Michael Johnson

College of Education/Educational Leadership


University of Idaho, B.S. (1972);
M.S. (1973)
University of Oregon, Ph.D. (1988)

 

afmjj@uaa.alaska.edu

 

Bridging the Gap

When we think of leadership — in academe or elsewhere — we tend to envision it coming either from the very top or from the grassroots level. But as Michael Johnson, Donald Hanna, and Don Olcott, Jr. write in Bridging the Gap, “the most important leadership in the academy emanates from the center” — that is, from you and your colleagues who serve as the chairpersons of academic departments or the deans of academic divisions. “Deans and chairpersons seldom get the glory and the press,” the authors note, “but they and their units are the heart and soul of the modern college and university” As a dean or chair, you have an enormous responsibility — and opportunity — to lead dynamic change within your unit. But how do you do that without alienating your faculty colleagues and throwing out what’s already working? How do you mix the best of the old with the best of the new? The key is to simultaneously manage three interconnected dimensions of organizational change in the academic setting: leadership, technology, and culture. Bridging the Gap shows you how to do just that — using a theoretical perspective in the early chapters followed by a unique practical approach in the later chapters that features the real-life experiences and advice of deans and chairpersons who were interviewed specifically for this book.