Academic Leadership for Teaching and Research Development in Higher Education: A Bahraini Case Study القيادة األكاديمية لتطوير التدريس و البحث في مرحلة التعليم العالي: دراسة حالة بحرينية by Amal Jasim AL-Qallaf A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Education at The British University in Dubai 28 March 2016 Thesis Supervisor Dr Eugenie Samier Dr. Solomon Arulraj David i Academic Leadership for Teaching and Research Development in Higher Education: A Bahraini Case Study by Amal Jasim AL-Qallaf A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION at The British University in Dubai 28 March 2016 Thesis Supervisor Dr. Eugenie Samier Dr Solomon Arulraj David Approved for award: __________________________ ________________________ Professor Barbara Kehm Dr Abdulai Abukari External Examiner Internal Examiner __________________________ ________________________ Dr Cornelius Ncube Professor Abdullah Alshamsi Chair of Examiners Chair of Research Degree Committee Date: 12 July 2016 DECLARATION I warrant that the content of this thesis is the direct result of my own work and that any use made in it of published or unpublished copyright material falls within the limits permitted by international copyright conventions. I understand that one copy of my dissertation will be deposited in the University Library for permanent retention. I hereby agree that the material mentioned above for which I am author and copyright holder may be copied and distributed by The British University in Dubai for the purposes of research, private study or education and that The British University in Dubai may recover from purchasers the costs incurred in such copying and distribution, where appropriate. I understand that The British University in Dubai may make that copy available in digital format if appropriate. I understand that I may apply to the University to retain the right to withhold or to restrict access to my thesis for a period which shall not normally exceed four calendar years from the congregation at which the degree is conferred, the length of the period to be specified in the application, together with the precise reasons for making that application. _______________________ Signature iii COPYRIGHT AND INFORMATION TO USERS The author whose copyright is declared on the title page of the work has granted to the British University in Dubai the right to lend the thesis to users of its library and to make partial or single copies for educational and research use. The author has also granted permission to the University to keep or make a digital copy for similar use and for the purpose of preservation of the work digitally. Multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author, the Registrar or the Dean of Education only. Copying for financial gain shall only be allowed with the author‘s express permission. Any use of this work in whole or in part shall respect the moral rights of the author to be acknowledged and to reflect in good faith and without detriment the meaning of the content, and the original authorship. iv Academic Leadership for Teaching and Research Development in Higher Education: A Bahraini Case Study Abstract The Arabian Gulf countries have witnessed a significant growth and development in higher education provisions and demands since the end of 1980s. The main purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the experiences and roles of academic leadership administrators in higher education in the Kingdom of Bahrain while enhancing teaching and research quality, and investigating the current quality management model used for effective leadership, and what style of leadership best handles the challenges of cultural diversity within Bahraini higher educational organizations especially in their early stages of development in order to reach world standards development. A composite theoretical framework was designed using Bolden, Petrov, and Gosling (2008) academic leadership model, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (1998) and Branine’s (2011) models of cross-cultural management, Schein’s (2004) model of organizational culture and leadership, Schultz’s (1995) model of organizational culture and Shils’s (2008) academic ethos for teaching and research. The methodology used in this study is a predominantly qualitative and interpretive case study, using mixed methods which included the following: International, regional, national, and organizational document analysis; interviews with Deans, Chairs, and Quality Assurance Authority representatives; a faculty survey; and alumni focus groups. There are two main types of results. The first is empirical, finding that there is a rich potential for research in Bahrain but funding, heavy workloads and more advanced training are the main obstacles, whereas for teaching the strength is in the academics’ quality of teaching but workload is the single most important problem, and for leadership the strength is in the quality of expertise but are constrained by lack of autonomy. The second main result of the study is the development of a more comprehensive, regionally appropriate, and multi-dimensional model for university development that includes: academic leadership and organizational dimensions, the academic ethos elements; the multicultural interactions dimension; the dynamic system Interaction; the integrated model, and the temporal domains/changes and developmental. This model aims to contribute to the development of an academic system that best suits higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain. v القيادة األكاديمية لتطوير التدريس و البحث في مرحلة التعليم العالي: دراسة حالة بحرينية ملخص خالل فترة نهاية الثمانينات، شهدت دول الخليج العربي نمواً و تطوراً ملحوظأً في أحكام و متطلبات التعليم العالي. و منذ تلك الفترة، قام العديد من أصحاب المصلحة و الوزارات بالرد على حركة مؤسسات التعليم العالي، و التي أسفرت نتائجها عن االستثمار و التطوير في خطط التعليم العالي االستراتيجية و السياسات و اإلجراءات. و في المقابل، تم تقديم و تطبيق مبادرات عديدة للتغيير في جميع جوانب اإلدارة لجميع العمليات في قطاع التعليم العالي لدى دول الخليج العربية. و يتمثل الهدف الرئيسي من هذه الدراسة في الحصول على فهم أفضل لخبرات و أدوار إداريي القيادة األكاديمية في التعليم العالي بمملكة البحرين، و في الوقت ذاته تعزيز جودة التعليم و البحث، باإلضافة لدراسة نموذج إدارة الجودة الحالي و الذي يستخدم لقيادة فعالة و إيجاد أسلوب القيادة األفضل لمواجهة تحديات التنوع الثقافي في مؤسسات التعليم العالي البحرينية، و نخص بالذكر تلك التي في المراحل المبكرة للتطوير، و ذلك من أجل النهوض بها لتصل لمستويات التطور العالمية في ً لنموذج القيادة األكاديمية لبولدن و بتروف نطاق الجودة. و من هذا المنطلق، تم تصميم اإلطار النظري المركب تبعا )2007( و نماذج تعدد الثقافات لترومبينارز و هامبدين- ترنرز )1998( و براناينز )2011( و نموذج اسشياينز )2004( للقيادة و الثقافة التنظيمية و أيضاً نموذج سجولجز )1995( للثقافة التنظيمية. و نوع المنهج المتبع في هذه الدراسة بشكل أكبر هو المنهج االنوعي و منهج دراسة الحالة التفسيرية، باإلضافة إلى استخدام المنهج المختلط/ المزدوج )أي النوعي و الكمي معاً(، و الذي يشتمل على اآلتي: تحليل وثيقة دولية و إقليمية و وطنية و تنظيمية وعمل مقابالت مع عمداء الكليات و الرؤساء و ممثلي هيئة ضمان الجودة و دراسة مسحية ألعضاء الهيئة األكاديمية و لقاءات تحاورية جماعية للخريجين. و هنالك نوعان من النتائج. النوع األول إجرائي، و يتمثل في ايجاد احتماالتاً كبيرة / فرصاً سانحةً للبحث في البحرين، ولكن يشكل الدعم المادي و مسؤوليات العمل المثقلة و التدريب المتقدم عوائقاً رئيسية تقف في وجه البحوث. بينما بالنسبة لجانب التدريس و التعليم تتمثل مواطن القوة في جودة التعليم لدى الكادر األكاديمي، و لكن حجم متطلبات العمل يشكل أهم مشكلة فردية. أما بالنسبة لمجال القيادة، فتعتبر جودة الخبرة من أهم نواحي القوة في هذا المجال، و لكنها مقيدة بفعل نقص الحكم الذاتي. و بالنسبة للنتيجة الرئيسية الثانية للدراسة فتتمثل في تطور النموذج الشامل و المالئم للمنطقة و المتعدد األبعاد المستخدم للتطوير الجامعي، و الذي يشمل: القيادة األكاديمية األبعاد و التنظيمية و عناصر الروح األكاديمية و التفاعالت ذات البعد الثقافي و النظام التفاعلي الديناميكي و النموذج التكاملي و المجاالت/ التغيرات الزمنية التطويرية. و يهدف هذا النموذج لإلسهام في تطوير النظام األكاديمي بشكل يتالئم و ينسجم مع مؤسسات التعليم العالي بمملكة البحرين. vi DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this thesis to the people closest to my heart, without whom I would not have been successful - those who continuously inspired, motivated, and supported me throughout this long and challenging journey. Firstly to my former supervisor, Dr. Eugenie Samier, who has created a spark of love for research in me. For three years with her as supervisor I have learned not only research skills, but also the ethics of research. Magically she passed her knowledge and thirst for research to us by sharing her academic ethos and personal resources and library. My lifelong advisor who when we first met in the programme said ‘By the end of your Doctoral journey, you will be a better person in everything’ I can never agree more! To my role model in life, my father who taught me that no matter how hard life is by determination, hard work, and strong faith in Allah the Almighty we can achieve big dreams. To my loving mother whose prayers blessed me magically and to my sisters and brothers who were mad at me for missing the family weekend gatherings but who they supported me morally. To my best friends who overwhelmed me with their love and who always believed in me, Dr. Hana Khadom who taught me the importance of being patient during hard times. Also to my closest friend Sireen Alaradi (Dr. to be) who made me smile during desperate moments. Being on the same journey together inspired me. To my brother Mr Khalid Almahmood for all the support and encouragement he provided me during hard times. Finally, and most importantly, I dedicate this thesis to my small family: To my husband who has always respected my choice in developing professionally and taking on long-term commitments. To the loves of my life, my children Ayah and Abdulaziz, who, regardless of their young ages were so supportive and understanding. Their hugs, kisses, encouraging words and pretty faces kept me going during hard times. I apologise for all the weekend I travelled to Dubai to attend my courses leaving them alone. I promise to make the coming weekends more fun! I can never forget the caring woman, nanny Louisa, who gave me peace of mind to study and succeed. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my Director of Studies, Dr. Solomon Arulraj David who has been very cooperative and highly professional in providing the support needed and the interest in my area of research. I wish also to thank everyone at the British University in Dubai for their guidance and cooperation with me as an overseas student. A special sincere thank goes to Prof. Abullah AlShamsi, the Vice Chancellor and the Chair of the Research Degree Committee and to Prof. Eman Gaad, the Dean of Education. This journey would not have been possible without all types of support from faculty and academic leaders in the Royal College of Surgeon in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain under the leadership of Prof. Sameer Otoom, the president and Prof. Joe McMenamin, the Vice President of Academic Affairs. My sincere appreciation to my colleague in the same department, Sumaya Hashim and especially to Dr. Kathryn Strachan, the Head of the Quality Enhancement office who shared her rich experience and trust to develop me professionally and to prepare me as a future leader. Her continuous understanding of the pressure I went through helped me progress in my doctoral studies. I also would like to thank the participants of this study especially the alumnae for their passion and open discussions on my research topic. Finally, I am very thankful to my student colleagues at the British University in Dubai for all the great memories we shared. Our support to each other made our journey possible. I am particularly grateful to my closest colleague Mr Hassan Toubat for sharing his rich experience and for his support, encouragement, challenging discussions, and constructive feedback and criticism. viii Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 BACKGROUND............................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................... 6 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.5 THESIS CHAPTER OVERVIEWS ...................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 11 2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Bolden, Petrov, and Gosling’s Academic leadership model .............................................................. 12 2.2.2 Schultz and Schein’s Organisational Culture Model ......................................................................... 15 2.2.3 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s Cross-Cultural Model ........................................................... 18 2.3 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 20 2.3.1 Higher Education and Universities Literature ................................................................................... 20 2.3.2 Teaching, Research and Professional Development in Higher Education ........................................ 26 2.3.3 Leadership and Management Literature ............................................................................................ 33 2.3.4 Organisation Studies Literature ......................................................................................................... 40 2.3.5 Policy Studies Literature .................................................................................................................... 46 2.4 SUMMARY/OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................ 50 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY ............. 53 3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 53 3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH ................................................................................................................................ 53 3.3 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................... 58 3.3.1 Site and Subject Selection .................................................................................................................. 58 3.3.2 Data Collection Methods ................................................................................................................... 60 3.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS......................................................................................................................... 68 3.5 LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATION............................................................................................................... 68 3.6 TRUSTWORTHINESS AND RELIABILITY ........................................................................................................ 69 3.7 RESEARCHER ROLE ..................................................................................................................................... 70 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ............................. 71 4.1 INTERNATIONAL, REGIONAL, AND NATIONAL LEVEL ................................................................................. 71 4.1.1 INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS AND AGREEMENTS ................................................................................... 71 4.1.2 ARABIAN GULF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................. 77 4.1.2.1 Historical and Country Context ...................................................................................................... 77 4.1.2.2 Regional Document Analysis .......................................................................................................... 79 4.1.3 NATIONAL: POLICY MAKERS AND REGULATORS ..................................................................................... 83 ix 4.1.3.1 Historical and Country Context ...................................................................................................... 84 4.1.3.2 Document Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 85 4.1.3.3 Interviews with Regulatory Bodies .................................................................................................. 88 4.2 UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY ........................................................................................................................... 96 4.2.1 HISTORICAL AND ORGANISATION CONTEXT ............................................................................................ 96 4.2.2 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................... 100 4.2.3 SURVEY RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................... 102 4.2.3.1 Demographic description .............................................................................................................. 103 4.2.3.2 Survey Thematic Analysis and Discussion .................................................................................... 106 4.2.3.3 Survey Open-Ended Data Analysis ............................................................................................... 119 4.2.4 INTERVIEWS ........................................................................................................................................... 126 4.2.4.1 Senior Academic Administrator Profiles ....................................................................................... 126 4.2.4.2 Perceptions of Academic Leaders ................................................................................................. 127 4.2.4.3 Personal/Individual Dimension ..................................................................................................... 141 4.2.4.4 Social Dimension .......................................................................................................................... 153 4.2.4.5 Structural Dimension .................................................................................................................... 159 4.2.4.6 Contextual Dimension ................................................................................................................... 163 4.2.4.7 Developmental Dimension ............................................................................................................ 167 4.2.5 FOCUS GROUPS ...................................................................................................................................... 171 4.2.5.1: Quality Teaching.......................................................................................................................... 172 4.2.5.2 Quality Research ........................................................................................................................... 176 4.2.5.3 University Development ................................................................................................................ 181 4.2.5.4 Academic Leadership .................................................................................................................... 182 4.3 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................. 183 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................... 186 5.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 186 5.2 SYNTHESIS OF RESULTS INTO A COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED MODEL ................................................... 186 5.3 STUDY CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................................ 196 5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................................. 199 5.5 FURTHER RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................. 201 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 203 APPENDIX I DOCUMENT THEMATIC CONTENT ANALYSIS ............................ 247 APPENDIX II SEMI-STRUCTURE INTERVIEWS .................................................... 248 APPENDIX III ACADEMIC LEADERS INVITATION ............................................. 251 APPENDIX IV SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW .................................................. 252 APPENDIX V FACULTY SURVEY ............................................................................ 254 x APPENDIX VI FOCUS GROUP ................................................................................... 258 APPENDIX VIII REGULATORY BODY REQUEST LETTER & APPROVAL ...... 261 APPENDIX IX CONSENT FORM ............................................................................... 264 xi LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE Table 1: Elements of Theoretical Framework Models 19 Table 2: Sub-questions & suitable data collection methods 61 Table 3: Reliability statistics of the questionnaire themes 69 Table 4: UNESCO – International Document Content Analysis 73 Table 5: OECD – International Document Content Analysis 76 Table 6: Regional Document Content Analysis 81 Table 7: National Document Content Analysis 86 Table 8: Recommendations from the QAA Annual Reports 88 Table 9: Academic Staff by Nationality 97 Table 10: Demographic of Academic Staff by Gender 98 Table 11: Organisational Document Analysis 101 Table 12: Distribution of the Demographical Variables 103 Table 13: Key for scoring categories and level of satisfaction 106 Table 14: Mean & standard deviation of participants towards "Cultural items" 107 Table 15: Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards 107 "Developmental items" Table 16: Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards "Teaching 108 items" Table 17: Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards 'Research 109 items" Table 18: Mean & standard deviation of participants towards "Individual/Personal Items" 110 Table 19: Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards "Social items" 110 Table 20: Relationship between participants' perceptions of Academic Administrative 111 position holders & study themes Table 21: Relationship between participants' ethnic origins & their perceptions of the 112 study themes xii Table 22: Relationships between participants' gender & their perceptions of study themes 113 Table 23: Relationship between participants' highest qualification & their perceptions of 114 the study themes Table 24: Relationships between participants' country of obtaining last degree & their 115 perceptions of study themes Table 25: Relationships between participants' years of experience in the university & 117 their perceptions of study themes Table 26: Relationship between participants' years of experience with current director & 118 their perceptions of study themes Table 27: Relationship between participants' years of experience with another director in 118 the same university & their perceptions of study themes Table 28: Open-ended question Themes on the role of Academic Administrative Leaders 119 in enhancing Teaching Quality Table 29: Open-ended Question Themes on the role of AALs in enhancing Research 120 Quality Table 30: Themes of Teaching Recommendations 122 Table 31: Themes of Research Recommendations 123 Table 32: The amount of ‘colleagues support’ by national origins 125 Table 33: Demographic Description of the interview participants 126 Table 34: List of common academic leadership abilities 171 Table 35: Characteristics of Quality Teaching 173 Table 36: Characteristics of Quality Research 177 Table 37: Summaries of the study results 184 xiii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE Figure 1: Thesis Initial Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 12 Figure 2: Bolden Petrov, and Gosling (2008) model of leadership dimensions in higher 13 education Figure 3: A multi-level model of leadership practice in higher education 14 Figure 4: Derived from Schultz (1995) The Spiral: A Symbolic Model for Cultural 16 Interpretation Figure 5: Derived from Schein’s (1985a) Levels of Culture 16 Figure 6: Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (1998) model of groups and individual 18 relationships and rules dimensions combined with Branine’s (2011) Arab/Islamic values Figure 7: The UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching in HE (2011) 29 Figure 8: Research Development Framework (Careers Research and Advisory Centre, 32 2011) Figure 9: Overview of Literature Review 51 Figure 10: Subject Selection 60 Figure 11: Case Study Organisational Structure 99 Figure 12: Gender of faculty participants 104 Figure 13: Percentage of total faculty who evaluated the Academic positions 104 Figure 14: Ethnic origins of participants 105 Figure 15: Country where last degree was obtained 105 Figure 16: Participants' working years in the university 106 Figure 17: Mean score of perception towards Quality of Teaching by Ethnic Origin 112 Figure 18: Mean score of perception towards Quality of Research by Ethnic Origin 113 Figure 19: Mean score of perceptions towards Cultural Interaction by Gender 114 Figure 20: Mean score of perceptions towards Teaching by Country of last degree 115 Figure 21: Mean score of perceptions towards Teaching by years of experience in the 117 university Figure 22: Mean score of perceptions towards Research by years of experience in the 117 university Figure 23: The frequency of Preferred Personal Qualities of AAL to participants 142 Figure 24: The cycle of crisis managements as discussed by participants 149 Figure 25: Academic Leadership and Organisational Dimension 189 xiv Figure 26: Academic Ethos Elements 190 Figure 27: The Multicultural Interaction 191 Figure 28: The Dynamics System Interaction 193 Figure 29: The integrated Model 194 Figure 30: The Temporal Domain (Change & Development) 196 xv LIST OF ABREVIATIONS AAL Academic Administrative Leaders (those are in the faculty line of reporting) GCC Gulf Cooperation Council HEC Higher Education Council HEI Higher Education Institution QAAET Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training QAAM Quality Assurance Authority Member RCSI Royal College of Surgeon in Ireland MUB Medical University of Bahrain xvi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction The Arabian Gulf countries have witnessed a significant growth and development in higher education provisions and demands since the end of 1980s (Bahgat, 1999; Krieger, 2008). A report by Bolden et al. (2012) confirms a similar movement of development in higher education systems in European countries and across the world that took place in the mid-1980s. Since then, higher education institutions have been responded to by many stakeholders and governments which led to large investments and improvement in higher education strategic plans and policies. Correspondingly, many initiatives for change have been introduced and implemented in all aspects from management to all related processes in the Arabian Gulf countries’ higher education systems (Davidson & Smith, 2008; Luomi, 2008; Mazawi, 2008). Medical education has also long been examined for improvement in the quality of service it provides to meet students’ growing cognitive and psychological needs (Collins, Hannon & Smith, 2004; Lempp & Seale 2004). Medical education has been a focal point for stakeholders in terms of providing the appropriate teaching and learning support for students that meet international standards which aim at preparing graduands for the workplace and to be skillful enough to meet healthcare needs. Quality management has received widespread acceptance in many countries by various sectors, yet many of the quality management regimes have also received criticism for their inappropriateness for the higher education sector. For example, Srikanthan and Dalrymple (2002) argue that applying quality models from industry proved to be unsuccessful in education (a detailed discussion of this literature is in Chapter Two). For any quality management model to be effectively applied in higher education, core functions such as service and academic activities need to be addressed separately with their particular set of criteria. The role of leadership in enhancing higher education development has been relatively unaddressed in leadership literature (Lakshman, 2006) with even less in the academic leadership literature. Although academic administrators and academics in general occupy the university, they lack a detailed understanding of quality leadership culture. The focus in this study of university 1 administration is only on the academic administrators who have been or still are faculty members, not those administrative staff who are not part of the faculty line of reporting. Academics’ responsibility is even more challenging and complex in organisations with high levels of multiculturalism making development more difficult. Jackson (1999) and Ely (1994) regard this challenge as one caused by individuals being under-prepared or lacking an appropriate understanding of the demands their profession entails. In the Kingdom of Bahrain the number of expats is increasing in the higher education institution according to Alwasat Bahraini newspapers (no. 4886) which has been recently published on the 23rd of January 2016. It was reported that the Higher Education Council shared the last academic year 2014-2015 numbers of Bahraini and expats working in the public, private, and regional Higher Education Institutions in the Kingdom. Out of the total number of faculty (1915) in all institutions, there are (1016) expats faculty members in Bahrain, while the number of Bahraini faculty members does not exceed (899). The report also showed that the number of non-Bahraini students studying in the kingdom’s universities is (4862) out of the overall number of students (38260). All countries have encountered dramatic change on many societal levels due to the world’s global economy crisis in addition to the Western shift to neoliberalism and globalisation. This has encouraged many western countries and organisations to direct their attention to developing countries in South America, Asia and Africa, and the Middle East is no exception. The result of this crisis has reached even educational sector and more specifically the higher education. Bok (2013) argues that ‘ever since economists revealed how much universities contribute to economic growth, politicians have paid close attention to higher education’ (p. 5). Many western higher educational organisations regard investing and running branch operations in developing countries as a potential source of revenue generation. Interestingly Bok also raises a concern relevant to this thesis: ‘Money helps, but so do other things, such as close human relationships, acts of kindness, absorbing interests and the chance to live in a free, ethical and well-governed democratic society’ (p. 5). Having Western higher educational organisations hosted in developing countries is a hugely beneficial step towards developing these countries. Each organisation can have a unique structure of multiculturalism that can cross all geographical boundaries. However, this step might have some complications and threats if not studied in depth by specialists in the field of higher education. Many challenges could occur on both levels for the Western organisations’ members and management and the local or national people who will work or benefit from 2 hosting these organisations. Issues can emerge that might have severe impacts on both levels alike such as those found by Foskett and Maringe (2010). Not only cultural dimensions need to be considered, but also differences in social, political, and economic contexts in order to minimize the impact of Western organisational culture on nationals, and to be more flexible in what is considered ‘quality’ since this could have cultural and social dimensions that vary from country to country. Many issues and conflicts may evolve during the process of integration within these organisations. How significant this impact will be will depend on how developed the hosting countries are and how open or closed their cultures are to different practices and forms of knowledge. Western educational organisations need to develop a sufficient level of understanding in order to avoid falling in the trap of the negative influence on nationals. It is crucially important to consider the gaps in communication that can cause dilemmas and conflicts for national people working in Western educational organisations. For example, cultural beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and assumptions of different nations can be a source of challenge in an organisation when it comes to solving issues or accomplishing tasks within (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2004). 1.2 Background In the Kingdom of Bahrain, institutional development implementation is required from organisations across the country in most sectors including education. In the ‘Economic Vision 2030’ for Bahrain1, section three presents the country’s vision in many public sectors like healthcare, education, and the environment. The emphasis in all these areas is on the quality of the outcomes. For example, one of the most important goals entails ‘A first-rate education system’ (2008, pp. 22-23), highlighted as a fundamental pillar to achieve the Bahraini society’s growing aspirations and full potential. This is believed to be an essential motivational factor in preparing and developing national leaders with distinguished blended national and international skills, knowledge and values of high standards that can prepare them for the labour market. On the international level, Bahrain has been positively committed to the 1 Economic Vision 2030 is a comprehensive economic vision, which was launched in October 2008 by his Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. It provides a clear direction for the continued development of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s economy (http://issuu.com/economicdevelopmentboard/docs/bahrain_vision_2030). 3 ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (2010) as a framework for reaching world standards in implementing better educational principles under the supervision of and in collaboration with UNESCO. His Highness Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and the Chairman of Bahrain’s Economic Development Board (EDB), has a great interest in the Kingdom’s vision of education as the nucleus in forming a modern and progressive Bahrain. Al-Alawi et al. (2009) argue that one of six pillars on which the economic development and business investment will be established in Bahrain is through its education. Madany et al. (1988) critically argue that the Bahraini national educational philosophy ‘has essentially been based on co-relating religious morals and cultural traditions with modern economics, and both technological and scientific development’ (p. 413). The use of education as a leading instrument for endorsing economic development and growth will be discussed in the literature review section. In the Kingdom of Bahrain, medical education is not an exception, His Royal Majesty King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the King of Bahrain, paid special attention to the quality of education in his address in December 2010, accentuating the importance of education: Education comes first and foremost to enhance our endeavours to achieve more prosperity and progress in our blessed country. Beloved student, you are the pillars, hope and backbone of the future, upon which the nation depends for generations to come. (QAAET Annual Report 2011, p. 2) No one can ignore the importance of quality management in higher education operations and effectively manage core educational processes for any organisation to survive (Vazzana et al., 2000), however the type of model used is an ongoing issue internationally. For example, there are many who criticise the use of the Total Quality Management (TQM) industrial-developed model in higher education organisation (see Brookes and Becket, 2007; Zabadi, 2013). To this point very limited empirical research has examined the most effective and the suitable academic leadership that influences both the quality of research and teaching in higher education organisations in the Arabian Gulf countries. In order to have high performing universities, the cross-cultural dimension is also a major issue that requires attention from leaders in senior positions with more careful strategic steps, abilities, competencies, and skills. A critical aspect of quality management in higher education organisations is the academic 4 administrator’s ability to lead people in a multicultural context in order to function well, necessary in the Bahraini context, and for creating an environment in which a high level quality of research and teaching can flourish. Shattock (2003) claims that teaching and research are necessary to the success of universities, but not the management. However, over time, good management can pave the way and prepare universities to prosper in quality teaching and research. A government agency, the Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training (QAAET), was established in the Kingdom of Bahrain to look after education at all levels and in all institutions. Its main purpose is to evaluate and maintain the quality of education, providing regulations and making recommendations for developing the quality of teaching and learning to the best possible level. The QAAET also established specific criteria and standards to be met by all educational organisations in terms of the quality of teaching and learning processes in Bahrain. According to the QAAET 2011 Annual Report, Article (4) of the Royal Decree of the Bahraini educational reform project No. 6 of 2009, emphasizes the “review [of] the quality of the performance of education and training institutions in light of the guiding indicators developed by the Authority” (p. 7). The QAAET in the Kingdom of Bahrain has the responsibility of evaluating the degree to which these standards have been met by higher education institutions including medical schools. Therefore, in order for medical education standards to be met, universities need to continuously evaluate their practices, to identify gaps and to improve policies. In its 2011 Annual Report, QAAET identifies a number of good practices, like community engagement, based on the standards of teaching in some medical schools. The report has identified some areas requiring further development in many medical schools such as the implementation of teaching and learning strategies, policy monitoring, improvement of assessment strategies and infrastructure development. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain has undergone a review by the QAAET. In the last QAAET report (2014), results show a number of minor deficiencies related to quality assurance indicators such as the efficiency of learning programmes, academic standards of the graduates and the effectiveness of quality management and assurance, all of which require further research. 5 1.3 Purpose, Objectives, and Research Questions The main purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of and more insight into the experiences and roles of academic leadership in higher education in Bahrain in enhancing teaching and research quality, and investigating the current quality management model used for effective leadership, and what style of leadership best handles the challenges of diversity within Bahraini higher educational organisations, in this case a college for medical education. The major contribution of the thesis will be to the higher education literature of the Arabian Gulf context where the institution of higher education is in its early stages of development and where a high level of multiculturalism and related tensions exist. The role and the quality of academic administrators’ leadership in enhancing the development of research and teaching in professional cross-cultural higher education organisations is worth researching and requires more attention from researchers in order to form Gulf universities and colleges to reach international standards. The purpose of this study is not to examine the efficacy of quality assurance regimes, but to focus on traditional and conventional standards of and values in teaching and research internationally that are at a high level. This requires a more qualitative approach, such as that discussed in Shils’ (1984, 1997) publications, such as The Calling of Education: "The academic ethic" and Other Essays on Higher Education (2008) that support the traditional values and standards of good scholarship and good teaching. With this purpose in mind, the thesis will answer the following main question: What kind of model or understanding of academic leadership should be used in Bahraini universities to foster a higher quality of research and teaching using a case study of Bahraini regulatory agencies and a medical college? The research sub-questions will be: 1. What conception of leadership do the academic administrators have and is it focused on quality enhancement? 2. What conceptions and characteristics of quality research and teaching do they hold? 3. To what degree do faculty and academic administrative leaders understand the higher education visions and goals of the country? 4. Does their conception of leadership, research and teaching vary by national origin? And how do they understand multicultural relations in this context and whether multicultural staff has an effect on these? 6 5. To what degree are these factors of academic leadership in the development of research and teaching and multiculturalism reflected in the international, national, and organisational documents? Question 1: When investigating the conception of leadership in the first question, the thesis aims at looking at academic administrators’ leadership styles and practices and how they perceive their role and practices based on the nature of their academic work and responsibilities in the other questions. Through this investigation, I would like to understand how they define themselves in cultural terms and how this relates to their roles and responsibilities. Academic administrators may only perceive their role and responsibilities by focusing on their own personal world and personal qualities ignoring the importance of the quality of their relationship with their subordinates in the cross-cultural context. A lack of cultural awareness might have a large impact or influence on the process of enhancing the further development of research and teaching in Bahrain. Question 2: When trying to answer what conceptions of quality research and teaching leadership hold and the characteristics of research and teaching in the second sub question, the thesis assumes that research and teaching are interrelated and interdependent in enhancing the quality of higher education academics’ performance. It is expected that academic leadership should have a specific understanding of its effect. Their conceptions in this area, and what high standards of research and teaching means to them, will facilitate the process of quality management (e.g., university academics’ conceptions on the nature of teaching and approaches, such as student-centred) shape of their practices (Akerlind, 2008). Also of importance is the level of research and teaching they define either from the international standards or in relation to the country they are carried out in will affect the standards they operate by and will have an impact on the enhancement of the quality of higher education results. Question 3: This sub-question investigates the degree of understanding they have about the educational visions and goals of the country, and comparatively how the country of origin may affect this understanding. It is expected that there will be some distinctive differences in understanding between those from the region and those from the West, as well as potential differences among those from region that could have an effect on their understanding of research and teaching and how to aim for a system with high standards. In addition, professional development policy documents from regulatory agencies and the workplace will 7 be analysed and evaluated based on the theoretical understanding of a number of policy process analysis models and frameworks (Bardach 2009; Downey 1988; Fowler 2013; Haddad & Demsky 1995; Munger 2000). The researcher will further explore this question with evidence gathered from academics with different specializations and experiences influencing their perceptions of the practice and effectiveness of professional development policies used in their workplace. Question 4: The thesis seeks to discover and describe variations of leadership conceptions in terms of whether they are carrying out their roles and responsibilities based on the influence of their national origin culture especially since some of leaders come from the West where leadership, research and teaching might be perceived differently from those of Arabian Gulf culture. Question 5: The fifth question focuses on the degree to which the above factors are reflected in the relevant international (e.g., UNESCO, OECD), national, and organisational documents on higher educational leadership and administration. In analysing these in relation to the roles and responsibilities of academic leadership in higher education, the thesis seeks to investigate whether they sufficiently address cross-cultural diversity and how they regulate the management of teaching and research quality. It also will explore how the quality of research and teaching in higher education is supported by these three different levels of documents such as policies and procedures. Key areas that enhance the standards of research and teaching such as academic freedom, teaching practices, diversity in approaches to teaching and research will be investigated in order to find out how they inform people’s ideas of academic leadership styles. Throughout the investigation of the topics in the research questions there will be an attempt to capture the leadership experiences of both academic administrators and faculty members in higher education as well as their values, beliefs, and ideas about the role of leadership in the academic context that includes a high level of multiculturalism. From this level of understanding, the best strategies, approaches and practices of academic leadership that suit the context of higher education in Bahrain will be highlighted to inform the leadership to develop their capacity for the benefits of teaching and research quality improvement and enhancement. 8 1.4 Significance of the Study The main significance of this study is its contribution to higher education development in Bahrain and the Gulf, where countries are in stages of nation and institution building, particularly in creating higher education systems. Another aspect of significance is in modifying models and theories of quality and leadership in higher education that do not just import these from the West, but modify and adapt them to suit the needs, culture, and jurisdictional characteristics that are different from the West. In the Gulf, as in many other parts of the world, higher education systems are undergoing reviews of their purpose, structure, functions, and especially the standards of teaching and research, however, in the Gulf region there is still not much data available upon which to develop standards, policies, and approaches to increasing standards and research capacity. In this respect, this study could contribute to national policy and institutional capacity development. In addition, this study can contribute to the growing field of Arabian Gulf studies, and international literature in a number of fields, like sociology, administration, management, education, and professionalism where the contributions of developing countries has not yet played a significant enough role to achieve and equitable balance. Western countries could also benefit from the experiences of other parts of the world (as they previously did during the Renaissance when knowledge in every discipline was transferring from the Middle East to Europe; see Morgan, 2007). It is not only in the empirical dimension where studies like this from a developing country are valuable internationally, but also in challenging prevailing Western models that have tended to be considered universal and contributing new forms of theories and models for consideration in the international scholarly literature. 