Leadership development in higher education : a literature review and implications for programme redesign

Leadership development (LD) activity and its effectiveness has not been explored rigorously across changing university settings globally. As Higher Education settings change radically throughout the world, Higher Education professionals are operating in more uncertain environments, and leaders are taking increasingly complex and diverse approaches to their leadership roles. LD activities therefore become important in supporting this highly complex context, yet little is known in the literature about LD and its impact in Higher Education. We examine peer‐reviewed work on LD in Higher Education settings globally to understand what may be learned about its content, processes, outcomes and impact. Our results suggest the current literature is small‐scale, fragmented and often theoretically weak, with many different and coexisting models, approaches and methods, and little consensus on what may be suitable and effective in the Higher Education context. We reflect on this state of play and develop a novel theoretical approach for designing LD activity in Higher Education institutions

To take-up or not to take-up? Government early years services in India & their utilization by working mothers in a Delhi slum

This study of early years services in India explores the take-up of the government ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services Scheme) and RGNCS (Rajiv Gandhi National Cr&egrave;che Scheme), and the factors affecting their uptake by working mothers in a Delhi slum. Policy cannot assess programme outcomes effectively without understanding how services are implemented. Existing literature indicates that programme impact is related to programme take-up, with non-take-up being a complex phenomenon affected by factors operating at multiple levels of the policy process. The study makes original contributions by examining user perspectives on early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the Indian context; in being the first to research any aspect of the RGNCS; and in utilizing Critical Realism as the underlying philosophical, theoretical and methodological paradigm for studying programme uptake. It poses five research questions that examine mothers' childcare arrangements and needs/expectations from services, their take-up of government programmes and component services, and the combination of factors affecting uptake. Study findings are based on surveys with 200 working mothers and 37 childrenâs centre workers, and interviews with 15 policy experts. Findings reveal childcare arrangements and needs/expectations to vary by family structure, childâs age, and mother's age and employment. ICDS uptake is found to be higher (54.3&percnt; of all mothers), than RGNCS (18.6&percnt;). An explanatory framework for analysing take-up reveals that low take-up results from a combination of multiple factors, most significantly programme characteristics for the ICDS, and participant characteristics for the RGNCS. Two theoretical frameworks frame this analysis â Wolman's (1981) determinants of programme success and failure, and the 'barriers and bridges' to programme uptake. Critical policy analysis further identifies the effects of the policy meaning-making processes, and the role of local 'street-level bureaucrats' in take-up. Both programmes display 'conflicted policy success' vis-&agrave;-vis take-up when categorised using McConnell's (2010) criteria for programme 'success' and 'failure'. Policy implications include strategies for increasing programme uptake, and a policy focus upon service users and women in the informal economy, recognition of the dual role of ECEC, and the importance of evidence-creation for interactive governance.</p

To take-up or not to take-up? Government early years services in India &amp; their utilization by working mothers in a Delhi slum

This study of early years services in India explores the take-up of the government ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services Scheme) and RGNCS (Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme), and the factors affecting their uptake by working mothers in a Delhi slum. Policy cannot assess programme outcomes effectively without understanding how services are implemented. Existing literature indicates that programme impact is related to programme take-up, with non-take-up being a complex phenomenon affected by factors operating at multiple levels of the policy process. The study makes original contributions by examining user perspectives on early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the Indian context; in being the first to research any aspect of the RGNCS; and in utilizing Critical Realism as the underlying philosophical, theoretical and methodological paradigm for studying programme uptake. It poses five research questions that examine mothers' childcare arrangements and needs/expectations from services, their take-up of government programmes and component services, and the combination of factors affecting uptake. Study findings are based on surveys with 200 working mothers and 37 children’s centre workers, and interviews with 15 policy experts. Findings reveal childcare arrangements and needs/expectations to vary by family structure, child’s age, and mother's age and employment. ICDS uptake is found to be higher (54.3% of all mothers), than RGNCS (18.6%). An explanatory framework for analysing take-up reveals that low take-up results from a combination of multiple factors, most significantly programme characteristics for the ICDS, and participant characteristics for the RGNCS. Two theoretical frameworks frame this analysis – Wolman's (1981) determinants of programme success and failure, and the 'barriers and bridges' to programme uptake. Critical policy analysis further identifies the effects of the policy meaning-making processes, and the role of local 'street-level bureaucrats' in take-up. Both programmes display 'conflicted policy success' vis-à-vis take-up when categorised using McConnell's (2010) criteria for programme 'success' and 'failure'. Policy implications include strategies for increasing programme uptake, and a policy focus upon service users and women in the informal economy, recognition of the dual role of ECEC, and the importance of evidence-creation for interactive governance.</p

Same cheat, different wrapping: DRG scandals and accountability in Germany and Norway

Across the world, the DRG system is used for administrative and financial purposes in hospitals. Combining statistical registration and aggregation of data on medical activity with activity based financing; DRGs have proven to be a powerful, incentive‐based performance management system with large implications for the wider governance of hospitals. Although economic dysfunctions of DRGs are widely reported within health economics, the organizational basis of the system and its implications for governance is less explored. This working paper aims to show how DRGs create negative side effects in both the Norwegian and the German hospital system. It is argued that although the adverse effects of the DRG system are comparable across country, the ways in which such effects are handled differs considerably between the two systems. We investigate a set of eight scandals or cases that have been dealt with quite differently in Norway and Germany, showing how accountability relationships and processes take different shapes and play different roles in the two countries. A lesson to draw is that accountability is not an easy fix or a ready‐made solution for handling adverse effects, but that the likely outcome is ambiguity and complexity defined by reform trajectories, institutional dynamics and the contextual factors of any given case.publishedVersio

