Abstract
This chapter considers the contexts for leadership and work in higher education at a time described as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). It does so by connecting the dots between leadership, energy management, and motivation to call for the creative energies of all who work in higher education to be called upon to meet these challenges. It is also a time where leader and follower distinctions are increasingly moot given that all involved in knowledge work have responsibilities for both leading and following well, no matter the formal responsibilities held.
This chapter discusses “energy management” as is a useful throughline for contemporary leadership studies and professional practice in higher education. Today professional staff repertoires include soft skills and behaviors which rely heavily on knowing the self well. Here the idea of the T-shaped professional is a term that elevates the many tangible and intangible strands necessary for higher education management work in knowledge-intensive institutions.
The chapter also explores these ideas through a case study of motivational and other energy-related drivers elicited from the lived experiences of work and leadership shared by 226 professional staff members working in Australian universities.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barnard, Chester Irving. 1938. The functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Barnard, Chester Irving. 1948. Organization and management: Selected papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Beck, Don, and Christopher C. Cowan. 1996. Spiral dynamics: Mastering values, leadership, and change: exploring the new science of memetics, developmental management. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business.
Bennis, Warren. 1988. The character of leadership. In The power of character: Prominent Americans talk about life, family, work, values, and more, ed. M.S. Josephson and W. Hanson, 142–149. Marina del Rey: Josephson Institute of Ethics.
Blackmore, Jill. 2009. Re/positioning women in educational leadership: The changing social relations and politics of gender in Australia. In Women leading education across the continents: Sharing the spirit, fanning the flame, ed. Helen C. Sobehart, 73–83. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Bolden, Richard, Sandra Jones, Heather Davis, and Paul Gentle. 2015. Stimulus paper: developing and sustaining shared leadership in higher education, stimulus paper. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Bolden, Richard, Morgen Witzel, and Nigel Linacre, eds. 2016. Leadership paradoxes: Rethinking leadership for an uncertain world. London: Routledge.
Carroll, Brigid, Lester Levy, and David Richmond. 2008. Leadership as practice: Challenging the competency paradigm. Leadership 4 (4): 363–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715008095186.
Chaleff, Ira. 2009. The courageous follower: Standing up to & for our leaders. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Crevani, Lucia, Monica Lindgren, and Johann Packendorff. 2010. Leadership, not leaders: On the study of leadership as practices and interactions. Scandinavian Journal of Management 26 (1): 77–86.
Davis, Heather. 2012. Leadership literacies for professional Staff in Universities. PhD Thesis, School of Management, RMIT.
Davis, Heather. 2015. Social complexity theory for sense seeking: Unearthing leadership mindsets for unknowable and uncertain times. E:CO 17 (1): 1–11.
Davis, Heather, and Sandra Jones. 2014. The work of leadership in higher education management. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management 36 (4): 367–370.
Davis, Heather, and Jenny Moon. 2013. Making room for new traditions: Encouraging a critical reflective professional practice for tertiary education management. TEMC 2013: Trends, traditions, technology: 15–18 September 2013, Hobart.
DEEWR. 2010. Staff 2010: Selected higher education statistics. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
Demirkan, Haluk, and Jim Spohrer. 2015. T-shaped innovators: Identifying the right talent to support service innovation. Research-Technology Management 58 (5): 12–15. https://doi.org/10.5437/08956308X5805007.
Denzin, Norman K. 1977. The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Fletcher, Joyce K., and Katrin Kaeufer. 2003. Shared leadership: Paradox and possibility. In Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership, ed. Craig L. Pearce and Jay Alden Conger, 21–47. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Follett, Mary Parker. 1927. Leader and expert. In [Reprinted in] dynamic administration: The collected papers. 247–269. New York: Harper & Bros. Original edition, 2 successive papers in April and November 1927.
Follett, Mary Parker. 1928. Some discrepancies in leadership theory and practice. In [Reprinted in] dynamic administration: The collected papers, 270–294. New York: Harper & Bros. Original edition, 8-Mar-1928.
Follett, Mary Parker. 1933. The essentials of leadership [one of five lectures given to inaugurate the Dept of Business Administration, London School of Economics, University of London]. In Mary Parker Follett – prophet of management: A celebration of writings from the 1920s [reprinted as Chapter 6], ed. Pauline Graham, 163–177. Washington, DC: Beard Books. 1995.
Gagné, Marylène, and Edward L. Deci. 2005. Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior 26 (4): 331–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.322.
