Rethinking the 'L' Word in Higher Education: The Revolution of Research on Leadership

In these times of change and challenge in higher education, pleas for leadership have become frequent. However, the type of leadership required within this new context (of globalization, demographic changes, technological advancement, and questioning of social authority) may call for different skills, requiring a re-education among campus stakeholders if they want to be successful leaders. In the past twenty years, there has been a revolution in the way that leadership is conceptualized across most fields and disciplines. Leadership has moved away from being leader-centered, individualistic, hierarchical, focused on universal characteristics, and emphasizing power over followers. Instead, a new vision has emerged: leadership that is process-centered, collective, context-bound, non-hierarchical, and focused on mutual power and influence processes. This volume summarizes research and literature about new conceptualizations of leadership to inform practice. This is volume 31, number 6, of the ASHE Higher Education Report, a bi-monthly journal published by Jossey-Bass. See our entire list of ASHE Higher Education Report titles for a wide variety of critical issues facing Higher Education today.