Conflict Management

Attributes of the Ideal Leader in Higher Education

EDU 530

Strayer University

November 17, 2012

Attributes of the Ideal Leader in Higher Education

The first article I reviewed was authored by Leslie Ennis (2008) and is entitled The Inevitability Of Conflict and The Importance of its Resolution in Christian Higher Education. Ennis (2008) stated, “ Conflict within institutions of higher learning, both among individuals and corporately, is a pressing issue for modern-day American higher education. It is this growing climate of conflict that threatens to erode the very fabric of American academic institutions as a whole…”. The authors’ viewpoint is very interesting as he comes from a spiritual perspective and deals with how conflict affects the environment and learning process. Ennis speaks on how important it is to not avoid conflict that is present but to confront it, and deal with it head on. I think the points and tips Ennis provides are very interesting and can be applied to more than Christian higher education.

The second article I reviewed was Resolving Conflicts in Institutions of Higher Education: Challenges for Pracademics (Volpe & Chandler, 1999). This article is written from the prospective of a pracademic, which is someone who teaches dispute resolution but also doubles as dispute resolvers in higher education. The author discusses the struggle of conflict in higher education and more importantly, how it affects those who are pracademic. The author also talks about the overwhelming growth of disputes in higher education. Volpe & Chandler make mention of how the types, amounts and severity of disputes in education have become overwhelming. The last thing the authors mention is the Paradigm Shift in the attention conflict receives in higher education in the 21st century.

The third article I reviewed was authored by Peter West (2007) and is entitled Conflict in Higher Education and Its Resolution. In...