Towards inclusivity and sustainability in the leadership of an academic department in a South African university: A distributed perspective

Abstract

Historically, the concept of Head of Department (HOD) in a university context has been understood as a one-person role. Despite the increasing complexity of the role, the position remains exclusive and, for many academics, undesirable. Reliant only on a single individual, the position, located at the centre of complex relational interfaces, is known to generate tension and role ambiguity between the scholarly project on the one hand, and management and administrative matters on the other. In response to this problematic, in this paper, we draw on a higher education leadership study that explored the take-up of a distributed leadership approach in an academic department in a South African university. Framed by a socio-cultural conceptualisation of distributed leadership comprising a leader-plus and a practice aspect, we designed the research as an exploratory case study. Participants included the academic and administrative staff in the department and qualitative data was generated through document analysis as well as individual and focus group interviews. Findings revealed that the framework provides a useful analytical tool for departmental leadership, understood inclusively and expansively beyond the formal HOD position. Offering an empirical case of a distributed leadership approach in an academic department, we contribute to a gap in the literature and argue for further studies in other faculties and universities in the global south.