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November 12, 2008, 11:10 AM ET
Blind Spots in Presidential Searches
Colleges lag behind corporations when it comes to having the information they need to pick their top leaders, a group of prominent presidential-search consultants told education researchers here on Friday.
The search consultants, who were convened for a panel discussion by the Association for the Study of Higher Education, said their work was complicated by a lack of empirical research comparable to what exists in the business world.
Theodore J. Marchese, a senior consultant with Academic Search Inc., said corporate search committees can tap into a substantial body of literature on such questions as how to best recruit and screen applicants for top positions. Higher education, by contrast, largely operates as “a community of practice” in leadership searches, with governing boards and executive-search committees relying on advice dispensed to them during retreats or lunch gatherings and through informal interactions with others in the field.
The panel cited several areas needing more research.
Jean A. Dowdall, who advises colleges as a senior vice president of the search firm Witt/Kieffer, said little is known about how well applicants from “nontraditional” backgrounds stack up against those from inside academe. Also largely unstudied is the likely effectiveness of candidates from positions in academe that previously were not considered steppingstones to the presidency, such as fund raisers, chief student-affairs officers, and chief financial officers.
Mr. Marchese said he had seen research on whether top executives in the corporate world can effectively move from one field to another, and “the answer tends to be no” because so many key skills are learned from experience. In his view, he said, nontraditional college presidents “are good at what they are good at, but they leave other things alone.”
Narcisa A. Polonio, vice president for research, education, and board-leadership services at the Association of Community College Trustees, said more research needed to be done on the types of compensation packages that enable college presidents to be effective. She cited recent incidents of college presidents who were arrested for drunken driving and said research was needed on whether various benefits, such as sabbaticals and leaves of absence, would help college leaders better deal with the long-term pressures of their jobs.
Categories: Administrative-hiring
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