The leadership of university academics in research - Case studies of hospitality management.

The concept of leadership has become of considerable importance in the development of policy and practice in educational settings (Bennett, Crawford and Cartwright, 2003). For universities leadership is a key issue and, at a time of major change, is increasingly regarded as beneficial to improved performance across all activities. Research by academics is one area where discussions are often couched in terms of leadership. This study investigated research undertaken by university academics and took the leadership of research as its theme. The aim of this research was to develop a deeper understanding of the role of leadership as it relates to research by university academics. To this end a critical review of the literature was undertaken to examine the university context and concepts and theories of research and leadership. Through two case studies a particular focus was given to the leadership of hospitality university academics in research. More specifically the objectives of the study were: To examine the university and hospitality management education contexts and theconcepts of research and leadership. To conceptualise and theorise leadership for university research. To investigate leadership in hospitality management research at the subject group level and to explore the leadership activities of recognised research leaders. To evaluate perceived factors which influence research leadership. To field test the relevance of research leadership to the conduct of research. The primary research employed a qualitative research design and a case study strategy was adopted. Twenty semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with a range of academics from heads of school to lecturers in a pre-1992 and a post-1992 university. The findings derived from interview transcripts, the review of documentary materials and the analysis of reflective notes. Detailed insights and examples of academic leadership in universities were revealed and new ways of thinking about research leadership developed. A view of research leadership emerged which included that research leadership is important; the context of leadership is crucial; leadership is both formal and informal and varies according to social systems; that it is dispersed; that self-leadership exists; that it is complex and possesses many relationship patterns and that it is concerned with the leadership of people and the leadership of the subject. One of the main conclusions is that the presence of formal research leaders in universities does not mean that the leadership of academics in research will occur. Furthermore, any leadership of university academics in research is often accidental. This implies that a planned approach to the leadership of academics in research requires attention being afforded to the role and practices of the formal research leader.