A Quality Culture Framework on Leadership in Private Higher ......© The views expressed in this...

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

A Quality Culture Framework on Leadershipin Private Higher Education Institutions(PHEIs)

Prof. AbdulSattar Al-Alusi and Dr. VCSMR Pujari

ITTIHAD UNIVERSITY, UAE

Track: Global Issues and Researches in Higher Education


February 2015

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A Quality Culture Framework on Leadership in PHEIs

Current scenario of globalization of education: need to provide quality education through proper leadership and system.

Today, the education system must meet new standards of quality demanded by technological and diverse society and stakeholders such as Licensure and Accreditation Agencies, domestically and globally.

Accreditation becomes a driver to:

assure quality of academic programs,

promote skills development,

and

make the graduating students employable in a competitive world.

Leadership for quality is based on:

commitment,

student focus,

obsession with quality,

recognizing of the structure of work,

freedom through control,

unity of purpose,

investigating faults in systems,

team work,

and

continuous improvement.

The proposed framework for the PHEIs in the United Arab Emirates can be useful to understand how the various work activities of leaders contribute to the broad aim of transformation and improvement of the HE; as an ongoing learning tool; and as an aid for academic leaders to assess and improve their institutions. It would be beneficial to the education sector and accreditation agencies.


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Leaders today are facing complex and demanding challenges.

Leaders of the future must:

embrace change,

think locally, regionally, and globally

more often than not, manage people in less time with fewer resources;

and

their approach has to be one of focus, inspiration and leading people without removing responsibility.

Leadership is not an individual process but a social process that is distributed throughout the community and the organisation in which it is situated and contextualised.

There is no one set of leadership qualities that fits all rather a combination of characteristics that effects success.

Many senior academic administrators have had minimal management training. They are first trained for academic careers in research and teaching and scarcely anticipated their current administrative positions.

Leaders must quickly develop the new and different knowledge and skills needed to manage an institution when they move into senior leadership positions.

Success in many HEIs is measured in traditional ways:

1) benchmarking against a group of peer institutions,

2) copying successful programs and practices, and

3) targeting comparative levels of resources, faculty salaries, and other traditional measures of quality and success.

In this framework of leadership, the driving force is “Quality." Quality is a distinguishing characteristic guiding students and HEIs.


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Quality Culture (QC)

HEIs have been facing the greatest obstacle in implementing Quality Assurance (QA) philosophy that focuses on the establishment of a Quality Culture (QC) in their academic programs.

The traditional view of quality in HE has changed significantly to focus on the quality of outcomes and the value added to it. This approach has recently become the foundation of the accreditation processes.

A suggested QC framework that includes:

A set of activities leading to a shared set of university community values at all levels of the university and resulting in developing a set of university educational indicators that drive planning, evaluation, and improvement of curricular programs and processes.

The HEIs stakeholders consist of:

students,

teachers/professors,

researchers,

other staff,

parents,

general public, and

industry.

All these actors can have different views and perspectives on HE.

Because of this, the entire view of the HE community must be taken into account in the system of QA and accreditation.

The need for student expertise in the quality of education and in the organisation of HEIs is evident.

The students’ perspective is essential when planning the criteria of the QA system and the process of accreditation of a HEIs.

•Avoid internal culture of incompetence and neglect

•Look for an act to always disclose critical Information

that may be helpful to respond properly to a problem

Mary Baraa, Quality World, P.7 July 2014


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Framing a Quality Leadership Framework

Quality principles include leadership among others that deal with vision, mission, outcomes, system dependent, leadership creating and supporting a quality culture, systematic individual development, decisions based on facts, delegation of decision making, collaboration, and planning for change.

There is certainly no dearth of ideas about change in higher education. The challenge lies in execution.

Institutional leaders must be able to first recognize the management and leadershipchallenges, implicit in conceptual models of change, before they can identify solutions. Value has limitless potential.

A key challenge for leaders is to hire, reward, develop, and motivate staff along criteria consistent with their vision and strategy.

Providing all stakeholders with the environment, roles, and responsibilities that allow them to succeed is a related challenge.

Strategic reorientation is not simply a question of establishing new processes or programs, but one of leading and motivating people toward a new vision and objectives.

With a good culture, we emphasize that top-down management can definitely lead to changes or reforms in higher education.

