A fuller treatment of the concept of skill follows. A broad definition is offered, followed by exploration of: management research into ‘soft skills’; developments in cognitive psychology that attempt to represent superior performance; and the work on transferable skills, that is taking place largely in an education context. The author notes the need for more effective forms of occupational analysis that per...

Disciplinary difference in academic leadership and management and its development: a significant factor?

The influence of disciplinary identity remains significant in understanding academic practice, although its nature and extent has been debated. A framework of organisational, cognitive and social perspectives is commonly used as a means of structuring investigation. A limited amount of empirical research on academic roles, attitudes, beliefs and values in general has shown both continuity and difference across disciplines. A growing literature on pedagogy explores discipline‐related differences. However, most of the literature on leadership and management development in higher education makes little reference to disciplinarity. This paper reviews the above literatures and draws on ideas concerning identity and role, suggesting that renewed attention to disciplinary identity would permit the characterisation of discipline‐related variations in leadership and management practice. The potential benefits of research are identified.

Tribalism and territoriality in the staff and educational development world

As universities change in response to their environment, so also do staff roles. In parallel with these changes, in recent years there has been significant incremental growth of provision designed to support the learning and development of university staff in the United Kingdom, so that several intersecting but distinct development communities now exist. It is timely to consider what approaches to development support are now appropriate to help sustain and enhance the capacity of universities in the future. A model is proposed, with four main aspects – inclusion, strategy, integration and scholarship. Existing development communities are considered in relation to the model. A new concept of development community is advocated, aligned with the proposed model. A research agenda is also proposed, to inform thinking and practice about university work.

Interdisciplinarity within an academic career

This project identified academics who have been involved with interdisciplinary leadership initiatives and sought to find out what had motivated them, what issues they had encountered and how they had resolved them. A powerful message emerging is the central importance of motivation in interdisciplinary work. Interviewees spoke of leaving their disciplinary ‘home’ for a more complex and difficult – but often more rewarding – environment. Interviews also illuminated the impact of interdisciplinary work on academic careers and suggested that an academic’s career stage was a vital factor influencing the likelihood of pursuing an interdisciplinary initiative. The individual and systemic challenges brought on by interdisciplinary work highlight the role of structure and agency in an academic career path. These issues coalesce around reward systems, where there is a need to recognise the expanding role of academics within interdisciplinary contexts.

Conceptions of development in higher education institutions

Increased attention to the support of individual, group and institutional development in UK universities has led to the growth of communities of development practitioners. An explanatory model is proposed that characterises communities, locating them in relation to four dimensions: integration, strategy, inclusion and scholarship. The model contains both the benefits of, and a number of potential issues in, particular ways of interpreting and implementing each of the dimensions. The usefulness of the model for analysing development approaches at a theoretical level is considered, together with its potential practical usefulness.

Some Problems in the Analysis of Academic Expertise.

Abstract The growing interest in the analysis of academic expertise in higher education in the United Kingdom is noted. Some key terms are defined. Interest is largely explained by central government concern to increase productivity. Equal pay legislation and a desire to professionalise aspects of academic work may also play a part. All analyses contain contestable beliefs and values. Analysis is likely to conceal as much as it reveals. The analysis of academic expertise is inevitably problematic, because of diversity in the sector, difficulties in describing academic activity definitively and ambivalence in the sector about the status of some academic roles. Functional analysis, now the dominant form, has undoubted strengths, but does not capture some of the complexity of cademic expertise, and is therefore of limited value in this field.

A Conceptual Framework for Approaches to Occupational Analysis.

Abstract The increasing use of occupational analysis and the dominance of a particular form, functional analysis, are noted. A comparative study of approaches to occupational analysis is proposed, to inform future analyses. Issues in comparison in general are explored. The nature of the particular study is then considered, as a basis for the development of a comparative methodology. There follows definition of a number of terms to be used in assembling the framework, including forms of analysis, methods of analysis and dimensions. The choices of a matrix framework and of forms of analysis of skill, function and role are explained. An approach to the selection of key dimensions is explained and justified. The framework is then employed to analyse several approaches to occupational analysis

Developing and testing a methodology for analysis of the staff development leadership role

Abstract A research project used critical incident technique to investigate the expertise of leaders in staff development in United Kingdom Higher Education institutions. The origins and development of the project, together with a number of issues in the analysis of complex expertise are here explored. A model of professional expertise is introduced, including both functionalist and experiential conceptions of expertise, and devised through an inductive and iterative process of analysis of interview data. The model is tested by applying it to sample situations. The development process and the implications of the model for professional development are considered