Learning to Lead: Leadership Development for Academic Administrators at a Canadian Community College

Abstract\nThis Dissertation-in-Practice addresses the Problem of Practice of a lack of intentional leadership development for academic administrators at College X (a pseudonym), a comprehensive community college in western Canada. Academic administrators typically come from the ranks of faculty. As Academic administrators, they serve particular functions and roles within the organization, functions and roles that are in many ways distinct from their previous work as faculty members. Academic administrators often lack the management and leadership knowledge or experience to prepare them for their roles and careers. The absence of adequate leadership development opportunities often contributes to low job satisfaction, burnout, and high turnover rates among academic administrators. The need for an intentional approach to leadership development has become more pronounced given recent political, economic, social, and technological developments impacting the college sector. The proposed strategy to address to the Problem of Practice at College X is the creation of an internal leadership development system consisting of a leadership competency framework, a Centre for Leadership Development, and a multi-faceted leadership development program aligned to the identified competencies. A transformational leadership approach and Kotter’s eight stage change model are recommended to implement the change initiative. A program theory and logic model are used as the basis for monitoring and evaluating the improvement process. Finally, the dissertation includes a knowledge mobilization plan to share the results and knowledge from this improvement process with decision makers at the organizational, provincial-system, and national system-levels.