Sources of Stress for Academic Department Chairpersons
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239410051862 |
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Pages | 79-94 |
| Author | Walter H. Gmelch,John S. Burns |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Stress and the
Department
Chair
79
Sources of Stress for
Academic Department
Chairpersons
Walter H. Gmelch and John S. Burns
Washington State University, USA
Introduction
Focus of Investigation
Little research has been conducted to investigate stress experienced by
academic department chairs. To help bridge the gap in the literature regarding
stress and academic department chairs, this study is concerned with a
multidimensional investigation of stress. The following research questions
guided this study:
●What job dimensions are perceived as stressful by university
department chairs?
●To what degree do chairs exhibit stress from their dual faculty and
administrator roles?
●What influence does academic discipline have on chair stress?
●What influence do personal attributes have on chair stress?
The Academic Department Chair: The Janus Job
In Roman mythology, the god Janus was depicted as the god who had two faces.
Simultaneously, one face turned to the front and the other to the back. Though
department chairs are not in danger of deification, they also have two faces. One
face is that of an administrator, the other the face of a faculty member. “The
chairpersons hold the classic person-in-the-middle role; their academic future is
tied firmly to the department, but their ability to represent the department
effectively in budgetary and personnel matters is directly related to the quality
of their working relationship with the dean”[1, p. 4].
As a faculty member, the department chair has been described as being first
among equals, a representative of the faculty to the administration, a faculty
member willing to devote a portion of a career in service to the department and
the faculty[2-5]. The department chair is often viewed as a faculty peer who
sacrificially subordinates primary professional responsibilities (teaching,
research and writing) to serve temporarily his or her colleagues by perfor ming
essential departmental administrative tasks. This sacrifice is made so other
faculty members can pursue their teaching, research and writing interests
unencumbered by administrative trivia[6].
Journal of Educational
Administration, Vol. 32 No. 1, 1994,
pp. 79-94. © MCBUniversity Press,
0957-8234
Journal of
Educational
Administration
32,1
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The department chair person has been identified as key in the management
of today’s colleges and universities[2-4,7-12]. Regarding the depth of
understanding scholars have about the administrative position of department
chair, Jennerich stated: “…given the obvious importance of these individuals to
the enterprise of higher education, we know very little about the function and
selection of the department chairperson and the competences necessary for
them to effectively perform their delegated responsibilities”[5, p. 47]. The
primary qualification most chairs bring to the position is that they have gained
a measure of personal and professional respect from their faculty peers. An
individual’s training, experience or competency as an administrator may not be
the primary criteria for selection as chair.
Therefore, the position is plagued with inherent structural conflict since the
chair must act as the conduit of information and policy between the
administration and the faculty of the institution[6,13]. The contribution of role
conflict and role ambiguity to the occupational stress associated with this Janus
position has been discussed in several studies[6,7,13-19]. The role of chair is
often poorly defined, and conflicting expectations are common in terms of what
deans, faculty members and chairs themselves expect the functions of the chair
to include[19]. Lee reported chairs’ reflections on the conflicts associated with
the role when she wrote: “The chairs clearly saw their feet in two camps, no
matter how the line of command went…identification is with the faculty
(possibly because the chair must return to it)”[13, p. 30].
One of the conclusions that can be drawn from these and similar studies
about the chair is that the role is not only pluralistic, in terms of dual roles and
objectives, but is also fractionated in terms of task behaviours. With this
complexity and conflict in mind, what is the nature of department chair stress?
Are there identifiable patterns of stress that reflect both the faculty and
administration role of department chairs? How can this knowledge help both
the individuals and institutions to systematically address the issue of chair
stress?
Stress in Higher Education
Although many researchers have identified the existence of occupational
stress[20-22], most such findings are general and do not reflect the full character
of profession-specific stress in terms of its multidimensionality nor its
uniqueness in comparison with other professions. Recently, however, several
studies in higher education have identified factor-analysed dimensions of
faculty stress and administrative stress. With respect to faculty stress, a
national study of 2,000 faculty in research and doctoral-granting institutions
yielded five dimensions of stress: reward and recognition pertained to the
question of professional recognition or rewards, with inadequate rewards,
unclear expectations and insufficient recognition; time constraints included
general duties such as paperwork, meetings and telephone and visitor
interruptions; departmental influence dealt with knowing evaluation criteria
and influencing decisions; professional identity reflected the pressure of
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