Organisational Leadership: Background and Framework for a Study of European Universities

Abstract

A characteristic of higher education in Europe in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has been an emerging interest in leadership within, and of, universities as organisations. There has previously been interest in leadership within a number of academic disciplines; and this has been demonstrated by a focus on advanced research on leadership from theoretical and applied perspectives relevant to non-university organisations, including businesses, service industries and those in the public sector. There has also been the teaching of leadership theory and applications in a number of academic disciplines to students preparing to enter, or already engaging in, certain professions where leadership concepts and applications are perceived to be relevant and essential in their professional work. The more recent interest in university corporate or organisational leadership has parallels in the growth over a much longer period in a perception of the value and an appreciation of leadership as a social, political and management phenomenon.