Research and experience indicate that to implement a new vision and leadership framework, leaders must begin changing the way "business" is understood and conducted in measures of success and rewards and in core processes, especially strategic planning.


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Earlier Studies:

A early survey of 900 presidents identified seven priority areas: (Patrick and Carruthers,1980)

1. communicating the institutional strengths to prospective students, their parents, and the general public; 2. communicating institutional strengths to the state legislature and other government officials; 3. integrating the findings of program review into program planning and budget processes, 4. allocating and reallocating resources, 5. encouraging faculty renewal, 6. implementing institutional objectives by planning and budgeting; and 7. accurately forecasting institutional revenue.

Another study identified five characteristics common to the most effective college president:(Gilly, Fulmer, and Reithlingsh, 1986)

1. works well with board members, 2. exhibits dogged persistence in pursuit of goals, 3. keeps his/her antennae extended, 4. demonstrates a six sense about opportunities, and 5. takes unexpected actions.

In his book on effective presidents, Seldin(1988) outlines three areas on which presidents should be considered excellent:

1. administration and management (academic planning, program planning, decision making, problem solving, use of funds, facilities, and human resources),

2. leadership (of various publics, governing board, faculty, students, and other institutional presidents), and

3. personal qualities (integrity, confidence, tolerance, tact, persuasiveness, fairness, flexibility, concern for quality, and sensitivity).

In his classic book On Leadership, Gardner (1990) identifies the tasks of leadership as:

1. planning and priority setting,

2. organizing and institution building,

3. keeping the system running, and

4. agenda setting and decision making.


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Earlier Studies:

The leadership development program at Texas A&M University defines a leader as a:

mentor of faculty and staff;

catalyst for critical thinking and political support;

as a servant who transcends his or her self-interest;

and

visionary who plans, forecasts, and takes action.

The program identified 8 core competencies of these leaders that have become the outcomes for its leadership development curriculum:

communication,

decision making,

use of systems,

professional ethics,

team development,

supervision,

planning,

teaching and counselling, and

creativity and innovation (Donathen and Hines, 1998).

Leadership strategies and tips exist that can be used:

Leadership should:

promote teamwork, communication, and instil the idea that people can rely on each other in many different ways, for their own development and growth of the university.

be the source of inspiration and motivation for faculty, non teaching staff and students. The ability to inspire the stakeholders has always been essential in leadership. It should safeguard lecturers’ and students’ interests;

take a positive stand against issues that may interfere with the university as a safe learning environment.


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Recent Studies on Leadership in HE

Three areas that educational leaders are engaged in (Zimmerman, Isa Kaftal and Joan Thormann, 2010):

1. Calling and running meetings

Getting buy-in for agendas

Sending agendas in a timely fashion

Using the round-robin strategy—

Forming subcommittees with volunteers

Summarizing at the end of the meeting

Following through on all agreed-upon actions

Carrying over unresolved items to the agenda of the next meeting

2. Building consensus

Listening to each person and encouraging open debate.

Recognizing each person’s strengths and weaknesses.

Rewarding people

Being truthful

Socializing

3. Communicating

Acknowledging the receipt of a communiqué and responding to it is a sign of respect.

Thanking a colleague in writing

Sharing information

Dipsticking

Newsletters


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Recent Studies on Leadership in HE :

10 Recommendations toward Effective Leadership (Willis M. Watt, 2010)

based on the concept of “leading in place” as recently popularized by Wergin and Shapiro.

Shapiro (2005) states, “Leadership is an action, not a title, and the ability to lead can be found in every person. Each of us must claim our authority to lead at the right time and in the right place”

The Ten characteristics (from least to most important) are:

# 10: Follow procedures and adhere to policies

# 9: Submit to the authority of others

# 8: Take risks

# 7: Commitment

# 6: Be proactive

# 5: Expect conflict

# 4: Tell the truth

# 3: Listen

# 2: Love people

# 1: Check your attitude

An effective leader is a person who can commit to using his/her ability to:

lead others,

perform technical skills, and conceptualize situations,

thus helping to ensure goal achievement.

ensure not only that personal goals are reached, but more important, that the group achieves its objectives and fulfills its mission.

Those who seek to lead in place must be compelled to lead no matter the personal cost.


