Managing the academic department’s culture: Perspective on human resource management in higher education

Abstract

Colleges and universities rely on faculty performance to determine their quality. Strong faculty and staff performance leads to better student learning, greater research productivity, and a heightened level of service to various communities. Most faculty members are organized around disciplinary units headed by a department chair who must find ways to help faculty members be successful. A critical approach that chairs rely upon are human resource management and development strategies. The current survey of 150 social science department chairs identified that they do rely on human resource management strategies to improve departmental effectiveness and the capacity of their faculty. They also identified the strategies of Talent Management, Resourcing, and Learning and Development as the most agreed upon effective tools for working with faculty member performance. Findings overall provide a strong recognition that department chairs, as managers primarily reliant on human resource labor, do believe that they can positively impact faculty member work performance. Findings also supported the use of praise and acknowledgement as critical in encouraging faculty member work and accomplishment.