ENGENDERING DIVERSITY: LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITYRosemary Deem, Vice Principal (Education) & Professor of Higher Education, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

Email: R.Deem@rhul.ac.uk

INTRODUCTION The talk will examine some of the debates around HE

leadership & diversity including selection/recruitment practices, barriers to leadership careers, organisational cultures and leadership development & support

The context is one in which university leaders in many countries are white males (& often from a limited range of backgrounds too)

Often ambivalence to excellence in leadership in HE (Deem 2009c)

Drawing on the research literature, the paper will then discuss how we might support more diversity

But I will begin with a brief biographical detour, which may help explain my own interest in the topic & which also introduces some of the key themes

A DIFFERENT VISION OF LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY?

A BIOGRAPHICAL DETOUR

Longstanding interest in gender & education – first book Women and Schooling (1978) & have done many projects with a gender theme or element since.

Worked in former polytechnic & then distance learning institution, as well as Russell Group & 1994 group universities, initially in Sociology & then in Education departments (Deem 1996)

Investigated management & governance as research topic -added leadership as became fashionable (Gunter 2012)

Took on responsibility for research/postgraduate students as associate dean at the UK Open University & subsequently managed a large postgraduate teaching programme

Was active in learned societies (BSA, BERA, UKCGE etc) Used outside work citizenship activities to learn about

leadership e.g chairing school governing body etc)

A FRACTURED MANAGEMENT CAREER Got professorship at Lancaster University & became HoD,

then Dean of Social Sciences, followed by setting up Lancaster’s Graduate School

Applied for various PVC posts outside (at Lancaster then, these were ‘tap on the shoulder’ affairs) but did not get any of them

Went back to academic life in Bristol as Professor of Education but also ran Education Subject Centre ESCalate, became Graduate Dean then Research Director, for Social Sciences & Law (Deem 2007)

Decided would like to go back to a more senior management role if possible and began applying again but found that my Bristol roles did not count as ‘proper’ management

In 2009 went to Royal Holloway as Dean of History & Social Sciences, in August 2011 became Vice Principal (Education); helpful that male ex-Bristol colleague was there already

THE CAREER TREADMILL

HOW DO WOMEN LEADERS FARE IN HE? Some are interested in transformation (Deem & Ozga 2000,

Deem1999b, Maddock 1999), especially if feminists Usually in a minority in west; Morley (2007) argues can be

better in developing countries Find it difficult to get into top of hierarchies & male ‘clubs’

(Grummell et al 2009a, Arini et al 2011, Blackmore & Sachs 2007)

May struggle to find styles of being leaders that they & others are comfortable with (Priola 2007)

Often find it difficult to incorporate caring commitments in ‘long hours’ culture (Grummell et al 2009b, Arini et al 2011)

Often focus on people & ‘doing the day job’ rather than career building (Deem 2012)

When exhibit the same behaviour as men in HE, are judged differently (Deem 2003)

No-one ever said ‘ our last leader was a man but he was not very good, so we won’t appoint another man this time’

SPOTTING FUTURE LEADERS In our 2006-9 ESRC Change Agent Project, Vice Chancellors

told us they picked future academic leaders by identifying those willing to do things outside their own departments. Some run special courses, others ask close colleagues for names

Other indications may be self-promotion & assertiveness, the opposite of the good citizenship of many women academics (Currie et al 2000 in Australia, Acker 1996, 2004, in Canada)

Research leadership is often valued over teaching leadership as a future indicator of leadership expertise, yet the latter is often more demanding & involves more unwilling participants,

Blackmore & Sachs (2007) suggest research outputs/grants conform better with contemporary notions of performativity in leadership; teaching has fewer measurable outputs

SHEEP, LIKE ACADEMICS, CAN BE HARD TO LEAD – HOW DO WE KNOW WHO CAN MANAGE THEM?

HOW ARE TOP LEADERS IN HE RECRUITED?

Different traditions abound: e.g in much of Europe rectors, deans & HoDs are elected &/or rotating internal appointments, whereas in the UK, Ireland, North America, Australia & New Zealand these are frequently permanent posts & often externally appointed

Role of headhunters in creating cloned male leaders is evident in some countries – the creation of an ‘ ideal type’ career trajectory & certain capitals privileged

Goodall (2009) argues that research intensive universities should be led by ‘top scholars’. Does this potentially exclude some women (because may not be so defined)?

