Transformational Leadership in Academic Sphere in Slovakia

Introduction

Academic leadership is recognised as the process of acquiring and guiding the talents and energies of teachers to achieve common educational goals. However Slovak business sphere has gradually implemented several management procedures focused on increasing the effectiveness via employee’s well-being and innovation. This is not reported in the academic sphere. However, no surveys have been conducted in Slovakia about the role of university academic leaders at all, leaving the researchers and leaders with no data available even in the Covid-19 era.

In Slovakia, the pandemic intervened in university education at a time when it has been undergoing a number of internal changes associated with a new accreditation process implementing new and uniform quality standards, associated with changes in the state funding scheme not only for teaching but also of science and research affecting every single member of an academic team. As in other sectors, the pandemic is perceived as an external factor and has sharpened all these processes and only confirmed that every institution needs effective leadership in times of crisis or difficult times. Therefore, academic leadership needs to be understood as guiding faculty members and teaching/research staff. The author recognizes various studies focused on academic leadership, but this chapter concerns a different object of observation, i.e., not a teacher (leader) – student relation but a leader – teachers (researchers) relation (Allen et al., 2016). Exploring such a different relationship also requires a different perspective and other research methods, as this process focuses on achieving relatively different goals – to effectively teach the student the learning content vs. to ensure the learning process itself in the most effective form, i.e., achieving efficiency on the part of (a) the student, (b) the teacher, (c) the educational institution (university/faculty), and finally as an indirect object of observation, on (d) the society consuming the service delivered by the university (a knowledge, skills and competences of students – professionals) – three subjects working in one but with rather different needs and visions on the change. Therefore, effective leadership needs to successfully navigate the staff (the institution) to the change. Besides, as the pandemic has sharpened and the accelerated press made on university leaders, this research examines the current conditions and proposes some recommendations for future actions.

As mentioned above, this research interlinks to a variety of studies devoted to business leadership aimed at employees´ well-being (Jacobs et al., 2013). Results of such surveys generally prove that some employees were more effective, innovative, and creative when feeling psychologically comfortable in their jobs. However, many studies and authors recognise educational (academic) leadership as the process of acquiring and guiding the talents and energies of teachers (educating future leaders) to achieve common educational goals. No surveys have been conducted in Slovakia about the role of university academic leadership at all (nor of departmental leaders). Moreover, certainly, there is no research about the kinds of leadership applied/prevailing in the Slovak academic environment focusing on how to lead the department staff, and no data are available, no conclusions on how to increase employee’s (leader´s) well-being and innovation in the pandemic times. This is despite the fact that several studies indicate that the physical work-environment and the psychological work-environment also affect the well-being of employees.

As the Slovak academic environment is currently undergoing a transformational process in terms of the quality of teaching and scientific outputs, from the aspect of leadership (i.e., departmental chairs), such transformational steps require a transformation in the management style itself, enhanced with extraordinary conditions established by the pandemic. The research introduced in this chapter focuses on two objectives, mutually interrelated, (a) to identify how the academic leaders have coped with the pandemic (1^st and 2^nd wave) from the aspect of their occupational stress; and (b) to identify their leadership style.