The Dean’s Disease

Deans are generally grateful for the confidence placed in them by their former colleagues and are highly motivated in an effort to “change the system” and remove unjust privileges and practices occurring in their departments. This stage usually takes place early in their tenure status referred to as the “honeymoon period”. However, soon this feeling of gratitude and new found appreciation of everyone within their environment becomes a faint memory of the past and the transformation is then followed by a change of attitude in taking more interests in maintaining a high profile than discussing the basis for their decisions. In this new phrase of being dean, individuals become “puffed up” with their own importance from exercising their ability to use power. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The first reason for the dean’s disease to occur is that in the early implementation of their new position, deans find they’re able to influence faculty members due to the resource available to them and that are within their control. This form of influence then manifests as deans exercise both coercive power (punitive actions for those that are noncompliant) and reward power (salary increase for those that do comply), which validates the belief that power tends to corrupt institutions if used injudiciously.

The second reason occurs following from the first. As a result of being the target of flattery, deans create this self serving bias that they are indeed “special” and develop an overinflated sense of self that they are truly as gifted and intelligent as others tell them. This is a negative attribute of personal superiority especially when they’re challenged by others. Communication is a two-way street. Deans need to learn how to be empathetic listeners and be able to respond to the concerns of their faculty members.

A third reason is when the control of resources requires that dean to adopt ethics consistent with the power connected with their power for control. Having acquired a "taste for power," the pursuit of power becomes an end in itself and they begin to ignore commonly held values and norms. They believe that they are exempt from moral standards to justify their self-interested actions.

Safeguards can be employed to minimize its devastating effects on deans and faculties. The first step in preventing the dean's disease is to recognize its individual and organizational markers in dean applicants. One strategy for assuring due diligence is sending a subset of a dean's search committee to a prospective candidate's campus to talk with local colleagues about the candidate's background. A second strategy to look for signs of the dean's disease is by reviewing the past records of applicants for administrative positions and their annual reviews involving collegiality. Some applicants may display isolated symptoms without having the disease, but one or two symptoms may be enough to raise serious concern. Finally, reviewing a display identifiable personality characteristic can be another preventative measure. Be very cautious of candidates that appear to possess a lot of personal charm and seductiveness, qualities that may have originally been responsible for their personal attractiveness.