As the competitive nature of nursing education explodes, institutions are put in a position to compete for students, research grants, faculty, resources and funding. Dean, Directors and Department Chairs are required develop strategies to keep and/or develop a competitive advantage for their institution. Nursing academic leadership is in a tenuous position serving multiple constituencies including the senior administration, faculty and students as well as external stakeholders. The role of academic leadership has shifted from academic policy setter to entrepreneur and sometimes politician. However, those in leadership often come to their position without leadership training, without executive training, and without a clear understanding of the role and without the business skills necessary to develop strategies that lead to a competitive advantage.
Morris and Laipple (2015) found that most deans were unprepared for their administrative role and that additional professional development was needed especially in the role of financial stewardship. Several research articles discuss leadership competencies of university administrators including assessing the effectiveness of deans (Rosser, Johnsrud & Heck, 2003), leadership competencies for community college presidents, vice presidents and deans (Hassan, Dellow & Jackson, 2010, Boswell & Imroz, 2013), and preparation and job satisfaction of university administrators (Morris & Laippe, 2015) but the literature on nursing academic administrator competencies is limited. The issue of hiring and maintaining nursing academic administrators is confounded by the nursing faculty shortage. With the limited supply of faculty to move into administrative roles, keeping those in their position and supporting their growth is essential.
This research project was a replication of studies by Hassan, Dellow, and Jackson (2010) and Boswell and Imroz (2013) that investigated how the administrators in community colleges viewed the leadership competencies identified by the American Association of Community Colleges (2005). The American Association of Community Colleges leadership competencies were developed as the result of a two-year initiative supported by a planning grant by the W.K Kellogg Foundation to promote future community college leadership (Hassan, Dellow, & Jackson, 2010). The competencies are organized in the following categories: organizational strategy, resource management, communication, collaboration, advocacy and professionalism. The competencies identified may also be significant for nursing academic administrators as well.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics and professional skills identified by nursing academic administrators and to identify which development experiences contribute to the development.
This study answered the following questions:
1. How do nursing academic administrators rate the characteristics and professional skills identified by the AACC as being essential for effective leadership?
2. What leadership development experiences did nursing academic administrators identify as contributing to the development of each leadership competency?
Methods:
A descriptive non-experimental survey research design was utilized to addresses the questions. The target population was Deans, Directors and/or Department Chairs from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Directory. The AACN represents more than 770 private or public schools of nursing within the United States. The schools offer baccalaureate, graduate and post-graduate programs. The names of the Schools of Nursing were obtained from the public AACN website. The final sample consisted of 192 responses. The mean age of the respondents was 58.7 years with a range of 30-69. The majority of the respondents were female (92%) and white non-Hispanic 94.6% who have been in academic administration for 10 years on average.
The study included an internet survey adapted from studies from Hassan, Dellow and Jackson (2010) and Boswell & Imroz (2013) which assessed the AACC leadership competencies and leadership development experiences of nursing academic leaders. After completion of a brief demographic questionnaire, a Likert type scale survey of 51 behaviors, attitudes and values was administered. Each item was scored on a scale of not important (value=1), minimally important (value=2), moderately important (value=3), very important (value=4) or extremely important (value=5). Participants were also asked to rank key leadership competencies in level of importance for their current position and how their leadership development experiences shaped their knowledge, attitude and skills of the six leadership competencies.
Results:
The Deans and Directors identified that all 6 organizational strategies were important ranking them as follows: organizational strategy (M=4.69), communication (M=4.63), collaboration (M=4.59), professionalism (M=4.59), advocacy (M=4.48) and resource management (M-4.44). Most of the individual items within each category were rated moderately to extremely important with a few notable exceptions including using a systems perspective, working with external constituents, alignment of the programs mission and structure with the university, finding ethical funding and financial sources to support programs, performance management systems, conveying information to stakeholders and advocacy to stakeholders about the program’s mission and advance life-long learning in which some respondents responded either slightly important or not at all important.
The respondents were then asked to identify the learning experiences that were significant in developing the specific leadership competencies. The results revealed that personal reflection, mentoring/coaching and progressive job responsibilities were the top three ways that nursing academic administrators develop their skill set. The three least impactful way to develop leadership competencies for the respondents were business, government and military experience.
Conclusion:
The results of this study differed in several key was from the AACC results. First, Community College administrators identified that communication, advocacy and organizational strategy were the top three competencies needed for their role. The AACC results also identified that progressive job responsibilities, challenging job assignments and feedback were the most significant ways that the administrators developed competencies. Of interest, both nursing academic administrators and community college administrators found that business, government and military experiences were not helpful in the development of their leadership skills.
Gmelech and Miskin (2011) note that one in five department chairs and academic deans will leave their position each year. One of the reasons presented was lack of proficiency in the role leading to high stress and low job satisfaction. The results of this study have identified that the six competencies of community college administrators are essential for nursing academic administrators and should be targeted as development goals for those new to an academic administrative role. Personal reflection, mentoring/coaching and progressive job responsibilities the methods nursing academic administrators developed their skills. They did not find graduate programs or in-house programs helpful in honing their skills. Therefore, a multi-prong approach should be developed to assist new and current administrators. First, develop meaningful educational experiences at the graduate level with both theoretical and practical application experiences for students. Next, create real world experiences for current and new administrators so that they can actively work on those skills necessary for their administrative role. As faculty move to their first administrative opportunity, ensure that they use personal reflection as a tool to assist them in evaluating their skill set, as well as ensuring that there are mentor sin place to guide them and provide feedback and support. Finally, all administrators should be providing opportunities for faculty to “test out” the administrative role through specifically tailored experiences. Well-prepared academic administrators can operate and produce results in an ever-complex business arena. Finally, a good leader will create an environment for faculty and staff that increases productivity and morale.
Future studies on this topic will focus on advancing the science in several areas. First, once the key leadership competencies are identified, the next research study will evaluate the current leadership conferences and workshops to determine if these conferences address the issues that the administrators felt were important. Second, the development of a descriptive qualitative study describing the experience of nursing faculty who advanced to an administrative role. This current study sample should be expanded to include deans, directors and department chairs from other schools and colleges of nursing internationally to determine if there are inherent differences based upon location and finally an intervention study to determine if a focused educational program on the key leadership competencies that were deemed most important improves the skill set of new academic administrators.
The dissemination of this research will add to the scholarly body of work on leadership development in nursing. The study results will enable those in senior level administrative positions to provide Deans, Directors and Department Chairs and faculty with the knowledge needed to be influential in gaining a competitive edged for their unit