LEADERSHIP FRAMES OF PROGRAMME HEADS IN FINNISH UNIVERSITIES OF APPLIED SCIENCES

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LEADERSHIP FRAMES OF PROGRAMME HEADS IN FINNISH
UNIVERSITIES OF APPLIED SCIENCES

• Johanna Vuori 24 August 2009

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UNIVERSITIES OF APPLIED SCIENCES

• Professional higher education sector in Finland
• 28 institutions, 130 000 students
• Offer Bachelors and Masters Degrees
• Polytechnics/Universities of Applied Sciences
• Were established by merging former post-secondary
  vocational colleges in the early 1990s

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Do programme heads use the four leadership frames
  presented by Bolman and Deal (2008)?
• Are they capable of multiframining?

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FOUR-FRAME THEORY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

• A frame
• is a cognitive framework, which helps to
  determine what is important, what to see, what to
  ignore and what to do

• Multiframing
• means an ability to use a variety of different
  frames.
• Multiframing makes leadership more effective?

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FOUR FRAMES

• Structural frame
• Key leadership tasks are getting results,
  planning and decision-making

• Human resource frame
• Central belief in order to achieve results,
  organisational and human needs should be aligned

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FOUR FRAMES

• Political frame
• Key task for a leader is to know the interests
  of other groups and the ability to balance
  between them

• Symbolic frame
• Leaders attempt to create meanings by
  influencing the culture and see their role as a
  catalysts of ongoing processes

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METHODS

• 15 in-depth interviews, responsive interview
  strategy
• Interviewees representing engineering, nursing
  and social services and business education
• Coding book using Bolman and Deal 1991 and
  Heimovics et al. 1993 coding charts
• NVIVO8 coding

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STRUCTURAL LEADERSHIP FRAME

• Needed and used by all
• UASs seem to function in a very structural way
  emphasising rational decision making, clear
  defined job descriptions and pre-determined
  chains of command
• Does the work-allocation system promote
  rationality and fairness after all?
• Planning skills, goal orientation, legal
  knowledge and financial literacy seen as
  essential skills

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HUMAN RESOURCE FRAME

• Used and needed by all interviewees
• Linking individual development needs of UAS
  lecturers with the future enabling their future
  success
• Shared commitment to co-operation and a personal
  satisfaction in co-operative work

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POLITICAL LEADERSHIP FRAME

• 9 heads reported of political leadership
  behaviour
• Various bargaining relationships in which the
  head is in the middle and needs to see the
  situation from different points of view
• However, not always in a position to have
  influence on all the interest groups

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SYMBOLIC LEADERSHIP FRAME

• 6 heads were reporting of symbolic leadership
  behaviour
• A humble orientation to discuss the meanings
  together with the lecturers where are we, what
  do these changes mean for us

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MULTIFRAMERS

• 4 heads using 4 frames
• Seem to have adopted an appreciative but a
  critical view towards the top-management and the
  lecturers, able to resist the pull towards either
  direction
• Identity built on multilingualism, ability to
  provide interpretation when needed

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CONCLUSION

• Four-frame theory gives an opportunity to define
  professional leadership at middle-management
  level in Finnish UASs, too
• It may offer valuable insight into the often
  conflicting realities that are seen in the
  changing higher education organisations
• Instead of implementing the strategy top-down,
  HEIs could use the programme heads ability to
  sell and interpret change every day