Mending a Fractured Department: Strategies for New Chairs

by Randall McClure

But what happens when the new chair has to learn on the job in a fractured, troubled academic department? Where the environment is rich with tension and conflict is the norm? Where policies are nonexistent and procedures are essentially absent? Where budgets and morale continue to spiral in the wrong direction? Where the day-to-day uncertainties and management realities are far from the new chair’s dreams of vision and leadership?

In this article, I offer strategies for chairs leading troubled departments, particularly for new chairs who are tasked with repairing the fractures of a department whose faculty have experienced, among other things, constant turnover in the chair’s office. The turmoil created by such turnover often leaves departments in pieces, with some faculty fleeing for other, more stable units and institutions, with those left behind subject to uncertainty and wavering morale. I believe that the only way to mend a fractured department, for a new and even an experienced chair, is to combine a series of strategies that work along several fronts common to the challenges of academic departments and, most importantly, to make a serious investment in people.

When communicating with faculty in a fractured department, share every little piece of good news. Faculty in fractured departments might not be able to see their colleagues across the lines that divide them, but alone and in their factions they are likely doing some good things in their research, service, and teaching. New chairs need to celebrate these achievements across lines, perhaps through an email listserv dedicated to good news. Even in more cohesive departments, faculty tend to be incredibly busy, and rarely do they have the opportunity (save for meetings) to see their colleagues for any extended period of time, not to mention learn about their successes. Good news is one way to unite faculty in the work in which they share.

While new chairs need to communicate like crazy with faculty and be as transparent as possible in that communication, listening to faculty is just as important. In departments that have seen their fair share of leadership turnover, it is safe to assume that previous chairs have been, at least to some extent, communicating with them, sharing their visions for moving forward. When they quickly exit stage left, however, faculty often feel that they have been chasing rabbits, working to move the department down one road, only to find with the new chair that the road has changed.

Therefore, I suggest you take the time to listen to faculty, staff, and students before making any significant directional changes, and continue to listen to them as you change. For example, I regularly meet with different faculty, staff, and students groups, from our growing cohort of lecturer faculty to our new majors and minors. I am interested to know why they are part of the department and what ideas they have for making it better. If you are a new chair who feels like an army of one, find a systematic way to open up conversations inside and outside your department and focus those conversations not so much on your ideas, but on the needs, concerns, and suggestions of others. Communication is key, but listening more than talking seems to be the critical element for chairs learning to communicate with those they serve.

“Family first” is really as simple as it sounds. It is far too easy for those of us in academic leadership positions to bury our heads in institutional sands, to become so invested in our work and that of the units we lead, that we forget our units are made up of people, many or most of whom have lives outside the department that are just as, if not more, important to them than their lives inside of it. When the work day is done, it is our families we return to, and the health and well-being of faculty and staff should not be undervalued by department chairs.

I am not saying that new chairs need to be friends with everyone in their units, but we must find ways to acknowledge the lives of our colleagues and students outside the academy. Whether it’s supporting the faculty member whose mother is living out her final days, the student who is trying to stay in school despite being in the last trimester of her pregnancy, or the staff member battling depression, our units are made up of people, and putting family first can help strengthen a unit perhaps not at the point of the unit’s challenges, but within the people who are needed to help meet them.

“Benching the chair” is a strategy intended to get the chair off of his or her island. I advocate that new department chairs form a leadership team with a combination of staff and faculty across ranks and including at least one at-large representative chosen by the faculty. This leadership team or advisory council can help new chairs vet ideas before taking them to the faculty or other administrators, to lean on the experience of the collective group. Particularly for a new chair coming in from another unit or university, a leadership team provides a richer understanding not only of institutional culture and history, but also a more robust approach to shared governance and transparency critical to the success of most academic units.

Any chair would concede that some work in which departments engage is tedious, mundane, and unexciting. Tasks such as verifying course codes in the online registration system, processing curriculum forms, and troubleshooting fixes in department facilities can eat away a chair’s time, taking him or her from addressing the major challenges confronting the unit. Unfortunately, many new chairs have a difficult time asking others, whether faculty or staff, to help accomplish the small day-to-day tasks and troubles.

