AN EVALUATION OF ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY FRAMEWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

In 2008, a new study was conducted in Australia focusing on learning leaders in higher education through a partnership between University of Western Sydney and The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). The ALTC study was guided by one conceptual framework which was built on another framework already validated in previous studies. This framework not only was tested during the study, but also was validated again. It is notable that it was also consistent with higher education leadership literature and has been used as the conceptual framework in two more recent studies in Australia and New Zealand in 2012. The core competencies and capabilities required for leadership performance effectiveness based on this framework include personal capabilities, interpersonal capabilities, intellectual capabilities, generic competencies and role-specific competencies which are the ones that count in effective turnaround leadership in the context of higher education. However, another set of capabilities and behaviors which are necessary in initiating and implementing successful turnarounds in any organizations such as higher education institutions have not been give much attention in developing this framework. This paper aims to review the related theories that underpin the constructs of academic leadership capability framework and argue that change-oriented capability must be integrated into this model to make it more inclusive and comprehensive based on provided relevant theories and a future mega-trend analysis.