1.5 Thesis Chapter Overviews The second chapter presents the theoretical framework designed for this study, along with a literature review of several relevant fields that influenced and shaped the study: higher education literature; teaching, research and professional development in the university; leadership and management; organisation studies literature; and policy studies. Chapter Three presents the research approach and methodology, including the mixed methods nature of the study, the site and subject selection, the data collection methods, ethical considerations and limitations as well as trustworthiness and reliability of data and the researcher’s role. 9 Chapter Four presents and discusses the data collected. This chapter is divided into three main sections; the first part covers the international, regional and national government levels through document analysis, and, in the case of the last level, interviews with senior officials. The second part of Chapter Four presents the university case study, consisting of document analysis, survey results with faculty, interviews with senior academic administrators and focus groups with alumnae. The third part of the chapter summaries the overall results from all sources of data: document analysis, survey, interviews, and focus groups. The final chapter, the Conclusion presents a synthesis of results in a proposed comprehensive model for the development of teaching and research at a university. 10 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This chapter first discusses the theoretical framework designed for the project, involving a synthesis of theories relevant to leadership in higher education, multicultural and cross-cultural organisations, and organisational culture that have been chosen as those most suitable for the examination of an institution of higher education in Bahrain, in the Arabian Gulf. It also includes a literature review of five bodies of literature that contribute to the development of the thesis and a scholarly context within which this thesis is situated: higher education and universities; teaching, research and professional development; leadership and management literature; organisation studies; and policy studies. Each of these is discussed in terms of their relationship to higher educational leadership and its impact on supporting quality development in teaching and research. 2.2 Theoretical Framework In order to investigate the research question chosen for this project, a theoretical framework has been designed which is appropriate to the main themes of the research: academic leadership, organisational culture, and cross-multicultural/multiculturalism as they relate to standards in teaching and research. Three theories – Bolden, Petrov and Gosling’s Multi-Level Model of Leadership practices in higher education (2008), Trompenaars and Hampden- Turner’s Multicultural/Cross-cultural Model (1998), and Schein (2004) and Schultz’s (1995) Functionalist Underlying Assumption analytical Model - have been chosen to represent these dimensions. The theories were also chosen because they complement each other in providing a deeper and broader understanding of the complex nature of culture and leadership in an academic context. These socio-cultural theories are interpretive requiring a methodology that is qualitative and interpretive, in this case, a qualitative case study discussed in more detail in the methodology section. 11 Figure 1 represents the relationships among these three functional, structural and cultural theories based on three main traditions: leadership, organisational multiculturalism, and organisational culture. Each is discussed in a subsection below. Figure 1 Thesis Initial Theoretical and Conceptual Framework Since the organisation examined in this project is situated in Bahrain, a Muslim country operating under an Islamic legal system, and many of its staff are Muslim, Branine’s (2011; Branine & Pollard, 2010) work on Islamic organisations and management has been added to the work of Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner in order to integrate the values and practices common to Arab Muslim states. 2.2.1 Bolden, Petrov, and Gosling’s Academic leadership model The Bolden, Petrov, and Gosling (2008) model for academic leadership is based on Spillane’s (2006) distributed leadership model. This model has been developed using ‘activity theory’ (Engestrom, 1999) from sociology as a theoretical tool to develop their framework of distributed leadership practices. Spillane, Halverson and Diamond’s (2004) and Spillane’s (2006) socio-cultural models have three different dimensions or patterns of leadership activities: collaborated distribution, collective distribution, and coordinated distribution. However, Bolden, Petrov, and Gosling (2008) designed a new dynamic interrelated model (see Figure 2) that has five fundamental dimensions of higher education academic leadership 12 practices: personal, social, structural, contextual and developmental. The model was modified again in 2008 to represent a multi-layered and multifaceted nature of university leadership (discussed in more detail below). The thesis will use these two models to address the following elements of all five research questions above: personal and professional qualities, experience, and role of academic leadership administrators; the systems, processes and practices in higher educations; the shared aims, values, purpose, and goals of higher education leadership; and finally, the social identity, informal networks, and partnerships. This model has been used and referenced in many studies in several countries such as the UK (Rayner et al., 2010), It has also been used in different educational sectors such as clinical medical education and health services (Bryman, 2007; Edmonstone & Western, 2002; Edmonstone, 2008; Raelin, 2011; Swanwick and McKimm, 2012). Figure 2 Bolden, Petrov and Gosling (2008) model of leadership dimensions in higher education This model has been chosen for several reasons. Firstly, for the purpose of this research it will help in developing a better procedural understanding of higher education academic administrators’ leadership on the organisational levels that can shape policies rather than just depend on individuals’ conceptions. This model was used to develop the initial interview guide, discussed in more detail in the methodology section. 13 By investigating the dimensions of the model - individual, social, structural, contextual, and developmental - the findings of this study will be able to produce a more in-depth understanding of how the research subjects understand their own practices and experiences in relation to leadership in a multicultural context in universities and the influences on them within the university and externally. It is crucial to use a model like the one chosen here since without such a model it would be difficult to achieve valid results across organisational levels. The importance of doing this will lie in a better understanding of emergent issues especially in developing and transition countries that are trying to establish their higher education institutions (Ball, 2008; Bolden, Petrov & Gosling, 2008; Tight, 2002). Figure 3 depicts the five dimensions of higher education leadership and how they influence the development of leadership practices, experiences, and conceptions when interacting in the context of higher education. This figure shows how the information from the three models used in the theoretical framework are related to each other by producing thick descriptions of different organisational levels: individual, group, and organisational and how personal, social, and structural factors can contribute to the development of an effective leadership for quality teaching and research. This figure will also serve as the foundation for designing the research approach and methodology and for the analysis of data. The below list shows the models and the related level of analysis:  Academic leadership model will produce data at the individual levels,  The multicultural/cross-cultural models will produce data at the interpersonal and organisational levels,  The organisational culture model will produce data analysis at the organisational levels. 14 Figure 3 A multi-level model of leadership practice in higher education (Bolden, Petrov & Gosling, 2008, p. 9) 2.2.2 Schultz and Schein’s Organisational Culture Model Many scholars in the field of organisational studies addressed a diversity of issues pertaining to meaning, understanding, and interpretation in an organisational context (Tsoukas and Knudsen, 2003). Both the symbolic and functionalist interpretations of organisational culture are used for the thesis since much of the data was qualitative in which some participants described cultural elements more symbolically and others more functionally, although the general conceptual approach of this thesis emphasises more the symbolic dimension of organisations where ‘the organisation is a human system which expresses complex pattern of symbolic actions that are socially constructed symbols and meaning’ (Schultz, 1995, p. 14), which relates best to issues of multicultural and cross-cultural organisational relations (see Figure 4). In addition, the functionalist perspective of organisational culture of Schein (2004) is used as an integral part of the theoretical framework since it complements the above leadership model suitable for a complex context like higher education, supplemented with sources on Arab and Islamic values that are relevant to this study (e.g., Branine, 2011). The aspects of Schein’s model that will be used in the design of instruments and the analysis of data are the basic underlying assumptions of human activity and human relationships in order to depict the final organisational cultural image of the worldview and ethos (see Figure 5). 15 Schultz’s (1995) model will also be used with Schein’s to gain greater depth of data and understanding of the organisational culture elements emerging from participants’ personal and professional experiences to interpret the relations among ritual, worldviews, and stories, and supplemented with Branine’s work on organisations in Arab and Muslim contexts. The justification for this choice of a combination of widely used approaches or perspectives – functionalism and symbolism - is to provide sound analytical results. Schultz compares the two theoretical perspectives as in that the latter helps in better diagnosing the organisational culture and ‘how it contributes to the organisational survival’ (p. 17), while concurrently the first one helps in developing ‘the understanding of the symbols and meaning of its culture and how they are created by the members of the organisation’ (p. 17). Cultural Images: World view & ethos Metaphor Myth Story Ritual Figure 4 Derived from Schultz (1995) The Spiral: A Symbolic Model for Cultural Interpretation 16 Artifacts • Visible organizational structures and processes Values • Strategies, goals, philosophies Basic • Unconsious, taken for granted beliefs, habits of perceptions, Assumptions thought and feelings • Ultimate source of values & actions Figure 5 Derived from Schein’s (1985a) Levels of Culture Schein’s model will be used to represent the higher education organisational culture when adapting the quality of leadership, teaching and research and how values, goals and aims might hinder or foster these processes. To this, to accommodate a Middle Eastern Arab country, are a number of cultural mores identified in Branine (2011, pp. 453-460) that need to be added. These include direct, face-to- face communication, respect for age and seniority, using personal connections and kinship relationships to get things done, saving face (avoiding direct conflict and confrontation), a number of Islamic values involving vice-regency (to be a trustee of Allah on earth) by upholding principles of courtesy, fairness and work that benefit the individual and community. These are supported by many other values like truthfulness, kindness and care, justice, trust, patience, and keeping one’s promises. One of the most important practices in this tradition, and a strong element of rulership, is consultation (shura). These organisational culture models by Schein and Schultz have been used as a framework or method of analysis for higher education by a number of scholars and it has proved its effectiveness in generating data (e.g., Kowalczyk & Pawlish, 2002; Lacatus, 2013). A more detailed discussion on the organisation culture literature review will be provided in the following sections. The research instruments were also influenced by these three authors, discussed in more detail in the Research Approach and Methodology chapter. 17 2.2.3 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s Cross-Cultural Model Within cross-cultural organisations people have relationships and mores that manage their interaction in the organisational environment. The multi- and cross-cultural literatures extend beyond Schultz and Schein above, where a thorough understanding of cultural differences and dilemmas between groups and individuals from different cultural background and relationships can be depicted. The theoretical framework includes Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (1998) model of group and individual relationships and rule dimensions: Universalism/Particularism, Individualism/Collectivism, Neutral/Emotional, Specific/ Diffuse, Achievement/Ascription, Internal/External, and Sequential/Synchronic time, in light yellow with Branine’s (2011) in light blue (see Figure 6). These dimensions help in describing and defining the complexity within cross-cultural organisations. It also harmoniously fits with the organisational culture where the symbolic model helps in understanding the way interpersonal relations are carried out in cross-cultural organisations. Figure 6 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (1998) model of groups and individual relationships and rules dimensions combined with Branine’s (2011) Arab/Islamic values 18 The reason for modifying the cultural models is to provide an in-depth reflection on Arabian Gulf and Islamic cultures. The religious and the cultural complexity of this context requires the use of the models above as they are easily applicable and modifiable to study Arab and Islamic aspects involved in this study in addition to the integration of Westerners in the organisations in this study. Many scholars have adapted Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s model for similar purposes (e.g., Collard, 2007; Klein, Maxin & Radnell, 2009; Lok & Crawford, 2003; Solomon & Schell, 2009; Steers et al., 2010). Combining these models can result in richer data that can provide a better understand of the roles and responsibilities of academic administrators’ leadership in enhancing research and teaching quality in a multicultural environment. Table 1 below shows the bolded elements of the three chosen theoretical framework used in this thesis. The three models have been selected due to the fact that they complement one another and help generate good findings that can answer the thesis questions about academic leadership in a multicultural higher education context in particular and not leadership in general. Table 1 Elements of Theoretical Framework Models Academic Leadership Organisational Culture Cross-cultural/ Multicultural Bolden, Petrov and Gosling Schultz (1995) Trompenaars and Hampden- (2008) The Spiral Symbolic Model Turner’s (1998) Distributed Leadership Multi- Schein (2004) Level Model Basic Assumptions  Personal Spiral:  Universalism/  Social  Ritual Particularism,  Structural  Stories  Individualism/  Contextual  Myth Communitarianism  Developmental  Metaphor  Neutral/ Emotional  Specific/Diffuse Basic assumptions:  Achievement/  Human Activity Ascription,  Human Relationships  Internal/External  Sequential/ Synchronic time 19 Dimensions What conception of leadership To what degree does To what degree are these do the academic administrators everybody understand the factors of academic leadership have and is it focused on higher education visions and in quality of research and quality enhancement? goals of the country? teaching and multiculturalism reflected in the national and organisational documents? What conceptions and Does their conception of characteristics of quality leadership, research and research and teaching do they teaching vary by national hold? origin? And how do they understand multicultural relations in this context and whether multicultural staff has an effect on these? 2.3 Literature Review The literature review consists of a number of bodies of literature that are relevant to the thesis topic and which also relate to the theories from different fields that form the theoretical framework. The sections of the literature review below include: higher education and universities literature; teaching, research and professional development in higher education and related quality management dimensions; leadership; organisational culture; and policy studies. Major scholars and sources will be identified that explore different issues in relation to the three main themes of the theoretical framework. 2.3.1 Higher Education and Universities Literature In this section the major sources of higher education and universities literature review will explore the following topics: the nature, function, aim and structure of universities, the development of higher education, neoliberalism and marketization of higher education, globalization and internationalization of universities and the academic ethics in higher education that are all relevant to this project. The thesis will critically review these areas of literature to determine what parts of them are most relevant to the development of higher education in Bahrain and the Arabian Gulf region. 20 Targeted Questions 2.3.1.1 Neoliberalism and Globalisation of the University There is now a substantial literature on the challenges and the changes that universities have gone through throughout the decades (Bolton & Lucas, 2008; McCaffery, 2010). Much of it is on the changing nature of universities and higher education is extensive now, partly due to globalisation changes and others due to structural and financial change in many parts of the globe in the UK, US, Australia, and the Arabian Gulf states (Davidson & Smith, 2008; Dunbabin, 1999; Lynton, 1994; Romani, 2009; Smith, 1999) examined in more detail below. Many approach the topic by examining the role and function of universities (Brennan et al., 2004; Carr-Saunders, 1940; Ford, 2002; Kerr, 1972; Kuhnen, 1978; Macmurray, 2005), as well as the purpose and structure of universities (Bess & Dee, 2008; Edwards, 2004; Edwards et al., 2014). This will help to study and discuss different aspects related to the role of universities in the modern society, the challenges they encounter in their development and the difference between traditional and new higher education (MacFarlane, 1999; Mukerji & Tripathi, 2014; Sainsbury, 2002; Serrano-Velarde, 2010; Tight & Shattock, 2006). As a result, the phenomenon of neoliberalism and marketization will be investigated from a number of scholars to shed the light on the development of universities (e.g., Gabriel & Sturdy, 2002; Kezar, 2004; Levidow, 2002; Orr, 1997; Robins & Webster, 2002; Shahjahan, 2012; Urry, 2002). Many scholars also address the neo-liberal agenda and the market view of education as a growing phenomenon within policies and public discourses (Bok, 2003; Lynch, 2006; Young, 2005), including the detrimental impact of neoliberal policy on medical education (Park, 2012). Other effects include managerial changes in university administration (Peters, 2013), and negative developments such as workplace bullying due to micromanagement (Zabrodska, Linnell, Laws & Davies, 2011), moral loss (Brady, 2012), ‘corruption’ of the mission of higher education (Giroux, 2014), reducing intellectual work (Davies, 2005), and making it indifferent to issues of gender and sexuality that do not support the auditing imperative in neoliberalism (Petersen & Davies, 2010). The implications of neoliberalism and marketization for higher education have been examined globally: Bangladesh (Kabir, 2011), the UK and North America (McChesney, 1999; Noble, 1998; Ovetz, 1996; Ross & Gibson, 2007; Small, 2009), Africa (Levidow, 2002), Western 21 Europe (Ovetz, 1996; Pritchard, 2011), Vietnam (Mok, 2008; Nguyen, 2009), China (Mok, 2008). The thesis will also gain a better in-depth understanding of higher education effected role starting from the effect of the movement of World Bank reform agenda beginning in 1998 by exploring other key concepts such as addressing the major areas of reform in higher education (Juan, 2002; Torres 2009), the consequences of neoliberalism on universities as social and public institutions by the corporations interest, market policy and economics (Delgado-Ramos & Saxe-Fernandez, 2009; Dill, 2003; Hanson, 1992; Harms, 2007; Hill, 2007; Johnston, 1998; Mathison & Ross, 2002; Robertson & Dale, 2000; Welch, 1998), and how universities are expected to contribute to the knowledge economy (Canaan & Shumar, 2008). Over the last twenty years, globalisation of education, particularly at the higher education level, has become a major focus of research and critique, beginning with the most important publication that laid a foundation for the neoliberal market model critique and its exportation through globalisation, Slaughter and Leslie’s (1997) Academic Capitalism. The main issue of critique is the neoliberal agenda for universities and the integration of the market model in its structure and practices (Burnett & Huisman, 2010; Currie & Newson, 1998; Deem, 2001; Forest, 2002; Lauder, Brown, Dillabough & Halsey, 2006; Pratt & Poole, 1999, 2000; Sidhu, 2006; Torres, 2011; Uvalic-Trumbic, 2003). A number of authors have looked at its impact on developing countries (e.g., Altbach, 2001; Mohamedbhai, 2002; ), including how it may affect sustainable human development as a civil society institution in contrast to its usual role as a market model commodification source (Forrant & Pyle, 2002), threaten the autonomy of the university in Bangladesh (Kabir, 2010) and in Latin America (Torres & Schugurensky, 2002), the shift to a mass higher education system and its effects on faculty (Currie, 1998; Forest, 2002), and lower government funding producing cutbacks in university budgets (Fisher & Rubenson, 1998), forming private public linkages (Breton & Lambert, 2003) and having to fulfil more roles with fewer resources (Altbach, 2008; Hagen, 2002). Of relevance to this thesis is the increasing pressure universities have experienced to market their programmes abroad through internationalisation (Foskett & Maringe, 2010; Mok, 2007) and in attracting international students to home campuses (Bolsmann & Miller, 2008). Some scholars’ work like Altbach and Knight (2007) and Altbach and Teichler (2001) will be used in this section to uncover the effect of globalization and internationalization as a result of the globalized and knowledge-based economy. Many scholars review a broad range of issues pertaining to the phenomena of higher education globalization and internationalization from different parts of different universities around the world such as: Arab Gulf states (Davidson 22 & Smith, 2009; Donn & Al Manthri, 2010), Canada (Friesen, 2013), Latin America and the Caribbean (Lopez et al., 2011), Holland (De Haan, 2014), Asia (Mok, 2007), Japan (Kuwamura, 2009; Whitsed & Volet, 2011), and Turkey (Bostrom, 2010). They all investigate the radical changes and challenges that the phenomenon have on the practices and processes of higher education and the effect of this Anglo-Saxon paradigm on the character and function of these organisations and its leadership (Bartell, 2003; Stromquist, 2007; Welch, 2002). The recommendations and conclusions of all these studies can help in informing this research where universities in developing countries and nations building lies. While globalization affects most universities, the impact may be lessened on medical universities, particularly those like the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland because it has a high international ranking, and is not therefore subject to the same degree of commercialisation as other universities. 2.3.1.2 Quality Management Literature The broad concept of quality is important to examine since it has several different interpretations. Hansen (2001) argues that it is unfortunate to find that the ‘quality’ concept is still ambiguous in literature and practice. The concept of quality is regarded by Hansen as having five major dimensions: as an excellent product, as a value, as perceived by consumer, as adaptation to expectations, and as adaptation to technical specification. In contrast, Mauch (2010) takes a shallower approach in defining quality as ‘meeting the customer needs’ (p. 2). However, quality has been defined in a more comprehensive way by Goetsch and Davis (1997) as ‘a dynamic state associated with products, services, people, processes, and environments that meets or exceeds expectations’ (p. 5). Johnson (1991) also defines quality as the ability to satisfy customers by doing things the right way the first time and relates that to the importance of keeping low cost, high revenues, and robust profits while maintaining quality. Noronha (2002) argues that many quality management efforts can fail if no clear concept of quality is shared among members in an organisation, and where a paradigm shift for many should take place to produce consensus on one shared meaning. Quality can be looked at as a culture embedded in a particular context. This approach can be the best approach for this study where quality management and cultural perspectives are located in a healthcare context and where regular evaluation and quality assurance are undertaken. From this perspective, the most suitable definition of quality culture that suit this study would be ‘an organisational value 23 system which results in an environment that is conducive to the establishment and continual improvement of quality and it consists of values, traditions, procedures, and expectations that promote quality’ (Goetsch & Davis, 1994, p. 122). There are many quality management models and theories constructed by the main pioneers of quality management such as William Deming (1966, 1986, 2000), Joseph Juran (1995, 1999, 2004), Armand Feigenbaum (1961), Philip Crosby (1979), Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, 1990), Genichi Taguchi (1997), and Waldman (1994). Their work set the foundation for quality management in higher education. By identifying the most significant dimensions, plans, steps, and principles, the researcher cn detect the areas of weaknesses and strengths for better quality management practices for specific purposes related to teaching and research enhancement in universities. This work has been extended by Goetsch and Davis (1994) who examine how quality management is crafted and can help in defining, planning, controlling, assuring, and delivering a suitable quality model for higher education. The challenges, difficulties, and barriers to effective implementation of quality in teaching and research in higher education organisations has also been explored. Many researchers have identified areas of deficiency in higher education quality management (Anderson et al., 1994; Newton, 2003; Owlia & Aspinwall 1996; Sitnikov, 2011; Yusof et al., 2000). 2.3.1.3 Quality in Universities The field of quality standards in higher education has been growing considerably over the last two decades, examining a number of aspects of quality. Harvey and Green (1993) examined how universities determine their own definitions of standards and quality, Geuna and Martin (2000) have examined how increased demands for publishing have affected research quality, others have examined the role that students play in the quality of the teaching/learning process (Biggs & Tang, 2011). Consequently, the uniqueness of the higher education context in this study requires the exploration of academic professional ethics to better understand its complexity. Studies by Bok (1982), Colby et al. (2003), Couch and Dodd (2005), Davis (2003, 2004), De Russy (2003), McCabe et al. (1996, 2011), and Shils (1984, 1997) focus on the challenges universities face to maintain their ethical obligations and how a lack of effective roles may ruin the organisational structure, which can result in irresponsible actions that harm society. They all 24 urge that higher education institutions recommit to their professional academic traditions if aiming at quality teaching, research and community engagement. It is crucial for higher education organisations to create a model of quality that can uniquely suit their context, but also reach world standards of quality management. This study will analyse, compare and synthesis knowledge about other higher educational organisations’ experiences in the world. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) are facing this challenge of raising the quality of education while establishing modern universities. Barber, Mourshed and Whelan’s (2007) investigation of the GCC countries’ experiences in quality management in comparison to international standards demonstrates the complex set of activities that are necessary in institutional capacity development. Five European based studies have investigated the implementation, assessment, and consequences of quality management in European higher education context and countries including: Finland (Anyamele, 2005), Hungary (Csizmadia et al., 2008), the UK (Kanji et al., 1999), Portugal (Rosa et al., 2006), Greece (Saiti, 2012), and a general study on Western Europe (Neave, 1988) demonstrate the complex contextual factors involved. A larger scale study was conducted by Rhoades and Sporn (2002) who investigate and address different quality models and diffusion of quality management practices and related policies across Europe and the United states. Quality management, while exhibiting different characteristics cross-nationally, still has common traits such as those found by Tari and Madeleine (2012) in examining developing countries in Asia compared with Jordan and Spain. The study presents sound findings across countries and cultures considering the underlying differences. Moreover, the experience of implementing quality models in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Australia by McBurnie and Ziguras (2001) shed the light on the model used and the importance of protecting national goals and local system for the benefits of consumers. Mok (2000) conducted a similar study on globalization forces in maintain quality in higher education in Hong Kong and Singapore. Ways of improving educational quality has also been studied in in countries in central Asia including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan by Chapman et al. (2005). Although this study is conducted at the primary and secondary levels, it is still of benefit here to countries under different political systems survive while implementing quality. Quality management studies on the Arabian Gulf are limited, however, some scholars have successfully reflected on some of the issues of quality implementation issues and management 25 in this region. Wilkins (2010) explores the effects of internationalisation on the UAE higher education while implementing quality management models from western educational origins. Some Another Gulf study is that of Glowacki-Dudka and Treff (2013) who compare Saudi Arabia with others in the region. Meek and Suwanwela (2006) have a very rich research study on the trends and issues of ‘knowledge production’, ‘research policy’, and ‘research management’ in higher education in many Asian Pacific countries such as Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and Thailand 2.3.2 Teaching, Research and Professional Development in Higher Education This section reviews literature in the following areas: research and teaching quality management, the relationship between teaching and research, the criteria for quality teaching and research generally in university teaching and more specifically in medical and healthcare teaching, quality in higher education, quality management models, and studies on different countries implementing quality management in higher education. 2.3.2.1 University Teaching Medical education has undergone significant changes over the last two decades, influenced by problem-based learning, community based education, the need for foundational skills, how narrative inquiry can inform curriculum (Schwind & Lindsay, 2008), and the impact of technology in teaching (Alwan, Magzoub & Elzubeir, 2012; El-Moamly, 2010) and the effect of gender, ethnicity and disabilities policies on medical education (Brosnan & Turner, 2012) as well as a general interest in improving teaching in medical education in just the last few years (e.g., Dent & Harden, 2009; Harden & Laidlaw, 2012; McIntosch-Scott, Gidman & Mason-Whitehead, 2010). Medical education, like other fields, has had to meet recent quality assurance standards, which aim at preparing graduands for the workplace and to be skilful in meeting market needs. Many researchers have carried out studies (e.g., Collins et al. 2004; Lempp & Seale, 2004) to ensure that medical colleges are providing a high quality of modern medical education to suit students' cognitive and psychological needs. Several issues and gaps are identified in the medical education field such as teaching methodologies, assessment, and communication skills. Several 26 research approaches have been used to investigate these issues, including quantitative studies (Elzubeir & Rizk 2002; Williams & Klamen 2006), qualitative studies (Meskell, Murphy & Shaw 2009; Seabrook 2004; Wilcox, Winn & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005) and mixed methods (Onwuegbuzie & Leech 2004a). Researchers like Elzubeir and Rizk (2002) also found issues related to a hierarchical atmosphere that still prevails in medical education, which they classify as the ‘hidden curriculum’. Teachers’ perceptions of medical school teaching have also been investigated (Mann et al., 2001). The majority of studies investigating the quality of teaching at medical schools have examined the impact of teachers’ beliefs and understandings of their practice and how they influence and maintain high levels of quality in their teaching as well as influence their roles and practice towards achieving quality in teaching in higher and medical education (e.g. Jung, Tryssenaar & Wilkins, 2005; Kember & Kwan 2000; Mann et al., 2001; Stenfore-Hayes, Hult & Dahlgren, 2011a, 2011b). A number of other issues that emerge in these studies are: how medical faculty understand their professional development as teachers; how they identify teaching needs; how doctors learned to teach; the teaching approaches they use; how their understanding of the purpose of effective teaching helps them achieve teaching quality; changing the focus from teaching to learning in the teacher-student relationship; and medical teachers’ beliefs of their teaching competencies in higher education culture. Another important feature is the existence of social support networks found by Wilcox, Winn and Fyvie-Gauld (2005) that has a positive effect on student retention. The importance of Lempp and Seale’s (2004) study is that it reveals a hidden curriculum that supports a hierarchical and competitive atmosphere in which teaching by humiliation still exists in medical education, a topic not often researched. A fourth important finding is Radcliffe and Lestre’s (2003) study which examined the sources of stress on student doctors such as transition periods and professional socialization that can decrease the levels of future doctors’ stress and increase the levels of self-confidence. Another important result is the relationship of teachers’ pedagogy styles with student interest, engagement and motivation, found by Botas (2004) where teacher authority used for coercion decreases students’ motivation and interest and teachers’ positive use of surveillance incites and increases students’ engagement, interest, and motivation. According to Jung et al. (2005) new teachers with very little experience in teaching depend mostly on oral traditions or copy other teachers’ experiences. In contrast, Postareff and Lindblom-Ylanne (2007) argue that an instructor should focus on the relationship and 27 interaction between teacher and student. Kember and Kwan (2000) further note that a teacher’s approach is affected by his/her own conceptions of teaching and learning processes. From a medical instructional approach, the results of Mann et al. (2001) demonstrate that teachers’ professional development and self-reflection contribute to the quality of their teaching, contrasting with a study conducted by Macdougall and Drummond (2005) on clinical teaching where teachers were limited to prior personal experience rather than professional pedagogical training. Unfortunately, in a clinical setting, internal and organisational limitations prevent the success of clinical teaching practice. This result was identified as critically important in the results of Hossein et al. (2010) where they found that a teacher’s promotion in the clinical setting is entirely depended on the quality of teaching and learning required by the health institution in which the clinical teacher is working in. In addition to these findings, Bergstrom (2011) argues that the relationship between students and teachers is a critical factor in clinical teaching, where a teacher should be perceived by students as a critical friend rather than an assessor. According to Roermund et al. (2011), the implementation of new educational approaches requires reflection on past educational models and approaches in order to enhance a successful teaching pedagogy. In support of these findings, Akerlind (2004) encouraged reflection and professional development in addition to satisfaction to be able to support a better research process. Stenfors-Hayes, Hult and Dahlgren (2011a, 2011b) emphasize the importance of awareness and comprehension of one’s practice in order for a clinical teacher to be able to provide adequate teaching. These more complex issues in medical issues are supported by Fish and Coles (2005) who demonstrate that medical education is not simple routine technical training but requires a curriculum that develops professional judgment and practical wisdom. Young and Diekelmann (2002) investigated how newly employed nursing teachers learn new practices, skills and techniques to teach in nursing education. Meskell, Murphy and Shaw (2009) conducted a descriptive exploratory study on the role of nursing lecturers in clinical setting, including as participants all stakeholders such as educationalists, clinicians, policy formulaters and students finding that the quality of teaching is critical in students’ achievement. Some studies have used focus groups to investigate students’ perceptions of teaching in medical schools (e.g. Meskell, Murphy & Shaw, 2009; Seabrook 2004; Stark, 2003). Many other studies have explored aspects of teaching that need further development such as Stark (2003) who emphasises the importance of providing training and support for clinical teachers, Seabrook (2004) who discusses the importance of self-reflection, Carthon (2011) who 28 demonstrates the importance of integrating culturally related knowledge in curriculum, Samuelowicz and Bain (2001) on the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their daily teaching practice and methods, and Taylor, Tisdell and Gusic (2007) who emphasise teaching beliefs. These sources identify a number of important factors that actively contribute to the quality of teaching enhancement. At the top of the list come teachers’ beliefs, skills and methodologies of teaching. However, more importantly the research shows that many aspects of university teaching, particularly as it relates to medical teaching, require further study such as the psychological aspects of teaching and learning. The Higher Education Academy of the UK (2011) has recently released the results of studies they have conducted on higher education teaching developing a model of optimal teaching consisting of three dimensions, presented in detail in Figure 7 below: Areas of Activity, Core Knowledge, and Professional Values. Figure 7 The UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching in HE (2011) There is also a body of recent literature on cross-cultural learning which is important in a university that is staffed by a variety of expatriate faculty serving a largely local student population. Barton and Armstrong (2008) examine cross-cultural teaching from a pedagogical and policy perspective emphasizing an inclusive model that covers human rights, diversity and special needs. Ryan (2013) focuses on the internationalisation of teaching and learning in 29 universities, covering assessment, designing and delivery of curriculum as well as interaction styles that are culturally sensitive. Sleeter (2011) emphasizes the importance of a culturally grounded pedagogy and a professional development programme that can help teachers adjust to a culturally responsive teaching practice. 2.3.2.2 University Research The changing conditions for doing research in the university have mostly been addressed by the literature on the neoliberal impact on universities in the globalisation studies (Ball, 2012) and in the market model for the university (Canaan & Shumar, 2011; Deem, 2008; McGettigan, 2013). What most authors have examined is the effect of changed government policy in funding universities requiring that they raise more revenue on their own, including pressure on faculty to bring in more research grants to supplement university budgets, forming industry partnerships (Smith, 2011), developing products from faculty research, and public research funding agencies shifting their support for research from primary research to applied research. There are a number of issues related to these problems, scarce research funds, intense levels of competition to gain access, reduced researcher autonomy, compromised academic freedom, the privileging of those disciplines with product potential over those without, and skewed measuring of research output (Brew & Lucas, 2009). Other literature has investigated the importance of a continuing relationship between teaching and research, including the importance of being an active researcher in enhancing teaching (e.g., Brew, 2006). There is a strong link in this literature between research and teaching in higher education and a number of reasons provided in many countries such as in Australian (Ramsden and Moses, 1992) and the UK (Karagiannis, 2009). Many scholars have examined the interconnections between teaching and research (Barnett, 2000; Boyer, 1990; Brew, 1999; Glassick et al., 1997; Hutchings & Shulman, 1999; Jenkins et al., 2003) developed by defining the relationship as an analysis model that is managed on different levels: individual academic, team, organisations institutions, national, and international systems. Interestingly the study will uncover some interpretations of the relationship between teaching and research from academics conceptions towards research, scholarship, and teaching and how this has an immense influence on this relationship (Badley, 2002; Brew, 2003; Clark, 1997; Healey, 2005; Robertson and Bond, 2001). Some scholars have identified some strategies for linking teaching and research by addressing the challenges that might hinder its effectiveness on academics 30 (Elton, 2001; Jenkins, 2000; Jenkins and Zetter, 2003; Lindsay et al. 2002). Interestingly, the relationship between research and teaching has been under the focus of key scholars in different ways such as: Shore et al.’s (1990) argument that research serve as a teaching model, Barnett (1997) describes teaching as a ‘research-like’, while Hattie and Marsh (1996) and Schapper and Mayson (2010) believe that the aim of most universities is to enhance the relationship by marrying teaching and research. A number of teaching and research models exist in higher education internationally, identified by Le Feuvre and Metso (2005) as consisting of three basic models: the Humboldtian (Yancey, 2006); the Napoleonic; and the Anglo-American. Brew’s (2003) model of ‘academic communities of practice’ is another one that helps in enhancing teaching and research in higher education. Griffiths’s (2004) research-led or research-based teaching and learning approach is another important model that helps in understanding the world of knowledge production for enhancing the quality of the learning experience to students at higher education institutions (Zamorski, 2002). The criteria of teaching and research quality in higher education are also important, a topic reviewed by a number of scholars such as Ramsden and Moses (1992) who investigated the association between research and teaching in universities finding that a sound understanding of the highly committed effective academic staff in teaching who are active researchers can positively shape universities’ policies. Turner’s (2011) work has studied important areas of quality in higher education by relating it to the purposes and functions of universities in relation to how they respond to the different demands of stakeholder groups. Some have approached the topic by examining performance indicators and research outputs, more typical of the current neoliberal quality assurance regimes (Ramsden, 1991). These foundations identify a number of important factors that actively contribute to the quality of research enhancement where researchers’ beliefs, skills and methodologies of research where discussed. The Careers Research and Advisory Centre in the UK (2011) has released a framework for research development that consisting of four dimensions with sub-categories, presented in details in Figure 8 below: Knowledge and intellectual abilities, Personal effectiveness, Research governance and organisation and Engagement influence and impact. The main goal of developing this framework is to help researcher to plan for their professional 31 development and for responsible people in organisations to plan and support the researchers in their organisations to develop. Figure 8 Research Development Framework (Careers Research and Advisory Centre, 2011, p. 2) 2.3.2.3 Professional Development in Universities Professional development for both teaching and research capacity building has also become an important topic in the literature on universities. It is broadly defined by TALIS (2009, cited in OECD 2009) as all activities that improve teachers’ skills, knowledge, and experience. In contrast, Richard et al. (2011) have defined it in a deeper way as all formal and informal learning opportunities that teachers take to give them a more insightful and deep professional and personal competence and skills such as knowledge, beliefs, motivation and self-regulatory. Bolam (2000) includes an important characteristic which is not only adding to or improving teachers’ professional knowledge and skills, but making them more aware of their professional values in order to effectively educate their students. According to Fielden (1998), academic staffs in higher education face bigger challenges compared to schoolteachers since they have to bear the harsh academia environment and be 32 equipped with many competencies. Among the challenges he identifies are continuous up grading of skills to be able to meet the students expectations and be effective in their teaching. Current challenges also include the growing demands and higher expectations from higher education and quality assurance authorities (Imrie, 1998), the need to master leadership and managerial skills (Marshall et al., 2000), the rapidly increasing number of students in higher education, and advancement in technology, and meeting new standards introduced in government policy (Orr, 2009). University faculty are under more pressure to meet different demands from a broader range of stakeholders including international factors and globalization (Fielden, 1998). There is also an equity issue that has been raised regarding the right of all to learn regardless of culture or geographical location. Beelen (2007, cited in Jones & Killick 2013) focuses on the importance of embracing international or intercultural approaches that provide for local contexts since ‘not all students have the means or the inclination to study abroad’. Western content and teaching styles, for example, have been considered as a ‘universally relevant and welcome’ curriculum (Caruana, 2004 cited in Green & Whitsed 2012), however, this has also been criticised by postcolonial writers like Maringe and Foskett (2010) and Dresch and Piscatori (2013) in the context of the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf. In order for higher education teachers to acquire knowledge or have an effect on pedagogy they need access to information and training on advances in the field, and professional development needs to be effective. Educational organisations require well-structured systems in place to facilitate all kinds of continuous professional development training. These systems should start from issue definition, agenda setting, developing PD policies, throughout implementation and end up with review and evaluation, following the usual cycle of policy processes (Howlett & Ramesh, 2003). 