Same cheat, different wrapping: DRG scandals and accountability in Germany and Norway

Across the world, the DRG system is used for administrative and financial purposes in hospitals. Combining statistical registration and aggregation of data on medical activity with activity based financing; DRGs have proven to be a powerful, incentive‐based performance management system with large implications for the wider governance of hospitals. Although economic dysfunctions of DRGs are widely reported within health economics, the organizational basis of the system and its implications for governance is less explored. This working paper aims to show how DRGs create negative side effects in both the Norwegian and the German hospital system. It is argued that although the adverse effects of the DRG system are comparable across country, the ways in which such effects are handled differs considerably between the two systems. We investigate a set of eight scandals or cases that have been dealt with quite differently in Norway and Germany, showing how accountability relationships and processes take different shapes and play different roles in the two countries. A lesson to draw is that accountability is not an easy fix or a ready‐made solution for handling adverse effects, but that the likely outcome is ambiguity and complexity defined by reform trajectories, institutional dynamics and the contextual factors of any given case.publishedVersio

A Balancing Act: The Interaction Between the Work and Personal Lives of Male and Female Early Career Academics.

This qualitative analysis draws upon data from a broader research study that sought to understand early career researchers’ (ECRs) experiences of journeying from post-PhD researcher to independent PI status. A number of unprompted references made by interviewees to their broader lives (i.e., aspects beyond work) when charting their academic trajectories led us to examine this issue more closely. Contrary to existing work, we found that work and family life negotiation is an important concern of both female and male ECRs, although they conceive of it somewhat differently. Our results indicate that there is a need for academic institutions, policymakers, and academe leaders to be attentive to the life issues of both men and women when designing provision for reconciling work and family life in the academic work space

Cultural audits as tools for enabling processes of change in the NHS.

The organisations that make up the NHS are subject to frequent change, either as a result of top-down restructuring, or of internal reorganisation. There is considerable evidence that one key to the success of such change lies in understanding the culture of the organisation that is undergoing change, with various authors suggesting that cultural audits be undertaken as a means of achieving this. Cultural audits as described in current literature can be complex, time-consuming and resource-intensive, which may be one reason that, in our experience, they are not often conducted. This paper describes a method of assessing the culture of an organisation rooted in ethnographic principles from Social Anthropology which is relatively simple, can be carried out in a few weeks, and requires a manageable level of resource. The method has been used to good effect in a number of NHS organisations. An example of its successful application is presented. The authors hope that this method might become widely adopted, leading to a higher success rate for change programmes in the NHS

The Politics of ‘Social Accountability’ in England and Germany: Democratic Control and Moral Imperatives.

Abstract This article investigates how politicians in England and Germany approach social accountability during the introduction of markets in the national health care systems. It analyses the discourse among members of parliament during the law making process of the 2012 NHS Health Care Act in England and the 2011 Act for Financing of Statutory Health Insurance in Germany. Generally, the new social accountability reform agenda is attractive to policy makers as it foregrounds public engagement and bottom-up participation (Peters 2001). Social accountability refers to institutional practices that favour participatory and horizontal mechanisms that depart from traditional hierarchical Principal-Agent forms

Talking about disappointments: identification work through multiple discourses at a prestigious university

Disappointment is common in many organizations. Yet little is known about how individuals’ talk about their workplace disappointment shapes their identification with organizations. We conducted an analysis of 104 academics in a prestigious British University to make two contributions to our understanding of the discursive constitution of organizational identification (OID). First, we show how individuals used different types of disappointment-talk to narrate and respond to identification dilemmas in distinct ways. Our findings extend existing research by showing that discourses of emotion do not simply delimit agency but also enable individuals to resist and reject organizational discourses that attempt to anchor them to specific identity positions. Second, we identify a novel way in which individuals can configure the multiple discourses that can be in tension and generate disappointment – unravelling. Here, individuals draw upon one among the multiple discourses in conflict (in our case, prestige) to ‘unravel’ the knotting between the various discourses that constituted their OID dilemmas. We also consider the implications of our study for academic labour in universities

Leading together: Collaboration among senior healthcare executives

Healthcare systems across the world face the dual challenge of balancing between the provision of affordable, good quality and timely healthcare on the one hand; while innovating constantly to enhance efficiency amid increasing resource shortfalls, on the other. Their success is contingent upon the presence of strong organisational leadership that harnesses the inherent collaborative potential of both physician and non-physician executives. This study sought insight into the day-to-day experiences of healthcare leaders in the NHS. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews with senior NHS physician and non-physician leaders around their experiences of working together, opportunities and challenges to effective collaboration, and identification of best practices relating to shared decision-making. The executives interviewed had job titles including chief operating officer, medical director, and clinical director. Our findings suggest that collaborative leaders in healthcare are not born but created through a complex interplay of personal, cultural, and structural best practices that require active attention in the everyday leadership setting. Our research has direct implications for healthcare practice and will be useful to healthcare executives and decision-makers across the UK, and healthcare systems internationally