Interdisciplinary leadership

1. Interdisciplinary leadership Paul Blackmore Camille B. Kandiko King’s Learning Institute, King’s College London

2. Outline of workshop • Project and methodology • Defining disciplines and leadership • Problems • An exercise with data • Solutions? • Conclusions

3. The project • Increasing calls for interdisciplinarity • But • Structural • Socio-cultural • Epistemological differences • Some leaders engage - why and how?

4. Methodology • Literature review • Ten in-depth semi-structured interviews of interdisciplinary leaders at KCL and Melbourne • Appreciative inquiry • why engage? • what works? • principles for effective practice

5. A discipline • “ any comparatively self-contained and isolated domain of human experience which possesses its own community of experts” • (Nissani, 1997) • Knowledge, methodology, community

6. Interdisciplinarity • “a means of solving problems and answering questions that cannot be satisfactorily addressed using single methods or approaches” (Klein, 1990) • Requires integration

7. Practice: Interdisciplinarity as a situated, socially accomplished flow of organizational activity Practitioners: Skilled, knowledgeable actors inside and outside the university Practices: Administrative, discursive, episodic Framework • Jarzabkowski’s (2005) activity-based strategy as practice method

8. Leadership • Distributed and embedded in context • “much of the work of leading is contingent … it involves dealing with the specifics of a time, a place and a set of people” • (Knight and Trowler, 2001)

9. System level - funding • Difficulties writing interdisciplinary grants • Fitting interdisciplinary work into national assessment schemes (RAE in UK) • Challenges of aligning interdisciplinary work with national funding councils

10. Institution level - recognition • Issues with traditional discipline-based reward systems: • mode of publication: e.g. government report rather than journal article or book • location of publication: generalist rather than specialist journal • time frame: interdisciplinary work takes time to develop • publication in peer-reviewed journals using unfamiliar literatures A risky business best left till later?

11. Faculty, school, department level • Tribal academic disciplines • Administrative issues: • finance • course registration • time-tabling • computer systems • “It is quite difficult to teach interdisciplinary courses … with different timetables, for instance, or different habits, different expectations, different cultures, perhaps of contact, or different entry level requirements.”

12. An exercise with data! • What structures and processes would assist: • Leading • Managing • Career issues

13. Exercise • Divide into three groups • Read the quote sheets provided • Discuss the questions in relation to the interview quotes and your own experience • Report back to the full group in 20 minutes

14. Conclusions: Challenges • Interdisciplinary work challenged by practices • lack of culture of going outside one’s own department • current academic fads and trends • budget crunches • Administration often organised on disciplinary and departmental lines • financial and prestige awards • course scheduling • computer systems

15. Conclusions: Challenges • Interdisciplinary work usually requires extra administrative support • Computer systems often lock staff into one school or department • These issues pervade the university at all levels

16. Conclusions: Promoting interdisciplinary work • Incentive structure (promotion and tenure) criteria important for early career academics • Flexible study leaves can be a springboard for innovative research for mid-career academics • Ability to go sideways in the university and maintain status is crucial for all academics

17. Future directions • Questions for university staff, including administrators, academics and those in leadership positions include: • How can researchers recode, reclassify and reorganise departments, divisions and centres to promote interdisciplinary working within existing university structures? • Are there new methods of accounting for and allocating faculty time, including research points, teaching loads, and university service commitments? • What can be done on campus and electronically to connect researchers across the university? • How can faculty members be keyed into databases to reflect their positions, including multiple appointments in departments, research centres, schools and faculties? • How can interdisciplinary teaching be promoted throughout the university, including faculty reimbursement, time-tabling, cross-listing courses, and requirements from students?

18. Acknowledgement • This study was funded in part through a grant from the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

19. References • Jarzabkowski, P. (2005) Strategy as Practice. London: Sage. • Klein, J. T. (1990). Interdisciplinarity: History, theory, and practice. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. • Knight, P. and Trowler, P. (2001) Departmental Leadership in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education/Open University Press. • Nissani, M. (1997). Ten cheers for interdisciplinarity: The case for interdisciplinary knowledge and research. The Social Science Journal, 34(2), 201-216.