2.3.3 Leadership and Management Literature This section discusses the importance of leadership and the role of leaders in enhancing educational processes, including a review of major leadership models and theories, new Global leadership, and university leadership. 33 2.3.3.1 General Leadership Literature Many authors have examined the importance of leadership in higher education (Evans & Lindsay, 2005; Osseo-Asare et al., 2005). Their argument focuses on the role of academic leadership that has an influence beyond just implementing strategies, policies, and processes into creating better work values and missions, empowering and supporting teaching and research activities, and developing better communication. Bounds et al. (1994) claims that management plays a significant role by bridging the gap between ‘inward culture’ of an organisation - the values, beliefs, assumptions, and theories - and ‘outward culture’, which includes individual competencies and self-concepts, statements of mission, purpose, and strategy, social systems, structures and controls, and visible artefacts and symbols. They argue for a strong relationship between the roles of management and quality culture in an organisation. The role of the leader as self-directed in these dimensions of organisation can enhance and benefit everyone’s performance and achievements (Carvalho & Downing, 2011; Côté & Allahar, 2011; Deem et al., 2007; De Wit, 2010; Fanghanel, 2009). There are, however, many schools of thoughts and theories of leadership. Bolden et al. (2003, 2011) identify some of the main approaches in leadership studies including following: the Great Man theory by Carlyle (1840s) and in Spencer (1860); trait theory by Stogdill (1948); behavioural leadership by McGregor (1960); situational/contingency leadership by Fiedler (1967), and the transactional/transforming by Burns (1978). Interestingly, Bolden et al. (2003) argue that the new trend in organisations is to develop ‘leaderful’ people where the responsibility is shared among members rather focussed on an individual leader’s development, a model that corresponds more closely to the traditional collegial governance model of universities, and one that is adopted in this study. There are also many other leadership theories and models that have been developed more recently that have an influence on organisations, some of which are: the Full range Leadership Model (Avolio, 1999); Leader-Member Exchange (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995); Autocratic- Democratic Theory (Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 1958); Path-Goal Theory (House & Mitchell, 1974); Normative Contingency-Task Complexity Model (Vroom & Yetton, 1988); Power- Distance Theory (Hollander, 1992); Strategic Leadership Theory (Schein, 1992); and Situational Leadership Theory (Hersey & Blanchard, 1979). This proliferation of leadership studies reflects the complexity of leadership dimensions and its importance, in both positive 34 and negative forms. Transformational leadership is one approach that has had a significant impact on research and organisational studies, although it has been defined differently according to the pioneers in the field. Burns (1978) defines transforming leadership as a relationship of shared inspiration, motivation and morals; it happens when both leaders and followers raise each other to reach higher levels. Hooper and Potter (1997) add an emphasis on the importance of emotional support in order to efficiently implement change where leaders can bring the best out of people, serve as a role model, and assure people in crises and during uncertain times. Northouse (2007) describes transformational leadership as a process that changes people and involves ethics, values, emotions, and long-term goals in which followers’ needs are met, their motives are evaluated, and they are fully treated as human beings. Moreover he claims that transformational leaders have a special charisma and vision that allow them to exceed their followers’ expectations, motivating them to achieve more. Northouse (2007) defines ‘idealized influence’ of a transformational leader as those role models who practice high levels of ethics and morals from which they enjoy high respect and trust from their followers. Bass and Steidlmeier (1999) define transformational leadership as consisting of four components: idealized influence or charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Bass and Avolio (1994) had viewed it as consisting of five transformational characteristics: idealized behaviour, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and idealized attributes. There are other bodies of literature in leadership studies that are related to transformational leadership, including charismatic leadership (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013; Conger & Kanungo, 1998) which focuses on its transformational qualities for followers, and authentic leadership (Garner, Avolio, Luthans, May & Walumba, 2005), which has expanded considerably in the last few years into a significant approach and movement within the leadership field. Many scholars in leadership studies have contributed to the study and promotion of authentic leadership, like Gardner, Avolio and Walumbwa (2005), Herman and Korenich (1977), Ladkin and Spiller (2013), and Schedlitzki and Edwards (2014). Its promotion includes many books for the general readership such as Avolio and Luthans (2006), Criswell and Campbell (2008), Godino (2013), Goffee and Jones (2006), Giuliano (2014), Hames (2007) and Terry (1993), or combines scholarship with practical application to the organisational world (e.g., Northouse, 35 2012; Ryde and Sofianos, 2014). There are also a number of case studies and profiles on individual leaders, as well as memoirs by those who meet the criteria for authenticity such as George (2004), Gandossy and Sonnenfeld (2004), and Gerber (2002). Some authentic leadership studies have also been conducted in the non-Western world (e.g., Cameron, 2013). A part of this literature focusses on identity and leadership identity formation, such as Ahmed’s (1997) biography of Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Also relevant here, particularly in multicultural and multi-religious environments, is the spiritual leadership literature. This area has expanded considerably in the last few years drawing on the traditions of all major religions. For example, Heider (1985) has worked on leadership and Taoism, Schuyler (2012) and the Dalai Lama and Van den Muyzenberg (2009) on Buddhism and leadership, and Uberoi (2003) on leadership and Hinduism. Some literature is designed to address leadership needs in religious congregations and communities, for example, Bonem and Patterson (2005), Herrington, Creech and Taylor (2003), Melander (2006), and Sanders (2014) from a Christian perspective. Some of the literature is academic like Stevens (2012) and Torjesen (1995), whereas some is written for general organisational contexts like Fry and Altman (2013), and the workplace (e.g., Hicks, 2003) including individual case studies or role models from religious history (e.g., Youssef, 2013), and the modern period (e.g., Morris, 2013) There are three other areas of leadership studies that are not central to this thesis but need to be recognised: the literature on bad, incompetent and toxic leadership; followership literature; and women’s leadership studies. The first includes a number of recent studies that have emerged due in part to organisational failures over the last few years in the corporate and financial sectors, the most prominent of which are Furnham’s (2010) The Elephant in the Boardroom, Kellerman’s (2004) Bad Leadership, and Lipman-Blumen’s (2005) The Allure of Toxic Leaders. Women’s leadership studies have a longer history beginning with authors like Helgesen’s (1990) The Female Advantage and Klenke’s (1996) Women and Leadership. More recently a number of authors have contributed to aspects of women’s leadership in a variety of organisations (e.g., Eagly & Carli, 2007; Klenke, 2011; O’Connor, 2010; O’Connor & Rhode, 2007). A much more recent emerging topic is the focus on followers with Kellerman (2008) and Riggio, Chaleff and Lipman-Blumen (2008) as notable contributions. 36 More recently, literature on women’s leadership in the university has become established. Among the issues investigated are power relations, the glass ceiling and at the same time many opportunities that have allowed women to ascend to the university presidency (Wolverton, Bower & Hyle, 2008). Women in university leadership also contributes to diversity and inclusiveness, however, they still face male-oriented norms and mores producing barriers and dilemmas for those who rise to senior leadership positions (Dean, Bracken & Allen, 2008). These equity issues have been found to still affect women’s progress and success (Burkinshaw, 2015; Fitzgerald, 2013: Longman & Madsen, 2014). This literature has also expanded from a focus on the West to that of a more global representation along social justice lines (Reilly & Bauer, 2015). 2.3.3.2 Cross-cultural and Global Leadership One area of leadership studies that applies to organisations in the Gulf region where countries have become increasingly multicultural, mostly through expatriate labour, is multicultural and cross-cultural leadership. Dimmock and Walker (1999, 2000, 2002, 2005), who have conducted cross-cultural leadership for many years stress a cross-cultural analysis that provides a framework of norms, values, religion, and expectations that influence leaders’ behaviour. They also demonstrate that the role of cultural differences help in creating better understanding in the work environment. Much of this literature, though, is in the organisation studies field, which is discussed in this section below. There are a number of studies that focus on cross- cultural leadership such as Chhokar, Brodbeck and House (2007), Deresky (2013), and House et al. (2013). Of most importance to this study is the more recent and emerging concept of global leadership (Brake, 1997; Caligiuri, 2006; Caligiuri and Tarique, 2009; Mendenhall et al., 2008; Osland et al., 2006; Yeung & Ready, 1995). These scholars discuss the dimensions and the attendant competencies of leadership in global organisations like universities. These dimensions and competencies are: cross-cultural relationships skills, traits and values, global business expertise, global organizing expertise, cognitive organisations, and visioning. There is also a cross-cultural management literature that complements the leadership literature, focussing on the role of language, internationalisation, and a multidisciplinary approach (Holden, Michailova & Tietze, 2015), using postcolonial theory for building a more reflexive 37 cross-cultural understanding (Gavin & Westwood, 2009), and drawing on non-Western traditional of cross-cultural management (Singh, 2014). Some of this literature also relates issues of management ethics to cross-cultural practices and traditions, grounded in varying cultural value systems (Jackson, 2011) and the role of ethical stewardship in teaching business management focussing on issues of economic equity in the global economy (Godwyn, 2015). 2.3.3.3 Ethical Leadership Because ethical values are central to medical and healthcare practice, it is important to also look at the ethical leadership literature since the values embedded in these writings should correspond closely to the cultural norms of the healthcare environment, including a medical university. Ethical approaches and models of leadership have become a common topic in the leadership field, ranging from its interdisciplinary nature (Johnson, 2009), to the balance that needs to be achieved in maintaining ethics while dealing with complex problem situations that do not have a clear resolution in educational environments (Beckner, 2003), to issues of immorality in organisations where leadership fails, regarding itself as exceptional (Price, 2006), A more recent topic relevant to the healthcare ethos is literature on social justice and leadership (Branson & Gross, 2014; Normore & Brooks, 2013) including leadership for higher education (Keohane, 2006; Viczko & Shultz, in press) and a related literature on cultural competence in higher education (Burnell & Schnackenberg, 2015). A number of authors have investigated the ethics of university leadership, including examining the responsibilities and obligations morally in decision making (Olscamp, 2003). 2.3.3.4 Academic Leadership There has been a growing body of literature on academic and university leadership over the last twenty-five years (Bolden, Petrov & Gosling, 2008; Bryman, 2007; McCaffery, 2010) exploring higher educational leadership from a number of perspectives. For example, the uniqueness of the professional academic leadership and its particular ethical issues has been recognised for some time and have been examined in the studies of a number of authors (Baume & Kahn, 2004; Bottery, 2004; Ramsden, 1998), including the role of university leadership as moral leaders (Brown, 2005), the use of distributed leadership in higher education (Gosling, Bolden & Petrov, 2009; Scott & Hines, 2014), and whether ‘leaderism’ is appropriate to a 38 university organisation (Macfarlane, 2014). Some have studied the impact of neoliberalism on university leadership and management that have reduced an emphasis on research, teaching and scholarship (Meek et al., 2010), whereas others have more uncritically accepted managerialism providing techniques for enhancing management (Altbach, 2010). Bolden, Petrov and Gosling’s (2008) Multi-Level Model of Leadership practices in higher education in the UK are of particular research interest (Rayner et al., 2010), as well as in clinical medical education and health services (Bryman, 2007; Edmonstone & Western, 2002; Edmonstone, 2008; Raelin, 2011; Swanwick & McKimm, 2012). A related literature relevant to this thesis is leadership in healthcare, a field that has expanded only very recently covering a broad range of healthcare and medical professionals (e.g., Barr & Dowding, 2012; Hartley & Benington, 2010; Jasper & Jumaa, 2005; Sullivan & Garland, 2013) including what types of leadership are appropriate for healthcare, what characteristics it should have, and what its particular challenges are in an organisational setting. Other sources are more specialised such as Gopee and Galloway’s (2013) discussion of leadership in a clinical setting and Kaye, Fox and Urman’s (2012) examination of leadership for the operating room. Prosser’s (2010) text explores a broad range of healthcare organisational leadership issues including the nature and role of leadership in relation to policy. 2.3.3.5 Islamic and Arab Leadership Literature Islam has provided an important source for leadership studies and practices although it has been largely ignored in the mainstream leadership literature. There are many studies of a historical nature about great Islamic leadership (e.g., Kechichian, 2005; Mottahedeh, 2001), as well as many studies of contemporary Arab leaders in the Muslim world, for example Kechichian (2008) who surveys leadership in Arab states including several in the Arabian Gulf. Rugh’s (2007) detailed study of the changes and developments of leadership in the United Arab Emirates contributes a significant piece of work to recent and contemporary leadership history in the region. A number of authors have contributed to studies in leadership in the Arabian Gulf, examining aspects like leadership profiles, personal and role characteristics, values, and practices (Abdulla & Al-Homoud, 2001; Ali & Wahabi, 1995; Al-Romaihi, 1977; Barakat, 1991; Mahjoub et al., 1997; Muna, 1980). This literature is important to recognise as it explains much of the 39 leadership behaviour and expectations of Muslim staff and senior administrative officials and demonstrates some of the differences that exist from many Western styles of leadership explored in some of the expatriate management literature in the Middle East (e.g., Ali, Azim & Krishnan, 1995). Many authors have emphasised values and principles of Islamic leadership, some of which differ from conventional Western ones, but most of which share a common historical heritage, and, beneath cultural practice differences have a common underlying conceptual framework (Aabed, 2006; Al-Hinai & Rutherford, 2002; Beekun & Badawi, 2009; Branine & Pollard, 2010; Faris & Zaman, 2009; Fontaine, 2008; Mir, 2010; Ryan, 2000; Salie, 2006), including ethics and social justice values of fairness, equity, tolerance, kindness, nurturing, and serving the community (Elkaleh & Samier, 2013; Samier, 2016). A number of publications related to leadership and management in Muslim contexts and using Islamic principles have been appearing, including human resource management (Tayeb, 1997), studies of management in a variety of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia (Bjerke & Al-Meer, 1993), Jordan (Al-Faleh, 1987), Kuwait (Ali, Taqi & Krishnan, 1997) and more recently in- depth studies of human resource management in the Middle East including development and transitional studies (Ali, 1990; Budhwar & Mellahi, 2006) and relevant Islamic principles (Mellahi & Budhwar, 2010). Other topics that are in this category of leadership literature are cross-national practices (Ali, 1989), the relationship with nation building (e.g., Hamayotsu, 2002), and the challenges that have existed in the Arab world (Pezeshkpur, 1978). More recently some work has been done on Islamic leadership in an educational environment (e.g., Shah, 2006). There is also a growing body of literature on Islamic and Arab women’s leadership that will become increasingly important as women rise in greater numbers into educational leadership (Benedikter, 2010; Hertz-Lazarowitz & Shapira, 2005). 2.3.4 Organisation Studies Literature This section of literature review discusses the following topics in organisational culture that are important in people’s professional development, higher educational organisation culture, Arab-Islamic work ethics in organisations, and the challenges of diversity in organisations to the leadership and management. Over the last few decades the field of organisational culture has expanded from the early work in the 1960s by Goffman (1967) and those in the 1970s and 1980s like Pettigrew (1979), Smircich (1983a, 1983b), and Louis (1983). Since then a number 40 of authors have established it as a major approach in organisation studies including Schultz (1995), Alvesson (2002), Morgan (2006) and Schein (2010) that affects all kinds of organisations, including the values, beliefs and styles of social interaction influencing people’s performance and their roles. 2.3.4.1 Cross-Cultural Literature Over the last couple of decades, the field of cross-cultural organisation studies has become prominent due in part to increased internationalisation and globalisation that have produced multicultural organisations and cross-border influences. Cross-cultural leadership and management have been developed as part of organisational culture studies to examine differences in the values and cultural practices that people hold in the same organisation and how they interact with each other in ways that affect their sense of identity. Early work was conducted by Hofstede (1984, 1986, 1991) and Hofstede et al. (2010), Joynt and Warner (1985), Lewis (1996) and Mead (1998), and Trompenaars (1993) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998), later followed by Cox (2001), Thomas (2001), Ashkanasy et al. (2011), Kets De Vries (2011), Schein (2004). Typical of this literature, was the importance of cultural analysis in examining and practicing management internationally (Usunier, 1998). Much of the work of these authors derives also from social constructivism, part of the interpretive paradigm, which originates in the work of Vygotsky (1978) and Piaget (1952), who viewed research as helping to uncover the reality as the process of construction of the interaction between people’s mind and their environment. They have enriched the literature in this area examining all aspects of organisational culture and it has expanded to all cultures in in the world. Many of the scholars discussed in this section such as Hofstede, Schein, Schneider, and Trompenaars, have influentially elaborated on the concept of culture and organisations as a complex set of values and interactions, broadly defined by the ethnographer Tylor (1871 cited in Coffey, 2010) as ‘that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’ (p. 40) or as ‘systems of socially transmitted behaviour patterns that serve to relate human communities to their ecological settings’ (p.8)(see also Keesing (1974, cited in Harrison and Carroll, 2006). Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) define culture through the social anthropological 41 lens as ‘the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others’ (p.6). By mental programmes, they are referring to the ‘patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting’ (p. 6). A more suitable definition of ‘organisational culture’ for this study is the definition by the social psychologist Schein (2004), who argues that it is ‘a pattern of shared basic assumption that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems’ (p.17). Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) argue that ‘No one can escape culture’ as this is one of the most important rules for understanding the ‘Social Game’ in organisations. For any group to survive in an organisation, an appropriate environment should be established. It is necessary to create one culture among organisational members who come from cultures that differ hugely in terms of values, beliefs and assumptions such as Western and Arab cultures. Interestingly many scholars in the field of organisation studies have referred to culture as the ‘taken-for-granted values, underlying assumptions, and expectations’ (Cameron and Quinn, 2011, p. 16). Hofstede (2004) affirms that ‘Cultural integration is a top management responsibility, but if top managers don’t know what culture is, the disasters are predictable’ (p.77). Management and leadership awareness of these challenges, issues and conflicts is one trigger to making a difference and success in organisations. This level of awareness can also create organisations that can be distinguished of having a winning culture where all employees can perform at their best capabilities with a high motivational level (Joyce, Nohria and Robertson, 2003). Schein (2010) also sees culture as the social construction of any organisation which plays a significant role in binding organisation members together. Understanding different challenges that emerge from the daily practices in an organisation, the relationships among members, expectations, assumptions, beliefs, norms and values is crucial for improving the effectiveness of organisations and identifying all issues affecting their performance (Cameron and Quinn, 2011). Kets de Vries (2011) has focussed on the importance of building and maintaining an appropriate organisational culture as this provides a healthy foundation from which organisations can effectively deal with diversity issues, external challenges, increased competitions, change pressure and internal integration conflicts. Organisations with cultural diversity can be an immense challenge for leadership and management, therefore understanding underlying differences is crucially important 42 (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997). Trompenaars’s (1993) model for cross-cultural dimensions of organisation are used in this study to determine the effect of diversity and how it may impact the quality management of teaching and research. This includes multiple layers of cultures including assumptions, values, behavioural norms, and cultural artefacts (Schein, 2010). Varying cultures can produce different conceptions of quality that can make quality improvement in teaching and research complex, such as a concept of quality as a human process (philosophy) rather than an organisational process (series of techniques) (Crawford & Shutler 1999; Saiti, 2012; Mullins 2007). With increased globalisation, authors from a number of countries examined the differences in values and cultural practices that affect organisation and which are often a source of conflict (e.g., Aycan, Kanungo & Medonca, 2014; Browaeys & Price, 2011; Chanlat, Davel & Dupuis, 2013; French, 2010; Gesteland, 2005, 2012; Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010; Moodian, 2009; Patel, 2013; Rohmetra & Gupta, 2015; Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2004, 2012; Trompenaars & Voerman, 2009; Trompenaars & Woolliams, 2003), including Branine (2011) who includes a chapter on Arab countries and the important values that shape society and its practices. Much of the focus of this literature is on how management is conducted differently and whether there is a form of management that transcends cultural differences and is able to cope with globalisation. When the issue of domination of one culture over another is practiced within an organisation, severe damage and breakdowns can occur. Ali (1992b) argues that foreign domination is a harmful phenomenon that hinders the development of the dominated people within the organisation and can also undermine their cultural identity: ‘The feeling of inferiority, alienation, dualism, and ambivalence are just a few consequences of foreign influences’ (Ali, 1995, p. 23). The emerging and underlying consequences of foreign influence over national culture requires consideration from organisational leadership in minimising this kind of effect and in bridging cultural gaps. In any case, the national culture in which the organisation is located should be preserved as it carries the identity and culture of its people. But, what is national culture? Dedoussis (2004) defines it as what a human group takes for granted, and the patterns of basic assumptions that are shared. Different groups including ethnic, linguistic and religious always tend to fight for their identity to be recognized (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010). Many pioneers in the organisation literature have identified that within a culture different levels exist where a culture 43 can present itself. Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) describe these levels as mental programming such as: national, regional, ethnic, religious, linguistic, gender, generation, social class and organisational levels. Taking a different approach, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) believe that cultures can present themselves though the national or regional, corporate or organisational, and finally professional. Understanding the differences and relationships among national, professional, and organisational levels of cultures have also been examined by Maxin and Radnell (2009) who found that national culture has a large impact on the organisation culture and how it functions. One could argue here that the opposite might also happen, where the organisational culture might have a huge impact on the national or professional culture of its members. The reciprocal influence of all levels of culture may occur at any stage of organisation development. For any organisation to function well, its culture needs to be in harmony with the national culture in which it is located (Dedoussis, 2004). Findings from a number of studies (Adler & Jelinek 1986; Schneider 1988) have found that ‘a corporate culture must be in tune with national culture for an organisation to function well’ (Trompenaars 1993, cited in Klein, Maxin & Radnell, 2009, p.46). According to Paşa et al. (2001), all internal work within an organisation and its practices will be influenced by the societal values or culture. Hofstede (1980) further explains that the importance of national culture is in ‘many of the differences in employee motivation, management styles, and organisational structures of companies throughout the world can be traced to differences in the collective mental programming of the people in different national culture’ (p. 42). There are five main dimensions of national cultures identified by Hofstede and Hofstede (2005): Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty and Long-term orientation. Many other scholars have examined the nature and effects of cross-cultural awareness, high levels of diversity in organisations and competency required to manage it (Cui and Awa, 1992; Lane et al., 2000; Ottewill and Laughton, 2000; Saghafi, 2001), including some who have applied this analysis to higher education institutions (Alexander, 2004; Bartlett, 2000; Rayner, 2009; Rayner and Gunter, 2005). 44 2.3.4.2 The University as an Organisation This literature has been incorporated into an examination of quality in university teaching and research. There is a body of literature that approaches the university as a distinctive form of organisation (e.g., Patterson, 1990). Of most interest here is how external forces like neoliberalism and globalisation (Krücken & Meier, 2006) and business management practices that are being imported into universities are affecting them as organisations towards an entrepreneurial pattern (e.g., Clark, 1998). For example, Patterson (2001) examines how business style accountability regimes ignore the inherent complexity and decentralisation of a university organisation necessary for academic goals, dispersed authority, and nature of work. Organisation culture has also been of interest in the university studies field for the effects of research culture on scholarly productivity (Carayol & Matt, 2004) and symbolic aspects of university culture through its traditions, myths, rituals and beliefs (Harman, 1989) that influence teaching and research practices. Some have examined the impact on university organisation under neoliberal structuring to meet knowledge economy demands (Butera, 2000). Also important in the culture of university organisations are the triggers that make them more structured, developed, and well performing, a topic pursued by Lacatus (2013), Jameson (2011), and McNay (1995). The effect of globalization on universities has also caused problems of disharmony, fractures and fragmentations in relationships and practices for which the responsibility in part for addressing and resolving these problems lies with university leadership (McCaffery, 2010; Middleton and Rodgers, 1999; White and Usry, 1998). Some scholars have examined culturally diverse universities and how the leaders play a critical role when facing challenges that requires a high level of understanding of cross-cultural values, traditions and communication where every member has an expectation to be valued will be used (Kouzes & Posner, 1995; Moral et al., 2007). Academics can play significant roles on three main levels: achieve the institutional goals and mission; excel in research; and serve the community by effective engagement. Kuo (2009) advocates this role because academics represent a culture in itself where its members’ communicate and interact professionally with each other. He also promotes a higher level of interaction with administrative staff in higher education where both parties’ professional and intellectual contributions to organisational development can bring benefits. Relationships can be very complicated in complex systems of higher education organisations, which is normal where daily issues and culture diversity 45 collide. Where conflict does occur from cultural differences, De Zilwa (2007) concludes that the clashes are due to the existence of subcultures within this cultural level which includes the ‘managerial or market orientated culture, education as social capital/ public good culture, several disciplinary subcultures, a student/ teaching oriented culture, a research/ elite hero culture, and an administrative bureaucratic culture’ (p. 562). 2.3.4.3 Organisations in Islamic and Arab Contexts This section will start by presenting some studies that elaborate on the Arab-Islamic work ethics in organisations to set the foundation for the organisational culture and its effect (Abdalla & Al-Hamoud 2001; Ali 2001a; Ali 2001b; Ali & Al-Owaihan 2008; Al-Shamsi & Fulcher, 2005; Beekun & Badawi 2005). Some other emerging studies in the influence of organisational culture on the progress, survival and capacity building of its members will be utilized to enrich the discussion of literature review items in this study (Fischer 2011). Kundu (2009) created an effective model called ‘three tier’ which consists of three levels and factors of culture in organisations including: the unconscious (values, ideas, beliefs, and assumptions), semiconscious (attitudes, symbols, and artifacts), and conscious (behaviour, language, practices, norms, rituals, and myths). Branine (2011) stresses the necessity for managers of international organisations functioning in Arab countries to understand the ‘in-group’ and the ‘out-group’ relationships of Arab staff members’ perceptions and use them in the most appropriate way if they wish to succeed in their missions. He also refers to the Arab countries cultural dimensions as described by Hofstede and summarizes them as: highly collectivist, masculine, authoritarian, risk evading and short- term oriented. 2.3.5 Policy Studies Literature The literature review in this section includes the following: the definitions of public policy, higher education policy concepts in relation to academic committees, and higher education systems and the dynamics of policy development as it relates particularly to professional development. 46 2.3.5.1 Public Policy To set the foundation for this section, the definitions of general public policy will be discussed from the point view of Howlett and Ramesh (2003) and educational policy concepts will be Fowler (2013). The public policy perspectives and definitions will be overviewed in different areas such as the definition related issues, alternatives, and solutions (DeLeon & Vogenbeck, 2006), general public definition (Lowi & Ginsburg, 1996), public policy with actors-centred approach (Benz, 1997), and the typologies and characteristics of policy networks in different sectors in consideration to time and country (Jordan and Schubert, 1992; Waarden, 1992). What does ‘Policy’ mean? There are a number of definitions of ‘policy’ in the literature (Downey 1988, Fowler 2013). Colebatch (2009) has defined policy as ‘an idea that we use in both the analysis and practice of the way we are governed’ (p.1), while Fowler (2013) provides a series of different interpretations for this term, and a more educational specific definition for policy: The dynamic and value-laden process through which a political system handles a public problem. It includes a government’s expressed intentions and official enactments, as well as its consistent patterns of activity and inactivity. (p. 5) Smith and Larimer (2009) and Colebatch (2009) see policy arising out of the social sciences and law. Policy development and making is thought to be crucial nowadays due to the revolution of globalization and the impact of economy pressures on the higher education sector in order to maintain the quality standards and enhancement processes (Brown, 2013). Many scholars have examined policy making related to issues around the economic and social domains of organisations with more emphasis on the cultural and ethical perspectives (Brown, 2013; DeLeon and Vogenbeck, 2006; Fischer et al., 2006; Parsons, 1995). Others have examined policy making from country perspectives such as the UK (Parsons, 2006), the Netherlands (Mayer, 2006), Sweden (Furubo, 2006), Germany (Saretzki, 2006), India (Mathur and Mathur, 2006), and Korea (Mo, 2006). These country-based policy studies can be compared to provide a better understanding of different nations’ focus in terms of beliefs, values, and quality criteria in policymaking process in higher education organisations practices and educational processes. 47 Policy is necessary in both professional and personal lives (Lasswell 1951 cited in Smith & Larimer 2009) to guide decision-making and action. Smith and Larimer (2009) find that Lasswell’s view (1951) is still relevant: problem orientation, multidisciplinary, methodologically sophisticated, theoretically sophisticated, and value oriented. According to Smith and Larimer (2009), the ‘problem oriented’ characteristic is represented by the following questions ‘what should we do to best address the problem, How should we do it? and How do we know what we’ve done?’ (p. 9). For the ‘multidisciplinary’ characteristic, the question asked is ‘whose models, methods, and finding could contribute to addressing key problems faced by government?’ (p.9). The third characteristic has more focus on the how the best methodologies can be best used and applied to particular problems while the fourth characteristic ‘theoretically sophisticated,’ has more of a focus on the conceptual frameworks and the world of ‘cause and effect’. Smith and Larimer (2009) use the following questions to clarify the concept: ‘How and why things happened in the larger world of human relations? How do institutions shape decision-making? How can government best provide incentives for desirable behaviours?’(p.10). The last characteristic ‘value oriented’ is discussed by Lasswell and the ultimate goal of ‘how to maximize democratic values and human dignity in theory and practice?’ (p. 10). There are several variations on the policy process available as frameworks. For example, Downey (1988) views the policy process in six stages: initiation, consideration, decision, implementation, evaluation and termination. Brewer and de Leon (1983 cited in Downey 1988) have identified six stages as well, but label them as initiation, estimation, selection, implementation, evaluation, and termination. Another common model is Downey’s (1988) which has six stages: initiation to determine policy needs, creation to craft alternatives, analysis to test for feasibility, choice to select the best, installation to implement the choice, and review to test and update. Munger (2000) links two stages together which produces his model of five stages: problem formulation, selection of criteria, comparison of alternatives and selection of the policy, consideration of political and organisation constraints, and implementations and evaluation of the program. More recently, Althaus et al. (2007) proposed a more complex policy cycle of eight stages: issue identification, policy analysis, policy instrument development, consultation, coordination, decision, implementation, and evaluation. Colebatch (2009) presents a sequence of five stages which are: determining goals, choosing courses of action, implementing these courses of actions, evaluating the results, and finally modifying the 48 policy. Bardach (2009), in her practical guide for policy analysis, has identified the following eightfold path: problem definition, evidence assembling, alternatives construction, criteria selection, outcomes projection, confront the Trade-offs, decision, and telling the story. Fowler’s (2013) model of the policy process consists of six stages: issue definition, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, implementation and evaluation. Lastly, Kaufman (2005) approaches policy through a problem-solving process with six stages: needs assessment, needs analysis, means selection, implementation, evaluation and review. This can be followed with all types of policies. To manage this complex world of policy work in a more structured and effective world of ethics and values, a policy process should be put in place. Interestingly, Fowler (2013) metaphorically described the policy process as a complex game that has rules and players where there can be winners or losers. This description indicates some of the hidden issues in the implementation process. Practically, it is crucially important for all game players to be aware of the embedded issues and to be prepared to act to in the case of an implementation crisis. Fowler (2013) addresses two main issues that can shape the policy process. The first issue is when a social group disagreement exists about certain solutions or approaches. The second issue is when stakeholders address a legitimate problem that can be adoptable. Smith and Larimer (2009) apply the policy process questions more broadly in public administration, such as ‘what problems should government pay attention to? Who decides what a problem is and whether it merits government attention and action? When and why do policies change? Is it because the problem is solved, is it because the problem is redefined, or is it something else?’ (p. 75). Downey (1988) emphases all of these factors by adding that the policy process receives its impetus from multiple forces and not a single force. Haddad and Demsky (1995) believe that this is normally a response to an educational sector problem where there should be a level of consideration to different social context related aspects including demographic, cultural, social, economic and political issues. 2.3.5.2 Higher Education Policy and Strategic Planning Literature Higher education systems all around the world have been operating recently in a very dynamic policy environment. Richardson and Martinez’s (2009) research in policies and their impact on enhancing the quality in higher education in different parts of the United States will be used in the thesis. The authors’ discussion on the policy environment and how higher education 49 leadership and staff are balancing between values and preferences and the high demands of stakeholders on universities services will provide good discussion base for this section in the thesis. Since this thesis is focusing on academic leadership, (Bolden et al., 2014; Di Napoli et al., 2010; Fowler, 2013; Tutwiler et al., 2013; Wit, 2010; Zgaga, 2013) work will provide an essential in-depth background on the related issues and challenges of policy process and policymaking that influence academic standards and community. In the case of quality assurance in education, policy and planning are critical processes. For any effectively functioning and growing educational institution, Haddad and Demsky (1995) suggest that planning should have ‘…a well structured field of unambiguous issues, clearly defined objectives, mutually exclusive choices, undisputed casual relationships, predictable rationalities, and rational decision-makers’ (p.17). They define policy for educational purpose as ‘an explicit or implicit single decision or group of decisions which may set out directives for guiding future decisions, initiate or retard action, or guide implementation of previous decisions’ (p.18). Yet there is no specific definition for the term ‘policy’ agreed upon by all due to philosophical conflicts which grow out of many factors like power, authority, and context (Downey 1988; Fowler, 2013). Clearly for quality assurance, higher education organisations require a form of systematic policy stages designed to maintain and monitor the level of quality teaching and research. Professional Development is one way of monitoring and improving quality. Governmental and private educational institutions encourage professional development and issue policies to regulate and monitor the process of providing professional development training and programmes at all educational levels. 2.4 Summary/Overview The literature review of this study consists of five well-structured and interrelated bodies of literature: higher education and universities literature; teaching, research, and professional development in higher education literature; Leadership and management literature; organisation studies literature; and Policy studies Literature. Figure 9 below represent the five bodies of literature and the sub-sections of literature that support them. 50 Figure 9 Overview of Literature Review The theoretical framework draws on all of these bodies of literature, but has selected from each of them theories and models that are most relevant to universities, in terms of their teaching and research as well as the academic leadership required to achieve and support them, while taking into account the non-Western, Gulf context in which the case study organisation is located. First, from the higher education and university literature, Bolden, Petrov and Gosling’s (2008) model is most appropriate because it includes micro to macro levels of academia, from the individual to the contextual. Secondly, the teaching, research and professional development literature also corresponds with the Bolden, Petrov and Gosling model since the latter incorporates these activities in the model, however, this was supplemented with work from Shils (2008) who has best represented in his work the complex nature of academic ethos and the standards that apply to it. The third part of the literature examined also corresponds to their model, since it is one particularly developed for higher education. Fourthly, from the organisational studies literature, particularly the cross-cultural organisation literature, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998) as well as Branine (2011) were chosen because they best accurately reflect the cultural-contextual factors in this study, and Schein (2004) and Schultz (1995) were used from the organisational cultural literature as 51 best representing the case study’s cultural factors. Finally, for the policy studies area, as it relates to university teaching and research, standards from UNESCO and the OECD most informed the study. 52 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction This chapter presents the research approach selected for the study as well as the methodology that includes a discussion of the site and subject selection and the data collection methods. This is followed by a discussion of the researcher role and backyard research, ethical considerations, trustworthiness and reliability, delimitations and limitations. 