Academic Administration: Leadership Vs. Management

Academic administration in engineering programs is increasingly a highly complex and difficult task. As front-line administrators, department chairs are responsible for transforming institutional goals and mission into practice. In today’s dynamic and financially restrained atmosphere of most colleges, the chair is also responsible for increasing enrollment, securing external resources and ensuring the overall economic health of an academic department. Since these are disparate, if not conflicting roles, the question is how can a typical administrator accomplish all the various functions required of him or her. Within this context, issues such as powers, mission and goals, faculty selection and evaluation, resource security and typical challenges are explored. By no means does the author intend to provide conclusive information, the intent is to stimulate further discussion on the role of a highly critical position in engineering administration and hopefully further the professional development of such critical members of our community.