Leadership of academics in research

Leadership is a key issue for universities and is increasingly regarded as beneficial to improved performance across all activities, including research. This article reports on part of a completed doctoral study that had the aim of developing a deeper understanding of the role of leadership as it relates to hospitality management research by university academics. A qualitative research design was employed comprising 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with academics in case studies of a pre-1992 and a post-1992 university. The transcripts from these plus the review of documentary materials and the analysis of reflective notes formed the basis of the findings. Detailed insights and examples of academic leadership in universities were revealed and new ways of thinking about research leadership developed. From the perceptions of the academic interviewees a view of research leadership emerged which indicated that it is important; the context of leadership is crucial; it is both formal and informal and is dispersed; that self-leadership exists; that it possesses many relationship patterns and that it is concerned with both the leadership of people and the subject.