3.2 Research Approach Mixed methodology is one of the common research approaches combining the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which helps in overcoming their limitations (Swanwick 2010). Choosing a methodology paradigm depends on the research problem, the researcher's personal experience, and the audience (Creswell 2003). Holloway and Wheeler (2010) explain that for a researcher it is not logical to choose an approach on the basis of how easy or interesting it is – rather methodology should be chosen on the legitimate basis of how well it can support the purpose and objectives of the study. This also includes considerations of the epistemological stance, capability, knowledge, skills, training of the researcher, and the availability of the resources for the research project. Quality is not determined by the type of methodology – instead the results of the study determine its quality, which heavily depends on how skilful the researcher was in designing the study and assuring its reliability and its internal and external validity (Mutch 2005). There has been discussion in the research methods literature for some time over the relative benefits of qualitative versus quantitative methodology. Creswell (2009) argues that ‘recognizing that all methods have limitations’ (p.14) is a more accurate way to portray the debate, which sometimes overemphasises the limitations in each. Lingard and Kennedy (2010) believe that this divergence lies in goals, design and methods within each school. Bordage (2007 cited in Norman and Eva 2010) has claimed that qualitative-quantitative debates have been proved to be unproductive; as each approach is beneficial on its own, however using both 53 approaches together in a study can often be most productive. Firestone (1987) emphasizes the same rationale: while qualitative (constructivists and interpretivists) and quantitative (positivist) methods are different, their results can be harmonizing. For researchers to cultivate rich research outcomes that would answer their research questions, they should immerse themselves in the different details of both paradigms in order to understand thoroughly the phenomena of study at hand and determine which methodology best matches the goals of the study. This study uses a mixed methods approach in order to draw on the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative. Ragin (1994) argued that the quantitative approach can be used to achieve many goals: identifying general patterns and relationships across many cases, testing theories, and making prediction based on huge number of cases. The strengths of conducting quantitative research are various - according to Johnson & Onwuegbuzie (2004), the rationale for using quantitative methods is testing and validating theories about how phenomena occur. Johnson and Onwuegbuzie added another strength which is the possibility of generalizing the results of quantitative studies. According to Muijs (2004) experimental research design is an effective way to assess causal relationships as it answers three main elements in quantitative research: whether there is a relationship between variables, does the effect take place after the cause in time, and whether relationships could be explained through any confounding variables. Creswell (2003) has added that adopting this approach can add more accuracy to research results as it uses statistical analysis. The thesis will follow a mixed methods approach, however, more heavily oriented towards the qualitative which uses interpretive philosophical assumptions of knowledge (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2003; Glesne, 2011) where the main goal of the researcher is to understand the ideas, actions, and interactions of human in a specific culture or context. The main goal for the thesis is to determine what gap exists in the leadership implementation of the quality processes (QAAET2) in a higher education organisation in Bahrain that are characterised by complex 2 QAAET (Quality Assurance Authority for Education & Training) is an independent entity in the Kingdom of Bahrain that has a noble vision for the country, which is to be partners in developing a world-class educational system in Bahrain. For more details about the authority: http://www.qqa.edu.bh/En/AboutQaaet/Pages/vision_mission.aspx 54 multiculturalism. This can be achieved through interacting with the actors in their social world where issues that hinder effective implementations of quality management might emerge (Merriam, 2009). Moreover, an interpretive eye is crucial to understanding the role of leaders and how they contribute to fostering a culture of teaching and research quality in higher education organisations. An additional consideration is Creswell’s (2007) claim that meaning can be formed by interactions with others and through understanding historical, social and cultural norms of individuals’ lives. The main reason for choosing an interpretive qualitative approach for the thesis is to better understand the nature of the challenges and the issues that are experienced by the administrative academic leaders in higher education while they are trying to foster quality teaching and research in multicultural environment. It will also help in studying their perceptions of the most suitable leadership style to handle these challenges and issues. Many scholars, who are interested in examining the quality of teaching in medical education or higher education in general, have used a qualitative approach to investigate different areas of interest, including the topic of this thesis, quality of teaching in medical schools (Botas 2004; Lemmp and Seale 2004; Mann et al 2001, Radcliffe & Lestre 2003). Lempp and Seale (2004), for example, investigated the phenomena involving undergraduate students as their main participants. The study was carried out during a training course. The main attention of the study was students’ perceptions on teaching and learning. Lempp and Seale’s study has addressed the group of participants directly in their research question. The research question in this article has been carefully and purposely designed in a way to suit the purpose of better understanding medical students’ perceptions on the quality of teaching they received from their lecturers. Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004) have identified several strengths in using qualitative research methods: studying a limited number of cases or complex phenomena in depth in their naturalistic settings or specific local contexts. Some of these strengths are also discussed when Seale (1999) argued: Qualitative creation mythology, in the modernist phase of qualitative inquiry, emphasized difference by making overdrawn contrasts with the supposed “positivism” of quantitative work. In the methodological debate about quality criteria, this, initially, involved substituting new terms for words such as validity and reliability to reflect 55 interpretivist conceptions while retaining a sense that social researchers in both traditions shared similar scientific orientations. (p. 466) Creswell (2009) in his discussion has demonstrated that some of the characteristics of qualitative research include: relying on the researcher as a data collection tool; it depends on participants’ meanings; and it is emergent and inductive. Since there are issues in different research approaches, with qualitative research being no exception. Some studies claim that the reliability of using qualitative research methods can be unstable or inaccurate. Since the reliability and validity of this approach have limitations, for some research projects it needs to be supported with quantitative research methods. Mutch (2005) argues that qualitative research cannot explore or interpret the cause and effect (causality) correlation between the different components of a phenomenon. Holloway (2005) and Holloway and Wheeler (2010) discuss the problematic issues in qualitative research from different angles, which mainly investigate the researchers’ practices and mistakes. They elaborate on some of these issues: lack of knowledge about the complexities of this type of research, being in jeopardy due to the production of big amount of qualitative data and lack of time for analysis and interpretation, ‘methodolatry’ where researchers overemphasise method while neglecting the reflection, qualitative researchers follow feeling-centred research approach ‘romanticism’ or ‘emotionalism’ (see Janesick, 1998). Many authors have also identified limitations to quantitative research (e.g., Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Glesne, 2011). In order to answer my general inquiry about the most suitable model of academic leadership that helps in fostering the quality of research and teaching in multicultural higher education, the social constructivist approach will be used. One form of interpretive research is constructivist, according to Merriam (2009), where knowledge is constructed rather than found by researchers. It is intended to be used in order to make sense of the meanings participants have about their social world. Crotty (1998) argues that people’s knowledge of the natural world is socially constructed. Therefore, Dilthey (1976, cited in Huberman & Miles 2002) contends that interpretive researchers can understand their subjects better than the subjects themselves. The reason behind this insightful understanding is the interpretive researcher’s ability to see the effects of power and organisational structure whereas the subjects generally only see personal and emotional meaning. In order to acquire a greater depth of people in a particular setting and how they create and maintain their daily social world, interpretive 56 researchers need to follow a systematic interpretive analysis of socially meaningful actions (Neuman, 2011). For this thesis to achieve this in-depth understanding, Denzin’s (2001) six phases of interpretive process will be followed. This process supports researchers in their interpretations in the following sequence: framing the research questions; deconstructing prior conceptions of the phenomenon; capturing the phenomenon; bracketing the phenomenon’ constructing the phenomenon; and, finally, contextualizing the phenomenon. Each of these phases has a set of detailed steps to follow, which in turn can generate meaningful results of interpretations. The case study approach has been selected as an appropriate one for this study. A number of sources have advocated the use of case studies in a broad range of organisations for an adequate coverage of organisational factors involved (Baxter & Jack, 2008; Feagin, Orum & Sjoberg, 1991; Gerring, 2004, 2006; Tellis, 1997; Yin, 2011, 2013), such as organisational operations (McCutcheon & Meredith, 1993), including educational organisations (Bassey, 1999). Case study has also been promoted as an approach to theory building (Eisenhardt, 1989; Wilson, 1997) which in this case involves looking at what an adequate theory is to capture quality teaching and research development in a university in Bahrain where some factors like context and multiculturalism need to be taken into account, and where the case being a medical university may have some special considerations. There have also been a number of studies using case study method to examine various aspects of university teaching, learning and administration and development for a number of years, for example, Pfeffer and Salancik’s (1974) early study of the politics of university budgeting decisions, Borland and James’ (1999) study of disabled students’ experience in a UK university, Anuradha and Usha’s (2006) study of e-book use, Pathirage, Haigh, Amaratunga and Baldry’s (2007) examination of undergraduate dissertation assessments, and Kazoleas, Kim and Moffitt’s (2001) study of institutional images of a university by various stakeholder groups. Ylijoki (2000, 2003) uses case study to examine how neoliberalism has affected university research, and Hagen (2002) has used it to examine how globalization has changed universities’ traditional roles. Tolmie and Boyle (2000) used a case study approach to explore how computer mediated communication was used to support learning in higher education. A number of doctoral dissertations using case study method in a higher education setting have also been conducted demonstrating the establishment of this as a major methodology in 57 university studies (e.g., Abu-Attiyeh, 2012; Cody, 2012; Pellow, 2006; Senie, 2014; Vincent, 2004; Walker, 2002 ). There are many studies that have used the quantitative approach. Gaspar et al. (2008) unlike Elzubeir and Rizk (2002) have studied the assessment of teaching qualities by developing their own teaching quality assessment questionnaire. Gaspar et al. used two factors in their instrument, curriculum and relationships, which resulted in decision makers implementing changes for both teacher promotions and planning necessary professional development for teachers. Even though the approach will be predominantly qualitative and interpretive, it will use a mixed methodology that includes the use of a quantitative survey instrument where some descriptive statistics will be used to show the level of diversity of opinions. This is supplemented with document analysis, interviews, and focus groups. According to Creswell (2013), the most appropriate methodological approaches to inquiry for social constructivism under the interpretive framework are inductive methods that can be obtained through interviews, observations, and text analysis. The multiple methods also provide for a triangulation of results. 3.3 Methodology This section will discuss the following six main sections: site and subject selection; data collection methods which will consist of the subsection for each method (document analysis, semi-structured interview, survey, and focus groups) with a detailed discussion of instrument design and analysis method for each. This is followed by a discussion of the researcher role including doing backyard research, ethical considerations, trustworthiness and reliability, and, finally, limitations of the study. 3.3.1 Site and Subject Selection There are thirteen universities in the Kingdom of Bahrain: two governmental, one regional and ten private. Two professional universities were initially selected for this study, one of which was governmental and the other private. The rationale of this selection was to provide a 58 representative view of the practices and perceptions of academic administrative leadership when enhancing the quality of teaching and research of these two universities. A common problem in the Gulf, though, is that many organisations, including universities, will not approve studies on their activities and operations. Only one university agreed to give access, and, fortunately, was willing to provide full access to administrators, faculty and students which allowed the study to be redesigned as a case study since a sufficient numbers of sources were accessible to comprehensively cover the organisation. As a case study, all major levels of the organisation could be accessed, which are presented in Figure 7 below. The university chosen and which agreed to approve data collection, is a medical university with three schools: nursing and midwifery, medicine and a post-graduate school. It was established in 2004 as a branch of an established Western medical school that has operated since the late eighteenth century, and is a university that has established three other branches in developing countries. It is a relatively large university for the Gulf region, with approximately 150 fulltime and part-time faculty and academic administrators, consisting of about 100 who are clinical practitioners involved with the university part-time and 50 who are at the university fulltime. The majority of universities operating in the Arabian Gulf currently have been established within the last 12 years. All participants were academics, apart from the students, and some held academic administrative positions, including senior leadership. This range of participants allows for triangulating of the data including the publicly available documents of the university. In Figure 7, one can see that this included Quality Assurance Authority Representatives from outside the university, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Heads of Schools (Deans), Directors/ Department Chairs, faculty in the university, and the Alumni. Cohen et al. (2000) argues that subject purposive sampling can be built up to meet the research specific needs or purposes, which in this case meant ensuring that people from all academic levels participated. The actual numbers of participants are shown in Figure 10. 59 Figure 10 Subject Selection 3.3.2 Data Collection Methods This section discusses the four data collection methods involved, including a detailed discussion of each instrument design and how the data from each method was analysed. A copy of each instrument is appended which includes: the document analysis rubric, the survey, the semi-structured interview guides, and the focus group design. The below table presents the type of data collection used with in connection with their relevant research sub-questions. 60 Table 2 Sub-questions & suitable data collection methods Data collection Research Sub-questions instrument Document analysis  To what degree are these factors of academic leadership in quality of research and teaching and multiculturalism reflected in the relevant international, national, and organisational documents? Survey  To what degree does everybody understand the higher education visions and goals of the country?  Does their conception of leadership, research and teaching vary by national origin? And how do they understand multicultural relations in this context? Whether multicultural staff has an effect on these? Semi-structured  What conception of leadership do the academic administrators Interviews have and is it focused on quality enhancement?  What conceptions and characteristics of quality research and teaching do they hold?  To what degree does everybody understand the higher education visions and goals of the country?  Does their conception of leadership, research and teaching vary by national origin? And how do they understand multicultural relations in this context? Whether multicultural staff has an effect on these? Focus Groups  What conceptions of quality research and teaching do they hold? What are the characteristics of quality research and teaching? 3.3.2.1 Document Analysis For this interpretive research to have strong foundations, it was important to use the document analysis as a data collection method. According to major research methods literature, it is an important technique to get the required level of the “deepened and complex understanding” Glesne (2011, p. 48), or to serve as “substitutes for records of activity that the researcher could not observe” Stake (1995, p. 68). Merriam (2009) also argues that document analysis methods can help researchers finding clues or track certain development/change in an area of interest or even offer researchers a historical understanding. In this study, the data collection method aims at exploring different kinds and levels of documents that the researcher has categorized into four main levels: international, regional, national and organisational. 61 On the international level, three UNESCO documents related to quality of teaching and research in higher education were examined: Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personal (STP) (1997); Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers (SSR) (1974); and the Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Educations in the Arab States (RSQA) (1964). In addition, three OECD documents related to the quality of teaching and research in higher education were used: The State of Higher Education (SHE) (2014), Governance and quality guidelines in Higher Education (GQG) (2006), and Fostering Quality Teaching in Higher Education: Policies and Practices (FQT) (2012). Six key regional policy documents related to quality of teaching and research in higher education in the Arabian Gulf Higher Education were analysed: the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Institutional Accreditation Handbook (2016) (BIAH); the State of Kuwait’s Standards for Institutional Accreditation (2015) (KSIA); the Sultanate of Oman’s Plan for an Omani Higher Education Quality Management System (2006) (OHEQ); the State of Qatar’s Licensing and Accreditation Standards for Higher Education Institutions in Qatar (2011) (QLAS); the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Standards for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions (2009) (SAQA); and the United Arab Emirates’ Standards for licensure and Accreditation (2011) (ESLA). On the national level three Higher Education Council documents related to the quality of teaching and research in Bahrain were analysed - the National Higher Education Strategy (NHES) (2014-2024), the Bahrain Professional Standards Framework for Teaching & Support Learning in Higher Education (TSLF) (2015), and the National Research Strategy (NRS) (2014-2024) – as well as four annual reports of the National Authority for Qualifications and Quality Assurance of Education and Training (NAQQAET) in Bahrain for the years 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. On the organisational level, only two documents with sufficient information on the research topic were available in the public domain: the strategic plans for RCSI Bahrain (2012-2017) and RCSI Dublin (2013-2017) since they include the vision, mission, strategic plans, and policies on teaching, research and community engagement. 62 Merriam (2009) argues that public documents can be a good source for primary or secondary data to be included in a study. For this study, qualitative document analysis will be used as a first step in order explore and investigate what exists in relation to policies and reports which have a focus on academic administrators leadership as it relates to the quality of research and teaching in higher education and higher education multicultural aspects. A thematic rubric was designed to analyse the documents (see Appendix I). Following the advice by a number of scholars in analysing policy documents, a rubric was prepared that covered themes embedded in the research questions and the theoretical framework, which here includes statements and goals having to do with standards of practice in university teaching and research, as well as organisational and particularly leadership support in building this capacity (Bardach, 2009; Colebatch, 2009; Considine, 2005; Downey, 1988; Munger, 2000). The rubric has four main sections, teaching and research practices, organisational and contextual elements, multicultural factors, and ongoing changes. These were chosen because they reflect the two main foci of the study – teaching and research – and cover the organisational context including leadership and multicultural dimensions, and the last covering both organisational developments, and developments in the societal context of the university. 3.3.2.2 Semi-structured Interviews A number of senior academic administrators were interviewed: the Vice-President of Academic Affairs who is also a Head of School, and two Heads of School, as well as seven Department Heads. They were interviewed to gather more in-depth information and to capture their own experiences, perceptions and interpretations. The semi-structured interview guide (see Appendix II) was divided into four main sections that reflected three of the main theoretical framework elements of academic leadership, multicultural and cross-cultural factors and organisational culture: demographic information; introductory questions about leadership, multiculturalism, and quality teaching and research; personal experience and views of academic leadership; social dimensions of collegiality and academic values; structural aspects of the higher education system in Bahrain and the university; contextual factors in the organisation, in the system, and internationally; and developmental aspects of building capacity. Patton (2002, cited in Merriam, 2009) suggests using six important types of interview questions: experience and behaviour, opinion and values, 63 feeling, knowledge, sensory, and background or demographic. All of these were used in shaping the questions so that a comprehensive view could emerge in their discussion. One of the main considerations was to design sections that would allow for a smooth transition from one topic to another, develop rapport, and increase the possibility of interviewees to feel more comfortable in opening up. Prior to data collection, I conducted early piloting interviews with the specific purposes to build up, modify and fill in the gaps in the interview guide design that would help in generating rich data in the area of academic leadership that requires further attention. The pilot was carried out in the settings that were chosen by the participants (home and university) during the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015. The participant selection was based on their administrative leadership role as academics from two different universities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. They were recruited through showing interest in the study and through snowballing from personal contacts. One was Head of Postgraduate Studies and the other Chairman of medical specialisation department. They are both from non-Bahraini origins while one of them now carries Bahraini nationality, and both are Muslim. The pilot study provided me with a chance to further develop my interview questions, and to gain experience in interviewing participants at such a high professional level. It also provided practice in handling sensitive questions and in learning how to generate new questions as follow-ups in a manner that motivated them to be more open to reflect on more sensitive work- related stories and critical situations. One interview lasted about 60 minutes and the other approximately 90. The participants were given the choice of being audio recorded, and both chose to be. Recording the interview data was beneficial as it allowed me to focus more on the discussed themes where note taking would have made this difficult. I also asked the participants to sign a consent form before starting the pilot interview. Interestingly, both participants mentioned that they were happy to include their interview data in my main research data, however, they couldn’t be included in a case study. The only change made in the interview guide as a result of piloting was removing redundancy in questions. Since this study involved gathering data from people at senior and middle managerial level, the guidelines and recommendations of Odendahl and Shaw (2001) when interviewing elites were used. They explain that personal interviews are the best methods to be used as data collection for studies on elite subjects. The researcher made sure to be prepared in terms of locating and contacting respondents, gaining access and preparation prior to the interviews. 64 The location of the face-to-face interviews, time and length of interview was agreed on based on the elite’s convenience. Emails (See Appendix III) were sent to all participants before the interview to invite them to partake in the interviews also they were sent emails after participating to thank them for their participation. The main data analysis approach was based on the thematic content analysis technique of Newell and Burnard (2006). It was followed, as it is an effective way to direct the process of analysis for reaching sound results. These stages include: writing interview memos, writing general themes from transcripts, rereading and generating open coding, higher level headings, and then constructing another higher order codes and finally reporting all organized data. Huberman and Miles’s (2002) interpretive process was also be used to generate deep levels of understanding. Outside the university, the two members of the Directorate of Higher Education Review in Bahrain’s Quality Authority, who are senior in the agency, were also interviewed for their experience and perspectives on how university teaching and research quality are developing in the country, focussed mostly on governance and leadership roles. Most of the same principles discussed above for the university interviews apply here as well, however, it had somewhat different questions (See Appendix IV), although the main topics remained the same. The draft of this questionnaire was piloted with two academics with faculty and administrative experience and who were familiar with quality policies in higher education. 3.3.2.3 Survey The survey was administered to faculty only, aimed at trying to gain as close to 100% participation as possible. The three main reasons for using a survey instrument were to triangulate data provided in the interviews with senior administration, identify any themes that did not emerge in the interviews, and to reduce the researcher’s bias, given that this study is backyard research (see discussion on this below). This instrument was designed and distributed in hard copy in anonymous envelopes where respondents could return to a locked mailbox in the main office of the university. The first section of the instrument was demographic information where questions about nationality, the years of experience in the same position, whether they have been in the same position or role 65 prior to working in this organisation, were there previous experience in a multicultural university. The survey uses a 5-level of agreement Likert-scale for responses to the main body of the survey consisting of sets of questions about their experience with academic leadership in understanding, supporting and facilitating teaching and research as well as multicultural issues and the role of organisational culture (see Appendix V). The survey instrument ends with four open-ended questions on the roles of academic leadership and colleagues in supporting teaching and research activities, and whether faculty would be happy to participate in a follow- up session in case the need arose for more clarification on certain areas. The survey with the faculty was mainly analysed in order to generate descriptive results. The statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 23 data entry and analysis, as reflected below: 1. Frequencies and percentages were computed for the demographical variables. 2. Means and standard deviations of participants’ perception scores towards the items of the questionnaire were computed. 3. Means and standard deviations of participants’ perception scores towards the themes of the questionnaire (Cultural, Professional development, Teaching, Research, Personal, Social, and Overall) were computed. 4. Means and standard deviations of participants’ perception scores towards the themes of the questionnaire (Cultural, Professional development, Teaching, Research, Personal, Social, and Overall) were computed in relation to the demographical variables. 5. Mann Whitney test was used to determine whether there is a significant difference in means score of two groups if sample size in at least one group is less than 30. 6. Kruskal Wallis test was used to determine whether there is a significant difference in means score of more than two groups if sample size in at least one group is less than 30. 7. In all statistical tests, p-value< 0.05 was considered significant. 3.3.2.4 Focus Groups Two focus groups sessions were planned with recent alumni. It was important to include their views on teaching and research, and since they were graduates would have sufficient 66 knowledge and experience to provide valuable information that would triangulate with other sources of data. The focus group sessions were designed to last for about 90 minutes, with the discussion guided through a set of four questions, two on the characteristics of quality teaching and research and two on how they would compare their university with others in Bahrain and the GCC generally (see Appendix VI). Initially students were contacted personally when some were at the university for a meeting and then snowballing was used to recruit additional focus group participants. The sessions were held in the boardroom of the university. Refreshments were provided to make them feel more comfortable, and some time was provided at the beginning to allow them to socialise so that the focus group session could more easily evolve into a discussion among them. At the beginning of the session students were given a consent form to sign. Both focus groups were audio recorded. For the analysis of qualitative data, abductive reasoning is used both to identify emerging themes and synthesise results from across the qualitative sources along these thematic lines. This approach is based in Charmaz’s (2008) grounded theory abductive reasoning, which drew in part on Glaser and Strauss’s (1967) work in which ‘the method … includes checking emergent categories that emerge from successive levels of analysis.’ This includes using the following principles as guidelines: ‘(1) minimizing preconceived ideas about the research problem and the data, (2) using simultaneous data collection and analysis to inform each other, (3) remaining open to varied explanations and/or understandings of the data, and (4) focusing data analysis to construct middle-range theories’ (p. 155). Such a style of data interpretation ‘takes a systematic inductive, comparative and interactive approach to inquiry’ by offering open-ended strategies (Charmaz, 2008: 156, 2006). The first step in the process uses inductive logic, ‘but moves into abductive reasoning as the researcher seeks to understand emergent empirical findings’ which involves invoking ‘imaginative interpretations’ wherein one can arrive at plausible interpretations using intuitive interpretation and creative ideas (Charmaz, 2006: 157; Reichertz, 2007). The second involves comparing data, following up on hunches that arise, refining emerging ideas by cross-checking data, and then constructing categories that emerge (Charmaz, 2008). Charmaz (2008) describes this as a continuous reflection of themes emerging in each data source, as data is collected and analysed with themes emerging throughout the process. 67 3.4 Ethical Considerations Ethical approvals were obtained from research committees at the British University in Dubai and the case study university (Appendix VII) as well as the Quality Authority of Bahrain (Appendix VIII). The researcher provided participants with information related to the purpose of the study, the risks and benefits of participating in the study, confidentiality and their right to withdraw from the study at any stage (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) prior to them signing consent forms. The protocol pages and consent forms for this study were designed to ensure that research participants understood the purpose of the study, its conduct and the way that the data would be used and protected, as well as the activities they would be asked to participate in (see Appendix IX). Although this study involves sensitive areas that involve interpersonal behaviour, all data was anonymised and the identities of the survey and focus group participants were protected. Sensitivities about cultural diversity were minimised by not asking about individuals, but about general organisational practices. Anonymity and confidentiality were ensured for all participants by using codes on forms and transcriptions, and ensuring that only the researcher had access to primary data that was stored in the researcher’s personal laptop and was password protected. Interviews were conducted in places that were convenient for the participants and where they felt comfortable while doing the interviews. 3.5 Limitations and Delimitation The results of this study are not necessarily generalizable to another kind of higher education institution in the Kingdom of Bahrain or even to other higher education organisations in other countries. The study results are limited to the university that is the focus of this study, however, general patterns and issues would be shared with regional universities given the similar contexts in which they operate, and would also share some similarities more internationally given the highly advanced state of globalised education. The results may not be applicable to the junior student level as it focuses for student experience on alumni who have four to six years’ experience in their programmes and in the workforce for one year. Limitations are the factors that create the boundaries, expectations, reservations, and qualifications inherent in 68 every study (Castetter & Heisler, 1977, cited in Creswell, 2003), in this case factors that are national, regional, disciplinary, and cultural. A delimitation of this study is that it does not examine the quality assurance regimes since their focus is too narrow and quantitative. 3.6 Trustworthiness and Reliability Both Glesne (2011) and Merriam (2009) argue that for qualitative research, ensuring trustworthiness and reliability can be a problem when it comes to investigating socially constructed concepts. Creswell (1998) suggests a list of strategies that can be used to increase trustworthiness and reliability some of which are used in this study: piloting the instruments with peer reviewers and triangulation. The peer reviewers were colleagues who have the same interests in higher education and generally had over 20 years’ experience in teaching and involvement in university governance and administration. Triangulation or crystallization was employed by using four different data collection methods: document analysis, survey, interviews, and focus groups. During analysis, the researcher aimed at providing a rich description on different levels in order to ensure consistency, dependency and reliability. The table below shows that the questionnaire scale, and its sub-scales, has a high degree of consistency and reliability because Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficients ranges from 0.796 to 0.979. Table 3 Reliability statistics of the questionnaire themes Themes Cronbach’s Alpha Cultural 0.796 Professional Development 0.909 Teaching 0.900 Research 0.924 Personal 0.889 Social 0.948 Overall 0.979 69 3.7 Researcher Role The researcher was obliged to conduct the research in her own work organisation because access to other higher educational institutions in the kingdom of Bahrain was not granted or approved due to a common reluctance in providing access to any outside researchers. This type of research is described by Glesne (2011) as ‘Backyard research’, which could be both beneficial and challenging to the researcher. The benefits include easy access, already present groundwork for rapport, and an already established familiarity with the organisation and the way that language and concepts are used, saving time and effort. However, there can be challenges and risks that the researcher might encounter when conducting such a study that include, as discussed by Glesne (2011): people’s expectations for interactions beyond the scope of the study; participants assigning multiple and sometimes inappropriate roles for the researcher; ethical and political problems within the institution; and possibly revealing ‘dangerous knowledge’. Since this case study is a qualitative interpretive one, and since the researcher is the sole investigator, Glesne argues that such conditions and such a project ‘is extremely valuable, but it needs to be entered with heightened consciousness of potential difficulties’ (p. 43). As a researcher I minimized the limitations of backyard research following many approaches as advised by Creswell (2013). I tried to overcome my bias through several steps: the triangulation of data; noting and reflecting on possible biases; interviewing different levels of academic administrative leaders, regulatory bodies, and students; checking many facts and interpretations with other faculty members through surveying; and ensuring that alumni understood that their focus group participation in the research project would not influence on them professionally or personally as well as using piloting of instruments with peer who could offer professional advice. 70 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION This chapter presents the results, analysis of the study and discusses them into two main sections on different levels: the international, regional and national level on one hand and the university case study on the other hand. The chapter also ends by sketching a summary of all the presented, analysed, and discussed data. 4.1 International, Regional, and National Level This section reports on the following three categories of document analysis for quality in teaching and research content: international, regional, and national. On the international level, three documents from UNESCO such as the recommendations concerning the status of higher education teaching personnel, and three documents from the OECD such as the report on the state of the higher education are reviewed. The documents are examined for the standards of practice in teaching and research, the expected organisational and contextual support they should receive, multi-cultural factors and on-going changes that may affect them. These elements are the themes in the rubric that is used in examining all documents of this study. On the regional level, six documents from all GCC countries were used for the analysis. These documents focus on the standards for quality assurance and accreditation of higher education institutions as well as other standards of practice, which will be reported for content related to teaching and research. On the national level, several types of document will be analysed from the Higher Education Council such as the HEC research and higher education strategic plans (2014-2020), the pilot version of the institutional accreditation handbook (2015), and this will be complemented with an analysis of recommendations in the QAA annual reports from 2011 to 2014 to track the changes in practices after the case under investigation introduced its recent institutional and programme reviews to meet national requirements. 4.1.1 International Documents and Agreements There are six international documents relevant to the study: three UNESCO and three OECD are identified rubric tables below. The elements of quality university teaching and research found in these documents have been used to create a rubric to analyse the national and case 71 study documents in the next section (4.2) as well. There are a number of categories of quality elements that are important to university development: first there are teaching and research practices of faculty members; organisational and contextual elements that affect faculty activity such as policies and leadership practices; aspects of the multicultural constitution of universities in the Arabian Gulf, including Bahrain; and, finally, a number of on-going changes that can both enhance or inhibit teaching and research quality development. Table 4 contains the elements in each of these categories that derive from an initial review of the documents in relation to the categories used in other data analyses (i.e., surveys, interviews, focus groups) to produce a rubric that is then can be used to analyse all the documents at all levels considered in this thesis. The rubric is based on a thematic analysis, which comes from the literature review and an initial review of the documents such as ethos and workload. There are three main UNESCO documents related to quality of teaching and research in higher education: Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personal (STP) (1997); Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers (SSR) (1974); and the Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Educations in the Arab States (RSQA) (1964). Each of these is represented below in Table 4. As the table shows, two of the documents, the STP and the RSQA, both address several of the same aspects of teaching, whereas the SSR is focussed on research as a more independent activity. This suggests that UNESCO is not sufficiently seeing them as interconnected and interdependent. Interestingly the STP considers teaching as a public service, which could be considered a strong value for practice. For organisational and contextual issues, the STP more comprehensively covers this area, whereas the RSQA revealed a deficiency in addressing the elements that support the development of teaching and research. Yet the three documents emphasised the importance of having adequate infrastructure for both teaching and research, and having active networks for research. When analysing the influence of multicultural factors on teaching and research development, all documents detailed the role of governance in maintaining faculty autonomy to develop teaching and research qualities. While at the same time the STP and the SSR supported academic freedom only without reflecting issues related to multicultural factors. The RSQA lacks attention on those multicultural factors that influence teaching and research such as diversity, teaching ideals, research approaches, academic freedom, and management style and 72 leadership. This demonstrates that the new developments taking place in universities in the Arab world are only taking place in more developed higher education institutions. The analysis of the on-going changes that might drive teaching and research showed an overall agreement across all factors of the on-going changes section in Table 4. This demonstrates that there is a strong emphasis by UNESCO on developing academics’ career pathways, their intellectual capital, professional ethos, community, policies and procedures, and quality standards in order to enhance developments and practices in teaching and research. This range of concerns is consistent with many authors in the field of university standards across its range of activities (e.g., Austin, 2002; Lindholm, 2004; Reybold, 2003). Table 4 UNESCO – International Document Content Analysis Status of Status of Recognition Document Name Teaching Scientific of Studies Personnel Researchers Qualifications Thematic Analysis in Arab HE 1997 1974 1964 A. Teaching & Research Practices 1.1 Teaching Values & Beliefs   1.2 Teaching Training   1.3 Pedagogical Approach   1.4 Relationship with Students  2.1 Knowledge of Research Methods  2.2 Value & Purpose of Research  2.3 Team Values & Practices   B. Organisational & Contextual Elements 1.1 Values Attached to Teaching  1.2 Cross-Cultural Inconsistencies &   Tensions 1.3 Adequate Infrastructure (e.g., library,    equipment) 1.4 Academic Freedom in Teaching   2.1 Active Networking    73 2.2 Adequate Infrastructure    2.3 Adequate Research Funding  2.4 Workload Issues   2.5 Academic Freedom in Research   2.6 Collegial Environment (professional)   C. Multicultural Factors 1. 1.1 Degree of Diversity  2. 1.2 Degree of Difference in Teaching  Ideals (social justice, inclusion & equity; respectful relationship; professional responsibility) 3. 1.3 Degree of Difference in Research Approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) 4. 1.4 Obedience to Authority vs Academic   Freedom 5. 1.5 Style of management and leadership  6. 1.6 Degree of Organisational Autonomy    (Governance) D. Ongoing Changes 1.1 Career Pathway: Stagnant or Growing    1.2 Intellectual Capital Development (for    students and faculty) 1.3 Professional Ethos   1.4 Community Development (Added-    Value) 1.5 Research Support (policy, workload,    funding, etc.) 1.6 Quality & Standards in Student Work   There are three main OECD documents related to the quality of teaching and research in higher education: The State of Higher Education (SHE) (2014), Governance and Quality Guidelines in Higher Education (GQG) (2006), and Fostering Quality Teaching in Higher Education: Policies and Practices (FQT) (2012). Each of these is represented below in Table 5. 