Text

theses

Turnover among university and college presidents has been increasing steadily since 2006 (Song & Hartley, 2012). Reading just a few issues of the Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed leads to the realization that a prominent reason for this trend is troubled relationships between presidents and governing boards (Brown, 2015; Jaschik, 2012; Seltzer, 2016a; Stripling, 2016a). Better communication and information sharing between presidents and board members has been suggested as one way to improve the situation (Chater, 1993; Regan, 2016). This research explores these notions by asking board members and recently hired presidents how they communicate and share information with each other. Additionally, the typical image of the academic president is shifting, with women occupying more presidential offices at colleges and universities, constituting an upward trend toward gender equity (Cook, 2012; King & Gomez, 2007; Lapovsky, 2014). This research investigates if and how communication and gender are involved in the changing dynamic of board-president relations (Zweigenhaff & Domhoff, 2011: Kellerman & Rhode, 2007). A comparative analysis of communication competencies and behaviors of academic presidents and governing board members in the context of hiring was conducted via interviews and surveys. Universities and colleges in the U.S. that chose new presidents in the past five years were sampled. Fundamental issues include: key communication skills that boards seek when choosing a president, agreement and disagreement between board members and presidents on key communication skills that a president should possess, and the role that gender differences in communication skills plays in perceptions of candidates that are important in hiring presidents. Results indicate that presidents and board members view the importance of several communication competencies and behaviors differently. Board members’ evaluations of the importance of diversity are lower than for other communication competencies. President’s gender appears to be involved in perceptions of their public speaking and writing abilities. This research explored how presidents are selected and retained. It also investigated the communication patterns between board members and presidents as well as the advancement of women and other under-represented individuals into leadership positions.

ETD_7929

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Maria Dwyer

doi:10.7282/T3GH9MT7

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.