Gagné, Marylène, Jacques Forest, Marie-Hélène Gilbert, Caroline Aubé, Estelle Morin, and Angela Malorni. 2010. The motivation at work scale: Validation evidence in two languages. Educational and Psychological Measurement 70 (4): 628–646.
Greenleaf, Robert K. 1977. Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press.
Gronn, Peter. 2011. Hybrid configurations of leadership. In The Sage handbook of leadership, ed. Alan Bryman, L. Collinson David, Keith Grint, Brad Jackson, and Mary Uhl-Bien, 437–454. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Grove, Jack. 2016. THE University workplace survey 2016: results and analysis. Times Higher Education.
Hall, Brian P., and Helen Thompson. 1980. Leadership through values: A study in personal and organizational development. New York: Paulist Press.
Hansen, Morten T., and Bolko von Oetinger. 2001. Introducing T-shaped managers. Harvard Business Review 79 (3): 106–116.
Harris, Bill. 2005. Spiral dynamics: A new model for understanding the values that shape our world. Beaverton: Centerpointe Research Institute.
HBR. 2008. Harvard business review on bringing your whole self to work. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Kennedy, Fiona, Brigid Carroll, and Joline Francoeur. 2013. Mindset not skillset: Evaluating in new paradigms of leadership development. Advances in Developing Human Resources 15 (1): 10–26.
Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. 2003. Leaders, fools and imposters: essays on the psychology of leadership. Rev ed. New York: iUniverse.
Koltko-Rivera, Mark E. 2006. Rediscovering the later version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Self-transcendence and opportunities for theory, research, and unification. Review of General Psychology 10 (4): 302–317.
Ladkin, Donna. 2010. Rethinking leadership: A new look at old leadership questions. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Ladkin, Donna. 2012. Perception, reversibility, “Flesh”: Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and leadership as embodied practice.” Integral Leadership Review: 1–9.
Loehr, James E., and Tony Schwartz. 2003. Fully engaged: Energy, not time, is our most precious resource. In The power of full engagement: Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal, 3–18. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Martin, Roger L. 2009. The design of business: Why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Martin, David Jerner, and Kimberly S. Joomis. 2007. Building teachers: A constructivist approach to introducing education. Belmont: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Maslow, Abraham H. 1943. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50: 370–396.
Maslow, Abraham H. 1970. Motivation and personality. 2nd ed. New York: Harper & Row.
Mayo, George Elton. 1919. Democracy and freedom. Melbourne: Massina & Co..
McGregor, Douglas. 1960. The human side of enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.
O’Boyle, Ed, and Jim Harter. 2013. State of the global workplace: Employee engagement insights for business leaders worldwide. Washington, DC: Gallup.
Peters, Kim, and Michelle Ryan. 2015. Motivating and developing leaders. In Higher Education Leadership and Management Survey (HELMS). London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Raelin, Joseph A. 2016a. It’s not about the leaders: It’s about the practice of leadership. Organizational Dynamics 45 (2): 124–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.02.006.
Raelin, Joseph A. 2016b. Leadership-as-practice: Theory and application, Routledge studies in leadership research. New York: Routledge.
Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2008. From ego depletion to vitality: Theory and findings concerning the facilitation of energy available to the self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2 (2): 702–717. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00098.x.
Schwartz, Tony. 2007. Manage your energy, not your time. Harvard Business Review: 63–71.
Sinclair, Amanda. 2007. Bringing bodies into leadership. In Leadership for the disillusioned: Moving beyond myths and heroes to leading that liberates, 91–110. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Spreitzer, Gretchen, Christine L. Porath, and Cristina B. Gibson. 2012. Toward human sustainability: How to enable more thriving at work. Organizational Dynamics 41 (2): 155–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2012.01.009.
Thrift, N.J. 2008. Non-representational theory: Space, politics, affect. London: Routledge.
Uhl-Bien, Mary. 2006. Relational leadership theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. The Leadership Quarterly 17 (6): 654–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.007.
Wilber, Ken. 2008. Integral life practice: A 21st century blueprint for physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual awakening. Boston: Integral Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Davis, H. (2018). Connecting the Dots for Professional Practice in Higher Education: Leadership, Energy Management, and Motivation. In: Bossu, C., Brown, N. (eds) Professional and Support Staff in Higher Education. University Development and Administration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6858-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6858-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6856-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6858-4
eBook Packages: EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education