A Creature of Our Own Making: Reflections on Contemporary Academic Life by Gary A. Olson (review)

The dearth of qualified and competent candidates within administrative search pools is disheartening. While the reasons are not fully clear, many colleagues speculate as to why applicant pools are limited: fiscally tough times scare the experienced or aspiring away, little or no substantive decision making power, unit repercussions for challenging senior administrators, foci tends to be external (e.g., fund raising) rather than an internal emphasis, and the pay and pain are not worth the headache. Fiscal austerity, decision making, underlying repercussions, external constituencies, and administrative pay are just a few academic leadership challenges that Gary Olson examines in his book, A Creature of Our Own Making: Reflections on Contemporary Academic Life.

In his book, Olson presents a compilation of short essays or mediations examining various academic workplace and administrative leadership challenges. It’s not a leadership book per se, nor a heavily cited scholarly read, but rather offers a selection of essays that are clearly practical and relevant to the recently appointed or novice administrator, and/or to the faculty member contemplating an administrative role. Rather than being a “tiresome to read” treatise or a series of opinion pieces critical of past faculty and administrative debacles, these essays focus on providing helpful and concise advisory points for those considering leadership positions within the academic enterprise. At first glance these essays are more targeted toward recently appointed academic administrators such as chairs, deans, and provosts, but presidents as well as junior faculty members and academic support professionals may also gain big picture insights from the experiences presented in the essays.

Six titled sections of essays comprising academic subtopics are shared with the reader: “Campus Culture,” “The Craft of Administration,” “Campus Reform,” “Faculty Concerns,” “Faculty Recruitment,” and “Special Topics.” Depending on your positional viewpoint, some areas are likely to be more relevant or applicable than others. Though at times the proposed guiding points within each essay scream common sense, these scenarios continue to be problematic across academe and they bear repeating. Some subtopics within “Campus Culture” include conspiracy, ax murderers, accountability, respect, and big brother is watching. While Olson’s intent is to be professional rather than humorous, on occasion, humorous thoughts from the reader will emerge such as typical faculty antics, and typical administrative incompetence. However, it’s also difficult to realize how highly educated individuals can be so childish (e.g., walking out of meetings) and hurtful (e.g., personal unconstructive attacks), and at the detriment to our students, colleagues, departments, and institutions.

“The Craft of Administration,” alternately termed “the dark side,” is a very thoughtful section focusing on issues such as protocol, confidentiality, disputes, rules, and rejection. While Olson honors the faculty voice and perspective, and the questioning of administrative processes, he does observe that protocol and confidentiality are lost arts within the academic profession. With respect to the former, it is noted that often faculty members insist they “must be heard” at senior levels, and as a result immediately go above the chair, dean, or provost, without giving their immediate administrative leader the opportunity to help or refuse a request or complaint. As far as confidentiality, Olson notes that issues relating to personnel decisions such as the termination of a staff member, the dismissal of a graduate student, or a colleague’s denial of promotion are often attacked mercilessly without the entire story and associated facts, when the decision to dismiss or deny cannot be defended publicly. Another helpful perspective within the craft section, “We Can’t Do That Here,” presents the differences between a rule, a policy, a procedure, and a guideline (p. 61). Frequently, new administrators with a fresh perspective will innocently ask why a particular policy exists. As a result, a defense or excuse for maintaining a policy becomes the cultural norm when in fact it’s an easily changeable rule or...