74 As the below table reflects, only one of the documents, the FQT, has addressed most of the elements that contribute to the development of teaching and research practices through having strong values, beliefs, purposes, pedagogy, approaches, methodologies, and knowledge. However, all three documents (SHE, GOG, and FQT) have not addressed the importance of having a sufficient knowledge and training in research methods that can improve the quality of research, a point that is heavily stressed in the scholarly literature on university development (e.g., Enders, 2005; Labaree, 1998; Putnam & Borko, 2000). They do emphasize the value of research generally, especially the importance of collaboration between academic staff across disciplines and across universities that helps in the development of shared research team values, a point also made by some authors in the field (e.g., Becher & Trowler, 2001; Brew & Boud, 1995). The organisational and the contextual factors have been significantly covered in the FQT due to its importance in developing both teaching and research in higher education systems. This includes higher-level team values such as professional and academic freedom, collegiality, and active networking that play an effective role in the enhancement of teaching and research activities. These documents also highlight the necessity of having adequate infrastructure such as laboratories, libraries, equipment, etc. for teaching and research development, while these requirements have been completely neglected in the other two documents (SHE and GQG). For the multicultural factors that affect the quality of teaching and research, all three documents share the same focus on the importance of multicultural factors in OECD internationally. These include cultural diversity, teaching ideals, academic autonomy, and governance and leadership models and styles. The importance of faculty using a broad range of legitimate research approaches is included in the OECD reports. From this one can assume that either OECD countries are so well-established in research practices that no guidelines for development are required or that there are many current changes going on so that it is too soon to identify what future research directions can be planned for, explaining why there is much less focus on research development compared with universities in developing countries. It is not too surprising to see that all documents are focusing on the development of higher education faculty and students as they climb up their career pathways. In all these documents, the developments of intellectual capital, the professional ethos, community, policies, and quality standards are under the spotlight. The main reason for this is a global vision of higher 75 education system either involved in nation building in the developing countries or globalising education in the developed countries. Table 5 OECD – International Document Content Analysis The State of Governance Fostering Higher & Quality Quality Document Name Education Guidelines in Teaching in HE HE: Policies & Procedures Thematic Analysis 2014 2006 2012 A. Teaching & Research Practices 1.1 Teaching Values & Beliefs   1.2 Teaching Training  1.3 Pedagogical Approach   1.4 Relationship with Students   2.1 Knowledge of Research Methods 2.2 Value & Purpose of Research    2.3 Team Values & Practices    B. Organisational & Contextual Elements 1.1 Values Attached to Teaching    1.2 Cross-Cultural Inconsistencies &    Tensions 1.3 Adequate Infrastructure (e.g., library,  equipment) 1.4 Academic Freedom in Teaching  2.1 Active Networking    2.2 Adequate Infrastructure 2.3 Adequate Research Funding   2.4 Workload Issues  2.5 Academic Freedom in Research   2.6 Collegial Environment (professional)    Multicultural Factors 7. 1.1 Degree of Diversity    76 8. 1.2 Degree of Difference in Teaching    Ideals (social justice, inclusion & equity; respectful relationship; professional responsibility) 9. 1.3 Degree of Difference in Research Approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) 1.4 Obedience to Authority vs Academic    Freedom 1.5 Style of management and leadership    1.6 Degree of Organisational Autonomy    (Governance) Ongoing Changes 1.1 Career Pathway: Stagnant or Growing    1.2 Intellectual Capital Development for    students and faculty 1.3 Professional Ethos    1.4 Community Development (Added-    Value) 1.5 Research Support (policy, workload,    funding, etc.) 1.6 Quality & Standards in Student Work    4.1.2 Arabian Gulf Regional Development This section will first give a historical background and context of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries’ higher education systems, which will be followed by a document analysis of the only available and suitable documents for analysis of teaching and research quality. 4.1.2.1 Historical and Country Context The GCC countries have made significant advancements in their educational system developments. De Boer and Turner (2007) argue that educational reform in general is a sensitive subject all globally, and in the GCC it is even more problematic as it entails religious 77 and cultural factors influencing the recent construction of modernised their educational organisations. Another challenge might be the very high participation of expatriate leaders in higher education, but who do not necessarily understand the Arab and Islamic cultural environments in which they are working (e.g., Ali, Azim & Krishnan, 1995). The different patterns of values, beliefs and social relationships of employees and managers interacting within different organisational situations can have an influence on how they carry out their professional responsibilities (Hofstede, 1991). Dimmock and Walker (2005) claim there are many factors for this complexity and dilemma in leadership, which mainly lies in indigenous cultures and traditions. Six important characteristics of culture are considered necessary to take into account when analysing organisations: the cultures are collective, emotionally charged, historically based, inherently symbolic, dynamic and fuzzy (Trice & Beyer, 1993). Authors like Dimmock and Walker (2005) and Morris and Lo (2000) have argued that imported policies and practices have to be adapted to suit a certain culture. Leadership and organisation practices in the Arabian Gulf cultural context receive very minor attention due to the complexity of investigating cultural values in relation to organisational behaviour (Abdulla & Al-Homoud, 2001). However, ‘islamicised’ Westerners described by Ali (1990) have encouraged the integration of Islamic principles, approaches and traditions in leading an organisation. The Arabian Gulf cultures have been always known for holding their strong collective values and ‘in-group’ loyalty practices as part of their tribal traditions (Abdulla & Al-Homoud, 2001). Kouzes and Posner (1995 cited in Beekun & Badawi 1999) have defined leadership in Islam as … a trust. Often, it takes the form of an explicit contract or pledge between a leader and his followers that he will try his best to guide them, to protect them and to treat them fairly and with justice. Hence, the focus of leadership in Islam is on integrity and justice. Given the recent emphasis on ethical behaviour in the leadership literature. (p. 1) Beekun and Badawi (1999) have identified five parameters of Islamic behaviour that a leader must emphasize in his practices that are based on Islamic values and morals. These are: ‘justice, trust, righteousness, the struggle towards self-improvement and promise keeping’. The transformational leadership styles and behaviours are aligned with Islamic leadership behaviours, therefore, can be suitable for an Islamic-Arab context. On the other hand, in order for expatriates or international leaders to excel in an Arab country they need to have a certain 78 level of awareness to help them be successful in their managerial tasks and mission. Branine (2011) focuses on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as he described Arab countries as: “highly collective, masculine, authoritarian, risk-evading, and short-term orientated” (p. 442). Educational reform has always thought to be a long-term venture for all countries around the world. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are not exceptional; many initiatives have been introduced to continuously develop their university systems for the benefit of their nationals. The GCC countries face many challenges in this matter, though, such as raising the quality standards of education, improving their academics’ skills, raising the research standards, and managing the overall educational institutions’ performance (Barber et al., 2007). Although the GCC countries are facing big challenges, their approaches in reform processes are strategically planned at a national level that is supported by the governments. They are investigating and studying thoroughly other successful countries’ experiences like New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Barber et al. (2007) argued that the focus of the GCC states’ educational reform movements have shifted from the ‘inputs’ to the ‘outcomes’. Linking that to the argument that ‘further reform will be essential if one of the world’s fastest- growing regions is to seize a broader role in the global economy’ (De Boer & Turner, 2007). It is evident now that the reform in GCC countries is critical to national development as the global effects being imposed on them, including economic, require highly professionalised and educated populations. For this reform to occur in developing countries like those in the GCC, experts in many disciplines have been imported to lead the reform in this region. In the United Arab Emirates, cooperation with Singapore educational systems helped in enhancing the quality of educational outcomes, while in Qatar, alliance with UK educationalists helped in leading educational projects. In Bahrain, collaboration with many well-established higher education systems such as those in Canada, Australia, the UK, and Scotland where quality authorities had have a huge impact on the expansion of private and public higher education systems. 4.1.2.2 Regional Document Analysis Six key regional policy instruments and documents related to the quality of teaching and research in higher education in the Arabian Gulf will be analysed, listed below:  Kingdom of Bahrain: Institutional Accreditation Handbook (2016 – Pilot) (BIAH) 79  State of Kuwait: Standards for Institutional Accreditation (KSIA)  Sultanate Oman: Plan for an Omani Higher Education Quality Management System (2006) (OHEQ)  State of Qatar: Licensing and Accreditation Standards for Higher Education Institutions in Qatar (2011) (QLAS)  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Standards for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions (2009) (SAQA)  United Arab Emirates: Standards for licensure and Accreditation (2011) (ESLA) The main reasons for this selection of documents is that they are being used in policy formulation affecting the funding and regulation of universities, and no one document could be found to cover all teaching and research activities in the GCC countries. They all referred to the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE) as a source for designing their licencing and accreditation standards for their universities. A search of the ANQAHE website, though, did not find a document about the standards of quality for Arab higher education. However, there are some important key points that need to be considered here. ANQAHE is a nonprofit nongovernmental organisation that was established in June, 2007 with the purpose to establish the Arab network for quality assurance in higher education in order to create a mechanism between the Arab countries to exchange information about a number of practices: defining the nature of quality assurance; constructing new quality assurance agencies or organisations; developing standards to establish new quality assurance agencies or support existing ones; disseminating good practices in quality assurance; and strengthening liaisons between quality assurance bodies in the different countries. As Table 6 shows, all of the documents for all GCC higher education quality regulatory systems have a high level of focus on the quality of the teaching and research practices in their countries. Remarkably these documents focused on the importance of professional development of academic staff for teaching, the knowledge, pedagogies and approaches and relationships and team values, while not recognising teaching values and beliefs. The main reason for these gaps is that the quality assurance technique is input/output based and highly quantitative in nature and oriented towards economic values rather than intellectual and cultural values (Harvey, 2005; Houston & Paewai, 2013; Travers, 2007). Many contextual dimensions of a society for which education is critical important, like culture and religion, are not addressed in quality assurance. All of the documents reduce cultural reference down to governance, leadership and 80 management focussed on serving the economic sector. The majority also have a very underdeveloped discussion or inclusion of teaching ideals related to social justice, inclusion and equity, respectful relationships, and professional responsibility, in others higher order values that are not economic. Like the international documents, the GCC documents also focus mainly on career pathways, the development of intellectual capital that serves the economy, and the sustainability of professional ethos, community development, research support and improving the quality standards of students’ work, but primarily as they contribute to increasing employability Table 6 Regional Document Content Analysis Document Name Thematic Analysis A. Teaching & Research Practices 1.1 Teaching Values & Beliefs 1.2 Teaching Training       1.3 Pedagogical Approach       1.4 Relationship with Students       2.1 Knowledge of Research       Methods 2.2 Value & Purpose of       Research 2.3 Team Values & Practices       B. Organisational & Contextual Elements 1.1 Values Attached to Teaching 1.2 Cross-Cultural     Inconsistencies & Tensions 1.3 Adequate Infrastructure       (e.g., library, equipment) 1.4 Academic Freedom in  Teaching 81 Bahrain (BIAH) Kuwait (KSIA) Oman (OHEQ) Qatar (QLAS) KSA (SAQA) UAE (ESLA) 2.1 Active Networking       2.2 Adequate Infrastructure       2.3 Adequate Research     Funding 2.4 Workload Issues     2.5 Academic Freedom in    Research 2.6 Collegial Environment      (professional) C. Multicultural Factors 1.1 Degree of Diversity     1.2 Degree of Difference in      Teaching Ideals (social justice, inclusion & equity; respectful relationship; professional responsibility) 1.3 Degree of Difference in Research Approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) 1.4 Obedience to Authority vs  Academic Freedom 1.5 Style of management and       leadership 1.6 Degree of Organisational     Autonomy (Governance) D. Ongoing Changes 1.1 Career Pathway: Stagnant       or Growing 1.2 Intellectual Capital       Development for students and Faculty 1.3 Professional Ethos       (accountability, transparency, 82 collegiality, consultation, support) 1.4 Community Development       (Added-Value) 1.5 Research Support (policy,       workload, funding, etc.) 1.6 Quality & Standards in       Student Work The first GCC document, the BIAH, is heavily oriented towards the economy and employability values, while paying little attention to society and social values. The only document of the GCC countries that highlighted leadership and relationships between genders, integrity, organisational climate and ethical standards is the SAQA. The QLAS does include academic freedom in improving teaching and research in its universities, however, it is a minor factor in the document. The ESLA details academic careers development in employability terms only as a main factor. The GCC higher education standards are comparable to the international ones that are focused on quality assurance, some of whose documents are: the Guidelines of Good Practice of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), (2007); the Guidelines for Quality Assurance from the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), (2015); and the core standards for quality review endorsed by the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE). 4.1.3 National: Policy Makers and Regulators This section will first give a historical background and context of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s educational development and the higher education system reform, which will be followed by a document analysis of the HEC new strategies and documents with a focus on analysis of teaching and research development. The third part of this section will present, analyse and discuss the interviews with member from the regulatory bodies in higher education area. 83 4.1.3.1 Historical and Country Context Bahrain has a lead in educational reform in the GCC. It was the first to introduce a public education system in the 1919 in the region. Since then this small island has witnessed a general reform in different societal aspects. The “Economic Vision 2030 For Bahrain,” which was put together by Bahraini leaders and academics, however, outlines the future of Bahrain’s development to be achieved by 2030, but only in economic terms and how higher education is subservient to the economy. Education is at the focus of this strategic plan. His Highness Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and the Chairman of Bahrain’s Economic Development Board (EDB) stated his vision about education, as it is the nucleus of forming a modern-progressed Bahrain. In its 2001 study, the (EDB) identified education to be one of six pillars on which the economic development and business investment will be established (Al-Alawi et al., 2009). Madany et al. (1988) summarized the Bahraini’s educational system philosophy as: ‘it has essentially been based on co-relating religious morals and cultural traditions with modern economics, and both technological and scientific development’ (p. 413). A first-rate education system is highlighted as an effective mean in 2030 development reform project. To achieve this vision many expatriate leaders have been hired to initiate the needed policies and to supervise the implementation of corresponding plans. Developing Bahraini leaders was one of the important goals of the 2030 document. It calls for: “Supporting and developing talented youths throughout the course of their education” (p. 20). Among students future leaders will emerge. HH Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince in his interview with De Boer and Kalkman (2007) stated that ‘the heavy investment in training and education is crucial as it empowers Bahraini people with the required skills to become more effective and productive members in their society’. It is clear in the discussion by the Crown Prince, that it is not only economic development for which higher education is important. Educational reform in Bahrain is at a high level of demand from all parties across sectors in the country. Everyone is aiming high, individuals and institutions. There is a lot of pressure on all private and governmental organisations to raise the educational standards to meet international quality standards. The educational reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries started from Bahrain when it introduced the public education system in 1919. In the GCC region, many challenges are taking place not only in raising the quality of education, but in improving teachers’ skills and managing the overall educational institutions’ 84 performance as well (Barber et al., 2007). This, in itself, requires significant efforts on different levels. In Bahrain, the National Authority of Qualifications and Quality Assurance for Education & Training (NAQQAET) has been given the responsibility to develop standards for institutional listing, setting up indicators for institutional quality measures and to develop processes, mechanisms and guidelines for institutional and programme quality reviews. To ensure the appropriate implementation of national educational policy in Bahrain, the NAQQAET was established to entail the national policy with certain required standards, policies, procedures and guidelines to monitor the quality of outcomes and results of education and training. However, its exclusive focus is on quality assurance and not other dimensions or forms of scholarly and academic quality. One of the principle goals of this agency is to organize the means of developing the standards of teachers including many teaching and learning processes to ensure the development of their capacity and keep them aligned with quality assurance development. In the NAQQAET’s guide of ‘standards, policies and procedures for quality assurance in institutions’ (2012), the higher educational institutions in Bahrain are expected to develop their policies in a way to guarantee the quality of ‘teaching staff’, which has clearly been outlined. Also the procedures for this policy have been listed including staff recruitment and appointment, induction, development, appraisal and promotion. 4.1.3.2 Document Analysis Three main Higher Education Council documents related to quality of teaching and research in Bahrain will be analysed here: the National Higher Education Strategy (NHES) (2014-2024); the Bahrain Professional Standards Framework for Teaching & Support Learning in Higher Education (TSLF) (2015); and the National Research Strategy (NRS) (2014-2024). All are quite new compared to the available documents in some of the universities in Bahrain. As Table 7 shows, each document is designed for a specific area of focus and from the analysis one can find that they complement each other. The NHES is a national strategy that has insightfully studied the status of the higher education system in Bahrain, identified all the gaps or challenges, and accordingly designed objectives and goals to improve the quality of the system and its outcomes (graduands) to meet the needs of employers, while the TSLF has only drawn on the standards of good practices for teaching and supporting learning in universities. 85 The NRS is more concerned about the status of research in Bahrain compared to the international level and discusses the challenges based on a SWOT analysis conducted with research stakeholders. The NRS strategy then discusses the country’s need and designed a set of objectives and key performance indicators to support nation building to become a diversified, sustainable, knowledge-based society resting partly on the research pillar. The only areas that received less attention in the below three documents are cross-cultural consistencies in teaching, academic freedom in both teaching and research, workload issues for academic staff, and lastly the differences in research approaches. Like other countries in the region Bahrain has an intense focus on the growth of its intellectual capital and societal development. Table 7 National Document Content Analysis National Teaching & National Higher Support Research Document Name Education Learning Strategy Strategy Framework Thematic Analysis 2014-2024 2015 2014-2024 A. Teaching & Research Practices 1.1 Teaching Values & Beliefs  1.2 Teaching Training   1.3 Pedagogical Approach   1.4 Relationship with Students  2.1 Knowledge of Research Methods  2.2 Value & Purpose of Research  2.3 Team Values & Practices    B. Organisational & Contextual Elements 1.1 Values Attached to Teaching  1.2 Cross-Cultural Inconsistencies & Tensions 1.3 Adequate Infrastructure (e.g., library,  equipment) 1.4 Academic Freedom in Teaching 2.1 Active Networking    86 2.2 Adequate Infrastructure    2.3 Adequate Research Funding   2.4 Workload Issues 2.5 Academic Freedom in Research 2.6 Collegial Environment (professional)   Multicultural Factors 1.1 Degree of Diversity   1.2 Degree of Difference in Teaching   Ideals (social justice, inclusion & equity; respectful relationship; professional responsibility) 1.3 Degree of Difference in Research Approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) 1.4 Obedience to Authority vs Academic  Freedom 1.5 Style of management and leadership    1.6 Degree of Organisational Autonomy   (Governance) Ongoing Changes 1.1 Career Pathway: Stagnant or Growing    1.2 Intellectual Capital Development for    students and Faculty 1.3 Professional Ethos    1.4 Community Development (Added-    Value) 1.5 Research Support (policy, workload,    funding, etc.) 1.6 Quality & Standards in Student Work    These gaps in higher education were also acknowledged as recommendation items in the Annual Reports of the National Authority for Qualifications and Quality Assurance of Education and Training (NAQQAET) in Bahrain. The annual reports included here covers four years, since 2011, as reflected in the following Table 8. 87 Table 8 Recommendations from the QAA Annual Reports Annual Report by Recommendations for Quality Year 2011  Workload of academic staff  Teaching training  Programmes development 2012  Planning and governance  Teaching & Learning approaches  Infrastructure  Research and scholarship 2013  Leadership & management skills & expertise (strong, ethical, academic, and administrative leadership)  Teaching & Learning strategies  Research in teaching discipline  Community Engagement  Programmes development 2014  Academic leadership of the programmes/college  Academic staff workload  Benchmarking programmes across universities  Level of examinations  Academic staff preparation to design assessment The above table shows a list of areas for improvement in the four annual reports (2011-2014) which mainly have focused on recommending development in a number of key areas in higher education institutions in Bahrain after the reviews such as academic leadership, teaching, and research. 4.1.3.3 Interviews with Regulatory Bodies Two senior administration staff of the quality assurance agency were interviewed, the Senior Director of Higher Education Review and her superior, the Manager of Higher Education Review. The Manager is a national with a doctorate in electronic engineering who has worked as an academic at a national university for over 20 years, during which time she was coordinator of a graduate programme and served on many committees including an accreditation committee and then joined the agency in 2007. Her Manager position includes chairing two committees, the QQA academic committee and the internal quality assurance committee and is also a member of an external council for organising engineering practices in the country. The Senior Director is also a national with a doctorate in environmental biology who worked as an 88 academic for over 25 years including serving as director of the programme and on several of committees for a number of years, as well as being responsible for quality for the university before joining the agency. She has served in her current position throughout her time in the agency, which involves conducting quality reviews in Bahrain and Oman. 4.1.3.3.1 Higher Education Institution challenges The participants discussed the challenges that the HEIs in Bahrain face on different levels. QAAM 2 provided general areas of challenges such as the quality culture being new to the HEIs. She claimed that: This is detailed in our annual reports but I will summarize it here. The concept of quality is somewhat new in this part of the world where institutions faced with many challenges to have the culture and to have the buy-in of all staff of what quality is and how to implement it. How to integrate quality into day-to-day operations. Of course we look at quality and looked at certain standards and indicators and sub-indicators. I would say the main challenges at the beginning was every aspect from staffing, infrastructure, concepts like quality research, etc. These challenges are being overcome partly because of the capacity building we do and all development the HEC is doing as well. Also the institutions themselves are beginning to realize that they have to do something about it! Once a concept is introduced a change management approach should be followed. While the QAAM 1 had a more detailed response about the HEIs’ challenges such as the following: the issue of academic governing while ensuring the academic integrity of the institution; the blending role of governance and management; institutionalizing the processes within universities and being more accountable; the lack of robust assessment systems; and lastly internal and external moderation for the assessments. These issues are also noted in some of the international literature, such as the African (Teferra & Altbachl, 2004), Latin America (Levy, 1986), and across the world (Altbach & Knight, 2007). The Directorate of Higher Education Review has adopted a number of support approaches to overcome these challenges as described by the QAAMs such as: 89  Conducting diagnostic reviews for institutions to give a set of recommendations.  Offering capacity building workshops, forums and conferences on areas that require development to learn best practices in higher education such as governance, benchmarking, etc.  Doing cross-sector training on intended learning outcomes that is linked to assessment.  Providing free reviews and consultations for programmes. The participants believed that at the beginning stage the HEIs were resisting all the above approaches because of a lack of quality culture practices in the organisations. However, this has changed and HEIs have started to see the benefits and requested more training from the Directorate of Higher Education Review in enhancing the quality of academic processes in universities. QAAM 1 argued that: There is a progress you can easily tell. This is taking place across all institutions. Also the depth of self-evaluation has changed although there are some areas that show lack of certain skills. It is better than before. When it comes to benchmarking there are a number of activities toward this taking place across institutions. Also the internal and external moderations assessment. There wasn’t anything before and it is improving. When it comes to utilization of learning outcomes: when we started in 2009 with the programme reviews there were a number of HEIs didn’t know what is ‘learning outcomes’. Now all programmes have this. We still have a long way to go! Both participants believed that the challenges and the actions taken could have an effect on the quality development in different ways. For example, QAAM 1 argued that different areas have influenced the outcomes: the robustness of assessment affecting the quality of academic standards of the graduates; the academic freedom, if jeopardized by the management and the day-to-day financial pressure of the institution, reducing research activity; the programmes will not be supported if the custodians of the academic standards are not academics; and the disjunction between the quality assurance offices in universities and the academics. QAAM 2 also added one more issue which might affect the quality development, which is not following the Higher Education Council’s policies for faculty workload, staffing ratio, and campus size, all of which could negatively affect the standards of teaching, research, professional 90 development, and quality focus. There is a gap here as there are no workload policies in the Higher Education Council in Bahrain and this in itself leaves the HEIs to have inconsistence practice and the faculty members at risk. 4.1.3.3.2 Higher Education development and Improvements The participants had argued that the Directorate of Higher Education Review (DHER) is focusing on those ‘pillars’ that are supposed to maintain quality processes in the higher education institutions in Bahrain. The main one is academic integrity and governance principles followed by other sets of standards such as benchmarking, institutional and programme framework reviews, verification and moderation of assessments, and admission procedures and policies. The DHER, as referred to by the participants, cannot interfere or has a minimal role in influencing HEIs when enhancing research processes and quality. The participants claimed that the main reason behind this was that after the institutional reviews of a number of HEIs in Bahrain, the DHER noticed that the research pillar was not developed to meet quality standards. However, the directorate introduced steps for improvements that will be followed up after a period of time to see if there is a quality improvement in the research pillar. These steps include planning for a research program to be implemented effectively which shifts institutional focus towards quality research. This includes policy modifications and full (policy, programs, funding) support to both the institutional and faculty levels in order to facilitate more and higher level research. QAAM 2 stated that: We cannot interfere directly in what HEIs are doing for research. Our contribution in our review reports is giving very clear recommendations to what institutions have to do. So they have to address these recommendations and work on them. If they are required to lower workload then they have to so that staff can do research. We do suggest updating libraries and having database for researchers. All kind of recommendations are made in the report to make it is clear for HEIs to have a pathway for development. … They have to put in an improvement plan to show how they are addressing these issues. Then we go for a follow-up visit after a year to see the progress and how serious they are. We respect the autonomy of the institutions and it is up to them to decide what they want to do to research. We do not interfere in day-to-day 91 operations of the institutions. We give them a space to be more innovative in their practices. There are many obstacles that hinder the development of research in Bahraini HEIs. The participants agreed that these obstacles include limited budgets or funds, high workload, limited facilities and insufficient supporting staff for laboratory or practical research, and the absence of a national strategy and goals for research. QAAM 2 added that the small size of HEIs in Bahrain with no critical mass for research and no availability of RND offices in the country were some of the issues that hinder the development of research. For teaching quality, the participants had described the situation at the HEIs to be better than for research. Yet many approaches had been introduced by the DHER in order to improve teaching quality and practices such as providing organisations with recommendations after reviews, publishing the review results in the annual report, and capacity building. QAAM 1 argued that there are areas for improvements in HEI teaching such as: The teaching methods have been improved a lot. Faculty members have adapted more to a student-centred approach and use better inter-active learning, case studies, discussions, debates, assignments, projects, etc. We have given a lot of workshops on teaching and learning, just like we did for research. Higher education started for the elites, so your audience didn’t really need a lecturer to learn! They only needed the information. So then you didn’t need a good teacher. Teachers needed to be good scientists only. With the massification of higher education and access has been available to other people your audience changed. And now you have a range of students who need to be taught and you need to develop in them new skills for self-learning. So then the need for good teaching skills arose. There are fewer obstacles that hinder the development of teaching in Bahraini HEIs. The participants agreed that these include having academic staff who are professional in their area of specialisation, but who have not been trained in teaching as a qualification. Also, when planning capacity building in teaching, the resistance from some faculty members has been high especially from those with many years’ experience in their field, senior qualifications, and profession status. Some authors have noted this in other countries such as Raybold (2003) and 92 Strike (2010). QAAM 2 added that students’ immature learning style and study skills are one of the issues that hinder the development of teaching in HEIs context in Bahraini. When asking the participants about the role of the DHER in monitoring the quality of teaching and research in the HEIs, they argued that they just provide guidelines and support and that the institutions have huge opportunities for innovation and creativity in implementing their processes. The participants also added that this is a collective responsibility and everyone should have a shared role in it from different parties such as all HEIs, HEC, the QAA, governance bodies, stakeholders and the government. HEIs have a full responsibility to improve the quality of teaching and research in their organisations as they are supposed to have the academic freedom that derive these two pillars to a quality level. Through assessing their needs and using the internal and external support the HEIs can manage the development of both teaching and research. However, the participants discussed the role of the HEC in improving the quality of teaching and research in HEIs in Bahrain. They argued that since the HEC is the licensing body, they have to ensure that academic standards are high and following HEC regulations and that all programmes specifications and curriculum are well developed before issuing the HEIs’ licences. The second level for the HEC role starts when they monitor the policies and procedures for faculty recruitment, workload, student/staff ratio, infrastructure, etc. The third level of the HEC role starts after identifying gaps in HEIs by offering capacity building to improve the quality of teaching and research. Both the HEC and the QAA are in the developmental phase and the concept of the quality culture is new to them and to the HEIs. In Bahrain, the HEC and the QAA were established in 2006 and 2008 respectively. The real age of quality authority in higher education in Bahrain is less than ten years, which makes it a very new and immature system, and in a developmental phase as described by the QAAMs, while some of the HEIs in Bahrain are much older in age as organisations than the two regulatory bodies, the HEC and the QAA. For example, the University of Bahrain was established in 1986, which has been functioning for 20 years before the HEC was established. 93 4.1.3.3.3 Higher Education Leadership Both participants from the Directorate of Higher Education Review argued that the role of the academic leaders in HEIs development in Bahrain is influenced by many factors. The type of university, whether private or public, is one of the factors where appointments for academic administrative leadership positions are not standardised. This might lead the whole HE system to be corrupted. Another reason is the size and complexity of the organisational structure - the smaller the organisation the more likely it is to have academics assuming multi-roles. When discussing the role of the HEC and the DHER in preparing academic administrative leaders to develop teaching and research in HEIs in Bahrain, the participants only focused on their Directorate’s role. They claimed that they follow a number of approaches after reviews to fill in the gaps in the practices within this category of academic leaders although it is not their responsibility. QAAM 2 provided a detailed description: We have workshops in governance and management in HEIs and we talk about the best practices in governance. The bi-annual conference or forum is another approach. When we do the Self-Evaluation Reviews we don’t concentrate on how they write the self-evaluation, but we focus on how they should conduct a self-evaluation. Here we focus on governance and the role of governance, what they should be doing, the management, the academic integrity of the graduates, the assessment and teaching and learning, etc. We encourage universities to send different people every time so that everyone can benefit. Part of our focus is also what kind of induction is provided to governing bodies and how they assess the performance of governance within the university. The HEC regulates academic administrative leadership recruitment to ensure appropriate selections based on relevant criteria. The participants believed that the HEC should not interfere in this other than providing guidelines. HEIs should be given the opportunity to create their own clear job descriptions following HEC guidelines. The participants believed that academic leaders should have specific qualities that will help them improve the quality of teaching and research such as: being an academic, appreciating research and its role, having good communication skills, having a holistic approach to 94 governance, having trust in people working underneath them, having a good monitoring system, having a clear vision and plans to support it, being responsible and accountable, having direct involvement in the university processes, and having the ability to follow-up and measure university progress. 4.1.3.3.4 Higher Education framework, policies, and regulations The Directorate of Higher Education Review (DHER) uses two main frameworks for quality standards to maintain the consistency and efficiency in practices across HEIs in Bahrain. These frameworks are the institutional and programme reviews which had been developed in collaboration with stakeholders. The participants also added that prior to this the DHER worked with the Australian Quality Universities Agency (AQUA) as part of the Bahraini educational reform project. The participants were not able to evaluate or share any opinion about the HEC teaching and research policies or strategic plans due to the fact that they were premature as they were newly launched documents. However, they were optimistic and they felt that these documents will definitely help in closing the gap in teaching and research practices in HEIs especially since higher education is a new system in the country and governing agencies should consider this factor and not to compare Bahraini universities with much older and more established systems in other countries. 4.1.3.3.5 Concluding remarks When discussing the areas that participants wished to change in order to develop teaching and research in universities to a high standard, they provided different responses. QAAM 2 believed that the student admission methods and criteria should be changed to ensure that suitable candidates are chosen for academic programmes. QAAM 1 believed that there are several things that need to be changed such as: leadership, governance, governing bodies and the culture in universities because of the effect and consequences that may have filtered down through the organisations. 95 4.2 University Case Study This section starts by discussing the historical and organisational profile of the university being used as a case study. Their documents on the public domain will be analysed, followed by a presentation and discussion of the faculty survey quantitative and qualitative results. This is followed by the semi-structured interviews results and discussion. This chapter’s final section will be the focus group results and discussion. 4.2.1 Historical and Organisation Context According to the RCSI Bahrain Quality E-Handbook of (2013, p. 1), the parent university is the second oldest HEI in Ireland and it was established in 1784. It was the only university in Ireland that provided training in surgery until 1851. It is an independent and not-for-profit institution. Delivering education, learning and research to a high standard helped the college in its establishment, survival and expansion to different parts in the world. Almost 20,000 doctors have been trained through the parent university, many of them are international students, from about 60 different countries. The university in this case study was founded in 2004 under license from the Government of the Bahrain. Students from different countries were admitted to Medicine the university at the same year from Bahrain, India, Italy, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, US and Yemen. It carries the same mission as of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The role of the University is to provide healthcare education and training at international standards in Bahrain. It has two undergraduate schools: medicine, 2004 and nursing, 2006 and the School of Postgraduate Studies and Research, 2009. House et al. (2004) have identified nine important cultural dimensions and attributes that might have an effect on organisations such as ‘future orientations, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, humane orientations, in-group collectivism, institutional collectivism, performance orientation, power concentration, and uncertainty avoidance’ (p. 3). This shows that gender, nationality and ethnicity are important factors in order to understand the context of the study. It is crucial to shed light on some demographic characteristics of this organisation such as nationality or ethnicity and gender as it will shape the study analysis to a certain degree. 96 Table 9 below shows the details of the academic staff working at RCSI-Bahrain by nationality during the academic year (2014-2015). Table 9 Academic Staff by Nationality Nationality Count % Bahraini 15 30.6% Irish 22 44.9% British 9 18.36% EU (German & Polish) 2 4.08% African (Egyptian & Sudanese) 1 2.04% Total 49 100% Academic staff demographic profile according to gender is reflected in Table 10 below. According to 2014-2015 annual report, male academic staff is more than females by approximately 10%. Table 10 Demographic of Academic Staff by Gender Gender Count % Male 27 55.1% Female 22 44.9% Total 49 100% The university also has a very clear and simple organisational structure that facilitates communication and reporting channels. Under the president there are two main functions that report directly to Dublin - the academic and operational affairs - whereas the quality enhancement office reports directly to both the president and the Quality Office in the parent campus in Dublin. 97 As presented in Figure 11 below the academic affairs is led by the Vice President of Academic Affairs and under this post there are key academic administrative roles such as Heads of Schools, Programme Directors, Year/Level Directors, Modules Coordinators, and lastly all faculty members. This study included only three levels from this category starting from the Vice President of Academic Affairs down to the programme directors for conducting the semi- structured interviews which will be presented and discussed in more details in this section. 