Leadership as Service: A New Model for Higher Education in a New Century (AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION/ORYX PRESS SERIES ON HIGHER EDUCATION) - Hardcover

Farnsworth, Kent A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0275990923 ISBN 13: 9780275990923

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006

Synopsis

This provocative and readable discussion of leadership in higher education argues that leadership is essentially an act of service; that the more responsible the leadership position, the greater the responsibility to serve. Weaving together the Servant Leadership philosophy of Robert Greenleaf with the management principles of Mary Parker Follett, Farnsworth presents a model for 21st-century educational leadership that calls upon college administrators to see themselves as “servants first.” He argues that the voices and interests of many of education's key stakeholders―students, employers, and society as a whole―have been marginalized by a consolidation of power in the faculty, requiring a bold new approach to leadership that refocuses service to these important, but underrepresented constituents.

About this title

About the Author

KENT A. FARNSWORTH is Mary Ann Lee Endowed Professor for Community College Leadership in the College of Education, The University of Missouri, St. Louis, where he directs the Center for International Community College Education and Leadership. He is President Emeritus of Crowder College, Neosho, Missouri, where he served for 19 years.

Review

Leadership as Service is an important work that breaks new ground in the area of servantleadership and higher education. In the tradition of Robert K. Greenleaf and Parker Palmer, Kent Farnsworth's book contains powerful insights into the nature of learning, leading, and serving others. (Jeff Hawkins Ed.D, President and CEO, The Greenleaf Center, Executive Director, Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative)

Kent Farnsworth presents a compelling case for the need to change higher education in America while pointing out the significant obstacles today's leaders face. He draws upon his own experience and observations as a successful leader as well as the wisdom of some of history's most inspirational leaders and recognized organizational and leadership authorities to describe how today's college and university leaders can and must institutionalize change. According to Farnsworth, leaders can be effective if they practice a version of informed ‘servant leadership' that builds trust, is inclusive, is empowering, is visionary, and yet decisive. Leadership as Service: A New Model for Higher Education in a New Century is a valuable contribution to the examination of effective leadership, and I highly recommend it to college and university leaders, trustees who employ and support them, and those who study leadership. (George R. Boggs, President and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0275990923
• ISBN 13: 9780275990923
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176