Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#308 THE ROLE OF DEPARTMENT CHAIRS AND DEANS
IN MANAGING FACULTY CONFLICT
Folks:
The excerpt below looks at the role of administrators in managing
faculty-faculty conflict. It is second of two excerpts from, Chapter 10,
Can
We Agree to Disagree? Faculty-Faculty Conflict, by Cynthia
Berryman-Fink, in: MENDING THE CRACKS IN THE IVORY TOWER: Strategies
for Conflict Management in
Higher Education, Susan A. Holton, editor: Bridgewater State College,
Copyright (c) 1998 by Anker Publishing Company, Bolton, MA.
http://www.ankerpub.com/
All rights reserved. Reprinted with
permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu
UP NEXT: Do I Dare? Is It Prudent?
Tomorrow's Academic Careers
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THE ROLE OF DEPARTMENT CHAIRS AND DEANS IN MANAGING FACULTY CONFLICT
Cynthia Berryman-Fink
From Chapter 10, Can We Agree to Disagree? Faculty- Faculty Conflict.
pp. 150-152.
Administrators play crucial roles in managing faculty-faculty conflict,
though they do not always perceive or embrace such roles. Probably the
most important task for chairs and deans relative to faculty conflict
is
to influence the culture of the academic enterprise over which they
lead, be it a department, division, school, or college. Through their
leadership, chairs and deans can help to shape an environment where
destructive conflict is absent or rare. In other words, the
administrator's role in conflict frequently is a preventative one.
Chairs and deans, through their legitimate power, personal persuasion,
as well as the ability to reward and coerce, should expect teamwork and
cooperation from the faculty in their units (Gmelch, 1995). In such an
atmosphere, incompatible goals may surface, but they will be resolved
through discussion, and the best interests of the unit will take
precedence over the individual interests. Administrators should send
clear messages that destructive conflict will not be tolerated. By
exerting leadership to influence faculty behavior in the academic unit,
chairs and deans can play an important role in conflict management.
Another way for administrators to affect conflict among their faculty
is
to apply policy consistently. When administrators are arbitrary or
capricious in the application of policy, competition among departments
or among faculty becomes greater. For example, imagine that some
faculty refuse to report days when they are sick, thereby avoiding using
their sick leave benefits. Though the college policy requires that any
absence due to illness must be reported, some faculty believe that sick
leave should not be used if they arrange for a substitute to teach their
classes or they hold a make-up session with students at a later date.
Some chairs or deans may think it a waste of their time to provide
oversight to ensure the consistent application of this policy. For
pragmatic administrators, some battles are worth fighting and some are
not. However, if some faculty follow the policy and some do not, then
over time, the seeds of conflict-envy, resentment, and
hostility-surface. The perception will quickly emerge that
administration have their favorites who can bend the rules. No visible
conflict may result, but the foundation for repressed conflict has been
laid. If some faculty can ignore one policy, then other faculty may
think they have the right to ignore other policy. The fair, consistent,
and predictable application of policy will go a long way to reduce
feuds, resentment, and discontent among faculty.
Strong leadership and consistent application of policy will not prevent
all faculty conflict, however. Faculty will still disagree over
ideology, priorities, and procedures. When conflicts emerge, chairs and
deans must decide when to intervene and when not to. Ideally, in most
cases the faculty will possess the skills to resolve their own disputes,
so administrative intervention becomes unnecessary. Indeed, one of the
strategies of the administrator might be to equip faculty with the
requisite conflict management skills. An effective intervention a chair
or dean might make is to plan conflict management workshops for the
faculty. Systematic attention by the chair or dean to the process by
which faculty manage their disagreements should save much administrative
effort in eliminating the need for case-by-case intervention later.
It will sometimes be necessary for administrators to involve themselves
directly in the disputes among their faculty. This is especially true
for chairs, who often are naturally drawn into departmental disputes.
Gmelch (1995) indicates that chairs are expected to resolve collegial
differences and that dealing with interfaculty conflict represents a major
source of stress and dissatisfaction for chairs. Socialized as scholars
first, chairs often have little training in any aspects of departmental
management, especially the management of personnel disputes. It is
understandable why they may resist intervention in others' conflicts.
But chairs and deans commonly are drawn into faculty conflicts by one
or
more of the disputants. While the next section of this chapter presents
specific strategies for conflict management, let it suffice here to say
that administrators can perform important functions of information
seeking, clarification, and communication in interfaculty conflicts. To
avoid those roles when conflict presents itself is to shirk
administrative duties.
There is not always a clear answer about whether to intervene in faculty
disputes. If the disputes do not seem able to manage the conflict
themselves, if the conflict is affecting the morale of others, if
students are being harmed in some way by the conflict, or if the issues
have potential litigious consequences, then the administrator should
intervene early in the faculty conflict. An objective but firm
intervention by the dean especially can serve to remind the conflicting
parties of the need for professional behavior and for speedy resolution.
Reference
Gmelch, W.H. (1195) Department chairs under siege: Resolving the web
of conflict. In S. A holton (e3d.), Conflict management in higher
education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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