Which practice your institution/university follows? appointing deans, and heads of departments from the responsible council OR instead through elections among the staffs themselves? what do you think please? thank you so much for your contributions.
Election is always better for any higher education sensitive position, particularly in corrupted countries, where other non-related factors affect the appointment decision .
Even if there was no corruption, election demonstrates the majority opinion and decision, which is most likely to be better than the opinion and decision of one person. on the basis of two heads are better than one..
In my university, the head of departments and the deans are appointed through election among the staffs. Nevertheless, generally, the elections are politically manipulated. Consequently, they do not always choose the best academic manager. I believe that there should be a consensus to select the best candidate who has been engaged in meaningful academic activities and with excellent time management techniques or skills.
Appointment has skill based evaluation for selection; whereas elections are popularity based and may be more subjective.
Appointments with objective and subjective evaluations lead to selection of best available HR.
Deans or Heads must be selected on merit. Election may give the opportunities to the person who may not be able to deliver administratively.
In general, Selection or Election depends on the university policy. There is no best practice because every choice has its pros and cons (pro et contra).
It should be on merit. A criteria of selection + election should be evolved. Characteristics having specific weightages may be sought.
1. degree (qualification)
2. Seniority
3. Research contribution
4. popularity (election)
etc
Dear Dr. Raed - It depends on the organizational culture in the first place but both have pros and cons!. If we go with the election it might look more fair than the selection; however, it would create lobbies among the individuals and different teams/departments and most of the time it will end up with favoring someone over another not on a merit-base but for some personal reasons or mutual benefits and that's what we call favoritism. On the other hand the selection process might look unfair but I think it's the best practice in some universities. But the selection process should not be done by one individual and it should be a merit-based such as the seniority and publications and many other criteria; taking into consideration that we have to balance between the leadership and communication skills on one hand and the other skills on the other hand. Communication is power when you are the leader!. Final note, the seniority is important but sometimes we need to inject some new blood into the team and organization by giving the chance to other individuals on a regular basis.
BR,
Dana
It might be a difficult process to implement though not impossible!
The difficulties associated with an election based one is:
People may choose a person without adequate experience.
People may tend to be biased and they may favor only those who voted them.
The elected person may not be good at academics but good at other aspects like not reinforcing institutional rules and regulations.
Therefore, my personal opinion is , the headship, and deanship should be on rotation ( for a maximum of three years) only among professors & associate professors.
Different practices exist in different countries. Private Universities in my country appoint, while at State Universities, Deans are recommended by academics, but final word in election process has Government's body!
Dear Professor Ra'ed,
About our university, the deans are appointed after a competition and ranked according to several criteria. Department heads are elected by the staff of the faculty.
Regards
Dear Ra'ed (Moh'd Taisir) Masa'deh,
It depends from the workplace, where everyone works.
Regards, Shafagat
In my country, deans and heads of department are appointed to positions in two ways: through a democratic election in state universities and by the selection in private higher education. It's hard to say which is better. With both methods the university/college/higher school can function properly and may also appear abuses / pathologies.
Elections based on several candidates, if possible, is the best option.
Never Elect! Manipulations, caucus formation, inefficient but popular one getting elected become the norm in the system as the days pass by.
Recommendations by the eminent persons in the field can be collected and the committee can choose from the list.
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