Community College Leadership Situation Analysis

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Introduction A community college leadership crisis appears imminent (Jones & Taylor, 2013). Within the next 10 years, 75% of community college presidents plan to retire; with 15% more to retire within 11-15 years (McNair, 2015). Due to retirements, there will be a need to fill many new academic leadership positions (Eddy, 2013; Lennon, 2013). The struggle to find and retain highly qualified leaders will be a challenge for community colleges (Jones & Taylor, 2013). Certainly the retirement issue emphasizes the leadership crisis; yet community college presidential turnover is also exacerbated by internal political conflicts, external stakeholder demands, and fiscal unpredictability (Tekniepe, 2014). Future community college presidents will …show more content…

Future community college leadership deficiencies have been acknowledged (Eddy, 2013; Jones & Jackson, 2014; Jones & Taylor, 2013; Leist & Travis, 2013; Lennon, 2013; McNair, 2015; Myran, 2013); with leadership development programs discussed as a way to combat the pending leadership crisis (McFadden, Miller, Sypawka, Clay, & Hoover-Plonk, 2013). Moreover, presidential candidates perceived that their preparation for community college leadership was lacking; except in cases where the completion of their doctoral degree was characterized as leadership preparation (McNair, 2015). Further, when presidents seek replacements; gender and education were perceived as less critical to the recognition of expertise than the attributes of and relationships with the president (Joshi, 2014). Therefore, community college leadership needs to be studied; in order to understand the perceptions of leaders about how to overcome the persistent community college leadership …show more content…

Women are underrepresented in academic leadership (Dahlvig, 2013; Pyke, 2013); aggravated by the persistent compensation gap (Cornacchione & Daugherty, 2013). In 2012, the median annual salary of community college presidents was $167, 000 (Tekle, 2012), with women still not receiving promotions at the same pace as men (Ortega-Liston & Soto, 2014). The relationship between the global problem and the gender gap exemplifies and is suggestive of the impending leadership crisis at community colleges. Studies concerning the academic gender gap exist (Cornacchione & Daugherty, 2013; Dahlvig, 2013; Hannum et al., 2015; Ortega-Liston & Soto, 2014; Pyke, 2013); however, how community college presidents perceive the leadership and gender gap, as well as the requirements to fulfill future leadership roles has not been

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