Abstract
Purpose. The focus of this research was to determine the role instructional deans play and/or will play in shared governance and to assess their role through their perceptions and those of the chief instructional officer and faculty leadership. Further, the study examined how deans involve others in decision-making, and the skills they, faculty, and the CIO perceive need further development. Methodology. This qualitative study of five cases involved semi-structured interviews with 35 full-time community college staff members including instructional deans, their supervisors, department chairs, and academic senate leaders. Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Challenge Framework was used to assess the perception of role and Flanagan's Critical Incident Technique was used to assess decision-making processes. A skills inventory, which consisted of a list of personal, interpersonal and technical leadership skills constructed by the researcher from current leadership literature was also administered to the participants. The theoretical base for this study was role theory. Findings and conclusions. The deans, faculty, and CIOs generally agreed that the instructional dean's role was that of a director, organizing people and brokering with others. Perceptions of the role has not significantly changed since the implementation of shared governance. The deans demonstrated five of the ten factors of the Leadership Challenge, that of searching for opportunities, fostering an environment of collaboration, strengthening others, planning small wins toward change, and recognizing the contributions of others. The deans were not perceived to demonstrate to a great degree the role factors of celebrating success, leading the way, inspiring others, envisioning the future, and taking risks. The deans used a collaborative approach to decision-making and regularly involved faculty in decisions they make. The deans demonstrated many of the skills futurists and writers of organizational theory profess to be the skills of future middle managers. The skills for which deans felt they could benefit from professional development were: experimenting with unique approaches to problems, motivating people, and staying current on internal/external changes that may affect the departments they supervise.