SELECTING UNIVERSITY LEADERS

Difficult to get access to interview panels Van den Brink (2009) looked at recruitment of

professors in the Netherlands & found despite equality measures, women often failed to be appointed, even if credentials same or better than those of men

Grummell et al (2009b) studied appointment process of 7 senior HE leaders in Ireland: Women often not appointed as career trajectory not

steep or substantial enough Men appointed might have young children but

partners were care-givers, men just ‘care facilitators’ (p 201)

Top jobs seen as all-encompassing Some women lack confidence in own abilities

RECRUITING UNIVERSITY LEADERS: GRUMMELL ET AL 2009 if somebody has taken a couple of years out or hasn’t

gone for promotion at a particular time for their own personal reasons that that does go against them … when in three to five years’ time they wish to now avail of the opportunity … …‘why didn’t you go the last time? Or are you fully committed to this?’ (Female assessor, Tory HEI, p. 197)

I’d say on average I work an 85 hour week, between 75 and 85 hours a week … That is another issue for women who still have caring responsibilities. (Female assessor at Inismeain HEI , p 202)

“{He} explained that his wife took a one-year career break when their child was born {then} ‘she resigned … she made a choice and in ways it was a hard choice, I mean … it’s her only child’ … The possibility that he could take on a care role was not mentioned”( male, Achill HEI pp 199-200)

WHO CAN BE OR WANTS TO BE AN HE LEADER? DO THEY NEED TRAINING? there is something there about who is acceptable to lead

academics … yes, anybody with an MBA need not apply (policy maker, CAP project)

Yeah, I do go to Leadership Foundation things, and so on, but the most recent thing is that I've been accepted on to is the Top Management Programme … I had to have the support of my Vice Chancellor, and the financial support, because it's jolly expensive, I mean it's about, I think, about £14,000, or something now. But, I think, you know, I've...that is both to support me in my current role, but I've also got a very strong eye on its use in terms of my further career paths … I was interviewed for a Vice Chancellor position recently, and the first question that I was asked was why I hadn't been on the TMP, and actually the reason that I hadn't at that time was that...a bit of negotiation with the Vice Chancellor about this (Female PVC, Longley, post-1992)

CAREERS & (ACCIDENTAL?) AMBITION I've never done any of these things for longer than eight

years. I was HoD for eight years, and I suppose it must have been around five or six years I'd done as Deputy Director, I suppose …then I started thinking that I could….why should I be second string to somebody when I could be first string and for the first time I looked at maybe moving, but I would have only have moved to an institution of this type, with this kind of focus… Now, the point I want to make about all that, in every step of that… I was not deliberately seeking career advancement, just I was right place, right time, possibly competent enough, but it was never a ambition of mine let's say, particularly, and I'm very interested to observe among my colleagues those who fall into that category, compared to those for whom it is an ambition, and they're distinctly different (male VC, Furzedown University)

WHAT DOES A LEADER LOOK LIKE?

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES AND DIVERSITY Some organisational cultures appear more permeable to

diversity than others; may be more flexible, with clear value articulation

For learning organisations, universities are surprisingly conservative in leadership development (Burgoyne 2009)

HE tends to use concepts of meritocracy and excellence to exclude rather than include (Deem 2007a, 2009c)

Griffiths (2011) compares two different UK universities & found one more women-friendly, with more women in senior management posts, plus training & mentoring

At the same time, universities may also see gender as one of the inequalities which they have successfully ‘overcome’ (Deem & Morley 2007) & hence no action needed

Grummell et al’s (2009b) Irish research found senior positions are ‘care-less’ & often have a ‘care ceiling’ that excludes those who are primary care givers. Women are also more oriented to ‘caring’ in an HE environment so are alienated by idea of such posts

WOMEN AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES In HE staff equality policy research (Deem, Morley & Tilli

2005) the worst institution for policy implementation had a female VC with EO experience

In the 2006-9 Change Agent Project, university with woman VC had all-female senior team & emphasised team working more than other sample HEIs

Priola (2007) looked at a business school where most senior roles were occupied by women but a predominance of longstanding male academics) Men saw woman dean as favouring women appointees Some women said they preferred to work for men as women

leaders can be aggressive and bitchy Women in management roles felt obliged to appear ‘tough’,

not showing emotion or feelings Women managers also felt that their lives were full of work &

difficult to fit other commitments in (families, social life)

PRIOLA (2007); CONTRADICTIONS FACING WOMEN LEADERS

‘She {woman dean} treats women better; they have greater chances of promotion. As a man I have greater difficulties here’ (male academic) p. 28

