Settling for ‘Safe’

A friend of mine likes to say that first-rate people hire other first-rate people, but second-rate people hire third-rate people.

Over my career, in several places of employment, I’ve seen this observation played out a number of times. Administrators who feel threatened by “strong” underlings hire weak persons to work beneath them. Complacent faculty-search committees recommend weak candidates who will not “shake things up.”

I know of one vice president for academic affairs who finally had his fill of weak recommendations, so he instructed all search committees to send him a list of finalists for each position and HE selected the candidates for on-campus invitations! On the other side of the campus, faculty senates seem to spring into action in the wake of weak administrative appointments, trying to gain a stronger voice in those searches. Perhaps the most maddening situation, however, is if you are a member of a department or are an administrator who works in the midst of searches that keep making safe choices.

Can any of you cite examples (no names of places or persons, please!) of this kind of thinking on administrative hires?

What examples can you cite for faculty hires?

For both cases, what solutions can be offered to prevent this kind of wrong-headed thinking? How can search committees be encouraged to aim high in their selections?