Leveraging informal leadership in higher education institutions: A case of diffusion of emerging technologies in a southern context
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Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
British Educational Research Association
Abstract
In the last decade, emerging technologies and transformative practices have diffused into
higher education social systems in ways that formal leadership styles are increasingly
stretched to both keep abreast of and to manage. While many scholars have argued for
the importance of the role of leadership styles in shaping the strategic direction of
institutions, there is a paucity of research on the role that informal leaders, and more
particularly opinion leaders and change agents, can play in enabling wide-scale adoption
of innovations in higher education institutions. This paper focuses on the ways in
which leadership in higher education can best extend their influence to accelerate the
diffusion of transformational educational practices using emerging technologies by leveraging
informal leaders. To illustrate how this could be achieved, we report on a study
of 22 public higher education institutions in South Africa involving 259 participants
who responded to an online survey. The survey focused on the uses of emerging technologies
to transformthe teaching and learning practices and the nature of institutional
support such initiatives received.The findings reveal that for emerging technologies to be
diffused in institutional social systems, more transformative and less transactional leadership
is required. The paper proposes a model for accelerating the diffusion of emerging
technologies in higher education institutions and concludes that leveraging informal
leadership is particularly critical in accelerating the uptake of emerging technologies
practices.
Description
Keywords
Leveraging, Informal leadership, Higher education institutions, Emerging technologies, South Africa, Survey
Citation
Ng'ambi, D. & Bozalek, V. (2013). Leveraging informal leadership in higher education institutions: A case of diffusion of emerging technologies in a southern context. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44 (6): 940–950