98 Figure 11 Case Study Organisational Structure 99 President Head of Quality Enhancement Executive Secretariat Professional Quality Development Officer Coordinator Vice President For Academic Affairs Chief Operating Officer Head of School of Head of School of Associate Director Head of Student Associate Director Head of School of Head of Human Resources Head Head of Head of Student Services Postgraduate Nursing & for Academic Recreation & of Marketing & Medicine Finance Specialist of ICT Facilities Admissions Manager Studies & Research Midwifery Affairs Services Communications Director of Medical Academic Occupational health SoN&M Head of Director of MSc Director of BSc Senior Financial Human Resources Senior ICT Student Services Student Services Commencement Operations & Admissions Community Nursing Nursing Accountant Accountant Officer Engineer Administrator Officer Programme and Manager Safety Advisor Officers Engagement Head of Language & Regulations & SoM Senior Manager of Research Director of BSc Culture Unit ICT Systems Records Facilities Manager Nursing (Bridging) Student Fees Cost Human Resources Admissions Instructors Communications & Administrator Director of Manager Management Officer Accountant Assistant Officers Events Foundation Year Admini strator Recognition, ICT Support Senior Officer Careers & Alumni Accounts payable Technicians Maintenance Graphic Imagery Director of Junior Manager Officer Technician Cycle Library & Learning Head of Student Resources Centre Procurement Maintenance Recruitment Director of Manager Officer Assistant Intermediate Cycle Head of Student Development & Director of Senior Wellbeing Drivers Cycle secretary secretary secretary secretary 4.2.2 Document Analysis On the institutional level, only the documents in the public domain were allowed to be used for analysis: the strategic plans for Bahrain (2012-2017) and those of the parent university (2013- 2017). The case study’s strategic plan (2012-2017) has reflective and realistic objectives, vision, and mission that emphasizes: … enhanc[ing] health in Bahrain, the other GCC countries and beyond through endeavour, innovation and collaboration in education, research and service. (p. 2) … inspire[ing], educat[ing] and train[ing] competent and caring graduates who are well prepared to enter specialisation programmes and assume leadership roles in their profession. We undertake these activities to internationally recognized standards of excellence in teaching and research for the benefit of the health of the nations. (p.2) The quality and excellence of teaching staff has been a focus of the college in its mission, which is such a crucial element in the success of any educational organisation. Knight (2002) and Richter et al., (2011) argue that the quality of any educational establishment lies in the quality of teaching and learning processes, therefore teachers’ professional development is highly recommended for a school’s wellbeing. In order to construct this strategic plan, all staff were assigned to three teams and a SWOT analysis was conducted on the following arenas: teaching and learning, research, and community engagement. The feedback on the outcomes of this analysis from college management was distributed to all staff members to keep them in the loop of this process. This is an important stage where an organisation’s academic leaders consider their staff members as an essential factor to contribute to issue definition and the development of ideas developing when starting the planning of a change (Fowler, 2013). Teachers should be consulted when developing policies to ensure the appropriateness of these policies to their settings. Fowler (2013) sees the importance of ensuring that people who will implement it are accepting of the policy’s content. Very importantly the college underwent consultations with the primary external stakeholders and the national quality assurance authority in order to consider their recommendations while setting their agendas. Different types of environmental analysis including social, economic and demographic were conducted to spot the emerging needs of the 100 institute itself and the needs of the country and the region. Challenges were assessed as well to help in the setting of the reform of the system’s professional agenda. The main focus that emerges after the analysis was completed and the following three pillars: Teaching & Learning, Research, and Community Engagement. The objectives and goals of the strategic plan have been identified and also the time, budget and resources required to achieve these goals have been allocated under the umbrella of quality enhancement vision and the national goals of Bahrain. Table 11 Organisational Document Analysis Document Name RCSI Bahrain RCSI Dublin Thematic Analysis (2012-2017) (2013-2017) A. Teaching & Research Practices 1.1 Teaching Values & Beliefs   1.2 Teaching Training   1.3 Pedagogical Approach   1.4 Relationship with Students   2.1 Knowledge of Research Methods   2.2 Value & Purpose of Research   2.3 Team Values & Practices   B. Organisational & Contextual Elements 1.1 Values Attached to Teaching   1.2 Cross-Cultural Inconsistencies & Tensions   1.3 Adequate Infrastructure (e.g., library, equipment)   1.4 Academic Freedom in Teaching  2.1 Active Networking   2.2 Adequate Infrastructure   2.3 Adequate Research Funding   2.4 Workload Issues 2.5 Academic Freedom in Research   2.6 Collegial Environment (professional)   C. Multicultural Factors 1.1 Degree of Diversity   101 Toleration & Celebration 1.2 Degree of Difference in Teaching Ideals (social   justice, inclusion & equity; respectful relationship; professional responsibility) 1.3 Degree of Difference in Research Approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) 1.4 Obedience to Authority vs Academic Freedom   1.5 Style of management and leadership   1.6 Degree of Organisational Autonomy (Governance)   D. Ongoing Changes 1.1 Career Pathway: Stagnant or Growing   1.2 Intellectual Capital Development for students and   faculty 1.3 Professional Ethos   1.4 Community Development (Added-Value)   1.5 Research Support (policy, workload, funding, etc.)   1.6 Quality & Standards in Student Work   It has also been noticed from the above (Table 11) that for teaching and research practices, both universities have clear values and beliefs, pedagogical approaches, and professional development plans that enhance the quality of the teaching and research. While for the organisational and contextual elements there were gaps in terms of academic freedom for teaching in the parent university’s strategic plan. The only explanation for this might be that academics are enjoying this academic ethos through a strong tradition where explicit inclusion in a policy is not required. Another gap in both strategic plans is excessive workload for academic staff and the differences in research approaches. 4.2.3 Survey Results and Analysis This section of the case study will start with a detailed demographic description of the participants in the survey. This will be followed by a thematic analysis of the results after 102 clustering the survey items. These themes are: cultural, developmental, individual/personal, social, teaching, and research. 4.2.3.1 Demographic description The full demographic data of the research subjects is presented below in (Table 12) reporting on those features that are relevant to the study and its aims, in this case, their position, ethnic origin, gender, qualifications, and country of highest qualification. In addition, this section includes the length of time working for the university, under the current director and time under previous directors. Table 12 Distribution of the Demographical Variables Survey Items N % Chair 21 45.7% Position Dean 25 54.3% Total 46 100.0% Irish / British 14 30.4% Arab 12 26.1% Ethnic origin Bahraini 10 21.7% Others 10 21.7% Total 46 100.0% Male 19 41.3% Gender Female 27 58.7% Total 46 100.0% BA 1 2.2% Master 22 47.8% Highest qualification PhD 23 50.0% Total 46 100.0% Ireland/ UK 30 65.2% Where have you obtained your USA 8 17.4% last degree from (country)? Arabian Gulf / India 8 17.4% Total 46 100.0% <5 years 25 54.3% For how long have you been 5+ years 21 45.7% working in this university? Total 46 100.0% <3 years 30 65.2% I have worked with my current 3+ years 16 34.8% Cycle/Year Director for Total 46 100.0% 103 None 21 45.7% I have worked with another <3 years 11 23.9% Cycle/Year Director in the 3+ years 14 30.4% same university for Total 46 100.0% The surveys about the functions of ‘Chair’ and ‘Dean’ were given to 53 faculty members at RCSI Bahrain from Nursing, Medicine, and Research & Postgraduate schools. Only 46 participants returned back the surveys to the researcher, 58.7% of which were female participants and 41.3% of which were male participants (see Figure 12). 41.3% 58.7% Male Female Figure 12 Gender of faculty participants Out of the 46 who completed the survey, 54.3% participated in the Deans survey and 45.7% participated in the Chairs survey (Figure 13). Thirty-four point eight percent of the participants have worked with the evaluated Dean or Chair for more than 3 years while 65.2% of them worked with them for less than 3 years. Only 45.7% have not worked with any Dean or Chair prior to their current Academic administrators, 30.4% of participants have worked with others for more than 3 years, and only 23.9% of them had worked with others for less than 3 years. 54.3% 45.7% Chair Dean Figure 13 Percentage of total faculty who evaluated the Academic positions 104 The survey participants represent different ethnic origins: 30.4% were Irish and British, 26.1% were Arab, 21.7% were Bahraini, and 21.7% were from other countries (Figure 14). 35% 30.4% 26.1% 30% 21.7% 21.7% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Irish / Arab Bahraini Others British Ethnic groups Figure 14 Ethnic origins of participants The participants had obtained their highest educational qualification from several countries: 65.2% from Ireland and the United Kingdom, 17.4% from USA, and 17.4% from different Arabian Gulf countries and India (Figure 15), 50% of which had a PhD or Doctorate as their highest qualification and the other 50% either a BA or Master’s degree. 65.2% 70% 60% 50% 40% 17.4% 17.4% 30% 20% 10% 0% Ireland/ UK USA Arabian Gulf / India Country Figure 15 Country where last degree was obtained 105 The participants had different years of work experiences at RCSI Bahrain: 54.3% of the participants worked for less than 5 years, and only 45.7% worked for more than 5 years (Figure 16). 45.7% 54.3% <5 years 5+ years Figure 16 Participants' working years in the university 4.2.3.2 Survey Thematic Analysis and Discussion The results of the survey are organised and presented by groups of questions that form a theme. The questions are thematically grouped as follows: cultural, developmental, teaching, research, individual/personal, and social. The following (Table 13) shows the scoring categories of the level of satisfaction that will be used in the interpretation of the results. Table 13 Key for scoring categories and level of satisfaction Score Level of satisfaction 1 – 1.8 Strongly disagree >1.8 – 2.6 Disagree >2.6 – 3.4 Neutral >3.4 – 4.2 Agree >4.2 -5 Strongly agree 106 4.2.3.2.1 Survey Results by Thematic Clusters Table 14 below shows that the participants agree that the Deans/Chairs understand the cultural background and diversity within the teams because the mean score falls in the category (>3.4 – 4.2). Overall, the participants agreed that academic leaders have good cultural skills with mean score 3.91 ± 0.93. Table 14 Mean & standard deviation of participants towards "Cultural items" Survey Items: Cultural Theme Mean SD 8. Understands my own cultural background 4.17 1.00 33. Understands cultural diversity within the team & helps minimize any cultural gaps 3.65 1.04 Cultural (Overall) 3.91 0.93 Table 15 below shows that the participants agree that Deans/Chairs understand professional development needs, encourage academic professional practices, provide equal opportunities for team members, and treat them fairly and in a transparent way when it comes to funding because the mean scores fall in the category (>3.4 – 4.2). On the other hand, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs encourage teaching and research development, prepare the academic staff to take leadership roles, support them in applying for promotion, or help them in developing their career pathways because the mean scores fall in the category (>2.6 – 3.4). Table 15 Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards "Developmental items" Survey Items: Developmental Themes Mean SD 18. Understands my professional development needs 3.52 1.21 27. Encourages teaching & research development through sharing ideas & experiences 3.39 1.16 32. Encourages academic professional practices (professionalism) 4.02 0.80 37. Prepares me to take leadership roles 2.98 1.31 42. Gives the team members equal opportunities to be actively engaged in national & 3.52 1.11 international conferences 43. Treats me fairly & in a transparent way when it comes to research funding or 3.43 1.13 professional training 44. Supports me in applying for promotion based on my teaching & research contributions 3.26 1.10 48. Helps me plan my career pathway 2.87 1.29 Professional Development (Overall) 3.37 0.90 107 Overall, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs support the developmental dynamic system in the university with mean score 3.37 ± 0.90. Table 16 below shows that the participants agree that Deans/Chairs are knowledgeable in teaching, acknowledge the academic staff for developing their teaching at a professional level, and are aware of the national and international quality standards for enhancing teaching because the mean scores fall in the category (>3.4 – 4.2). On the other hand, participants are neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs guide the academic staff towards developing better teaching skills, provide them with effective solutions for teaching related issues, understand their teaching workload, or they even could understand their development needs in teaching because the mean scores fall in the category (>2.6 – 3.4). Table 16 Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards "Teaching items" Survey Items: Teaching Theme Mean SD 13. Guides me toward developing better teaching skills 3.24 1.16 20. Provides me with effective solutions for teaching related issues 3.24 1.20 21. Understands my teaching workload 3.20 1.39 30. Is knowledgeable in teaching 3.61 1.08 36. Understands my developing needs in teaching and provides required support 3.37 1.27 39. Acknowledges me for developing my teaching professional skills 3.43 1.22 47. Is aware of the national & international quality standards for enhancing teaching 3.74 0.98 Teaching (Overall) 3.40 0.94 Overall, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs support the teaching dimension as an academic ethos with mean score 3.40 ± 0.94. Table 17 shows that the participants agree that Deans/Chairs are knowledgeable in research, respect their academic choices in research and their academic freedom, treat them fairly and in a transparent way when distributing research funding or training, and are aware of the national and international quality standards for enhancing research because the mean scores fall in the category (>3.4 – 4.2). On the other hand, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs inspire the academic staff to excel in research, provide them with access to research resources/ networks, take their research ideas to a higher level, encourage inter- disciplinary research, acknowledge the development of their professional research skills, or 108 provide them with opportunities to lead research projects because the mean scores fall in the category (>2.6 – 3.4). Table 17 Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards 'Research items" Survey Items: Research Theme Mean SD 9. Inspires me to excel in research 3.26 1.06 10. Provides me with access to research resources/ networks 3.11 1.16 19. Takes my research ideas to higher level 2.91 1.23 29. Is knowledgeable in research 3.70 1.15 34. Encourages inter-disciplinary research 3.30 0.99 35. Understands my developing needs in research and provides required support 3.13 1.19 38. Acknowledges me for developing my research professional skills 3.13 1.11 40. Respects my choices in research & my academic freedom 3.59 1.15 43. Treats me fairly & in a transparent way when it comes to research funding or 3.43 1.13 professional training 45. Provides me with opportunities to lead research projects 3.09 1.17 46. Is aware of the national & international quality standards for enhancing research 3.72 1.05 Research (Overall) 3.31 0.85 Overall, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs support the research dimension as an academic ethos with mean score 3.31 ± 0.85. However, Table 18 below, which focuses on other issues that involve personal matters, interpersonal relations and organisational tension, shows that the participants agree that Deans/Chairs support academic staff during times of change and transition, reassure them during workplace crises, have an influential role in the university through access to resources, networks, and through their academic reputations, and that they are effective leaders having special personal qualities because the mean scores fall in the category (>3.4 – 4.2). On the other hand, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs consult them in challenging situations or involve them in decision making because the mean scores fall in the category (>2.6 – 3.4). 109 Table 18 Mean & standard deviation of participants towards "Individual/Personal Items" Survey Items: Individual/ Personal Theme Mean SD 11. Supports me during times of change and transition 3.50 1.11 12. Reassures me during workplace crisis 3.52 1.13 14. Consults me in challenging situations 3.30 1.19 16. Involves me in decision making 3.15 1.41 22. Has an influential role in the university through access to resources, networks & 3.65 1.14 academic reputation 23. Is an effective leader & has special personal qualities 3.43 1.19 Personal (Overall) 3.43 0.96 Overall, the participants slightly agree that the Deans/Chairs support the personal and individual relations as elements of the academic ethos with mean score 3.43 ± 0.96. Generally, Table 19 below shows that the participants slightly agree that the Deans/Chairs as academic leaders have good social skills. The participants agree that Deans/Chairs communicate with them clearly and effectively, listen to their concerns constructively, maintain good relationships with everyone, and encourage collegiality among the team because the mean scores fall in the category (>3.4 – 4.2). On the other hand, the participants neither agree nor disagree that the Deans/Chairs believe in the importance of formal and informal relationships for the development of the team, encourage the team to develop a shared sense of dignity and purpose, or encourages me to be more connected to the discipline. Table 19 Mean & standard deviation of participants' perceptions towards "Social items" Survey Items: Social Theme Mean SD 15. Communicates with me clearly & effectively 3.65 1.14 17. Listens to my concerns & responses constructively 3.52 1.26 24. Believes in the importance of formal & informal relationships for the development of the 3.35 1.34 team 25. Maintains a good relationship with everyone 3.70 1.15 26. Helps the team to develop shared norms, goals & trust (i.e. the community of scholars) 3.37 1.08 28. Encourages the team to develop a shared sense of dignity & purpose 3.39 1.14 31. Encourages me to be more connected to the discipline (area of specialization/ specialisation) 3.28 1.24 41. Encourages collegiality among the team 3.61 1.08 Social (Overall) 3.48 1.01 110 Overall, the participants slightly agree that the Deans/Chairs support the social element of the academic ethos with mean score 3.48 ± 1.01. 4.2.3.2.2 Relationship between Themes and the participants’ perceptions of Academic leaders The following results examine the relationship between the aggregate themes and the academic administrative position holders. Table 20 shows that there is no significant difference in the mean of participants’ perceptions score according to the academic administrative position holders towards their cultural interaction, their individual and social academic leadership skills, teaching and research elements of academic ethos, the developmental dynamic system, and the overall perception because all P-values are >0.05. This result means that there is the same level of satisfaction with these factors. Table 20 Relationship between participants' perceptions of Academic Administrative position holders & study themes Position Study Themes Mann Whitney Chair Dean Test P-value Mean SD Mean SD Cultural 4.10 0.75 3.76 1.04 0.284 Developmental 3.36 0.76 3.39 1.01 0.757 Teaching 3.57 0.89 3.26 0.98 0.408 Research 3.24 0.72 3.36 0.95 0.480 Individual 3.50 0.90 3.37 1.02 0.596 Social 3.55 0.99 3.43 1.05 0.825 Overall perception 3.46 0.78 3.38 0.92 0.930 In Table 21 and Figures 17 and 18 below, there is a significant difference in the mean of participants’ perception score according to their ethnic origins towards teaching and research as elements of the academic ethos because P-values are 0.008 and 0.024 respectively. Participants from Arab origins showed the highest agreement that academic administrative leaders support teaching (mean = 4.15 ± 0.75) and research (mean = 3.86 ± 0.70) as elements of academic ethos, while the Bahraini participants showed the least agreement that academic administrative leaders encourage the teaching (mean = 2.93 ± 0.93) and research (mean = 2.88 111 ± 0.84) as elements of academic ethos. This demonstrates that non-Bahraini Arabs feel that there are receiving sufficient support in their teaching and research activities, but Bahrainis are not satisfied that support for them in these activities is sufficient. This is one area where academic administrative leadership may need to pay more attention and ensure that opportunities and support are provided. There is a significant difference in the overall mean of participants’ perception score according to their ethnic origins because P-value = 0.041. Table 21 Relationship between participants' ethnic origins & their perceptions of the study themes Ethnic origin Kruskal Study Themes Irish / British Arab Bahraini Others Wallis Test Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD P-value Cultural 3.93 0.85 3.92 1.14 4.25 0.42 3.55 1.09 0.496 Developmental 3.36 1.01 3.96 0.88 2.99 0.83 3.09 0.46 0.087 Teaching 3.19 0.80 4.15 0.75 2.93 0.93 3.27 0.95 0.008 Research 3.25 0.80 3.86 0.70 2.88 0.84 3.15 0.86 0.024 Individual 3.52 0.98 3.92 0.92 2.98 0.83 3.15 0.92 0.093 Social 3.38 1.10 4.07 0.89 3.09 0.86 3.32 0.99 0.094 Overall perception 3.35 0.88 3.97 0.72 3.03 0.80 3.21 0.77 0.041 Figure 17 Mean score of perception towards Quality of Teaching by Ethnic Origin 112 Figure 18 Mean score of perception towards Quality of Research by Ethnic Origin Table 22 and Figure 19 show that there is a significant difference in the mean of participants’ perceptions scores for their cultural interaction by gender because P-value = 0.024. Male participants (mean = 4.29 ± 0.63) showed higher agreement than female participants (mean = 3.65 ± 1.02). Table 22 Relationships between participants' gender & their perceptions of study themes Gender Mann Whitney Study Themes Male Female Test Mean SD Mean SD P-value Cultural 4.29 0.63 3.65 1.02 0.024 Developmental 3.64 0.85 3.19 0.90 0.081 Teaching 3.59 0.73 3.27 1.06 0.279 Research 3.50 0.67 3.17 0.94 0.192 Individual 3.72 0.84 3.22 1.00 0.072 Social 3.78 0.85 3.28 1.08 0.096 Overall perception 3.66 0.70 3.24 0.91 0.108 113 Figure 19 Mean score of perceptions towards Cultural Interaction by Gender This finding demonstrates that women had more criticism of men in senior positions who may be seen as chauvinistic or less ‘nurturing’ than women would be, which would be a result consistent with a large body of literature on women in academia in relation to men (e.g., Dean, Bracken & Allen, 2008; Fitzgerald, 2013). In Table 23 below, there is no significant difference in the mean of participants’ perceptions score according to their highest qualification towards all study themes because all P-values are greater than 0.05. Table 23 Relationship between participants' highest qualification & their perceptions of the study themes Highest qualification Study Themes Mann Whitney BA / Master PhD Test P-value Mean SD Mean SD Cultural 4.00 0.80 3.83 1.05 0.779 Developmental 3.37 0.86 3.38 0.95 0.834 Teaching 3.63 0.91 3.18 0.94 0.118 Research 3.39 0.81 3.22 0.89 0.553 Individual 3.54 1.00 3.31 0.93 0.560 Social 3.58 1.01 3.39 1.03 0.668 Overall perception 3.52 0.81 3.31 0.90 0.524 114 However, Table 24 and Figure 20 show that there is significant difference in the mean of participants’ perceptions scores according to the country where they obtained their last degree regarding teaching as an element of academic ethos because the P-value equals 0.019. Participants who obtained their degree from the US showed the highest agreement (mean = 4.14 ± 0.69) and participants who obtained their degree from Ireland/UK showed the least agreement (mean = 3.15 ± 0.83). This result could reflect the different emphases on teaching as part of university responsibilities between North America and Europe – North American universities are more oriented towards teaching. Table 24 Relationships between participants' country of obtaining last degree & their perceptions of study themes Country of obtaining last degree Study Themes Kruskal Wallis Ireland/ UK US Arabian Gulf / India Test P-value Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Cultural 3.83 1.03 3.94 0.82 4.19 0.59 0.759 Developmental 3.26 0.84 3.83 0.92 3.36 1.04 0.300 Teaching 3.15 0.83 4.14 0.69 3.61 1.21 0.019 Research 3.16 0.80 3.69 0.83 3.45 1.00 0.271 Individual 3.25 0.87 3.83 0.96 3.69 1.22 0.291 Social 3.32 0.99 3.89 0.93 3.70 1.13 0.295 Overall perception 3.25 0.80 3.86 0.74 3.59 1.04 0.178 Figure 20 Mean score of perceptions towards Teaching by Country of last degree 115 Galtung (1981), in his study of national differences in academic culture, demonstrates that people in the UK tend to be more critical in their scholarly style than Americans who are more socially oriented. The UK has a long history of research degrees with less emphasis on spending time teaching and with their students, whereas Canada and the US are more teaching oriented, which can also have an effect on attitudes. One explanation for the scores of Arab faculty is that Arab culture is more sociable (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2007) in an educational context than the British, but may be less so than American. Table 25 and Figures 21 and 22 show that there is significant difference in the mean scores of participants’ perceptions of all study themes according to the years of experience in the university, except the cultural interaction, because all P-values are less than 0.05. The participants with less than five years of experience showed higher agreement than the participants with five or more years of experience. Table 25 Relationships between participants' years of experience in the university & their perceptions of study themes Years of experience in this university Study Themes Mann Whitney <5 years 5+ years Test P-value Mean SD Mean SD Cultural 4.06 1.00 3.74 0.82 0.091 Developmental 3.65 0.81 3.04 0.90 0.012 Teaching 3.70 0.88 3.05 0.91 0.007 Research 3.56 0.80 3.00 0.82 0.007 Individual 3.71 0.91 3.09 0.93 0.022 Social 3.88 0.96 3.02 0.88 0.002 Overall perception 3.71 0.78 3.07 0.81 0.005 116 Figure 21 Mean score of perceptions towards Teaching by years of experience in the university Figure 22 Mean score of perceptions towards Research by years of experience in the university 117 Table 26 shows that there is no significant difference in the mean of participants’ perceptions scores according to their years of experience with the current cycle/year director towards all study themes because all of the P-values are greater than 0.05. Table 26 Relationship between participants' years of experience with current director & their perceptions of study themes Years of experience with my current Cycle/Year Director Study Themes Mann Whitney <3 years 3+ years Test P-value Mean SD Mean SD Cultural 3.82 1.00 4.09 0.76 0.409 Developmental 3.49 0.90 3.16 0.87 0.229 Teaching 3.56 0.87 3.11 1.04 0.075 Research 3.45 0.84 3.04 0.82 0.074 Individual 3.54 0.94 3.22 1.00 0.248 Social 3.57 0.98 3.32 1.09 0.361 Overall perception 3.53 0.82 3.20 0.89 0.185 Table 27 shows that there is no significant difference in the mean of participants’ perceptions score according to their years of experience with another cycle/year director in the same university towards all study themes because all P-values are greater than 0.05. This means that the conditions under the directors have not changed. Table 27 Relationship between participants' years of experience with another director in the same university & their perceptions of study themes Years of experience with another Cycle/Year Director in the Study Themes same university Kruskal Wallis None <3 years 3+ years Test P-value Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Cultural 4.26 0.75 3.55 1.19 3.68 0.80 0.049 Developmental 3.68 0.89 3.07 0.73 3.16 0.94 0.231 Teaching 3.67 0.83 3.19 1.19 3.16 0.85 0.232 Research 3.48 0.75 3.21 1.02 3.13 0.86 0.398 Individual 3.70 0.86 3.15 1.19 3.24 0.86 0.197 Social 3.82 0.99 3.24 1.18 3.17 0.80 0.107 Overall perception 3.68 0.78 3.20 0.99 3.19 0.78 0.212 118 4.2.3.3 Survey Open-Ended Data Analysis For the open-ended questions, the focus was on the two main elements of the academic ethos, which are teaching and research. The below discussion will focus on the themes that arose from each. The first open-ended question sheds light on the academic administrative leaders’ roles in enhancing the quality of teaching within the department and the institution. A high percentage, 89.1%, of the participants (n=46) answered this item. Table 28 below identifies the key themes about the role of the leaders. Table 28 Themes on the role of AALs in enhancing Teaching Quality No. Teaching Development Theme Total % 1 Peer Review 6.50 2 Feedback & Discussion 15.3 3 Providing Guidance 13.0 4 Organizing for teaching activities 4.30 5 Observe content & methodology 6.50 6 Support for / provide training or Professional development 13.0 7 No active role/ minimal involvement 30.5 30.5% of the participants believe that the AALs do not have an active or have very minimal role in enhancing the quality of teaching in the department or in the institution. Two responses, which are typical of many include: ‘For me he is not actually involved in teaching & he is more involved in clinical research’ and ‘Involved in academic affairs of the college for the school.’ Interestingly one of the participants sees the role of the leaders as: ‘REALLY NONE! As a manager he sees that the lecture & tutorial rooms are there and equipped for purpose. That is it!’ The majority believe that the quality of teaching is enhanced through personal initiatives from the faculty members themselves, for example, one participant believes that the leader ‘Can give out commands & knows who to ask for specific jobs to be done. Quality of teaching is enhanced individually not by the line manager ’. A small minority (15.3%) of participants believe that leaders provide adequate feedback and use meeting discussions to effectively develop teaching quality, for example, one participant stated that the leader ‘Provides constructive feedback’ and ‘Team discussions & preformat of topics for teaching’. An even small minority (13.0%) of the participants find leaders good in 119 providing guidance to develop teaching quality: ‘Giving clear directions about the importance of the quality of teaching’ and ‘My head is very interested in ensuring quality teaching in the school & is very keen to provide whatever support and guidance to all lecturers to ensure quality teaching’. There were also the same percentage (13.0%) of participants who agreed that the leaders are supportive to professional development and training, which enhance teaching quality: ‘He encourages attendance at international conferences to update teaching knowledge’. The role of leaders, as perceived by the participants, is limited in certain practices when enhancing the quality of teaching such as peer review (6.5%), and observing teaching content and methodology (6.5%). As one participant commented, ‘Director of a Programme! Ensure that all module content is updated’. Only 4.3% of participants believe that the leaders have a role in. The second open-ended question highlighted the role of academic administrative leaders in enhancing the quality of research within the department and the institution. A fairly large percentage, 65.3%, of the participants (n=46) answered this item. The below Table 29 identifies the key themes that arose from the participants’ responses. Table 29 Themes on the role of AALs in enhancing Research Quality No. Research development Theme Total % 1 Encourage incorporating research in teaching 19.60 2 Providing Guidance 8.70 3 Allows academic freedom 2.20 4 Follow-up strategic plan implementation- attempts to 6.50 encourage 5 No active role/ minimal involvement 28.3 The highest percentage, although only a little over a quarter (28.3%) of participants answering this question, believe that leaders have no active role in enhancing the quality of research in their departments. They tended to argue the following: ‘He leaves this function to the Head of Postgraduates studies & Research’ or that their role is as two other participants described: 120 None! I doubt if he even knows what I do. I doubt if he even knows what I publish. Of course I do not know what he publishes either! He knows nothing about the kind of interest we have in research - all personal initiatives to develop. More attention should be paid to junior faculty. The next highest percentage, 19.6%, of the participants agreed that their leaders encourage them to incorporate or link their research interests to their teaching with the following kinds of statements: ‘Encourages me to lead clinical research studies’ or ‘My Head is research oriented. He believes in the importance of research and encourages all lecturers to be active researchers in their field’. A much smaller percentage, 8.7%, stated that the leaders provide general guidance or recommendations to their colleagues to initiate research projects. The academic administrative leaders’ role in enhancing the quality of research is limited to following up the implementation of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the research strategic plan, as noted by 6.50% of the participants, for example: ‘Filters down aspects of the strategic plan’. Only 2.2% of the participants stated that their leaders value academic freedom and encourage it. 4.2.3.4 Recommendations of Participants The final section of the survey allowed the participants to present recommendations that would help in enhancing the quality of teaching and research. A number of themes emerged in the analysis. For the teaching recommendations, only 41 (89%) participants responded to this open-ended question. Five main themes emerged from the responses to this item as are presented in Table 30, with 39.1% of the academic staff believing that in order to enhance the quality of teaching, they would need more professional development courses and training especially since they are specialised nursing and medical staff and do not hold an educational professional degree in teaching. 121 Table 30 Themes of Teaching Recommendations No. Teaching Recommendations Theme Total % 1 Professional development (Courses, Postgraduate Diploma in Education, 39.1 Conferences) funding training. 2 Human Resources & Administrative support (Less interference, Workload, 21.7 Recruitment, Clarity of responsibility, Class Ratio to Staff) 3 Incentives (awards, motivational words, academic freedom) 8.7 4 Leadership (appreciation, availability of Teaching & Learning Director) 4.3 5 Departmental collaboration (Peer review, Observations, Teamwork, 15.2 Communication) Almost a quarter, 21.7%, recommended having more human resources and administrative support, which includes having a well-structured workload model or recruiting more academic staff, would allow for better teaching practices. Also they recommended more ideas for developing the same theme such as having clearer roles and responsibilities for their posts and ensuring fairness in achieving a better student-faculty ratio. A number of (15.2%) academic staff also believe that it is important to maintain healthier departmental collaborations through developing better peer review, observations, teamwork and communication mechanisms for academia. These recommendations are not substantially different from those reported in the literature (e.g., Comm & Mathaisel, 2003; Houston, Meyer & Paewai, 2006), for example, 8.7% of the participants believe that it is important to develop an incentives system where there are better awards or supportive motivational behaviour that encourage academic staff to excel in teaching. Interestingly academic freedom was considered an important element to enhance the quality of teaching. The least percentage in this list of themes (4.3%) focused on the importance of leadership appreciation that plays a role in enhancing the quality of teaching. Additionally, they also believe that it is crucial to have someone holding a key role position who will monitor teaching and learning processes such as a teaching and learning director. This point, though, could compromise academic freedom. For the research recommendations (See Table 30), each participant had suggested more than one idea that could help in enhancing the quality of research, which had increased the percentage of participation to 146%. Six main themes emerged from the responses to this item 122 as reflected in Table 31 the participants’ highest focus (39.1%) was on improving collaboration among staff to develop the research pillar by fostering best practices in research such as senior researchers supporting juniors through supervision and involvement in research projects, involvement in regional and international research activities, and encouraging cross- departmental and schools’ (Nursing and Medicine) research projects. Table 31 Themes of Research Recommendations No. Research Recommendation Themes Total % 1 Professional development (capacity building, Research 15.2 methodology, training) 2 Incentives (administrative support, workload, morals, 37.0 encouragement, motivation) 3 Resources (funding, library facilities, lab equipment) 33.0 4 Research focus (clinical & non, educational, fostering research 15.2 culture) 5 Leadership (awareness of Research importance, ethics committees 6.50 with professional researchers, support) 6 Collaboration (supervision, involvement, senior support to junior, 39.1 regional, international, cross-departmental projects) Over a third, 37.0%, of the participants recommended working on the incentives system, similar to the results for teaching recommendations. Their focus here included administrative support through the following: providing approvals; reducing workload to foster fairness, transparency, and more opportunities to conduct research; and improving the research culture that has an effect on staff morale and motivation. A third, 33.0%, suggested improving research resources such as providing more funds, library facilities, and laboratory equipment that support scientific and non-scientific research. Several (15.2%) advocated professional development and capacity building in research methodologies that would help them produce better quality research. The same percentage (15.2% ) agreed that the organisation should work on a research culture that encourages both clinical and non- clinical (educational) research and not to limit the university’s academic staff to only clinical research. A small percentage (6.50%) of the academic staff believed that the academic administrative leaders need to have more awareness of the importance of different types of 123 research. In addition to this, universities should appoint research-oriented members to research ethics committees, as this will shape research outcomes. The survey also has a section that focused on the amount and type of support that participants get from their colleagues. The total responses for this part were 69.6%, which have been organised into five main categories based on the amount of support they received from colleagues. The categories are: full support, most of the time, some support, minimal support, and no support. Over a quarter, 28.3%, of the participants felt that they receive full support from their colleagues in both teaching and research. They contended that this support comes as a common feeling of shared responsibilities among staff within some departments: ‘We have very healthy attitudes to teaching and research … most of the basic scientists teach and conduct research’. Another participant assured that this kind of atmosphere exists at the college: ‘All staff in the school are supportive of another in teaching load. Those with a PhD serve as advisors for other staff when conducting research,’ and it also creates a lively environment for research, ‘Yes, dynamic collaboration’. Participants in this category agreed that they receive full support through collegial relationships, collaborative teamwork, and engagement in teaching and research projects. Some have even descried the support they receive as ‘excellent – couldn’t be better’. Only one participant pointed to the support that is received from the academic administrative leader as high: ‘my manager is very supportive in my teaching role and encourages me to improve my skills in teaching’, while many participants reported this level of support coming from their colleagues. The overall satisfaction was reflected in 58.5% of Arab origin (Bahraini and Middle Eastern) and in 41.5% of Irish and Anglo participants. Only 15.2% of the participants agreed that most of the time they receive support from their colleagues on different levels in various areas such as ‘support in covering classes in urgent matters, involvement and participation in research activity, and participating in problem solving & decision-making’. The overall satisfaction was 50% from the two different origin participants: Arab origin (Bahraini and Middle Eastern) and Irish and Anglo participants. Only 8.70% of the participants, 75% of which were from Arab origins while 25% were from the US, believed that they receive some support from their colleagues in developing their teaching and research. Remarkably they have provided the following reasons for this low level of satisfaction such as: 124 There is minimal interaction between team members. Some support is given between one or two team members, but there is no emphasis on TEAM as a whole. Maybe because all are overloaded and we require some new recruited staff to help; especially for staff who do their doctorate and get no time to take study leave. A very small minority, 4.40%, thought that the level of support that they receive from their colleagues was minimal and it was ‘limited to peer review’. All participants in this category were from Bahraini origins. But there was an appreciable percentage, 13.0%, of the participants argued that they receive no support of any sort from their colleagues, identifying a number of reasons such as time limitations due to high workload, lack of experts in educational research field at the university, and communication issues within departments. Some participants believe that it is an individual’s responsibility to develop: ‘Teaching/ Training development is ad hoc mainly self-directed’. The overall agreement in this category was reflected by 33.5% of Arab origin (including Bahraini) participants and 66.5% of Irish and Anglo participants. Table 32 The amount of ‘colleagues support’ by national origins Amount of support from Bahraini/ Arab origins Irish/ Anglo origins colleagues Full support 58.5% 41.5% Most of the time support 50.0% 50.0% Some support 75.0% 25.0% Minimal support 100% 0.00% No support 33.5% 66.5% Finally, the survey results unveil important patterns, which is the responses between different national origins when it comes to the amount of support they receive from their colleagues. Table 32 shows the difference. This clearly shows the multicultural effect on people’s appreciation for the support they get from their colleagues. Participants from Bahraini and Arab origins tend to value more interaction, communications and relationships in the support process, which stems from their collectivism as a group. While Irish and English would value it from a more individualistic perspective. 125 4.2.4 Interviews This section present and discusses the semi-structure interviews with the academic administrative leaders. It is presented in the following sections: senior academic administrative leadership profile; perceptions of leadership; leadership dimensions: Individual/ personal; social; structural; contextual; and developmental. 4.2.4.1 Senior Academic Administrator Profiles The semi-structured interview participants in this case study were recruited from three levels within the senior academic administrative population at RCSI-Bahrain. This includes the Vice President of Academic Affairs, three deans/heads of schools, and six directors/department chairs. They all come from different cultural backgrounds which gives this study a unique component by reflects the cross-cultural influences on how they perceive different phenomena of higher education quality academic systems. Table 33 below represent the ten participants’ national and origin ethnicity. Table 33 Demographic Description of the interview participants Participant Gender Nationality Origin Work Work Administrative Male experience experience in Level (M) in RCSI RCSI Dublin Female Bahrain (F) 1 F Bahraini Bahraini 9 0 3 2 M British British 4 0 3 3 F British Iraqi 6 0 3 4 M Irish Irish 2 16 2 5 F British British 8 0 3 6 M Irish Irish 5 15 1 7 M Irish Irish 2 20 3 8 F Irish Irish 4 12 3 9 M British Indian 1 8½ 2 10 M Irish Irish 5 15 2 126 It is important to consider that RCSI-Bahrain is a new organisation and that it has only been established in 2004 in Bahrain while it has been functioning in Dublin since 1784. All participants have worked in either nursing or medicine fields for not less than 20 years in hospitals all around the world as doctors, nurses, or surgeons, six of which have worked in RCSI Bahrain between 1 to 5 years only while the other four have worked for 6 to 9 years in the same organisation. Five of the participants had worked in RCSI Dublin prior to working at the Bahrain campus for a minimum of 8½ to 20 years. This allows for more depth and variation in the participants’ perceptions through their experience in different contexts. Four of the participants are female academic administrative staff members. All of them have the responsibility of directing a programme as their highest administrative role. 4.2.4.2 Perceptions of Academic Leaders This section discusses the perceptions that the academic leadership holds about social phenomena like leadership, multicultural and cross-cultural, and quality teaching and research. 4.2.4.2.1 Perceptions on Leadership The interview’s introductory questions started by asking the participants general questions about their perceptions towards four key concepts of this case study, which are leadership, multicultural or cross-cultural factors, and quality teaching and research. The participants have different conceptions about the meaning of leadership, which have been organized into themes or categories reported below. Three have defined leadership as ‘leading by example’ (consistent with much of the leadership literature, eg. Yukl, 1999); they believe that leaders should act in a way that makes their subordinates feel that they are role models, for example AAL 4 defined leadership in the following way: Leadership is providing an example of good practice to people. A good example that you yourself as a head of school will ensure based on things you have learnt. Four of the participants held a different view of leadership, which integrates the concept of ‘having a vision and goals’, a common attribute in the leadership literature (e.g., Mulford, & Silins, 2003; Conger & Kanungo, 1998; Awamleh & Gardner, 1999), with how to make the 127 organisation achieve more success. The focus of these participants is to inspire and engage the individuals towards achieving the institution’s vision. AAL 7 stated that: Leadership is all about having a vision of where you are going and the willingness to front up and take risks to try and push that vision through and to get people on board. You can do this yourself you have to motivate people to take part in that. If you are too authoritarian it doesn’t really work because people will push against you. But if you see clearly their importance and provide them an ownership to participate in it then you are more likely to develop a team where you can then achieve everything. There will always be people who will sit on the side-line and won’t be involved in anything where you have to work around that. AAL 4 also emphasised the same concept of leadership, leading through a vision that supports the institution to meet its strategic goals and mission: It is to ensure that the organisation itself is getting the best of each of its employees and if they are happy with the whole structure of the organisation with what the Head of school sets up on their behalf. At the end of the day, the leadership thing is about the quality of that school and how it functions in the broader remit of the university. It is also about having the staff works with you as a head of school not against you. Interestingly both participants focused on the importance of having their staff members work with them and not against their vision. Participant AAL2 agreed with the concept of having a vision to be a leader and elaborated on the areas that need to be ensured in order to make staff follow the organisation vision such as making clear what expectations there are, also a common point in the literature (e.g., Berson, Shamir, Avolio, & Popper, 2001): Making sure that the team members are aware of what is expected of them, and how they behave in terms of the professional standards, liaising with our team and other teams in the organisation, communicating with other organisations, making sure that we are doing our job very carefully, general time management for the team, having a vision of how would you like things to work, etc. 128 Three of the participants considered that leadership is all about ‘coaching and team building’ with an emphasis on relationships, a view that has more recently developed in leadership studies (e.g., Day, 2001; Gmelch & Buller, 2015). For example AAL 9 stated that: It is working in harmony with each other and making people understand certain issues. Supporting each other and being part of a team. Fellowship and leadership are two sides of the same coin. Both means following a common leader or purpose. To achieve all this you have to have the same vision, understanding, etc. it is not about that one person; it is about us ‘we’! A leader is somebody who serves with qualities like humanity, consciousness, honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, and questioning consciousness. However, AAL 3 defined it similarly with more focus on supporting both students and staff members to achieve their own goals and develop their personal and professional skills, a view very similar to Burns’ (1978) classic work on leadership: A leader is the one who helps people change their personality to be leaders themselves in the future. In the last category, participants had strong belief in the importance of understanding cultures while maintaining human relationships, communication, and interaction as aspects of the leadership concept. 