ON CAMPUS campusreview . com . au
Change agents
How leaders cope with incivility by academics .
Lynn Bosetti interviewed by Martin Betts
Professor Lynn Bosetti of UBC in Canada joined Martin Betts from HEDx to give insights into how Australian leaders in universities encounter academic workforces using incivility as a means to resist change and thwart attempts at pursuing new strategic directions .
She draws on experience in both countries as an academic leader , and her research of VCs and Deans around the world , to outline how the emotional labour of leading universities is exposed to smart bullying upwards by independent academics – something which has been accentuated during the pandemic .
It ’ s a topic of great interest in many Australian universities as change programs , returns to work , and continued financial pressures make these the most difficult of times to lead . They contrast with different experiences in Australian business which offer lessons university leaders might need to learn from , and quickly .
MB : How do you think the challenge of being a vice chancellor and a dean changed during COVID ? LB : I think there is an enormous amount of pressure on vice chancellors and university leaders . One is to provide reassurance that universities are going to continue to do the job and that students will continue to have
access to programs and university training . That ’ s a huge thing .
What a lot of leaders are dealing with is having to communicate what this plan is going to be . And we don ’ t really know what the future is , yet we have to show up to provide stability in this changing world . So communication becomes really important . We ’ re looking to the university to have answers , to predict what ’ s going to happen in this world .
I think that what leaders are challenged with right now is looking inward to provide a sense of order for faculty members and that they ’ re going to be okay . We know that in some institutions this is involving program rationalisation , and it ’ s not just because of COVID .
Some universities are much better at planning and have a strategic plan in place with contingency and risk factors , and others don ’ t . It ’ s an opportunity , actually , to look at new ways of doing things . So how do we encourage our deans and faculty members to think about programming differently ? I think Australia is much better at this . So how do we bundle things ? How do we badge up , ladder into programmes where you can take certificates , diplomas ? We ’ ve always talked about this , but now we have to do that .
From your perspective what does incivility mean in universities ? Incivility has always been part of a university , but the problem right now is for leaders to try to convince faculty members of this urgent need to change . Canada has a much more collegial form of governance , so faculty members are quite happy to wait out the leader because they know if they go away that they can continue on in what they ’ re doing . But there ’ s an urgency . We actually have to change to stay relevant . So the incivility is in that conflict between mainly tenured academics to discredit this kind of narrative that things have to change , and that profitability and efficiency and accountability don ’ t really matter .
The urgency for leaders is to try to communicate to faculty members the need to change , why we have to change , and how we ’ re going to change . They want them to be informed . They want to consult with them so they can come alongside and help us co-create a plan to live in the future . But if we go to these forums for consultation and we ’ re met with groups that are already disrupting us , discrediting us , it makes it really hard to have a civilised constructive conversation .
Incivility is different than bullying . We have workplace policies about bullying and harassment , and we know what that looks like . Incivility works alongside bullying , but it ’ s more insidious . It ’ s the eye-rolling . It ’ s the interruption . It ’ s asking clever questions . It ’ s calling you out on protocol . It ’ s demeaning , belittling comments . It ’ s gaslighting . It ’ s creating rumours and gossip ; anything that can challenge your confidence and your credibility as a leader . And they do it to each other as well .
In our research , we talk about smart bullying . As an academic , you have been socialised to be very good at asking critical
26