College Deans: Leading From Within

College Deans is based on the National Deans Survey, which was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Academic Leadership and included 800 deans from all U.S. 4-year academic institutions. The book consists of two main sections: "Deans: Their Campuses and Colleges" and "Dimensions: Duties and Challenges." The first section describes the deanship in general, the national study in particular, and the background of current academic deans. It then gives a profile of deans: who they are and where they work. The second section of the book discusses the position of dean itself. This section looks at academic leadership in general and, more specifically, at what deans in this study believe were their primary roles and responsibilities, where role ambiguity and conflict came into play, and how they characterized stress and its relationship to job satisfaction. In addition, this section has a separate segment devoted to gender-related issues and a final chapter that highlights the most pressing challenges deans see in the near future.