44 Strategic Leadership
the history department. With courteous asides and apologies for bringing this to
her prematurely, they make it clear that they want the dean-elect to intervene
before the decision is enacted. Although they indicate that they did not initially
take the deliberations about budgetary problems too seriously, they have come to
believe that the process was arbitrary and flawed by the use of irrelevant credit-
hour costs. They are convinced that if the decision is implemented, the quality of
the history program will be irreparably damaged.
The dean-elect is taken aback by the request but tries to respond with equa-
nimity. She knows several positions had to be cut by her predecessor because of a
serious budgetary problem. She is also aware that the retiring dean used a consul-
tative process to come to the final decisions, and that he has confessed to having
little success in getting the budget advisory committee to focus on the data about
the hard choices concerning priorities. The dean-elect thinks, therefore, that it
is appropriate to show empathy for the department’s situation; she suggests her
openness to explore better processes of measurement and governance and asks for
their involvement. She also indicates cordially but clearly that it is awkward and
inappropriate for her to raise the issue directly with the president or the current
dean during this interim period.
Suddenly the tone changes. Her colleagues begin to look at her in a new way
and exchange sideways glances. Civility prevails, but suspicion, doubt, and uncer-
tainty steal into the room. As the historians depart, they indicate their disappoint-
ment that she cannot find a way to remedy such a clear case of flawed priorities
and processes. The dean-elect sits alone, bewildered at what has just happened.
Interpretations of the Dean’s Conflict
Based on what we have learned about academic decision making from our
earlier analyses, what can we tell the new dean that might be helpful to her? How
can the various accounts of authority and leadership shed light on the situation
and offer resources for the dean-elect? Which of them would most assist her to
think through the implications of her responsibilities, especially in terms of the
opportunity to exercise leadership?
A fundamental question begins to emerge. How can leadership reach to the
source of the conflict in order to come to terms with it effectively? To achieve this,
much depends both on the way we interpret leadership and the conflict that it
seeks to reconcile. The language of leadership is not often heard in campus debates
and discussions about governance and decision making, so a new idiom will have
to be introduced to move the conversation forward.
As we recall, our earlier profile of leadership placed the issue of conflict at the
heart of the leader’s agenda. Leadership always appears at the contact points of
change, competition, contradictions, and disputed priorities. The precise shape
that leadership takes in a society or an organization is determined, as much as
anything, by the nature of the conflict to which it seeks to bring resolution.