This Needs To Change In Higher Education Management
Leadership Imperatives For The Future.
As artificial intelligence and other technological breakthroughs continue to reshape higher education, leaders must learn to reinvent themselves and their organizations to remain at the forefront.
This reality can be disconcerting for many academic leaders. While some may grapple with the leadership skills necessary to initiate these changes, there are deeper currents at play that warrant exploration.
To understand the magnitude of the transformation required, it is essential to recognize the types of challenges faced by higher education leaders today. Digitalization has accelerated the dissemination of information and learning resources, making it increasingly difficult for institutions to differentiate themselves. Furthermore, the rise of alternative credentialing mechanisms, such as micro-credentials and online courses, has intensified competition for students and resources. Amidst these shifts, educational leaders must also contend with the growing demand for customized learning experiences, ensuring that they cater to diverse student needs while maintaining academic rigor.
Legacy Constraints
If we consider these monumental challenges through the lens of sustainable competitive advantage - a framework that, for better or worse, remains remarkably resilient as a way of describing the dynamics and resources in competitive markets - there is no doubt that higher education is stuck between a rock and a hard place. For reference, the three main lifecycle phases of sustainable competitive advantage are exploration, exploitation, and transformation, and the problem for higher education is this:
Leaders typically concentrate on delivering consistent academic outcomes (research and graduates), minimizing deviations, and streamlining operations. This focus is only natural: in most institutions, it is what leaders are encouraged and rewarded to do. With exceedingly long product lifecycles in higher education (think about how long it takes to produce a graduate student, let alone an academic), it is the prevailing mode of thinking.
However, fundamental problems occur when institutions pay almost exclusive attention to the phase of exploitation, at the expense of radical innovation and transformation initiatives that would substantially propel the institution forward.
As disruptive forces like technological advancements, competition, shifting demographics, and novel funding models ripple through the sector, the timeframes for each phase of sustainable competitive advantage have evolved. The phase of exploitation is shorter than ever before, and this underscores the need for new ways of exploration.
Start Exploring, and Close Stuff Down
To succeed, educational leaders must develop skills that deliberately challenge comfortable status quo domains of understanding. A fundamental shift in mindset is needed. A shift, that is, in which leaders abandon stability as an old assumption and realise that not all kinds of transformation can be measured and calculated up front.
Leaders must instead venture into the unknown and explore innovation, even when - especially when - the goals are unclear and the destination undefined. Higher education today requires a willingness to embrace creative processes and the ability to learn quickly from both success and failure. This entails messy experimentation and non-linear thought processes as essential ingredients for synthesizing new ideas.
However, this is not about the well-known ‘move fast and break things’ credo from tech and related industries. Doing so may well get you broken things speedily, but it is rarely the recipe for lasting, positive results in transformative projects in higher education.
In this sense, planning will still be important, but deviating from the plan must become the new norm, as knowledge develops and new insights emerge. It is pivotal that leaders work with hypotheses, test at low cost, and navigate decision points at which they decide to go ahead or not with projects. Quite simply, they must learn to lead innovation within their organisation.
The last skill to consider to successfully initiate and drive change is large-scale transformation. Some leaders are already highly capable of steering their institutions through significant shifts in strategy, culture, and organizational structures. That’s great, but they must also be adept at closing down projects as new ones are developed, balancing the need for stability with the imperative for change. This is all about initiating change deliberately, forcefully and with momentum.
Positive Implications
By cultivating these skillsets, educational leaders not only enhance their institution's ability to navigate radical change and transformation but also unlock new opportunities for growth and impact. For instance, leaders who excel at venturing into uncertainty may identify novel partnerships with industry players, enabling students to gain practical experience and access to cutting-edge technology. Similarly, leaders adept at navigating transformation can leverage their institutions' unique strengths to carve out new niches in the market, such as radically new forms of delivery or research centers focused on emerging fields.
Final Thoughts
The success of higher education institutions in the age of AI and other disruptive forces hinges on the ability of their leaders to embrace uncertainty, innovate boldly, and navigate transformation in a world that defies predictability.
Taking these steps is by no means a small feat; however, leaders who hone these skills will shape the future of higher education and, ultimately, the generations of students they serve. In doing so, their institutions will be able to approach the holy grail of sustainable competitive advantage.
At least for a while.
INSPIRATIONAL RESOURCES
Barney, J. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108
McGrath, R. (2013). Transient Advantage. Harvard Business Review (Published Online) https://hbr.org/2013/06/transient-advantage