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It should be clear that knowing students’ needs and expectations as well as using their feedback in the institutional self-assessment process should be considered fundamental in promoting both QA and QC.

The Proposed Quality Leadership Framework

Firstly, begins with setting direction; the leader builds a shared vision, encourages the group goals and communicates high performance expectation.

Secondly, the framework relies on building relationships and developing people; the leader encourages on genuine relationship within the university community, guided by a sense of mutual respect.

Thirdly, the framework relies on developing the organization; the leader builds collaborative cultures, structures the organization for success and interconnects the university to its external environment.

Fourthly, the quality leadership framework leads the instructional program; the leader sets high expectation for learning outcomes and monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of instruction so that everyone can focus on teaching and learning.

Fifthly, the quality leadership framework revolves around securing accountability in which the leader is made responsible for creating conditions for student success and is accountable to students, parents, faculty for ensuring that students benefit from a high quality education.


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Some of the suggested elements in the framework have been applied and adopted by Ittihad University and resulted in positive consequences on the road of QA manifestation.

Leadership in Quality Assurance and Accreditation in HEIs becomes a necessityas HE continues to face difficult times. Colleges and universities need leaders and managers with quality consciousness who can turn their visions into reality.

Although on-the-job training is best, mistakes can be costly to individuals and institutions. Reading is probably the most common way to acquire knowledge about management and leadership, but it is a passive learning mode.

Professional development programs provide a more active alternative:

they increase knowledge,

add to and enhance management skills and leadership techniques,

broaden perspectives,

and

stimulate creativity.

Many administrators enthusiastically embrace professional development programs; other administrators just as actively ignore them. Although such programs have existed in HE almost as long as they have in business and industry, they have never achieved the same acceptance in education.


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1. To understand the significance of professional development to all administrators, it is important to understand their responsibilities.

2. In any consideration of administrative responsibilities, it is impossible to separate leadership and administrative responsibilities, since most leaders also must manage and most managers must occasionally lead.

3. In surveys of business, government, and secondary and higher education, administrators indicated that organization and planning skills were the most important which is an inherent part of quality, while human skills ranked second, with financial management and control, closely rallying behind.


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Leadership Framework in Quality:

The Leadership Framework in quality is one tool amongst many for developing leadership potential. It can be viewed as a common language that links all aspects of people development.

Its purpose is to enhance leadership capability collectively, individually and at organisational level. It is designed to be informative, guiding and simple to understand and use.

It should be used as part of an overall organisational development strategy and integrated with other HR practices, and then it offers a significant contribution to leadership growth.

Research has shown that exposure to a range of situations and experiences can enrich the professional development of the best leaders.

Leadership occurs at all levels of the organisation and all have an essential role to play.

Without the initiative and commitment of middle leader-managers, no change effort will get far.

Without the influence of senior leaders, innovative practices rarely spread. Without the vision of the top leader, the overall climate would stifle innovation and direction.

The descriptors give a broad indication of the possible range of mastery within each quality, from learning to leading.

The framework is not a matrix rather a broad canvas to portray the different combinations relevant to different contexts of leadership.


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Establishing a QC in HEIs is a challenge that requires laying a foundation through understanding the laws of institutional values, traditions, procedures, and expectations that promote quality.

Implementing QA in HEIs without creating a QC change is a failure and because of the clashes between cultures, change is resisted.

This eventually leads to:

risk hatred, heterogeneity of program and college structures and practices,

lack of sustainability in face of policy/practice change,

inappropriate QA systems,

too many players and no harmony or cohesion,

separation from everyday life,

lack of strong senior leadership intent on achieving long-term results,

authoritarian and bureaucratic management styles, and

lack of employee participation and involvement.


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Leaders must have:

a clear understanding of the role of the institution's informal communications network in passing on their vision.

consistent and dependable integrity, accept heterogeneity and diversity,

focus on competence,

be open to contrary opinion,

be fully knowledgeable of the need for change,

be willing to remove obstacles and empower employees at all levels,

communicate easily,

understand the concept of equity,

lead through serving,

appreciate the skills and talents of others,

be diplomatic,

and

tell why rather than how.

Thank you…A Quality Culture Framework on Leadership in PHEIs


February 2015

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