A Communication Perspective on Leadership: Faculty Perceptions of the Department Chair

During their lifetime, most people will work for someone with poor leadership skills. This remains true in spite of the recent explosion of interest in the topic of leadership. This is especially evident in higher education as academic institutions throughout the country are creating programs in leadership studies. However, there is still a vague picture of exactly what effective leadership entails. This book explores leadership from a different perspective. Leadership is recognized as a communication phenomenon where relationships and conversational inquiry are the basis for leadership. Faculty perceptions of their department chair's leadership and communication styles are studied. The communication climate a department chair creates is crucial to departmental leadership. This book provides a practical model of communication behaviors a department chair can engage in to build an effective leadership climate. This book will no doubt be a key manual not only for department chairs, but for any person who wants to learn about communication as the key to effective leadership.