Why the Search Matters

There are many parallels between universities and independent and international schools, and one of the most striking is about the political capital implications of the ways of selecting leaders. Allison Vaillancourt has a great post in the Chronicle of Higher Education today on just this topic (click here). In a nutshell, her point is that the search process itself builds both capital and credibility in ways that mere appointment cannot.

For those interested in more, Rita Bornstein, former president of Rollins College, has a very insightful study of the academic chief executive selection process in her book, Legitimacy in the Academic Presidency: From Entrance to Exit.