The practical steps that the leaders will have to take to implement the model

of leadership will have to start by integrating the work experience, leadership

development and learning literatures that we have developed. Leadership has
become a watchword in academic circles. Conventional wisdom says that
leadership is an innate skill that can be cultivated and developed, and that leaders
can be distinct from administrators or managers.
The best leaders provide vision, stimulate innovation, uphold integrity, and
foster morale. They bring special abilities and soft skills to the workplace that
cannot be easily quantified. In contrast, administrators are charged to develop new
rules and guidelines and enforce existing ones, create and direct processes, oversee
the creation and expenditure of budgets, and ensure that deadlines are met. Their
success is more easily measured because it can be held against norms and
standards. Kalin, the Dean for the University Park Library stated that some of the
most respected librarians are those who hold neither administrative nor supervisory
positions; they are simply colleagues whose voice matters and, accordingly, exert
special influence on the organization. There have been occasions when it was
explained to colleagues that good leaders possess their own power, and that their
leadership is not dependent on being an administrator or having a title after their
name. The irony is that you can be an excellent leader without being an
administrator, but you cannot be an excellent administrator without also being an
excellent leader. Therefore, the objective of most leadership programs is to enable
their participants to meld the best of their administrative and leadership abilities.
Leadership development opportunities abound. From my personal
experiences, I have found that these programs are underpinned by an emphasis on
the technical aspects of administration (such as budgeting, planning, and personnel
management) upon which a layer of leadership development

is then applied. They demonstrate how an administrator can successfully perform

by using tools such as assessment, communications, and project management to
drive the organization to a higher level but can also apply leadership abilities to
spur employee and customer satisfaction, improve
workplace climate, and encourage change and innovation. For example, an
administrator could create a reduced budget scenario that would be fiscally sound,
but a leader would encourage the staff to identify and accept strategic changes in
the organization that would mitigate the impact of the budget reductions. An
expression often heard in library circles is "there is no constant but change," and
developers of leadership programs have responded to this call. Contemporary
programs rotate around the theme of transformation at change. Many focus on
providing leaders with the skills to foster and manage change such as negotiation,
political acumen, and partnership building. (Kalin, 2008)
Todays managers must successfully adapt to changing demands and
situations, manage multiple lateral relationships, set and implement agendas, and
cope with stress and uncertainty. Increasing evidence suggests that managers learn
critical competencies through their work experiences (McCauley, Ruderman, Ohlott,
& Morrow, 1994). In fact, a number of researchers have argued that the experiences
that occur in the context of a managers job assignments are the primary vehicle for
learning (e.g., McCall, Lombardo, & Morrison, 1988), and many organizations now
actively utilize job assignments to groom their managers with high potential for
advancement for leadership roles (Day, 2007). (Dragoni, Tesluk, Russell & Oh, 2009)
We identify within this framework leadership practices that address diversity
issues in higher education by seeking to transform values and preferences in the
organizational culture. A central focus within this framework is the transformation of
an organizational culture characterized by exclusionary practices to one
characterized by inclusionary practices. Leadership practices that promote diversity

focus on institution building by implementing processes and activities that give

presence to minority faculty and generate opportunities to build capacity and
support for research among them. For example, research centers can be established
to a) promote the study of diversity in society, b) serve as a clearinghouse for
generating research funding, and c) provide mentorship opportunities for minority
students interested in pursuing a research career. The intent of these leadership
practices is to promote diversity as a legitimate and contributing agent in the
research activity valued in the organizational culture.
Leadership practices that promote diversity focus on shaping the
organizational environment by empowering minority faculty as change agents for
diversity. For example, sponsorship activities can be developed that open the door
for minority faculty to become participants in governance activities that define and
shape 58 The Journal of Leadership Studies Aguirre & Martinez academic works.
Minority faculty would become agents for diversity by expressing competing mindsets within processes that develop institutional policies, sort and select who
occupies leadership roles, such as president of the academic senate or chairpersons
of standing academic committees, and frame the assumptions that
guide the development of budgets. The intent of these practices is to promote
diversity by having the organizational culture recognize the value of minority faculty
engagement in defining values and preferences in the organizational environment.
(Aguirre & Martinez, 2002)
Leadership strategies that promote diversity focus on implementing
curriculum change in the academic culture that reflects the emergence of diversity
as part of society's social fabric. For example, the implementation of a multicultural
curriculum enhances the teaching process by making faculty and students
cognizant of how diversity shapes society and of the value of multicultural life
experiences.

The intent of these leadership practices is to transform a curriculum that often

stresses a Eurocentric or Westernized social reality that excludes multicultural world
views. Faculty, however, must become actively engaged in restructuring the
requirements in disciplinary majors and general education.
Leadership literature suggests that servant leadership applies to the attainment of
organizational goals in both the for-profit and the nonprofit sectors (Behar, 2007;
Carroll, 2005; Greenleaf, 1970). Community colleges in the United States have a
mandate to serve others (American Association of Community Colleges, 2006)
which aligns with servant leadership and the principle of serving others (Greenleaf).
Shugart (1997) asserted that servant leadership is the most appropriate and most
effective approach to community college leadership.
Leadership with its inherent drive to motivate others in the organization, has
always had a component of internal struggle to access a higher influencea
process that could easily suggest spirituality as a component in all leadership
approaches (Wheatley, 1999; Jaworski, 1996). Larkin (1994) asserted that
transcendental leadership is transformational leadership accompanied by a spiritual
component, engaging a followers spirit or essence rather than solely a persons
mind. In discussion of spiritual aspects of leadership, it is essential to differentiate
between spirituality and any specific faith-based belief system; spiritual
engagement is separate from any proselytizing or conversion process (Chaleff,
1998). Chaleff added that spiritual leadership speaks to the sacred part of each life,
both unique in individuals and common to all human beings. These presidents
articulated strong regard for personal integrity as the primary value undergirding all
actions and attitudes. Every participant described genuineness, trust, honesty, and
openness as fundamental to his or her leadership. All emphasized that their own
actions must reflect these values.

Integrity was overwhelmingly the most frequent response to this question,

cited by 60 percent of participants. Two additional participants substituted
genuineness for the word integrity, defining it as actions synchronous with words
spoken (Kouzes & Posner, 2002) and also used the word trust in describing their
most strongly held values. Their descriptions of ways those values manifested
themselves in leadership activities coincided with descriptions of manifestations of
integrity. More than a third of the participants cited honesty or openness as a key
value. Putting both others first (Pfeffer & Viega, 1999) and specifically putting
students first were considered core values by half of the participants. While not
always mentioned explicitly as a value, each participant used the word service in
describing the ways that values manifested themselves in the college. Finally,
ensuring that others perceived and believed that the leader cared for and was
genuinely concerned for them represented an overarching theme (Gardner & Aviolo,
1998). (Boroski & Greif, 2009)

References

Aguirre, A. & Martinez, R. (2002). Leadership practices and diversity in higher

education: transitional and
transformational frameworks, The Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(3), 53-62.
Boroski, E. & Greif, T. (2009). Servant-Leaders community colleges: their values,
beliefs, and
implications. Review of Business Research, 9(4), 113-120.
Dragoni, L., Tesluk, P., Russell, J., Russell, J., & Oh, I. (2009). Understanding
managerial development:
integrating developmental assignments, learning orientation, and access to
developmental
opportunities in predicting managerial competencies. Academy of
Management Journal, 52(4),
731-743.
Kalin, S. (2008). Reframing Leadership: The ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute for
Academic
Librarians, Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 13(3), 261-270.