ONLINE TRAINING

3/8/2012 12:00 AM

Spring Series

Our two popular online seminar series are back for Spring 2012. Series One: The Essentials will equip new department chairs to succeed in their role. Series Two: Best Practices offers academic leaders the best counsel available on handling the key challenges of the chair position.

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BOOKS

The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal

From Parker Palmer, best-selling author of The Courage to Teach, and Arthur Zajonc, professor of physics at Amherst College and director of the academic program of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, comes this call to revisit the roots and reclaim the vision of higher education. The Heart of Higher Education proposes an approach to teaching and learning that honors the whole human being—mind, heart, and spirit—an essential integration if we hope to address the complex issues of our time. The book offers a rich interplay of analysis, theory, and proposals for action from two educators and writers who have contributed to developing the field of integrative education over the past few decades.

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JOURNAL

This quarterly periodical for department chairs and deans features practical advice, useful information, and up-to-date resources. Its applications, techniques, case studies, strategies, and guidance are directly relevant to today's academic leaders.

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E-NEWSLETTER

SAMPLE ARTICLE

1/3/2012 12:00 AM

Dealing with Staff Conflicts

by Jeffrey L. Buller

From The Department Chair Insider – November 2010, Vol. 1

Q. How do you deal with a staff personality that is contrary to the department’s overall personality as well as yours—in a time with severe budget cuts so that it would be difficult to even hire a “warm body” in their place?

A. This problem can be extremely frustrating. I’ve seen plenty of academic departments where the faculty members have a collegial relationship but where tension, conflict, and low morale exist because of a staff member, often a secretary, lab coordinator, or budget officer. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen very few of these situations successfully resolved without a change in personnel.

Although it often runs counter to our democratic instincts, it’s simply the case that the expectations we have for staff members in the workplace necessarily differ from those we have for faculty members. In the case of the faculty, departments tolerate a great deal of flexibility in working hours, idiosyncrasy of personality or behavior, and license of expression that is usually not appropriate for staff members. It can be hard to tell a staff member, “I know I tolerate a lot from the faculty, but I simply need you to get on board with the way things need to be done in the department and conveyed to others.” At most institutions, the human resources office can be a vital ally in conveying this message in a manner that’s both generally appropriate and in accordance with institutional procedures.

One of the best guides to handling situations of this kind appears in Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine’s Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in 101 of Life’s Toughest Situations (Hungry Minds, 1996). In their script on “Criticizing a Subordinate’s Work,” the authors recommend first approaching the situation as a mentoring opportunity, not as a disciplinary problem. Then, based on whether the staff member accepts the criticism, denies the problem, or gets angry, they propose strategies that lead either to a follow-up meeting on progress, a formal warning, or some other course of action.

—Jeffrey L. Buller is dean of the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University.