4.2.4.2.2 Perceptions on Multicultural & Cross-cultural The second part of the interviews’ introductory questions focused on academic administrative leaders’ perceptions towards multiculturalism and cross-culturalism in organisations in general. The majority of the participants agreed that multicultural means a group of people working together from different cultural backgrounds with different beliefs, values, and attitudes. For example, AAL 7 defined multicultural as: It is accepting that the world is a multicultural place and everybody has a place in it. One of the issues is the danger of people feeling that they know best! It is just that some 129 of the countries didn’t have the resources for development to catch up and that they need the support from those outside to develop and to run their own affairs. They also need to embrace other cultures and know that others have different attitudes, beliefs and all they need to do is to understand and accept others, as much as they can, to work with them. Some of the participants did agree on the same definition with some contradictions in their responses such as AAL 8 who maintains the importance of collegiality, but at the same believes that it waxes and ebbs with passing moods rather than being a deeper foundational structure and there is lack of recognition of the cultural differences by which ‘driven’ women from different cultures behave (a possible example of cultural miscommunication like that described by Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1998; and Branine 2011): It means people working together and we have this in the college. This brings in so many challenges, but it is nice! When you are in the mood you really appreciate it, but when you are in a hurry, you get frustrated. I do, though, value sitting with people and learning about their lifestyle and values. People here have been very generous to me - they have been inviting me to their homes and I saw how it works in the Bahraini culture. There are many differences and there are some common things like ‘family is important’. For women I feel I am more driven as a westerner than Bahraini women. Two of the participants argued that multiculturalism is all about understanding the different ways people see and do things or why people behave in certain ways. While one of the participants had a unique way of defining multiculturalism in categories by saying: Culture is the way we see and do things. There are two important areas in it: genetic make-up and environmental make-up. Multi-culture means understanding why people behave in the way they do. There is an open aspect of the culture which is the way you dress, the type of food you eat, the language you speak, religion and so on. That is the easy bit of culture. The most difficult bit is the hidden culture, which is all about your hidden values, what you care about, what are your priorities, respect of honesty in your culture, being considerate. How buildings are designed, the way we approach the death, these are all elements of a culture. 130 One of the participants interpreted multiculturalism in relation to the organisational culture, which makes it unique considering diversity in discipline and functions. AAL 4 elaborated in this way: It means different things at one level it could mean different nationalities. It means nationalities coming together from different countries. You can see a lot of it in this university. Each academic domain has its culture. Within a university setting culture is a big issue. It is not an issue about nationality, it is about schools cultures, departments and organisations. Another example is the culture of administration versus the culture of academia. When defining cross-cultural, all participants had a similar conception that it means interaction between different cultures within an organisation, which include different levels of communication, relationships, expectations, understanding, and respect. This could only be achieved through shared work or activities across cultures. AAL 1’s definition suggest this: Cross-cultural is very similar, but this is the interaction of these cultures. You can have a multiple of cultures in one society, unless they have some kind of relationships, they can survive then can understand the different cultures and respect them. Also, AAL 6 had defined cross-cultural as blending cultures together to have a new ‘natural inherent culture’ a concept that has been considered in the NGO literature on the creation of a world culture synthesising elements from many (Boli & Thomas, 1999). The participant advocated the importance of producing an international value that would build future professionals while trying to respect and blend well with the national culture. All participants seemed to be confused and found it hard to describe their university as a multicultural or cross-cultural organisation. Only one participant thinks it is both multicultural and cross-cultural, while there was one who believed it is international. Four of the participants see RCSI Bahrain as multicultural with no further explanation or reason provided. One participant from an Arab origin described it this way: I think it is a multicultural organisation. In respect to the university, I don’t think they practice transparency across all the cultures. For example, in the UK they have a 131 standard pay scale for all staff from junior to senior levels, but not here in […]. There is not transparency in this area where some people are paid higher. We don’t know what the criteria are in this? This reflects on stuff moral because sooner or later the information will leak and people will know which will affect negatively on their morals. The university doesn’t appreciate transparency. Three of the participants think that their university is a cross-cultural organisation and only one (AAL 4) of which related this to being related to a home campus: It is where we can appreciate what different people can bring to the table. We also need to appreciate why cultures are as they are. We need to understand them better so that we can progress them and the facilitation of that is really a cross-cultural process. I think there is an aspiration of the cross-cultural. This university is in a unique position because it is linked to another university in Ireland and a lot of our quality rises from that linkage. I think it is doing well in terms of culture as it engraves itself here in Bahrain. It is well accepted here with good measures of quality. All participants agreed that it is very important for academic administrative leaders to maintain a level of understanding of different cultures. The participants’ responses are categorized based on the reasons they provided. Four believed that understanding cultures would help them in getting work managed effectively to meet work standards in the university, for example AAL4: It is very important to understand people’s reaction to things and that I make it very clear that this is for the benefit of what we do and that there is nothing personal to anybody and that it is a standard and a university culture. On the other hand, five of the participants felt the importance of understanding other cultures as not just a work-related task rather it is for maintaining good relationships among the team. The social aspect seemed to be more important for them to close the cultural gaps in their organisation. AAL 1 argued for its importance the following way: Very important! If you don’t understand the culture of your staff or colleagues, you won’t have that kind of mutual understanding. A lot of problems will be created if you 132 don’t maintain this kind of relationship. If you don’t understand the culture of others, things might be seen as disrespect! AAL 9 also provided a similar argument: It helps you get the best out of people. If you do that then you should show respect to them. You get the best when you show respect and understanding to people. There is music in life and in our souls. We need to create that harmony in our lives. Both participants considered that understanding the values and sensitivity of others’ culture as more than just achieving work-related goals, as AAL 8 elaborated: It is very important because if you don’t understand where people come from then you can’t work with them effectively. For example, coming here I needed to learn not to send emails on Fridays! [laugh!] Especially for women here they are very driven by their families and I need to understand that. You really can’t ignore these small things because others might be sensitive to these things! No matter where you work you need to consider others’ values. When asking participants about whether they think that their team found it motivating or challenging to work in a multicultural organisation like this one, only one found it too challenging, one found it slightly challenging, three found it completely motivating, and four found it both motivating and challenging at the same time. Those participants who thought it is motivating had attributed it to the availability of certain contextual conditions and values such as: understanding and respect to cultural diversity, availability of the support, receiving different opinions, the shared joy of harmony, and ideas reproduction. For example, AAL4 described the situation in his team as, I would use the word “Healthy” because people can be blinded by culture. It is very important for openness and for people in university education where the mission of the university is to open minds and not to close them. We have to ensure the cross fertilization of ideas. 133 On the other hand, the participants who thought that their teams found it challenging to work in a multicultural organisation thought the causes are: their experience working in a mono- cultural background, lack of clear policies implementation and differentiation between different cultures, communication and interaction styles, language barriers, differences in educational systems, and inflexibility and pressure from differently cultured academic administrative leaders. One of the participants (AAL 3), who is from an Arab cultural background argued that: Too many challenges! Some of my colleagues talk to me over cup of tea about them not being happy. The staff in the school of nursing feels that they are not at the same level of the school of medicine. Medicine faculty is paid higher than nursing faculty which effect on the staff morale. It is more challenging than motivating. It is worth mentioning that the majority of the faculty members in the school of nursing are from Arab or Bahraini cultural background, while the majority of the faculty of the school of medicine are from Anglo-Saxon or Irish cultural backgrounds. Having an equal opportunities policy in the university would minimize these cultural gap effects on staff morale. Also AAL 5 had raised another issue that can cause a challenge among team members, which is communication among different cultures: There are points where communication can be challenged by the culture that different members come from. For example: from the culture I come from it is quite concise, so I might ask for something or some information and what I would like to receive is information in a very concise way. I might get very extensive explanation where the actual information I am looking for is embedded in different areas. This requires a level of understanding. AAL 6 discussed a similar communication issue, which is differing language levels: It is challenging no doubt of it. As we talked this morning for example the language issue where we teach in English, which is not the native language here, and a lot of our students or people working here are from Bahrain or the Middle Eastern area. Although they all speak English there still are some better than others. It is challenging 134 in that term. Another issue is the educational system here, which is quite different from the European model and we have to respect that too. Because of the lack of experience in the Arab national culture of the country, some of the Western academic administrative leaders thought that the challenge starts with this, such as in AAL 8’s comments: They might find it irritating sometimes because I put them under pressure. We have a very professional relationship and if I feel that I over stepped the line, I could apologies for being in a bad form. AAL 2 also touched on this issue: Slightly challenging because it is more complicated than working in organisations where all come from same culture. In Bahrain, higher education institutions have never had a mono-cultural background in its academic staff. Since this argument has been raised by one of the western academic administrative leaders it reflects how a mono-cultural background has an influence on their practices of leadership roles. 4.2.4.2.3 Perceptions on Quality of Research and Teaching The third part of the interview introductory questions was dedicated to exploring the academic administrative leaders’ perception about what is quality research and teaching, and whether they think that national origin or experience has an influence on the quality of research and teaching. When asking about the perceptions that the participants hold about quality research, they had a variety of responses. Six of them believed that it is the research that follows the international standards and ethics of conducting research, for example AAL 6 elaborated on this definition: 135 It has to be based on standards. There has to be particular standards for even simple collecting data, collating information, analysing the information and subsequently reporting where everybody has to abide by certain standards and good quality research has performed recognizing that there are international standards, which has to be adhered to. Quality research then involves standards like seeking consents, using ethical principles to perform the research and employing them and having them reviewed by ethics committees. Only two of the participants found that quality research improves practices on different levels. AAL 3 and AAL 4 definitions are reflected below: It is when you do something to change your practice and you can apply it to get the outcome. The outcome should be reflected in a better standard or for improvement in practice. From my own professional research prospective, quality research is the one that makes a difference in terms of the consumer outside or in terms of the patient in the bed. That can be implemented for the betterment of people that the research is undertaken on behalf of. If we would research here we should think of what are the benefits to the culture, the country and most importantly like in our case because it is medical and nursing research we should consider patient in the bed. Another two participants argued that quality research that one can get published in high-ranking journals, for example AAL 7: Quality research would be research that would stand up under pressure of scrutiny by peers or experts in the area. It is the one that can get published in peer-reviewed journals which is a good stamp of quality. Some people get research done just to add this in their CVs but it takes years to build up certain skills to do quality research. It is a hard thing and it requires people who are mentors to take new people on-board and guiding them. This would take many years of hard work. AAL 2 reflects much the same: 136 It is only when you get agreement on your good research then it is quality and deserves to be in top journals. It’s about publishing your work. There is a ranking for journals and the high quality ones will only take good work. Three of the participants raised an important quality for research which is the originality of the project in the literature as described by AAL 5: ‘It is situated within literature and it is trying to achieve filling a gap in information.’ AAL 7 and 8 spoke similarly: It is meaningful, well thought out that develops the body of knowledge in a particular issue. It could be medical clinical issue or a basic biochemical, etc. It is when you add to the body of knowledge. When you add to what is known about a subject out there. It is doing research in an ethical way. When it is done by people who know what they are doing. I know a lot of people who would do research just for the sake of promotional prospect, but that’s not why I do research! I do research because I want to create a knowledge that is useful to people on the ground. I do it because I am interested in the area. One of the participants raised an important point about doing quality research, which is the importance of locating one’s research in different research traditions or by recognising different schools of thoughts, AAL 2 argued: As a scientist, you basically try to criticize all research including your own. You find all weakness in the interpretation as a data. Quality research is when you are highly critical. In science there are a lot of experiments that in the end you wouldn’t do because the reality is there are no answers for them. Or it wouldn’t really convince you. You could disprove or prove the hypothesis! It is doable and has an experimental design; it fulfils a lot of things but not a high quality. It is only when you got agreement on your good research then it is quality and deserves to be in top journals. All participants described quality research in a broader way as reflected above. Only two participants concentrated on the conduct of research methods/ design and collecting data in a quality manner. AAL 5 argued that ‘It is research that is valid, reliable, and can indicate to an extent broader finding’ and AAL 9 also discussed this: ‘You have to use a very stringent 137 way to approach it by forming the outline and the problem for solving that would take research forward’. When asking the participants about their perceptions on what quality teaching is, the academic administrative leaders’ responses emerged in three main themes with different focuses: students, processes, and profession. Those who focused on students as the main elements of quality teaching emphasised different aspects such as acquiring skills, interaction, and students’ evaluation. AAL 3, AAL 5, AAL 6 and AAL 9 respectively argued that quality teaching as a change agent for employability: Quality teaching is not about delivering material, it is how students can apply this knowledge in real life because they are all senior nurses. They need to learn how to apply classroom theoretical knowledge in their clinical context. Quality teaching is where students understand what the point of the curriculum is and proves it by applying that through examinations or other expressions of knowledge. Teaching young people to be engaged and be active and critical thinkers. That’s a good question! It is very important that it is all student-centred and when students come first. You have to be able to feel it in your heart if you want to teach. It is a strong desire to communicate and help people to develop. It is a whole moving emotional experience to be able to teach. Also AAL 4 claimed that quality teaching is considering students’ voice: Often we don’t see students as the consumer of education or as stakeholders. The first parameter of teaching is whatever students say as quality! The other participants described quality teaching with a focus on the processes of teaching such as using special techniques and strategies for different learning styles and outcomes, sharing experiences and best practices while teaching, knowing deficits and planning for remedies, reflections and feedback, etc. The above are all important processes that help in enhancing the quality of teaching in higher education which has been discussed by AAL 7: 138 … quality teaching is knowing what do you want to achieve and knowing how far are you achieving it with your current methodologies and where the deficits are. If there are deficits you need to find the proper remedy and not to say that is the way it is! It may require extra resources, more training or just more commitments. Problem solving is another good strategy that could enhance quality of teaching and learning. Correspondingly, AAL 6 provided details about the same processes that contribute to quality teaching: … it means adhering to standards. There are newer techniques now that are involved in teaching which were not available when I was taught ... We have to continuously assess and adapt our teaching methods respecting the needs of this generation. Quality teaching also means providing continuous feedback, which is the best way to build up. Reflecting and progressing based on the day-to-day writing of reflections based on their experiences. The recording of notes and diaries and reflecting on it and then moving forward on that base is very important. The last category that emerged from the participants’ responses about the quality of teaching focused on the academic ethos of teaching profession such as professionalism, autonomy, and intrinsic motives. AAL 8 believed that teaching quality includes all these ethos elements: It would be teaching that is based on good research and good theoretical foundations. You need to be up-to-date on research in your field. It is when you know how to teach your area inside-out. You have to be specialist in your area. It is very unethical to go and teach any area. It is when you are enthusiastic about your teaching and ethical with students. All participants agreed that academic’s ‘experience’ in higher educational institutions has more effect on the quality of teaching and research than their ‘national origins’. AAL 6 rationalised this to: It is tremendously beneficial to be able to work and having gained experience working in different countries. It does enhance the whole learning experience and the 139 individuals’ outcome. We try to take nursing and medical students together to Vietnam. Some of the students haven’t had the opportunity to be outside Bahrain quite often, so having this experience to work in hospitals in different countries encourages students to gain better experience in a different context. There was a variation in responses in relation to the effect of ‘national origin’ on the quality of teaching and research. Five out of nine believed that the national origin doesn’t affect teaching and research quality and they attributed this to different factors such as: dysfunctionality in educational systems, lack of resources, language barriers, personal qualities, and organisational principles. For example AAL1 and AAL 7 discussed these factors in detail: Reflecting on my experience in my previous work they follow very localized system limiting themselves to only Bahrain boundaries. Now where I work I see different practices where people here follow international standards. So teaching and research is not affected by your national origin. It is the educational system of the country. Your background obviously is important, but your own self-motivation is perhaps the most important thing. Even if you come from a country where medical education is suboptimal, but you are ambitious, self-motivated, and welling to travel. I think people will be able to overcome these deficiencies just being committed, intelligent, and given the opportunity they can blossom. Only one participant believed that the quality of qualitative research can be affected by the national origin because of the language barriers or interpretations. AAL 4 argued: It could be especially if you would take language as a transcultural issue. Often if you collect data from people particularly in an interpretive qualitative way, language is an essential and it is the essence of your interpretation. Therefore that can influence it. I don’t think lab or clinical research can be affected though. 140 4.2.4.3 Personal/Individual Dimension Academic administrative leaders provided a wide range of responses about leadership and organisational dimensions in this section, including preferred academic leadership style and personal qualities, roles, experiences, and progress stories that they lived while trying to support the quality of teaching and research in their higher education organisations. When asking the participants about the academic leaders that they worked with and considered as their role models, and what personal qualities made them good leaders, they all agreed that they have worked with leaders whose leadership style they liked and they found that these leaders have special qualities that work well in university settings. The frequencies of the preferred personal qualities of academic leadership are reflected in (Figure 23) below which cluster the participants’ responses to the most frequent, medium often, and the least often. The highest five personal qualities of role models were equally identified as follows: using good approaches to handling issues; inspiring and motivating others; good communicators and listeners; openness, honesty, and transparency; and future-oriented person who plans ahead. The second highest qualities they liked: providing support and guidance to others; and being knowledgeable in their field with great ideas to share with their team. On the third level, only three personal qualities emerged which were: being active and dynamic; enthusiastic; and fun loving leaders that boost the teams’ spirit. 141 Most Frequent 1. Using good approaches to handling issues; 2. Inspiring and motivating others; 3. Good communicator and listener; 4. Being open, honest, and transparent; 5. Future-oriented who plans ahead; Medium often 1. Supporting and guiding others 2. Knowledgable and full of great ideas Least often 1. Active & Dynamic 2. Enthusiasm 3. Fun loving Figure 23 The frequency of Preferred Personal Qualities of AAL to participants The rest of the personal qualities were only mentioned once by different participants such as being humble; good time manager; quality work producer; fair; intuitive; wise; flexible, good teacher; respectful to others; relaxed; and an excellent debater and speaker. AAL 9 added a distinguished quality, which is being firm at situation to protect the team: They have huge potentials for having ideas and for developing things. At the same time they were very tough and wise. I used to lean on her in difficult times; as she was good at handling things (LAUGH!). She was good at saying NO! I wasn’t good at that. Interestingly, all participants shared similar progress stories, which were moving from working as healthcare professionals to educators in universities to climbing up the ladder to their academic administrative pathway in their area of specialisation. However, they have been inspired or influenced by different factors that helped them build and adapt their leadership styles at very early stage of their career such as: working in multi-disciplinary, multicultural 142 organisations; being exposed to different leadership styles (positive and negative); having a family role model member; and willingness to take-up new opportunities and challenges to introduce to make a difference in others’ lives. AAL 1 and AAL 2 are examples of participants’ progress: Working and studying with people from multi-disciplinary background shaped me a lot. Also working with positive and negative people shapes who you are. After completing my Master degree I worked as a level director. Two years after that I became the director of postgraduate. This wouldn’t have happened without being committed and worked extremely hard. I worked with different managers from different cultures and different leadership styles that made me learn a lot. You observe different things then you choose what best suits you. It is the way I am. It is more intuitive! I am used to a most consensus based ones where you go around and see how people feel and build decisions based on this. I don’t like autocratic and dominant leadership styles. For me this is for me a bit alien and less confrontational! I am not even good at my style and I think with time and more experience it would get better. The next section will discuss the participants’ experiences as academic leaders and will shed light on the self-image they hold of themselves as leaders, their role in times of change and transition, their actions during crisis or problem situation, and the type of support they provide to active staff in teaching and research. All of the participants, except one, found themselves to be effective leaders and that they have special qualities that enabled them to reach this level. The Arab and Asian academic leaders showed more confidence in sharing their personal qualities that made them effective leaders. Through analysing their responses, the following qualities commonly appeared among the three participants: maintaining good relationship and interaction with colleagues; supporting colleagues’ goals and objectives and developing or empowering them; and caring and empathising. There were other qualities each of them identified that were particular to them as individuals. For example, AAL1, AAL3, and AAL 9 described themselves in the following different ways: 143 Yes, I think I am for most of the people I work with. This doesn’t mean I don’t have difficulties working with some staff. If you are respected and people follow your steps and you hear very positive feedback from your team, you know that you have certain leadership abilities. I listen to people and when it comes to implementation I don’t think I make everyone happy, but I try to be fair. I think this is very much appreciated by my team. I am very good organizer and planner. I simply think of everything ahead of time. I even think of obstacles before they happen and put solutions for them. Because poor planning can result in failure and I don’t like this to happen because that might affect the staff morals. I can lead people by using the skills they are good at to assign them roles. I won’t feel comfortable selling myself! BUT I can read my achievement through the outcome. Some students graduated, but they still write to me about their progress and how the course I delivered changed their lives. Some of them are having leadership roles in this country. An example is one of my students who started his BSc and now he is doing his PhD. That is an indicator. I think understanding an empathizing with students make a huge difference. I treat them like my children. I follow a similar approach with my colleagues. We have a very close relationship, just like a family. We are united and I have them since I started. We understand each other and we got the same aims & objectives to keep the programme successful. There is a good record, that’s why I am progressing. I must say that I am honest, hardworking, a good listener, get the pleasure from helping others and supporting them to fulfill their roles and potentials. If you are truthful things will work out well. I also have fun! People don’t just want to do a job but they want to have fun too! The other five western participants shared fewer qualities that made them effective academic leaders in their organisation. Their main qualities were organisational or structural such as: ensuring that work processes are implemented, solving work crises and problems, being committed to ideas, supporting staff professional development, and sharing decision making responsibilities. Only one participant stated that understanding the culture made him/her an effective leader. AAL 7 is an example of the western perspective presented: 144 I would like to think that I was, but in my own way. Because I try and develop a plan, share it with people and they share what is practical and what is not. I let people study certain crises and add to my initial plans as they wish. You have to analyse situations after crisis to improve quality of service we provide to students. You may choose the quiet life where you close your door and put plans and just send memos. But that approach is not leading to progress. You have to take the risk sometimes! Only one of the westerners thought that s/he was not an effective member in the organisation and the main reason was having less opportunity in making own decisions. AAL 2 argued that: Well, I don’t know! (loudly) I don’t think I am particularly a good or effective leader! In many ways I am not really making a lot of decisions in the current role in any case. I don’t have to be that effective because many of the things that I am doing are prescribed for me, I handed them down to the team to try and follow at templates that have been given to me. We do low level decisions though. I think we have to improve dramatically (laugh!). I compromise as long as the things are working well enough! Leading in times of change and transition can be very challenging for most of the academic leaders. All had encountered a transition change during their career developments, which is normal. The interesting part was the way they approached and addressed changes in their teams that mainly hold levels of social and organisational/structural dimensions of academic leadership. For the social part, the participants were focusing on team building, motivating their colleagues, maintain a good understanding level, and protecting their colleagues. For example AAL 9 who is from Asian origin argued that: … there were times when huge sums of money wasted by the government on reorganisation and this always destabilizes the organisations. This also upsets people and makes them insecure. So part of my role I felt was to protect my staff and make sure that they don’t lose the focus of what their task is! Sometimes I won’t share with them all the comments were made so that they don’t feel down. This helps the organisation survive the change or transition. While for the organisational/structural part, the participants were focusing on systems and processes such as: building a structure; preparing business plans; presenting issues and 145 solutions; and making decisions. For example, AAL 5, who is from a western origin, claimed that: I try to involve the stakeholders in the change. First of all, I put up a business plan then discuss the plan and take on board people’s contributions. At the same time I try to avoid getting booked down in details and try to push the whole change through along the timeline. There is also a group of participants who were following a blended approach of the two dimensions: social and organisational. For example, AAL 6 and AAL 7 from a western origin explained that: The key role is to reassure people that this is the best for the organisation, Supporting them throughout the change process, to enlighten and motivate them, let them know of the long term benefits, make them see the broader view. Crisis management is important in your job because changes happen without being informed about it. The situation is, can we get agreement on the solution? Especially that we are working across two campuses and the change is coming from somewhere else [LAUGH!] you got to search for the best solution. What I learnt from my experience is that you don’t present people with problems but solutions. They might not always agree with you but they would suggest other solutions. The other thing is to keep people informed immediately because overlooking or hiding it will not make you any favors. This will make the situation worse. Being honest is important too. AAL 7 raised interesting points, which are limitations of academic freedom and the domination of the main campus over other branches. These limit the academic leaders from fostering change that best suit their higher educational system and context. The levels and processes of assuring their subordinates during times of change and transition vary as discussed by the participants. Those who lead final years in the medical or nursing programmes found it challenging to meet regularly with their teams due to a high workload in addition to their other clinical work commitments whereas this issue was not raised by lower- 146 years programme leaders. For example, AAL 7 who was one of final years leaders clarified that: I would like to have more time to meet with them regularly. I do meet at least one time in each term with the surgeons or consultants in the hospitals to make it easier with them. Especially that I lead 30 of them it is so hard. Sometimes I do more than 2 meetings a year. They are too busy and it is hard to analyse when you are overloaded. I would need an assistant to help me in this because of all other commitments it is really hard to pay attention to details. The participants followed different approaches to reassuring their team members during times of change. The most common approach used among academic staff was informal open meetings and discussions. Four of the participants reported using this approach, for example AAL 2: ... It is easier to go around and discuss with them face to face the issues. NOT to tell them what to do, but to discuss it. We also do group meetings. Before that it would be better to meet with individuals and explain what is happening and what do they think about it. It is important also to give people time to think about it then we meet as a group. The second approach was meeting formally after sufficient informally discussing change and transition related issues. Three of them explained that after formal meetings they would work out plans with the whole team of changes in either teaching or research. They also believed that it is crucial to support their teams throughout the change process. This is reflected by AAL 1 below: I do talk to them about the advantages. I show the bright picture of the change. I of course address the challenges and how they can cope with things. I help throughout the change. I ask them to be patient and not to judge from the beginning. Only two of the participants believed in the importance of motivating their teams by presenting advantages or long-term benefits of change and transition Such as that used by AAL6: 147 The key role is to reassure people that this is the best for the organisation, Supporting them throughout the change process, to enlighten and motivate them, let them know of the long term benefits, make them see the broader view. However, two participants raised an important point while discussing the different approaches of reassuring team members during change periods. They focused on the importance of ‘being able to share information’ or ‘lack of information’ which could lead to further crisis in organisations (AAL 5). They saw a strong role for the academic ethos as the dominant mechanism for assuring staff during times of change and transition in higher education institutions (AAL 9), described as follows. Hopefully, I include them in the process and pass on all the information that I am able to share with them. I strongly believe that lack of information leads to uncertainty. If everybody feels that we are approaching the change from the same angle and they are not being excluded then I think this helps reassure them. […] It is good to balance by being honest so that people trust you. Try not to grab rumours that are panicky and search for options and solutions. Credibility and trust I must say is important here! Managing crisis or problem situations is another area that can uncover aspects of leadership. These include their qualities, experiences, and roles that supported them in rising up through the organisational administrative hierarchy. The participants were asked about their role in crisis or problem situation and how decisions were made. Six of them discussed the steps they take in order to reach final decisions. After analyzing their responses it was apparent that only five of them had an approach or method for crisis management that best suits their context (Figure 24). These participants had a structured process for how they handle crises or problems: discussing and reflecting on the main issue and its details informally; forming an investigation committee; collecting evidence; generating a report supported by evidence; sharing this report with senior management and stakeholders; setting an action plan; and finally implementing the plan. 148 Reflection on the Crisis situation Forming Implementation of Investigation the Action Plan Committee Evidence Action Plan setting collection Involving Senior Management & Report Generating Stakeholders Figure 24 The cycle of crisis managements as discussed by participants The rest of the participants (four) had considered less structured approaches for managing crises such as: consulting colleagues and supporting those affected to move on (AAL 3); asking for help for help from someone in a senior position (AAL5); working on the crisis alone and then talking to someone s/he trusts (AAL 7), and working on a strategy and recruiting colleagues on it (AAL 8). Only two strongly believe that no immediate decisions should be taken in a crisis situation. They both argued that after informing the relevant people let them ‘sleep on it’. Also AAL 9 had shed light on the importance of having the ability to cope with crises as academic leaders: ‘With a little bit of humor things will soothe down. There will always be crisis you should not let them get you!’ The role of academic leaders in supporting active team members in teaching and research seemed to be limited across all level groups and national origins. The majority of the participants felt that they were unable to provide the appropriate level of support as AAL 4, and AAL7 respectively claimed: The system doesn’t provide any special support to people who are highly active in these two pillars. They expect academics to do that. 149 It is hard though here in Bahrain. I don’t have authority here - it is an autocratic fashion management here! Since we have a head of research now I can refer those people to him to support them. Throughout discussion with academic leaders, it appeared that there was a lack of workload policies not only on the organisational level, but on the country level as well. The Higher Education Council does not have a clear workload policy, which is an obstacle for development in teaching and research. Despite this issue of academics’ excessive workload, participants had shared their experiences about the support they provide to their team members. There are only two main approaches used by the participants in addressing workload that they encourage across their departments and schools. The first approach, was discussed by seven of the participants, focused on supporting staff professional development through providing time off work or leave; covering some of their classes; and flexible time tabling and rescheduling. For example AAL 1 argued that: We agreed in the school of nursing that whoever is doing a degree that they are eligible for one day study leave every week to work on their studies keeping in mind that this doesn’t affect the work flow. We are flexible and we support each other especially during data collection period. They get all the support as long as they communicate and inform in advance to have someone that would cover for them …. We created a lot of new processes to make the workload less. We have to change the culture within the school by, for example, having a simple notice on your door saying ‘Busy Marking’ you can be more focused. By booking your work calendar for marking for three days for example everyone should respect you and be sensible. It’s a culture simply! The second approach was followed by three of the participants, which is proposing ideas for improvement to the senior management. This included increasing recruitment numbers for both academic staff and administrative support staff or recommending some staff for promotion or rewards in order to help people excel in research or teaching. AAL 2 elaborated on this: There is very little that we could really do! I usually make a proposal to the executive committee to increase staff so that we can support staff. Before we used to have one person per subject, which wasn’t effective for teaching or research collaboration. Now 150 we have two academics for each subject that they can have more collaboration in between them in different areas. Currently there is not teaching workload model we follow that will support highly active people in research. That is the bigger problem! When asking the participants whether they have any influential role in their organisation through specific access to resources, networks, or academic reputation, the results showed that their influence in teaching and research processes is subject to their role. The higher their position is, the more access they have to both research and teaching resources, which facilitates their influence. The analysis also shows that only four of the academic administrative leaders from level three, which is directors or heads of departments, had very limited or no influential role through access to resources. However, they do have an influence role through their networks and academic reputation that they use effectively to enhance the quality of teaching and research. The other five academic administrative leaders from levels one and two had a bigger role and full access to resources, networks, and academic reputations that can enhance the quality of teaching and research processes. The academic leaders who has limited or no influential role in their organisation had some justification for this. The results showed that the shared reason among them was that they had no responsibility or control over the teaching or the research budget. For example AAL 2 stated that: No, not really! I have no responsibility for research infrastructure. I have no role in the lab or budget. I have my cycle budget where we can provide teaching equipment. Only one of the academic leaders from level three argued that approvals needed to be granted from a higher academic level in order to have access to resources for teaching and research. They also shared other reasons that limit their roles as academic leaders such as: being new in the scholarly world; and having a team with different interests and areas of specialisation, therefore having different networks and different scholarly backgrounds. Five of the academics who believed that they had role influence through access to resources, networks, and academic reputation had also provided their justifications, which have been categorised accordingly. All of the academic administrative leaders in levels one and two, the Vice President of Academic Affairs and heads of schools, attributed their influential role to 151 their collaboration, linkage, partnership, networks, or membership in international, regional, and national academic and healthcare organisations or associations. Only four of the participants believed that their academic reputations and scholarly background helped them to prepare, engage, support, and provide training opportunities for junior academic staff to excel in teaching, research and service providing. The results also showed that three of the academic leaders in levels one and two had access to funds and grants to support teaching and research quality enhancement in the university. Only one of the participants in this level considered his/her experience and awareness in different educational and healthcare systems or contexts as contributing to having an influential role to support the team in teaching and research. All the academic leaders agreed that teaching and research are interrelated or autonomous and they all considered research to be the ‘lifeblood’ of teaching, a view that is consistent with much of the literature in the field (e.g., Jenkins, 2003). Participants believed that evidenced based teaching could lead to best practices in higher education. For example AAL 3 claimed that: We cannot separate research from teaching. Teaching is about you providing knowledge. Evidence based practice is research and this is what we teach our students. We need to measure what we have taught through students’ clinical application. They all agreed that teaching couldn’t progress without research on all levels. AAL 6 elaborated on this: It has to be interrelated certainly for medicine. Medicine is always evidence based on on-going research. We are encouraging our students now to be more involved in research. We have appointed a head of research now where we will be working more on the research side. One will not get enthusiastic teaching unless the teachers and the institution are actively engaged in research and medicine cannot progress without research. 