In most instances, chairs need to find ways to make faculty and staff work meaningful, yet there is no reason that chairs should handle all of the daily issues and responsibilities by themselves. If new chairs find ways to share in unit governance, perhaps through forming a leadership team, then they should be able to find ways to share the smaller tasks, turning them into responsibilities. Some strategies might include making curriculum forms the responsibility of the curriculum committee or appointing a faculty member to serve as a classroom or technology liaison. Every unit I have been part of has at least one faculty member who loves the forms and processes that make colleges and universities tick and another who reports every glitch and shortcoming in the department’s classrooms and facilities. Assigning these individuals as point persons for such things and recognizing them for their efforts not only shares the work, but acknowledges that even the little things matter.

Many new chairs have a difficult time finding ways to lead their units out, to advocate for them with audiences beyond their departments or colleges. Three strategies that may help new chairs advocate for their units are forming an advisory board, leveraging the affordances of Web 2.0 tools, and developing community partnerships.

Much like a leadership team or advisory council within the unit, an advisory board of students, emeritus faculty, and community members can provide new chairs with a broader, more robust perspective on the units they lead. Work with board members can also help extend the department into the community it serves, and the visibility and energy that often results from such community projects and partnerships should not be undervalued. For example, my unit has partnered with the local arts center as well as with the regional library to offer events for local residents.

In addition to engaging in face-to-face activities, new chairs should find ways to leverage Web 2.0 tools to their advantage, to extend their units beyond the brick and mortar structures that house them. Creating a “friends of [department name]” email list, having a department Facebook site, and publishing an e-newsletter or hosting a department blog are just some ways chairs can leverage technological tools to “advocalize” for their departments.

Some challenges facing academic departments are problems of their own making, their own “little giants.” For example, my unit has existed for more than a decade without a constitution and bylaws or even a collected set of policies. Without any organizing documents and with different chairs enacting their own policies over the years, many faculty are often confused about what is the “current” policy. Therefore, new chairs should find ways to tackle their little giants. In this case, working with faculty to write a constitution and collect its policies has helped to mend fractures of its own creation.

Other strategies include streamlining annual review processes, equitably distributing faculty teaching and service loads, and finding ways to help faculty integrate teaching, scholarship, and service. We often see our challenges as external to our units, and frequently they are, but we also must acknowledge and respond to problems we allowed to become our own giants.

It is often advocated that new leaders pick the low-hanging fruit to quickly remedy a problem on which most everyone agrees. While I acknowledge the value in doing so, particularly for the positive gains reaped in the short term, I believe that new chairs stand to benefit more if they look at this strategy somewhat differently. Picking the low-hanging fruit, more than getting those quick wins, can send a mixed message to those in your department, leading after the accolades die out to a “so what are you going to do with the high-hanging fruit” and later to a “what have you done for me lately” mentality.

Although it is important to acknowledge the problems and solutions to which nearly all agree, it is more important for new chairs to gain a sense of the whole fruit tree and to work with their colleagues to develop a plan and timeline for addressing low, middle, and high priorities. Low-hanging fruit can certainly be picked, but I suggest that it must be part of a comprehensive plan and vision for the department in order to sustain and build momentum over time.

Chairs must find ways to make faculty and staff work meaningful. This can include ensuring that department meetings have a focused agenda, are held only when necessary, and end on time. This can also include setting annual charges and clear goals for committee work, encouraging curricular and classroom innovation not just at the point of innovation but later on in review processes, and holding realistic expectations for research and service. If faculty and staff see their work as clearly contributing to their own professional development as well as the growth of the department, it is easier to work collaboratively with them to address the challenges of the unit and mend the fractures in it.

These strategies are taken from my first two years as a department chair. I recognize that most new chairs will continue to learn on the fast and furious fly, and that the only real way to learn something is by doing it. Hopefully by implementing some of the strategies I suggest here, however, new chairs will help their units take flight quickly and prevent the crash and burn not just for themselves, but for the departments they have been entrusted to lead.