The Meaning of "Good Presidential Leadership": A Frame Analysis. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper

The extent to which college presidents incorporate single or multiple vantage points in evaluating good leadership was studied, based on Bolman and Deal's framework as adapted by Birnbaum. They suggest that leaders implicitly use different cognitive "frames" to define their role and understand organizational behavior. A frame helps the administrator determine what is important and what can be safely ignored. Four frames for conceptual maps for understanding organizations and effective leadership behavior were used: the bureaucratic frame, the collegial frame, the political frame, and the symbolic frame. The cognitive frames of 32 presidents were identified by examining interview data that reflected their espoused theories of leadership. Of concern in the analysis of frames were leadership as the process of providing direction to a group or an institution, and the leadership tactics used to provide direction. Content analysis was used to code references to elements of the four frames in an interview passage. Frame analysis resulted in a three-part classification: presidents who espoused a single-frame theory, those who combined two frames, and those with multi-frame orientations. Results are describes and a sample coding form is appended. Thirty-three references are included. (SW)