Leadership in Researcher Communities: How Is It Organized, and Does It Matter?

• In Event: 32.034 - Academic Leadership: Research, Recruitment, and Development

Abstract

Academic leadership has been suggested as a key factor for successful, innovative and effective research work in researcher communities. Previous research has defined centralized and distributed forms of leadership, and it has also identified formal and informal leadership practices exercised in researcher communities. However, surprisingly little is known about the leadership in researcher communities, and how it is related to the research productivity. This study explores the structure and practices of leadership employed in the researcher communities (N=136) in a large research-intensive university. The results showed a variety in leadership, which differed in terms of the disciplines. The results indicated the significance of leadership on researcher productivity: distributed leadership combined with formal leadership practices was related to higher researcher productivity.

Authors

• Kirsi Maria Pyhalto, University of Helsinki

• Auli Toom, University of Helsinki

• Outi Kaven, University of Helsinki