Management Development for Academics: Reflections on a Trigger Film Evaluation by Administrators

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Abstract
This paper examines the involvement of academic staff in the management and administration of Australian higher education institutions, particularly universities. An early focus is on the maelstrom of change from 1960 until the mid 1970s when change was generally equated with expansion and growth often without integrative forward planning. Three positive outcomes of this period of change are identified: an expansion of the passive concept of administration to include management and entrepreneurship as legitimate activities in the operation of universities and colleges; a greater involvement by academics in institutional management because, among other reasons, of the availability of enlarged data bases and heightened competition for diminishing resources; and the increasingly definitive forms of professionalisation among career administrators. The deficient preparation of academics for management roles in Australian universities and colleges is contrasted with evidence of increased participation by administrators in management development activities including graduate programmes. Trigger films which are designed to provoke opportunities for learning in a peer group situation are presented as a particularly powerful remedy for this deficiency. An evaluation of the TERC trigger film, “Decisions in Academic Departments”, by a small group of professional administrators from eight countries is then analysed. Such trigger films provide a stimulating and easily used resource for the improvement of management and administration in higher education.

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