Critical Listening Bibliography Excerpt: Part 2

You can read part one here to learn about this project and the central thesis.

Alalfy, H. R., Al-Aodah, I. S., & Shalaby, E. A. (2013). Leadership Skills in Higher Education. Mediterranean Journal Of Social Sciences, 4(2), 475-480. doi:10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n2p475

Introduction

In this day and age, students think of themselves as "customers" so department chairs at universities should have training that allows for wise and effective resolutions of student matters with a knowledge of organizational and legal expertise. Purpose of article is to look at the skills required to make effective leaders in managerial higher education. Leadership is not thought of as skills pertaining to social context instead of traits. Therefore, leadership theory is now based on individual behavior.

Developing Faculty as Teachers and Leaders

Learner-centered teaching that meets the needs of individuals. To get the best results, a variety of methods should be utilized to further development of individuals and appropriately meet the needs of specific situations or skills. Examples provided: formal training and seminars, faculty development through assignments, group projects, observed practices, mentoring, or independent reading.

Leadership Skills in an Educational Setting

Greater emphasis is now being put on leadership skills instead of guiding frameworks that balance person-specific traits and context-specific behaviors or skills. Behaviors learned are skills, and focusing on these ensures that leadership is examined within specific contexts, with the knowledge that a specific skill may not be appropriate for all situations.

Leadership Skills

Skills are defined by their ability to be developed and manifested in performance. Three key types of capabilities for leader performance are 1) creative problem-solving skills, 2) social problem-solving skills, and 3) knowledge.

Leadership in Academic Institutions

Balancing a multitude of diverse tasks is required of academic leaders. Resource management (managing staff, budgeting, scheduling), faculty leadership (encouraging research as well as professional development and maintaining a positive working environment), personal scholarship (continuing publication stream), resource development (training and supervision of grad students and junior faculty), and faculty development (recruiting faculty, measuring and monitoring faculty performance).

Decision Quality

This is based on thoroughness with which all relevant leadership and technical issues are considered. Typically, decisions are made based on common sense rather than using a hit-or-miss method; however, decision quality was found to be difficult to evaluate. External factors, quality of implementation, and timing (outcome unknown until after a decision has been made and implemented) were problems with determining quality of decision-making.

Evaluation

This article was reliable as long as I read the information as an advisor thinking about student development. It was objectively evaluating a leadership development model. The facts were very well documented in the article; a list of a variety of resources was attached.

Alalfy works in the Education Department of the Faculty of Education at Hail University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the same university is Al-Aodah, who works in the Deanship of Development and Quality. Last, Shalaby is part of the Biochemistry Department of the Faculty of Agriculture at Cairo University in Giza, Egypt. The article was written in May of 2013 so it is very current. The document was extremely scholarly; almost too much for my research.

This article fits into my thesis because self-development in a professional environment and understanding the many factors that an advisor would face is very important to the listening process. Also outlined are many skills, and an evaluation of the importance of these in relation to leadership and development, that can be utilized when supporting students as an advisor and helping them grow. It gives an insight to how students view faculty and staff (customer service) and a focus on individual behavior.

A successful advisor meets the needs of individuals and specific groups rather than generalizing all leadership development objectives. These skills can be different for each person; therefore, the development of each person’s skill will be varied when evaluating performance and capabilities. Last, decision-making will be hard to assess in leadership development so special attention will have to be given to this area.

#Leadership #OrganizationalHumanResources #AdvisingSupporting