Development, competence and performance – who does what in higher education?

Higher education is in turmoil in the whole world. Universities as organizations are being challenged by their various stakeholders. This is true of any and most organizations. Nevertheless in some places universities continue to be looked upon as providers of the correct answers to those challenges as they have rallied within their ranks self-proclaimed experts in leadership, management and organizational performance. The literature existing documents the issues universities as organizations face in today’s complex world and attempts at pointing at various ways they can take to address those challenges. Specialists and sometimes the general public itself show an understanding of the fact that higher education evolves through its institutions, practices and processes at some paces in global contexts and at different ones in local contexts in spite of a relatively unifying public discourse used especially by decision and policy makers and some parts of the media. In other words, similar concepts may refer to very dissimilar realities making the evaluation of performance difficult and questionable. This paper looks at the way universities address the need for professional development of their leaders and/or managers at the various university levels. The focus will be on Romanian economic and business higher education institutions. The research presented here evolved from a doctoral study one the authors did in the field of leadership in Romanian higher education and from both authors’ experience in the university system in Romania and in other higher education systems they are familiar with. The authors claim and document that in Romania little is still done in terms of formalized, transparent and open access training for university leaders and administrators. The same is true for those who are interested in preparing for a career in academic management or leadership and do not have a clear road map to follow. In the complex higher education system of today professional competence is an important component that cannot be left entirely to personal development needs. Formalized and open access training in management, leadership, educational management, research management, organizational culture, strategic planning and time management skills is critical for one’s professional competence. In Romania both organizations and individuals need to understand the need to offer opportunities for professional training and the need to invest in personal development. This is how academics working or contemplating to work in administration would be empowered to plan for their organization’s performance in an open, transparent, continually and unpredictably changing world.