A Toolkit for Department Chairs

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A Toolkit for Department Chairs is designed to give academic administrators the skills they need in order to do their jobs more effectively. Combining case studies, scenarios, practical advice, and problem solving activities, the book offers chairs a valuable resource for negotiating the real-life challenges they face as academic leaders. Many of the case studies and scenarios included in this book have been field tested by the co-authors in over thirty years of administrative training workshops. Current and aspiring department chairs will discover many new tools that they can include in their administrative toolkits from this practical, accessible book. A Toolkit for Department Chairs works well as a personal resource as well as a training manual for leadership programs and textbook for pre- and in-service education for department chairs. Some additional key features of this book include: Practicality in that it offers specific strategies to address the many challenges faced by department chairs. Adaptability for use as an individual study guide, textbook for leadership programs, or discussion guide for groups of academic administrators. Utility in that it fills a demonstrated need in the field of higher education since 96-97% of current department chairs have received no formal training in their administrative responsibilities. Easy of use through short, sometimes humorous scenarios and case studies that cause readers to reflect on their own administrative approaches.

Reviews

Buller and Ciprianos A Toolkit for Department Chairs offers readers exactly what the title suggeststools that department chairs might utilize to strengthen their leadership skills and abilities. Organized in a straightforward, concise, and thoughtful manner, chapters include scenarios combined with activities and advice, illuminating the complex world of academic administration in exceptionally accessible ways. Covering hiring and evaluating practices, mentorship, teamwork and collegiality, communication, conflict, decision-making, and budgeting, chapters have real-world relevance, hitting right to the heart of many of the challenges administrators face. . . .Overall, the text makes clear that there are almost never easy answers to the challenges a chair will face, but that thinking through the possibilities can facilitate stronger decision-making, an outcome this text could certainly help achieve. * VOYA *
Buller and Ciprianos collaboration, A Toolkit for Department Chairs, offers pertinent advice and a variety of practice exercisesgiving you immediately useable tools for just about any situation academic leaders face. . . .A Toolkit for Department Chairs delivers on its title, offering practical advice through cases and reflections to help equip chairs with insight into how to weigh options and apply the best tools to create a stronger department. * The Department Chair *

Author Bio

Jeffrey L. Buller is dean of the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University. He holds a doctorate in classics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of eight books on academic leadership, one book on Wagnerian opera, a textbook for first-year college students, 22 articles of academic research, 121 articles on higher education administration, and 114 essays and reviews. With Bob, he is a senior partner in ATLAS Leadership Training, which conducts workshops for administrators all over the world, and serves as a consultant to the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia in its development of a region-wide Academic Leadership Center. Robert E. Cipriano is chair and professor emeritus of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Southern Connecticut State University. He has a doctorate from New York University in Therapeutic Recreation, Area of Concentration in College Teaching. He is the author of a book on collegiality in higher education, three textbooks, chapters in three additional textbooks, and more than 160 journal articles. He has been awarded more than $9 million in grants and contracts and delivered in excess of 250 presentations in the U.S., Asia and the Middle East.