Collegiality as a strategy for excellence in academia

Collegiality is a complex issue and in academia, with its culture of academic freedom and tolerance for different modes of expression, the appropriate role of collegiality raises even more questions than usual. There are at least three important aspects to collegiality in academe - the ethical imperative, the task of assessing collegiality affect on job effectiveness and the question of boundaries. Lack of collegiality can only be detrimental for the institution, turn-off students and even prompt workforce to disengage or leave altogether. Hoping things will get better is not a strategy for dealing with toxic behaviour and neither is waiting for a troublemaker to retire. Hence, ensuring collegiality is the corner stone of teaching excellence and developing academe. With in-depth observation and content analysis of secondary data, this paper aims to identify what is collegiality, role of departmental heads, and steps to nurture and develop collegiality for excellence in academia.