Work

Boundary spanning in higher education leadership: identifying boundaries and practices in a British university

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: The increasingly dynamic and complex higher education (HE) environment calls for high levels of boundary-spanning skills from leaders. The importance of boundary spanning is raised by the need for leaders to engage across internal and external boundaries to formulate new strategic responses to a complex set of forces and pressures facing the sector. This paper investigates the salience of boundary spanning leadership (BSL) practices through qualitative research on a group of leaders in one UK HE institution. The paper finds varying evidence for the range of boundary-spanning activities proposed in previous literature and concludes in the present case that leadership achieves the ‘managing boundaries’ stage of the BSL nexus, but has more limited achievement at the highest ‘discovering new frontiers’ stage.

Source: Studies in Higher Education

DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2017.1318364

Authors: Deborah Prysor, Andrew Henley

Institutions: Aberystwyth University, Cardiff University

Language: English

Topic: Higher Education Governance and Development

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $666