The Role of Legislation and Organizational Culture in Shaping Academic Leadership

Universities under the continuous pressure of the global competition, in turbulent times, have to change their governance models based on collegiality and democratic traditions to new ones based on academic leadership. In Europe, the Bologna process started in 1999 generated already o series of transformations which prepared the universities for implementation of academic leadership. The purpose of this paper is to perform a critical analysis of the role played by legislation and organizational culture on academic leadership, in order to understand the contingency framework of any strategy of developing it. The research questions driving our investigation are the following: a) what are the stimulating effects of legislation and organizational culture on developing academic leadership?, b) what are the restraining effects of legislation and organizational culture on developing academic leadership?, and c) what is the perception of faculty staff in the Romanian universities on developing academic leadership? The last question is motivated by the fact that this academic year in all Romanian universities there were elections for the new governing bodies (i.e. faculty councils and university senates), and new rectors, vice-rectors, deans and vice-deans of faculties, and department heads based on a new legislation. Research results demonstrate that legislation and organizational culture are powerful shaping forces of academic leadership but they have to converge in order to create the necessary synergy of change.