Entrepreneurial leadership in the mixed sector provider

  • Ross Digby

    Student thesis: Professional Doctorate

    Abstract

    The environment in which tertiary education providers operate, the contemporary education landscape, is shaped by government policy, quasi-education markets and information and communications technologies. For the tertiary education provider to appropriately respond to changes in this landscape, effective leadership is required.
    The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership capability of staff in leadership roles, and how they describe their role as a leader at South Eastern Polytechnic (SEP), a mixed sector tertiary education provider. Furthermore, the focus was to ascertain the understanding these staff have of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the leadership capabilities required to build and support innovation and entrepreneurship at a mixed sector provider.
    A convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used in this study. This design incorporated questionnaires with staff in leadership roles at SEP, and interviews with people in senior leadership roles providing educational services to SEP. A focus group was then conducted with staff in leadership roles to clarify and elaborate on the findings from the questionnaire and interviews.
    Insights from this study provide a deeper understanding of leadership at a mixed sector provider. It is evident from the findings that the role of a leader is not clearly understood by many staff in leadership roles at mixed sector tertiary education providers. This in turn inhibits their ability and capability as a leader to effectively communicate and direct staff to achieve the strategic objectives, and to provide leadership that builds and supports innovative and entrepreneurial activity. This project provides a base on which further research can be undertaken into how staff in leadership at mixed sector providers understand their role as a leader, and the capabilities required to provide effective leadership in the contemporary education landscape.
    Date of Award2020
    Original languageEnglish
    SupervisorMike Gaffney (Supervisor), Louise Watson (Supervisor), Dan Kaczynski (Supervisor), Misty Kirby (Supervisor) & Philip ROBERTS (Supervisor)

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