This place needs more stroking … People here are scared of Mary {the Dean}, she is unpredictable, we have to keep the guard up because you don’t know what to expect. Maybe she thinks that is a good thing but I actually find that it is the opposite that works, the encouragement, the recognition, the steady support, at least in the long term (Cheryl,HoD) p. 32

ORGANISATIONAL CRITICAL INCIDENTS Arini et al (2011) did an internet survey of 26 women in

management roles in 8 New Zealand universities to explore what helped or hindered them

The women identified a range of both positive & negative critical incidents, ranging from support from a senior individual to being torn between home and work commitments at certain times. This shows women don’t always tell ‘misery stories’ (Alvesson & Due Billing 1997) about their experience

Also noted Broadridge’s (2007) point from study of retail managers that women rely on work based support and men on support at home

Arini et al identified key themes in the responses: relationships at work; organisational environment; hidden ‘rules’ they were unaware of; being proactive; personal circumstances

COURSES, EQUALITY AND CAREERS Because I knew that it {Top Management Programme}

was a very good course for preparing people for senior posts in universities and it is, and it has got a good track record in that way. Although I have to say, I'd like somebody to do an analysis of the TMP because it...although the numbers were equally men and women in my group, the men much more often go on to be Vice Chancellors, but I think that's probably just, you know, it's interesting from that point of view

Interviewer: Although the numbers on the courses were equal ?

Yes, lots of the men then go on...whether it's because women decide that's not for them I don't know, but a lot of the men do go on, you know, I can pick out lots of...{the men} who were on the course with me, who are now Vice Chancellors. 

NOT JUST WOMEN; EMOTIONS, COACHING AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE FOR A MALE LEADER

if you were my coach, I could say to you, ‘I think I’ve got this really wrong about where we’re taking [Valley]’, couldn’t do it internally … my close colleagues here don’t want to know that. They want you to be, not certain, but, you know, confident … the one thing that has been the biggest shock to me is simply an emotional point, you go into a Vice Chancellorship with a set of friends and they are the set of friends you leave the Vice Chancellorship with, you can’t make friends in the job … it {coaching} actually made me very aware of probably the inner weaknesses all to do with my life … all the normal things that everyone has … unconscious things needing sorting out. So, I’m very aware that I will go home and I will dream about situations … {it} comes out as experiencing vulnerability (male VC, Valley University)

HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE WOMEN TO ASPIRE TO UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP? Provision of good role models in leadership positions who

don’t work 85 hours a week Enabling early & mid career female academics to acquire

relevant cultural, social and scientific capital Setting up emerging leaders programmes which enable

academics & administrators to explore different kinds of leadership in which they can engage (Burgoyne 2009, Madsen 2012)

Sponsoring women academics who want to be leaders (learned society posts, references, putting name forward for vacancies etc)

Networking with newer female academics (e.g EGOS 2011women academics pre-conference sessions)

Giving early career female academics opportunities to referee for journals & grant awarding bodies, so they begin to learn peer review & gate-keeping skills

HOW CAN WE ENGENDER MORE DIVERSITY IN UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP?

Mentoring by experienced leaders helps to support new managers/leaders

Debate diversity, excellence and gender in leadership in universities more often

Facilitate action learning sets of those new to leadership to enable sharing of experience & ideas

External coaching is useful for stressful events & processes (e.g restructuring)

Nurturing of virtual & face-to-face networks which provide vital support for leaders

Actively seeking out women & non-white men who are interested in management & leadership

Looking carefully at who chooses/selects leaders & managers & the processes involved; getting more women & non-white men involved

Monitoring the outcomes of leadership recruitment at institutional & system level

WHY DO WOMEN LEADERS NEED SUPPORT?

I overheard, in the Ladies at [previous university], two women professors, both fairly newly appointed to heads of department role, and I heard them saying to each other, ‘Gosh, how are you finding it?’ I was in the cubicle, they were at the washbasins, ‘Gosh, how are you finding it?’ ‘I don't know, I find people come and talk to me all the time, they want to come and talk to me’ and the other one said ‘I know, isn't it awful, how long do you give them?’ The first person said, ‘Fifteen minutes, max’ to which the other replied, ‘Do you give them more if they're crying?’ (Woman VC, Change Agent Project, reflecting on leadership development)

THE MAN AT THE BACK IS UNDERGOING TRAINING TO SEE IF HE WILL FIT IN …

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