Exploring Consensual Leadership in Higher Education: Co-operation, Collaboration and Partnership (Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education)

by Lynne Gornall (Author), Lynne Gornall (Editor)

New
Hardcover
2018
$201.47

Exploring Consensual Leadership in Higher Education explores the idea that the nature of academic work is both creative and consensual. Higher education relationships, whether between managers, staff, learners or the public sphere, are at their most effective when rooted in partnership, teamwork, collaboration and collegiality. The term `consensual' is used because it situates new leadership models as structures based on consent, reflecting tacit traditions in education alongside ideas of leadership in other settings, including emerging industries. The aim is to celebrate achievements, encourage engagement opportunities, and add to the problem-solving knowledge-base. However, issues and problems in participatory engagement are also considered, and the borderlines between consensus (collective assent and agreement) and `dissensus' (widespread, serious, disagreement) are examined critically. The contributors offer a range of alternative perspectives on leadership, reflecting the diverse forms and ways of working practised in different national higher educational contexts and cultural settings. The volume incorporates a variety of approaches and points of view, including stories of leadership and change, innovation projects and case studies, key interviews and insights, and collective team writing.

Synopsis

Exploring Consensual Leadership in Higher Education explores the idea that the nature of academic work is both creative and consensual. Higher education relationships, whether between managers, staff, learners or the public sphere, are at their most effective when rooted in partnership, teamwork, collaboration and collegiality. The term `consensual' is used because it situates new leadership models as structures based on consent, reflecting tacit traditions in education alongside ideas of leadership in other settings, including emerging industries. The aim is to celebrate achievements, encourage engagement opportunities, and add to the problem-solving knowledge-base. However, issues and problems in participatory engagement are also considered, and the borderlines between consensus (collective assent and agreement) and `dissensus' (widespread, serious, disagreement) are examined critically. The contributors offer a range of alternative perspectives on leadership, reflecting the diverse forms and ways of working practised in different national higher educational contexts and cultural settings. The volume incorporates a variety of approaches and points of view, including stories of leadership and change, innovation projects and case studies, key interviews and insights, and collective team writing.

$201.47

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 26 Jul 2018
ISBN 10: 1350043575
ISBN 13: 9781350043572
Book Overview: Explores consensual leadership in higher education as a new leadership model based on consent, focusing on partnership, teamwork, collaboration and collegiality in an international context.

Media Reviews

This book delightfully and skilfully breaks the mould of writing about leadership in higher education. It treats leadership as a relational concept rather than a set of management techniques. Rather than critiquing existing (and all too often failing) university leadership, it seeks boldly to develop new and exciting appropriate approaches. It does all of this this by drawing extensively on real life empirical examples from around the globe. This superbly articulated and structured volume constitutes an invaluable addition to new thinking on old problems. * Rebecca Boden, Professor and Director of New Social Research, University of Tampere, Finland *
Offers a much needed alternative to management, managerialism, and neo-liberal approaches to higher education leadership. The novelty of the book is not only its approach to academic work as both creative and consensual, but also its emphasis on the different ways cooperation, collaboration, and partnership are practiced across the world. Chapters from outside the Anglo-American centre offer invaluable knowledge about uneven power relations and geopolitics of knowledge in collaboration stemming both from colonial histories and present day hegemonies. One can only hope that the book will be read by higher education leaders. * Hanne Kirstine Adriansen, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Anthropology, Aarhus University, Denmark *
A magnificent book in so many different ways. Not much is known about `working together' in higher education and this book delivers in spades with new ideas in every chapter. The book as a whole is diverse, innovative, comprehensive, forward looking, scholarly, grounded, dilemma exposing, critical, career-covering, nitty-gritty-like, impact-oriented, and downright impressive in its scope and imagination. A must read for anyone interested in higher education. * Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/University of Toronto, Canada *

Author Bio

Lynne Gornall is Leader of the Working Lives Research Team at the University of South Wales, UK. Brychan Thomas is Visiting Professor in Innovation Policy and Joint Leader of the Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Management Behaviours (CLIMB) at the University of South Wales Business School, UK. Lucy Sweetman is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, UK and a freelance writer and consultant.