Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item AN EMERGING GROUNDED THEORY OF FACULTY HIRING PROCESSES IN UNIONIZED COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES(2015) Lounder, Andrew; O'Meara, KerryAnn; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: AN EMERGING GROUNDED THEORY OF FACULTY HIRING PROCESSES IN UNIONIZED COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES Andrew D. Lounder, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor KerryAnn O'Meara Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education Growth in part-time faculty workforces in U.S. higher education since 1970 has been remarkable. Part-time faculty growth as a percentage of the whole has occurred most rapidly in comprehensive universities in recent years and carries with it important implications for student instruction. Comprehensive universities are of critical importance to the realization of higher levels of educational attainment by underserved and nontraditional college populations. The purpose of this study is to understand instructional faculty hiring processes in comprehensive universities. The study is derived from an application of grounded theory research methods within and across three university settings. Analysis shows administrators at all levels of the organizational chart (i.e., department chair, dean, and provost) follow a cycle of activities that results in both direct and indirect (or systemic), outcomes in faculty hiring. First, they scan the environments in which they are situated for possible risks to their work including faculty hiring. Second, they perceive risks, including risks of opportunity, from their own viewpoints. Third, and of central importance, they assert decision role changes in response to the risks they perceive. That is, they take action. Finally, they establish ownership of new decision responsibility. A visual model depicting the grounded theory is shared. Findings position faculty hiring as an outcome of rule following decisions and risk response rather than rational choice. Part-time faculty hiring is found to function as an organizational release valve, which circumvents role tension of the sort experienced among department, college, and university administrators in full-time faculty hiring. Implications for university-level faculty hiring policy and practice, as well as for future research, are discussed. One conclusion is that university decision makers should be more strategic about faculty hiring by aligning the process with desired outcomes.Item SQUARING THEIR ROOTS: LEADERSHIP PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF SOME U.S.-TRAINED AFRICAN PROFESSIONALS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR(2010) Dant, William Patrick; Herschbach, Dennis; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative study looks at the leadership perceptions and practices of career professionals in the public sector across three countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana and Madagascar). All participants were alumni of the Humphrey Fellowship program, a year-long mid-career fellowship in the United States for professional development and leadership. The study sought to understand the participants' perceptions of leadership and how they apply it in their professional practice. The research questions were How do U.S.-trained Africans perceive the relevance of their U.S. leadership training in their home-country practice? To what extent can they incorporate U.S. leadership approaches into their leadership practice there? The literature review includes the history and current state of leadership research and theory, the field of intercultural communications and recent scholarship and program evaluations on leadership and leadership training across cultures. Noteworthy are the lack of recent scholarship on public sector leadership in Africa and the transference of western-developed models in most international training. Data collection consisted of in-depth interviews with 16 primary research participants who were mid- to upper-level career professionals in their respective countries' public service. Additional related data were gathered from participants' fellowship documents; data gathered from primary participants were reviewed with focus groups including primary and secondary participants. Data analysis followed a grounded theory method, allowing themes to emerge directly from the data collected. Findings were compared across participants within and across research sites considering professional sector, gender, cultural and educational background and political/economic contexts. The substantive grounded theories emerging from the study identified as the central theme the importance of "operating space" as an environment around individual capacity to exercise leadership practices, and its interaction with issues of culture. Results reflected the importance of the macro-context and levels of democratization within which participants operate on the micro-context of their own professional leadership practice. The study recommends that future research on leadership in Africa pay more attention to the importance of macro-context and culture in developing leadership capacity in such individuals, and recommends specific approaches for enhancing leadership training for individuals from such backgrounds, including peer mentoring, case study and experiential exercises.