Download - ELPS 419: Leadership in Higher Education

8/12/2019 ELPS 419: Leadership in Higher Education

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Running head: THEORETICAL ANALYSIS PAPER

Theoretical Analysis Paper

Katie Stephens

Loyola University Chicago

October 15, 2013


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THEORETICAL ANALYSIS PAPER

Through her 20 years of experience in international education, Saskia Hofman, the

Director of International Affairs at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), is well

respected in her field and has created connections with many universities across the United

States. Hofman has a masters degree in Multicultural Communication from DePaul University

and after years of work in other Midwestern universities, she eventually started in her current

position at SAIC in 2004. In May 2013 the International Affairs Department welcomed me as an

intern for the summer, and I had first-hand experience with Hofmans leadership style as she was

my direct supervisor. I was curious to learn about Hofmans personal views on leadership after

reflecting on conversations that we had during the course of my internship and I also wanted to

learn about leadership in my future field of international education. Without having the

vocabulary to explicitly name the theories while I was an intern in Hofmans office, I reported to

a supervisor who exuded various aspects of team and servant leadership. As the leader of the

International Affairs Department, Saskia Hofman intends to empower and inspire her followers

to explore their fullest potentials as professionals while offering them support when necessary.

Team Leadership

Northouse (2012) describes the term teamas a specific type of group composed of

members who are interdependent, who share common goals, and who must coordinate their

activities to accomplish these goals (p. 287). Researchers began developing theories related to

team leadership as early as the 1960s as leaders began to focus on organizational growth and

viewed the development of a cohesive team as a way to create a more effective and successful

business environment. Contemporary theories on team leadership focus on an organization that

encourages leadership functions to be shared by both the employees and those in the traditional

roles as leaders (Northouse, 2012). For example, Hills model for team leadership relies on


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team members need to dedicate a significant portion of their workday to entering information

into this online database along with the typical duties of advising current students.

Hofmans role as a leader in this department is to not only guide her employees in

strategies on how to stay ahead of the workload through planning and encouraging students to

submit their paperwork in a timely fashion, but to also be available to help with the tedious

database entry that cannot be delegated to a student worker. By making herself available during

this time to provide extra support to employees that report to her, Hofman demonstrates desirable

traits of a leader in student affairs. Although she has the ability to tell her employees that they

will be working extra hours during their busy seasons, Hofman will instead put in extra time

herself so that the work is divided more evenly between the whole team to complete their task of

issuing visa documents in a timely manner. This task of issuing visa documents emphasizes a

team leadership style modeled by the internal leadership actions proposed by Hills model as

well as ideas proposed by Greenleaf (2007). Greenleaf (2007) suggests that a servant leader

serves first, before leading; this type of leader will make sure that other peoples highest priority

needs are being servedfirst (p. 412). Hofman is mindful as a coach and collaborator with her

team members in order to help them stay focused on the ultimate goal as they complete their

tasks at hand for their student population.

Hofmansstyle demonstrates the external leadership action portion of Hills model for

team leadership through her advocacy for the International Affairs Department at SAIC as well

as her skill set in networking and information sharing. During our interview, Hofman spoke

about a time in her department at SAIC when morale was unusually low. She was in her current

position during a time of budget cuts, multiple changes in the institutions presidents andthreats

to her teams positionin the department. This was a challenging time for international education


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at SAIC, but while advocating for her team and staying mindful of her attitude and personal

feelings, Hofman led her department through their adversities by initiating intentional

conversations with high power, authority figures at the institution. Apart from contemporary

situations at SAIC, Hofman also maintains close contact with personnel in International Affairs

at other universities across the country. She is a member of NAFSA, the professional

organization in international education, and maintains contact with other professionals in order to

share ideas and create a pool of resources for her department. Hofmans strengths in

emphasizing external leadership actions such as networking, sharing information and assessing

played a significant role in helping Hofman guide her department through difficult situations

(Northouse, 2012). Hofmans professional network has served as a valuable resource to her

department through recognizing that their team benefits from hearing outside practices and

learning about strategies from other institutions.

