Leadership in Higher Education

AuthorDrugus, D. - Landoy, A.
PositionMedicine and Farmacy University 'Gr. Popa', Iasi - Bergen University Library, Norway
Pages125-132
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov
Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 7 (56) No. 2 - 2014
LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION
D. DRUGUŞ 1 A. LANDOY2
Abstract: “The conduct” of an academic institution has suffered a
permanent change under external pressure and criticism for its failure to
adapt to current social and economic requirements. The degradation of
quality in the Romanian education system is a curr ent affairs subject.
Successive and rather incoherent reforms suggest the lack of a long-term
vision, as well as that of a political consensus on the role and place of
education within the Romanian economy and society. The reference points
identified as a result of the needs analysis and the student opinion polls have
indicated the necessity to focus the academic teaching and learning activities
on the student, on their level of development, using active-participative
strategies, using a specific academic group management and applying
various evaluation techniques focused on the student’s performance and his
acquired competences. All of these elements signal, at the level of
institutional strategic decisions, a direction towards the improvement of
professional development of the teaching staff, one concentrated on
education quality and performance. The modern sc hool of leadership is
based on applied methods, the delegation of responsibilities, regulation of
centralized-decentralized relations, research and creativity development and
the reinforcement of psychological and social aspects. Unlike management,
considered to be a formal and institutionalize d type of leadership, leadership
is perceived as a process carried out at an informal group level, while the
leader as a boss is someone who leads this group.
Key words: academic institution, successive reforms, management,
leadership, strategic decisions.
1 Medicine and Farmacy University “Gr. Popa”, Iaşi.
2 Bergen University Library, Norway.
1. Introduction
In the paper Management: Theory and
Practice, published in 1990, Gerard A. Cole
presents one of the most synthetic and clear
definitions of the leadership activity as "a
dynamic process within a group, in which an
individual influences other to voluntarily
contribute to the fulfilment of the groups’
tasks, in a given situation ".
In other words, this position refers to the
promotion of behaviours nurturing the
achievement of organisational objectives,
motivating the staff by: using various
leadership styles, a quality of interpersonal
relationships, the manner in which
communication and cooperation are
favoured within the organisation and the staff
is engaged in the decision-making process.
Leadership and management represent
separate dimensions of the people in charge.
Leadership is about the capacity to determine
people to act; the manager, however, is the
person who makes sure that the
organisational objectives are achieved, by

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