Faculty Stakeholders' Perceptions of Leadership and Engagement in an Organizational Turnaround in Higher Education

This qualitative study represents an exploration into how faculty stakeholders in higher education experienced leadership actions and their own engagement with an organizational turnaround. Turnaround efforts were aimed at revitalization throughout the institution but little has been studied about faculty experience in this context. An interview study approach was used to obtain rich data about how faculty stakeholders interacted within an organization moving from documented decline to revitalization. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from faculty participants (N=10) who work or had worked full-time for at least one year in a college or university previously identified as turnaround institution. Theories related to leadership, stakeholders, and employees within higher education were analyzed in the context of a turnaround. Findings revealed dissonance between leader intention and faculty stakeholder perceptions regarding turnaround actions and processes. Faculty also reported exclusionary practices in areas of transparency and communication. Reports of faculty stress and burnout were indicators of problems with institutional engagement. An important finding was that faculty reported little to no effect on their engagement with students and scholarship as reflective of their professional commitment to the educational mission. Disengagement was most likely to occur at the institutional level particularly as related to marketing, increased work load and ad hoc requests from leaders.