Team Leadership: Critique

The possible issue with a reliance on networking with outside sources is the chance of

missed opportunities from within the team if the leader becomes too focused on their own

resources. Saskia mentioned to me that there are times when she reaches out to her colleagues at

other institutions for support rather than from her own team. If she was not as focused on

networking and gathering ideas from other sources, would she be more prone to seeking out

support from those on her own team and creating the potential for a richer conversation within

her department? Or is team leadership limited to leaders in positions where they have a larger

amount of people to create a larger team? Hofman demonstrates a large portion of the

characteristics of team leadership and exemplifies various aspects of Hills model, but after

analyzing Saskias leadership style and size of her team, I am ledto believe that Hills model


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servant leaders including empathy, stewardship and building community. These characteristics

emphasize the altruistic personalities of servant leaders and their commitment to the

advancement of the organization as a whole, rather than their self-interests. Northouse (2012)

also presents a basic model of servant leadership that illustrates three main components of

antecedent conditions (context and follower receptivity), servant leader behaviors (behaving

ethically while empowering) and outcomes (organizational performance and societal impact).

This model is visually illustrated as a chart of inputs and outputs with the antecedent conditions

affecting the servant leaders behaviors and ultimately resulting in the achieved, or unachieved,

outcomes.

The description of servant leadership provided by Northouse (2012) captures the essence

of the stories that Hofman shared with me about the International Affairs Department during our

interview. With a smaller team of employees that report to her, Saskia has the ability to provide

individualized attention and guidance to all of them, including her student workers. One of the

most compelling comments that Hofman made was when she was talking about the student

workers employed by her department. They specifically hire international students to ensure that

their workers have had personal experience with SEVIS and the process of obtaining a study

visa. Even though Hofman said that past conversations with her department have questioned

whether they should replace the two student worker positions with an hourly employee, Hofman

and her team have always returned to the idea of two student workers because of the valuable

skills that those students gain. The tasks of interviewing at the beginning of every term and

offering training sessions result in more work for Hofman and her employees, but the rewards of

involving more students in the office and helping them gain work experience is what compels the

team to keep this current structure. This particular anecdote about her department is reflective of


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their leadership style may change completely when entering a new environment at a different

institution.

Connecting Theory to Practice

Connecting theory to practice is an important skill in the field of higher education and

one that is an area with room to grow in relation to leadership. A specific quotation from

Hofman that I always remember from my time as an intern at SAIC is that she would say we

dont live in a vacuumwhen she referred to her connections with other departments on campus

as well as those with other institutions. By implying that her department is always going to be

affected by external factors such as world events or various administrative pressures from the

institution, Hofmans leadership style has taught me that staying abreast of what is happening in

the field is crucial. Hofmans practice of working with others, both internally and externally,

demonstrates the premises of team and servant leadership.

The exercise of relating Saskias leadership style with the connection between theory and

practice has taught me the necessity to layer theories in order to analyze an individuals style. I

see many gaps and unanswered questions in relation to the leadership theories in Northouse

(2012), but studying these theories has prompted me to analyze at my own practices and what I

would like to change or try to do differently. Saskia expressed the desire to have more structured

conversations around the topic of leadership with her colleagues at SAIC, but also spoke about

wishing to have had the opportunity to study leadership in a more formal setting. After

interviewing a professional in my field about her leadership practices, I view practice and the

connection of theory as the two components of an individuals philosophy thatbenefit from

growing simultaneously. Without experience, I believe that theory will not resonate with an


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individual, but without the theoretical background, the impact of different experiences may be

interpreted by the individual in a different, not as meaningful, manner.

Conclusion

This exercise of interviewing a current professional in the field of international education

allowed me to begin thinking about my personal leadership style while critically reflecting on

anothers experiencesand philosophy. Although I have reinforced my need to improve my skills

in critiquing theory, I feel more confident in my ability to combine aspects of theories with each

other to better understand a professionals view of on leadership. The characteristics of team and

servant leadership that Saskia Hofman demonstrates in her leadership style and practices are

what I admired in a supervisor. Her cultural sensitivity and willingness to lead her office in a

non-hierarchical structure allowed me to grow professionally during my internship and gave me

the ability to describe the characteristics I hope to see in my future supervisors in international

education.


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References

Greenleaf, R. K. (2007). The servant as leader. In R. P. Vecchio (Ed.),Leadership:

Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations(pp. 407-433).

Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame.

Lipman-Blumen, J. (2005). The allure of toxic leaders: Why we follow destructive bosses and

corrupt politicians and how we can survive them. New York, NY: Oxford University

Press.

Northouse, P.G. (2012).Leadership: Theory and practice(6th

ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Download - ELPS 419: Leadership in Higher Education

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