Leadership and Management Styles of the US Universities - Essay Example

Case reviews on matters of educational management have revealed changing trends in leadership and management across the globe (Bush, 2010, p. 45). There is evidence of a determined shift from the traditional systems of leadership and management, which were more rigid as compared to the current ones that seem to be more flexible. The traditional systems mainly involved a vertical structure in leadership, wherein the leadership was at the top, making important policy and administrative decisions that affected the operations at all levels of the universities administration (Bush, 2010).

Educational institutions that adopted exclusivist policies of leadership favoured this system. The current systems have evolved to embrace horizontal structures of leadership where policy matters and decision-making are handled at multiple points of the organization’s structure (McCaffery, 2010). These more developed kinds of leadership and management entail some aspect of devolution where power is distributed evenly across various academic institutions. Both systems have important strengths and weaknesses.

The increasing clamour for liberties and the advocacy for the rights of minorities have had a significant impact on the levels and nature of leadership in American universities (Bush & Coleman, 2000). Gender and ethnicity are some of the factors that have been brought within the umbrella of the management and leadership structures of American universities (McCaffery, 2010). Such leadership styles have impacted positively on the nature of leadership by embracing certain qualities that are essentially aimed towards responding to the call for harmony in the processes of leadership.

Proper management techniques require constant attention to the interests of stakeholders in ways that multiply the importance of normal discourse (McCaffery, 2010).