INTRODUCTION
Although the term “strategic leadership” has appeared frequently in the Literature of management, the military, and higher education, it has not yet developed a settled meaning (Chaffee 1991; Chaffee and Tierney 1988; Freedman and Tregoe 2003; Ganz 2005; Goethals, Swenson, and Burns 2004; Morrill 2002; Neumann 1989; Peterson 1997). As understood here, strategic leadership designates.
the use of the strategy process as a systematic method of decision making that
integrates reciprocal leadership into its concepts and practices. Strategy is not just
a tool of management used by leaders who hold positions of authority but is as well
a method of interactive leadership that clarifies purposes and priorities, mobilizes
motivation and resources, and sets directions for the future.
Although strategy is relevant in a variety of organizational contexts, the focus
here is on strategic leadership in colleges and universities. Given their distinctive
collegial decision-making culture and systems, the process holds particular promise for institutions of higher learning. To be sure, leadership is a highly complex
combination of many factors, characteristics, and circumstances that decidedly
cannot be reduced to one dimension or defined by a single method. Nonetheless,
one of its important organizational aspects is a collaborative process of strategic
decision making that engages an academic community in defining and achieving
a vision for its future.