What is the project about?
While leadership development is acknowledged as essential for institutional growth in the higher education sector, it remains poorly understood and under researched both empirically and theoretically. Although knowledge in this area is growing in western contexts, there is little published data from the Arabic speaking world. This project addresses this gap by exploring academic middle leaders’ experiences of leadership development in Qatar.
Data were collected using an exploratory, sequential mixed methods design. In stage one we undertook 17 semi-structured interviews with a range of middle leaders in a selected case study university. Stage two involved a Q methodology study with thirty-five male and female middle leaders, which aimed to examine their perspectives on the conditions influencing leadership development. The concourse statements used were developed from the findings from stage 1.
Who is running the project?
The project was run by Professor Alan Floyd at the University of Reading in collaboration with colleagues from Qatar University – Dr Saba Mansoor Qadhi, Dr Hessa Al-Thani, Dr Youmen Chaaban, and Dr Xiangyun Du.
Who is funding the project?
The project was funded by the Qatar National Research Fund.
Find out more
A key outcome of this study was the development of a conceptual model to help understand experiences of academic leadership development in Qatar. This is outlined in the following two articles:
Chaaban, Y., Qadhi, S., Al-Thani, H., Floyd, A., & Du, X. (2023). Supports and constraints to middle leadership development in higher education: A Q-methodology study. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432231174092
Floyd, A., S. M. Qadhi, H. Al-Thani, Y. Chaaban and X. Du (2023). An integrated systems model for understanding experiences of academic leadership development in Qatar. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2023.2225148