Building Relations in Higher Education Leadership Introduction The contemporary society is quite dynamic and highly interconnected. Consequently, there has been an increased need for interdependence and collaboration and every level of leadership. One individual cannot solve all the challenges facing an institution or an organization. Accordingly, an effective leader is one who promotes collaborative decision making rather than the individual intuition approach. One of the major characteristics of an effective leader is the ability to maintain collaborative relationships with all stakeholders. Collaboration comes with overwhelming benefits such as being a warranty of success. School leaders of higher education institutions are not an exception. They need to have collaboration and well-managed relationships skills in order to prosper and become more effective to their institutions and beyond. This paper, therefore, focuses on collaborative relationships in institutions of higher education. The paper analyzes relationship-building processes, benefits of learning as a shared responsibility and professional development. Establishing Collaborative Relationship with the Board and the Faculty Collaboration is the working together with others to generate something. Effective collaboration is an act in which stakeholders purposefully choose to collaborate in order to realize a common outcome. An institution can only realize effective collaboration the school leader has the ability and skills to build and maintain relations. Effective collaboration among school leaders, faculty, board, students and other stakeholders is a strategic element that promotes the success of students. An effective leader of higher educational institutions must build and maintain collaborative relationships with the faculty and boards. Effective collaboration among school leaders, faculty and board members promote the health of an educational institution. Faculty and board members need to adopt certain strategies to promote effective collaboration in institutions. These strategies include regular communication, more transparency in the decision-making process, continuing training and education of faculty and board members, making clarification on the respective duties of faculty and board. The school leaders are the avenues of communication between the faculty and board members. They need to set pace in the communication process within institutions. Communication is a vital element for collaboration to be effective. School leaders, therefore, need to ensure that the communication is regular and consistent. The school leaders, faculty and board members need to be more transparent and accountable in their duties to ensure theta their relationships are objective. Maintaining a continual flow of information from the head of higher education to the board ensures that there is a high level of accountability in the relations. It is, therefore, worthwhile to underscore that lack of effective flow of information from the side of the institution derails the process of relationship building and its sustainability. Encouraging participation from different members of the board is a way of ensuring that the relationship is sensitive to addresses the interests of different groups. According to Landes M. M. (2010), the board and the faculty should develop a plan or a system with long-term goals in order to establish and maintain a sustained collaboration. Nonetheless, the goals need to be flexible and should reflect a shared vision (Landes M. M., 2010). As such, embracing a consultative decision-making approach is a potential way of establishing effective collaboration within the faculty. Accordingly, it is judicious to ensure that the goals and visions take into considerations the interests of all the collaborating members in order to ensure they remain fused towards fulfilling the expectations of their goals. Learning as Shared Responsibility Although the leadership of a higher educational institution may entail a number of duties and responsibilities, the ultimate goal of the institution provide an environment that is conducive for learning. As such, it is important that the board, the faculty and the leaders work in collaboration towards supporting learning in the institution. Although many institutions isolate academic area as a responsibility of the faculty, a number of weaknesses characterize such systems. First, leaving learning entirely for the faculty leads to disconnect and lack accountability between the authorities (Gaff J., 2010). Decision-making regarding pertinent issues affecting learning in an institution requires the involvement of key stakeholders including the leaders, the board, and the faculty. Whereas the faculty is responsible for student learning, and fiscal results of their decision, the leaders, and the boards are accountable to the accrediting agencies. As such, making learning a shared responsibility among the leaders, the faculty, and the board will significantly improve the decision-making process and result in outcomes that are more positive. Defining academic programs in the institution should be a corporate responsibility that requires the active participation and active involvement of key stakeholders (Schwartz M., 2009). Regardless of the personal or professional inclination of the faculty, leaders, and board members, every member in these groups needs to play an active role in formulating, supporting and overseeing the implementation of the learning programs in the institution. In the new epoch of education, there is a paradigm shift from the traditional teaching to learning. As such, accreditation in higher institution depends on a satisfactory evidence of student learning. It is, therefore, worth mentioning that learning should be a shared responsibility that involves effective participation of the leaders, the faculty and the board in making crucial decisions for accreditation and accountability. Professional Development in Encouraging Scholarship Supporting professional activities and development is a milestone towards encouraging scholarship among students in higher education. Sanchez et al. (2008) maintain that engaging the students in professional development is the surest way of enhancing scholarship in higher education. Academic presentations such as writing academic papers, journals, project work, and presentation in conferences give the students a chance to exploit their potentials and improve of the existing knowledge. As such, it is notable that such professional development activities encourage scholarship and academic growth among students. In other words, they facilitate professional growth outside the confines of the traditional boundaries (Sanchez C., 2008). Nicholls G. (2014) alludes that academic landscape is fast changing, and students must engage in practical-oriented work to support and reflect the concepts of the classroom content. A demonstration of the concepts through professional academic work will allow the students to scale the ladder of scholarship and make a significant impact on their academic arena. Research-based professional work will increase the competency and ensure capacity building among professionals and students. In fact, higher education learning is a more professional –based development and requires both a strong groundwork of theoretical and practical research (Nicholls G., 2014). The faculties, therefore, should promote professional development as a way of encouraging scholarship. For instance, the lecturers should use literatures but also develop others to contribute to the creation of knowledge. Conclusion After canvassing the dynamics of leadership in higher education, this paper establishes a number of facts. First, there is no one-size fits all approach to leadership. Instead, effective leadership requires the establishment and maintenance of collaborative relationships with various stakeholders. Moreover, learning per se should be a shared responsibility that involves the participation of the leaders, the faculty, and the board. As a way of reinforcing scholarship, the faculties need to emphasize on professional development through the writing of journals, presentations, conferences, and project work to intersect theory and practice.
References
Gaff J. (2010). What If the Faculty Really Do Assume Responsibility for the Educational Program? Retrieved November 16, 2014, from Association of American Colleges and Universities. : http://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/what-if-faculty-really-do-assume-responsibility-educational
Landes M. M. . (2010). Teacher Leaders+ Reflective Teaching=A Collaborative Leadership Approach to Establishing Public School and University Partnerships. http://scholars.indstate.edu/bitstream/10484/1574/1/Madeline%20M%20Landes-Collaborative%20Leadership.pdf: Indiana State University.
Nicholls G. . (2014). Professional Development in Higher Education . New York : Routedge: http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=CdjgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=professional+development+as+way+of+encouraging+scholarship+in+higher+education&source=bl&ots=qunBw9KPkV&sig=ppkSWNs1y5MCsxrow_v-LFbGwrQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CgxpVIC2HIGOPdOrgeAM&redir_.
Sanchez C., P. O. (2008). Promoting student engagement through scholarship in a teacher preparation program. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 8, No. 2: pp. 62-74: .
Schwartz M., S. R. (2009). Faculty, Governing Boards, and Institutional Governance . http://agb.org/sites/agb.org/files/u16/FacultyGoverning%20BoardsandInstitutionalGovernance_final.pdf: TIAA-CREF Institute.