152 Three of the participants discussed some issues that segregate teaching from research. AAL 4 and AAL 7 argued that recruiting the right academics in higher education is important to the development of teaching and research. Respectively they discussed this issue: Evidence based teaching is important. There is no point teaching by nelly. The danger with experienced staff they missed the research components. … the research should be around medical education. I have always thought the core thing in teaching undergraduates in a medical school is the quality of teaching and what you are trying to achieve. They tend to appoint professors based on their research. I believe the research should be focused on teaching. The centre of the research should be around the educational process rather than having a professor of medicine who has a research interest in a clinical area. I don’t see that would make him or her any better or a special professor. They should be leading the educational department into looking at their research methods. This way it will feed into his job better and will more inform his practice in that particular role. The other issue was the effect of culture, which was discussed by AAL 6: … you look at the culture in the Middle East and not just Bahrain. The culture has not been towards developing research, not encouraging and not contributing, not promoting, or funding research. It’s a big issue for the Middle East. The type of research we are aiming at will improve outcomes, improve patient welfare, and reduce health costs. For Bahrain it will improve hospitals and practices. 4.2.4.4 Social Dimension When discussing the social dimension, academic administrative leaders’ responses focussed on three main themes - leadership development, group relationships, and professional practices - that best enhance the quality of teaching and research in their higher education as social organisations. 153 When discussing how leadership was accomplished within universities internationally and within Bahraini universities, none of the participants differentiate between the approaches of academic leadership accomplishment. They all believed that academic leadership is developed in one of the approaches that will be discussed below regardless of their national origin or different experiences in universities internationally. All of the participants believed that academic leadership is developed through promotion and through giving opportunities to academic staff to grow. AAL 2 argued: In this university or in the UK universities, people get gradually promoted from one position to other and they develop those sorts of skills. It’s all about attitude and experience and if not given the promotion of course people will not develop leadership skills. While AAL 4 believed that it happens coincidently: Within universities generally, I don’t think there is a set system. It just happens by accident. In universities there is a great focus on accountability and education ... I think leadership is important in the way we translate our actions and the way we publicize ourselves. We are perceived very positively here in Bahrain. Only one participant had a different view about academic leadership accomplishment, as s/he argued that: There is no leadership in the academic world. People do their academic work and talk the ‘Team Game’, but actually you have to sit on your own and get the work done. It is a complete paradox. I think my previous lecturers in UCD in the philosophy department were too generous, had respect for anybody, anytime you went to their door you will find them there to talk to you. They lent you their books, etc. They are so amazing they make you believe in yourself. This will not come from head of department! It’s just from those academics. They are always available for you. There is not such leadership. People have to do their own work. They have to be SELFISH! The responses of this participant incorporate complex meaning within the social dimension of the academic leadership and organisations, which shows the conflicts in social contexts like universities, where personal and professional identity and relationships might progress or 154 collide. This point is discussed by many scholars (e.g. Bolman & Gallos, 2011; Breese, 2014; Buller, 2013; Eaton, 2014). The following section will cover group relationships, networks, and interaction within academic organisations and its effect on enhancing the quality of teaching and research. All participants agreed that it was crucial for academic leadership to build both formal and informal relationships within and beyond the institution. They had discussed many aspects of these relationships and networks that contribute to the development of academic leaderships. The focus of their responses was on developing the academic leaders professionally on the three pillars of higher education: teaching, research, and community service. This can be accomplished through establishing good national and international relationships and networks at early years of career, which would help in managing, sharing and collaborating in research projects. Most of the participants saw the benefits of the relationship for research only, while only one of the participants claimed that this develop the leaders as they share or exchange teaching resources and ideas too. These benefits of teaching and research networking are also discussed by a number of researchers such as, Chapman (2014), Pannell (2014), and Valadez (2014). AAL 6 had identified academic leadership that is ready for development, which shed light on important aspects as discussed below: This will help some with their natural abilities and training to be leaders. Very important! The professional development planning is the key here. I had some staff that had asked to be involved in stroke research, being in here we have limited access to patients in hospitals. As this person wasn’t a doctor, I was able through our networks in hospitals to put that person in contact with a neurologist in one of the hospitals in Bahrain. The research then took off and it is very progressive and successful since then. Some academics are very good - they just need guideline and direction to go up the ladder in research. The analysis shows that participants had different views on how these relationships and networks could help in developing teaching and research in higher education systems. The general response showed that these relationships and networks develop shared norms, trust, experiences, ideas, and encourage academic freedom and collegiality in the academia world. 155 Six of the participants believed that these relationships and their networks encourage collegiality. AAL 1 argued that ‘This motivates better practices in teaching and research and develops better collegiality forms’ and AAL 9 believed that ‘Collegiality creates an identity in the organisation when you are part of the team and trying to develop in the same way’. Five of the participants agreed that academic networks and relationships helped in developing a better understanding of academic freedom. They perceived academic freedom as expanding their roles and not limiting them as discussed by AAL 3 and AAL 9 respectively: And working across schools reflects the academic freedom where academics from different school are collaborating in research. This also develops respect for the experience people have in different fields. This helps us promote better standards for the benefits of our students. Academic freedom is important but I think it is responsible academic freedom. You are put in academic leadership role and that gives you a huge responsibility to support and so on. You don’t go on alone and apply your own you should take people with you on- board. Otherwise when you turn around there will be no one behind you. You should prepare and develop future leaders, indeed. Academic leader in level one raised a contradicting point as s/he mentioned that the college encourages academic freedom in teaching and research with limitations to ensure that the college strategic plan is followed. Hendrickson, Lane, Harris, and Dorman (2013) elaborate on the importance of implementing models that encourage collegial relationships and promote academic freedom in higher education. A shared trust was also discussed by five participants as one of the outcomes of networks and relationships especially for research. Most of the participants were cautious about sharing research ideas unless they reach a high level of trust. For example AAL 9 argued that: … trust is very important where you have to trust you have very close relationship. Every research project and research protocol in the country when having solid trust grows properly. You don’t hope that the other part is suffering because no one wins then. 156 There were few barriers to effective networks and relationships that enhance teaching and research in universities as discussed by two of the participants: firstly, limiting academic staff from teaching or moving across different universities in the country; and secondly, restricting them in research to only serve the organisation’s strategic plans. Seven of the participants believed that mutual respect and shared sense of dignity among academic staff shaped their social identity, which in itself paved the ground for research and teaching to thrive in a healthy organisational culture. Buller (2013) discussed the role of academic leadership in fostering positive practices that minimise these gaps. Some of these strategies that help promote effective academic performance are related to positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication and building a sense of community within higher education institutions. The third part in the social dimension discussed here is the academic professional practice of the leaders to explore their areas of focus and if there are any cross-cultural differences in their responses on their connection to the discipline or the institution where they work. Five of the participants argued that it is important to be connected to both the discipline and the institutions for different reasons as by AAL 4, AAL 6, and AAL 9: You are attached to your institutions because you are attached to your discipline. You can’t be attached to the institution without being attached to the discipline. It is hard for me to say which one I am more connected to because if you look at my essence of research and education it is about my discipline. But if you look at how it operates it operated in an institutional value. Both are equally important. If I am just institutional then I will not be updated in my discipline. One has to be true to the discipline too because the institution might not be at the heart of the discipline you are interested in. You need to get that in balance. If it is a good organisation and it looks after staff then they will reward the organisation by loyalty, working hard, by promoting it, etc. the organisation is a partnership and it has to be 50-50. If you do the right things you blossom anyway! What makes people work two extra hours because they believe that they are part of this place and what they are doing is important and it is recognised. Otherwise they will not! 157 Three of the academic leaders strongly believed that it is more important to be connected to the discipline as AAL 2 explained: In a discipline that is highly defined by what we teach, I think being connected to the discipline is far stronger than being connected to the institution … The discipline will be more recognizable anywhere in the world. Only one of the participants believed that being connected to the institution is more important for a successful academic professional practice in teaching and research. When analysing these results, no cross-cultural differences appeared to influence the participants’ responses. However, when asking participants whether they felt that there were cross-cultural effects on how their colleagues are connected to the institution or their discipline, they shared interesting information. Four of the academic leaders believed that there were no cross-cultural differences, while five felt that there were differences, three of which believed this difference was clear among nationals and Middle Eastern academics as they are more connected to the organisation. AAL 3 and AAL 9 elaborated on this point: National people are more connected to the organisation while westerners are more connected to their discipline. The reason behind nationals being connected to the institution is their concern about the satisfaction of the organisation and fear of losing job if they express dissatisfaction. Although they may have the right at certain situation! Yes, medical people feel more connected to the discipline. I noticed Middle Eastern people are more connected to the institution. That is maybe because they are more relaying to prestige of an institution. For example having a PhD here it is like a status symbol! It doesn’t matter what it is in or what graded it or how you did it, etc. Once you are called Dr. it is very prestigious. While it is different in Dublin. No one cares whether you are Ms., Mrs., or Dr. It is a very different attitude here! 158 4.2.4.5 Structural Dimension When discussing the structural dimension, academic administrative leaders’ responses demonstrated their awareness of the higher education system in Bahrain, their perceptions about the structure and the function of the organisation they work in, and whether these enhance the quality of teaching and research in the Bahraini higher education organisations. All participants seemed to have concerns about the Higher Education system in Bahrain and they linked this directly as the responsibility of the Higher Education Council (HEC). Some believed that the system is fairly small and new, but with a large diversity for a small country like Bahrain which is the positive aspect. For example AAL 2 stated that: It’s quite small and heterogeneous and has a good establishment. It has at the same time quite bad practices and low quality establishments. It is more about business and making money than educating people. For a small country there is quite a range of Higher Education systems and institutions. However, part of his/her response was similar to those of the other seven participants who believed that the system need to be improved in a number of areas such as the administration system and coordination processes between the HEC and the HEIs as claimed by AAL 4: I think it needs to have more confidence in itself. For example, there is a request for documents and when it is put in then they are not read and they are gone! There need to be more coordination, structure, and formalization of the relationship between the regulatory bodies down to universities. That this isn’t there yet. There is a lack of confidence on how is the system regulated. In Ireland it is very structured and there is structure for everything. For example, there is a structure for research fund and it is governed by the Health Research Board where there is a series of procedures and policies by which you operate. Another issue they identified was the imposing of educational system models or practices that have been imported to the country from a different context. For example AAL 1 and AAL 8 argued that: 159 It is good to have the HEC in Bahrain. The only problem emerges when this started after having the majority of the universities setting their standards. To come at this stage and to ask higher education organisations to change their standards is difficult. Sometimes they need to look at the wider view rather than specific things; because HEIs in Bahrain come from different educational backgrounds. They should think internationally and they cannot bring a model from a specific region and try to impose it on HEIs in Bahrain. The adapted standards should be flexible and should be tailored to suit the need of different organisations. Whatever standards used in the HEI suits their programmes best. It is overly regulated and rule-bound. From my experience since I started here there are constant demand for quality and it is gone extreme. A lot of paper work that makes people’s life misery! AAL 6 argued that through his regular meetings and experience with the HEC, some changes are taking place: The HEC is definitely working towards bringing up the standards. They are working towards adapting a well-recognized international standards and developing a national quality framework. The down side of the HEC is that the system tends to work so slowly. The expectations form the institutions certainly by RCSI from them are very high. They expect us to immediately ready to do! There are some inequalities for example we go through intense assessment because we are a private university while other medical schools in the country don’t have to go through this. That’s little bit unfair. I think this can’t be good for the system in general here. They should really have standards that should apply to all. The majority of the participants did not have the required level of knowledge or awareness about the higher education council’s goals for teaching and research in Bahrain. Those who did speak about it knowledgeably believed that the teaching goals are in better shape and they are very clear to academic staff, whereas research has no clear, well-supported goals. The case is the same for faculty members as they had better knowledge of HEC teaching goals rather than research. A characteristic response is that of AAL 2: 160 I think they are more aware of the teaching goals than the research. Because nobody is funding research it is hard to work in line with the HEC strategies in research while for teaching it has been well funded publically. We are not doing any quality assurance in research. AAL 5 raised an interesting point that the national staff were more aware of the HEC vision and goals for teaching and research than non-nationals. This contradicts what other participants shared that the HEC vision and goals were circulated by the quality enhancement office to all staff in the organisation. The second section of the structural dimension focuses on the participants’ views about or perceptions of their organisational structure, processes, and functions. Six of the participants believed that the university runs a good structural model, describing it as very clear for reporting and roles, simple for its different academic and administrative levels, and open for communication. For a university with only ten years of function, this is a developmental phase as described by some of the participants. However, three of the Western participants believed that it is hierarchal compared to the Western universities they worked in before joining this institution in Bahrain as described by AAL 5 and AAL 7 respectively: It is too hierarchal in nature. It needs to be better into departmental communication. Communication is the biggest area that needs to be worked on. RCSI Bahrain has gone a long way but it is still a new organisation. That makes it developmental. It is very hierarchical. Coming from Ireland, which is a flatter organisation where it is different. It does take you a while to get to know and understand! It runs more like a business here! In that sense they have more control over what is happening in the organisation. There is more transparency there in Ireland. This emphasis on greater hierarchy has been noted by a number of scholars of organizations in the Middle East where traditional influences from hierarchical systems are still influential (e.g., Ali, 1995; Jreisat, 2009). 161 Some of the challenges in the organisation or areas to be improved have already been mentioned in the previous participants’ comments such as communication, being controlled by the parent campus, and transparency. Almost most of them shared solutions for some of what they consider to be gaps in the organisation, such as: recruiting qualified academic administration to support academic staff; improving communication between committees and defining their remits; providing more academic freedom to Bahrain campus; and devolving decision making. AAL 6 argued that some of these areas of improvement would better serve the needs of students: I think our university is a good model. The structure and the management structure in RCSI Bahrain is quite a good model. All the levels are involved in this structure. It looks and functions very well in terms of the academic and the administration side of it. I think it is a model that would work in all the institutions. It is not a complex structure and easy to be understand. We structured to be governed so much by Dublin. Personally I am not against that because our medical students here want to acquire an RCSI degree with all-similar to Dublin. Dublin is so much involved and they deliver the curriculum we can’t change it. They are responsible for that and it’s better to come from there. When trying to capture how satisfied are the leaders about both teaching and research processes, they showed less satisfaction with the implementation of research processes. Eight out of nine showed dissatisfaction with research processes and provided reasons such as: high workload, lack of strong leadership, lack of funding, and no opportunities. For example AAL 4 and AAL 6 respectively argued that: For research, no am not happy - there is no national funding, it is abysmal for research. If you look at the research strategy at its launch it is abysmal. There is no dedicated body for research funding and there is not allocated fund for research. I think there is 0.4 for the country, which is one of the lowest in the Gulf region. We need to embrace research at governmental level to encourage research development in Bahrain. In terms of research there would be a problem and we are beginning to change that. There has been a tendency to think that RCSI Bahrain hasn’t got much potential for developing research and we have much people coming from Dublin to look at this and 162 advise us. It seems that health system research dealing with the hospitals and the community might be the best way forward for most of the research - this is the main emphasis. We are building the research capacity here by introducing laboratory research too. The next 10 years will have to be about improving research. Regarding teaching, the number of academic leaders dissatisfied was only six out of nine. In addition to the research reasons for lack of satisfaction there are other specific reasons for teaching such as a high student ratio, and specialised academic staff with no educational qualifications in teaching in higher education. AAL 2 and AAL 7 discussed some important issues that need to be considered such as: Teaching, Teaching, Teaching! That is really a good question! Teaching processes are no one is looking at them. No director and this is an area that needs more development. For teaching, No, not happy because we haven’t achieved what is supposed to. I would like to see all consultants delivering quality teaching. We are trying to keep an associate professor in each of the hospitals to keep an eye on the teaching processes that themselves are having huge interest in medical education and teaching. 4.2.4.6 Contextual Dimension When discussing the contextual dimension, academic administrative leaders’ responses presented two main themes that contribute to the enhancement of the quality of teaching and research in the higher education organisations. These themes are: the governmental and governance system, and the organisational focus. The discussion of the first theme about the governmental system as part of the external context and the vision for the teaching and research policies development includes participant views on public institutional capacity and development. All participants believed that their university has a good external context in terms of adhering to the national educational system in the Higher Education Council and the Quality Assurance Authority standards, directions, and the strategic plans for both teaching and research. The university also runs well-established international programmes that are based in Dublin that gives the university a good profile in 163 Bahrain, in addition to the good networking the university has with other national and international higher education organisations for research. The consensus among participants was that the university has a good environment that encourages research. However, they thought that there were challenges due to the fact that it is a new campus and it is in a developmental phase such as low levels of funding and sufficient access to research subjects. This point was noted, for example, by AAL 4 discussed some of these challenges: … same goes back to the funding issue. Developmentally, we need to have a coordinated national system. We need higher, tighter and structured regulations for development. We also need advisory bodies nationally placed. All participants had shared how they would like to see change in the governmental teaching and research policies and administrative practices. The discussed changes include: better implementation of the teaching and research strategic plan with some differentiation for different HEIs considering the areas of specialisation; maximizing the benefits of the research conducted in Bahrain to develop teaching and research; reviewing organisations and creating best practices procedures; allocating larger budgets for research funding, capacity building, and training in research; and to reduce the level of bureaucracy in the HEC. For example AAL 2 and AAL 6 expressed his/her visions for both the institutional and governmental teaching and research policies and procedures: On an institutional level, I see that they are improving teaching policies and developing, but not research since it is not a revenue generator! The prestige that the research may give you would be very difficult to achieve. You can just suddenly put money to research and be on the top of the research table. It is a very long term go! Governmentally, one hopes that they introduce more structure into medicine to make integrated postgraduate medicine teaching. The training of doctors is not monitored by one regulated body. The purpose of having these policies is to improve the teaching and learning, the provision of research, and the conducting of research. So I would hope to see that Bahrain and the HEC is recognizing that many of the processes and policies in relation to teaching and research in RCSI Bahrain as they are of international standards. Our accreditation of the Irish Medical Council and the NQAAET is proving this. The HEC 164 is looking at us as an example. The policies we are using here can be as a standard for other institutions in Bahrain. The second part of this section will discuss the organisational context and the commercial market force pressure on it, what affects the quality of teaching and research, and the targeted goals. The participants had two different views about the issue of commercial and market pressure on the academic leaders and on their collegial form. Five of the participants believed that there was pressure on them to secure sponsorships for students, promoting the programmes using special strategies, and motivating students to consider healthcare as future job opportunity. AAL 1 and AAL 7 elaborated on these as follows: A lot of pressure in fact especially that in School of Nursing and Midwifery. Since the majority of our students are Bahrainis they need a sponsorship in order to be able to study in this organisation. We have problem to attract this generation to join the programme. If these generations see no sponsorship and no future job opportunities they will not be encouraged to study this field. … definitely! RCSI has to sell a product and we are trying to get better students numbers from different parts of the world. Behind everything there is a commercial effect even though it is not a profit-making organisation. Only three participants believed that there was no commercial or market pressure on them or on their collegial form. They attributed the lack of pressure to the organisation quality focus, as AAL 3 and AAL 6 argued: No! Successful programmes do not need a pressure. The word of mouth about the quality of the programme is spread. Every year we have an increased number of applicants. There is a potential for that to impact on the way we function, but my idea is not to increase our numbers and our emphasis should be on quality rather than on quantity. We have a target not to go beyond 140 or 145 students in a regular class every year. Because we are an organisation where students are fee paying we are not profit making and all the funds go to the teaching and for the organisation to improve standards. The 165 fact that we don’t have shareholders makes the pressure less on us. The ANSWER is then that the potential is there, but that is not the real case. We don’t have that pressure! The participants believed that the quality of teaching and research in their organisation could be affected by a number of factors such as the university’s priorities, culture, history, and focus. The majority of the participants agreed that the university’s focus and priority is teaching and that is due to its history in teaching. However, they also agreed that the organisational culture encourages good research, noted by AAL 2 and AAL 8: … teaching has been the priority for a long time. The college has a long history of teaching. They didn’t do research 20 years ago. They quite recently have been interested in research. If you look at job descriptions you will find that they are largely focused on teaching and they are trying to shift their focus on research. … it is a medical college by definition. They are primarily a teaching college training people to be medical staff. This is their main first role. Research has far developed in Dublin and they have a whole separate department and they do nothing except research. They have a huge huge huge amount of funding. There is no comparison with here! There are small initiatives but there is very little funding! More people with the right expertise need to be attracted to build the capacity of research here. The participants also discussed other factors such as high workload, expenditure on non- academic areas for extra-curricula activities rather than on teaching and research requirements, parent campus control, and isolation between different schools within the same areas of specialisation, language issues, Islamic culture and traditions effects while doing physical examination as part of clinical training. For example AAL 7 discussed many these: The cultural area is, yes! Females here don’t like to be examined physically, which may affect research and teaching too. They don’t mind giving history though. The language is also another thing where you have barriers to communicate with patients. RCSI want to succeed internationally so they always bring students from outside and obviously they want to bring research background here. AAL 5 critically discussed the culture and the relationship between the main and branch campuses/ organisations: 166 I think the advantage initially of this campus being a new campus is that we could move very quickly and we are very dynamic. It was very exciting! I think the bigger it is grown, it is finding a lot of commonality with the lead organisation. There is a degree of embedded culture that holds back the dynamism of a smaller newer organisation. The academic administrative leaders shared aims, goals, and objectives that they wanted to achieve. These fell into three categories: quality of teaching, research, and graduates. For teaching, the participants were aiming to maintain the quality of programmes: to introduce and improve technology enhanced learning and teaching; to provide quality, communicative, and enjoyable education; to work on applying theory to best practice; and to develop new teaching and assessment strategies. For research, their goals focused on research capacity building that includes learning research methodologies and skills by working collaboratively in teams, and developing a stronger research ethos. For graduates, they aimed at setting and raising the graduates’ profile standards by preparing students with leadership skills, confidence, and knowledge for the profession. They also aimed at providing students and staff with a culture that encourages better opportunities of professional development and that put them in a better relationship. These are generally goals that have been reported in a number of sources (e.g. Mazey & Balazs, 2015; Hendrickson, Lane, Harris & Dorman, 2013). 4.2.4.7 Developmental Dimension The developmental dimension elicited responses from academic administrative leaders on the team and the leadership development while enhancing the quality of teaching and research in their higher education context. They reported differently about the approaches they use to cope with on-going and changing developmental needs of their team members. Three of them thought that there were many professional development needs and interests, but because of some restrictions and limitations they felt that they could not support their teams. These academic leaders belonged to all levels of academic administrative levels so the level is not a factor here. AAL 2 and AAL 5 were from level three, saying the following: I would say very BADLY! There is very little I can do. They have to do what they are told. When they want days off to do research I can’t do a lot about it. There are 167 limitations! Not only this I don’t have the research budget so when they ask for money I really can’t help! I hope that I am seen as somebody who is approachable and people can discuss and tell me what is going on. Then I can try and facilitate them as much as possible. But there are areas that I can’t facilitate and that might make them unhappy. Also, AAL 6 who occupied two academic administrative levels had much the same view: I try to address their needs whenever possible! There would be limitations to where people have certain interests in teaching or research and what you do? It is to try and kind of promote and support when you can! On the other hand, there were three academic leaders who use every opportunity to support their teams. They take the full responsibility for investigating staff needs, encouraging them, motivating them, cover classes for their colleagues and release them to do their professional development or do research. For example, AAL 1, AAL3 and AAL 7 provided details on what approaches they followed to develop their academic staff: I try to identify the needs on annual bases of my team. We also have to encourage people to use the Professional Development Plan as an agenda to focus on their development. Those who lack motivation to develop professionally, I meet with them and we discuss the needs to develop especially if they have a certain lack of skill. I encourage them to find suitable programmes to develop their teaching and research skills. For those difficult staff members I provide evidence to show their lack of skill from students’ feedback for example. I also do my own evaluation by attending some of their sessions. Peer reviewing is an effective methodology. For my staff, I encourage them to develop professionally through studying. I try to support them by releasing them sometimes. By understanding where they are and where they are going. People struggle to do neurological examination because they are not trained similarly. We provided a video that shows that to all consultant so that our students are trained the same. Timing is a 168 problem for people to attend professional development training. (Sigh!) It is difficult really difficult to get them to be in this training. It is really hard! Having Thursday afternoon sessions will be the solution. Only two participants attributed their lack of support to the establishment of the professional development unit in the university. They also pointed out an important underlying theme of their control over team members’ development. AAL 4 and AAL 8 described this in the following way: The establishment of the PDU now is important and it is taking that and there are a lot more on offer. I just try to be careful that not the same people are attending trainings all the time. People are too motivated to do a lot of training and that requires some balance. I’d encourage people to take on the things that they need to do. The PDU is providing great opportunities for people to develop. So people cannot do everything there should always be a balance between developing professionally and the job they need to do. This will help us be fair to all people in the school. The second part of the developmental domain will shed light on developments in academic administrative life and the shift in their role from being actively engaged in teaching and research into that of facilitators and supporters. All participants agreed that they are fulfilling facilitator or supporter roles and enjoying it while some felt that the teaching part was missed. All participants had followed the same route to reach these levels from being a healthcare givers like nurses, doctors or surgeons to teaching and then to leading programmes and finally being level directors or heads of schools or vice presidents of academic affairs. In additional to this long journey of development they have been involved in research along the way to this destination. The results have also uncovered an important feature, which is that, the role of facilitator and supporter grows bigger the higher the academic leadership role with an accompanying shrinking involvement in teaching and research. This might put the academic leaders at risk of disconnecting from their real or original profession worlds. AAL 6 described it this way: 169 I think my role shifted a lot because I was heavily involved as a clinician dealing with children with neurological problems, my second role was teaching, and my third role was doing clinical research. Since I became in this role a VP I became more of a supporter or a facilitator. What I like about it is that it has changed completely - I now do very little teaching, and do some clinical activities like reading some EGs for hospitals on children. I don’t do much research except for medical education research and assessing the performance of our students to improve the intake of our students. This will help reducing the attrition rates and to improve the quality of our students to meet the standards. Now I am looking at facilitating and supporting the academic staff whenever I can in developing their teaching skills and in improving their research opportunities and making sure that they are happy from the academic self-satisfaction and that they are satisfied that they work here. I am enjoying this post. I have never planned to be an academic leader as I am more of a leader in clinical area. If you are successful as a clinician then you can transfer there into academic world. Being an academic administrative leader is not an easy role especially in higher education in Bahrain because of its complex nature characterized by its multicultural dimensions. In order to be a successful academic leader who wishes to move teaching and research processes to a higher level and higher quality standards, there should be a set of qualities or skills that he should have (Gmelch & Buller, 2015; Buller, 2015; Buller, 2013; and Holyer, 2014). They elaborate on the skills and the approaches academic leaders need in order to make differences on different levels in universities. All academic administrative leaders were asked to list the abilities that academic leaders should have that would help them to enhance the quality of teaching and research in higher education institutions in Bahrain considering the cross-cultural diversity. Their responses are summarized in Table 34 below. To all participants the most important qualities were: creating a healthy cross-cultural working environment, and being a good team player. The second highest qualities were: having a clear vision of where s/he wants to lead the department or the organisation, and having good communication skills including listening to team members and acting on their feedback. Thirdly, being honest, transparent, trustworthy, and open minded were thought to be important qualities for academic leaders. The least important qualities to the participants were being creative and innovative, and being engaged in research. 170 Table 34 List of common academic leadership abilities  Willingness to work, engage, respect, understand and have interest in cross-cultural diversity  Team supporter, motivator, protector, and facilitator  Having a clear vision of where to lead the organisation  Good communicator, listener, and feedback provider  Trustworthy, honest, transparent  Open-minded  Problem solver  Critical thinker  Change advocate  Having academic experience and knowledge  Being creative & innovative  Engaged in research 4.2.5 Focus Groups Two focus groups of alumnae of the university, one with former medical students and the other with former nursing students were conducted. The first consisted of four men, 2 between the ages of 21 and 23, one between 24 and 26, and one between 27 and 30. Three are Bahraini and one is Pakistani, the oldest who had studied engineering previously in Canada before studying medicine. Two had been in their residency programme for less than two years and two have not yet begun their residency. The nursing alumnae, all from the nursing and midwifery programme where clinical practice was integrated into the programme, consisted of three men and one woman, all of whom are Bahraini. They are all between the ages of 21 and 23 and graduated two months previous to the focus group session, but none of them have yet been employed in their profession. Since the responses of the two groups are so similar, the results of the sessions will be presented together. The focus group sessions focused on four main questions: What is quality teaching?, What is quality research?, What do you think of the development of universities in Bahrain and Gulf?, and finally How would you compare RCSI with other universities in the Gulf? In additional to sub-questions under each key question to provide the participants with an opportunity to reflect more on the practices in the university. 171 4.2.5.1: Quality Teaching This section reports on and discuss the four main themes that emerged from the group discussions which were the characteristics of quality teaching; the challenges to the teaching development in the organisation in the case study; areas of improvement even if good; and the Western teaching style. 4.2.5.1.1 Characteristics Based on the analysis of the focus groups’ responses the below Table 35 reflects the characteristics of quality teaching from the perceptions of both medical and nursing students. The highest characteristic for two-thirds of them of quality teaching was ‘having a good relationship and strong connection with students,’ while having organisation and structure on every element and process of teaching was at the second highest reported with half of the participants. In third place, one third of alumni believe that quality teaching means having an approachable lecturer and one who will be able to use and integrate technology into their teaching to support students’ learning styles and needs. The lowest quality reported by only one quarter of participants is quality teaching being the following: transparent; sharing decision making and engaging students; having mutual trust; behaving professionally; using special methods and approaches of teaching, attracting students attention; motivating and inspiring students; being creative; and having a pleasant, relaxed face. The least chosen characteristics for only one of the alumni were: teaching in face-to-face small groups; paying equal attention to all course topics; having a prepared lecturers and clinicians; feeling secure and comfortable to ask questions or share knowledge in class or during clinical setting or bedside teaching, having charisma; having a clear voice and intonations; availability of good resources and content; having an easy transition from one academic level to another; getting good support and cooperation; understanding the pressure on students; and having good communication skills. 172 Table 35 Characteristics of Quality Teaching Quality teaching %of Quality teaching % of Characteristics Alumnae Characteristics Alumnae Structure & organisation 50% Availability of good and organized 12.5% resources Face-to-face small groups 12.5% Good course content & material 12.5% Approachable lecturer 37.5% Smooth transition from one year to 12.5% another Equal attention to all topics 12.5% Utilizing technology 37.5% Prepared clinicians 12.5% Attracting attention 25% Good relationship and strong 62.5% Special methods & approaches 25% connection with students Transparency 25% Support & cooperation 12.5% Shared decision making & 25% Motivating & inspiring students 25% engaging students all times Mutual trust 25% Understanding the pressure 12.5% Feeling secure & comfortable 12.5% Providing feedback to students & 25% reflection Charisma 12.5% Creative 25% Good behaviour & professional 25% Good communication skills 12.5% Clear voice intonation 12.5% Nice smiley face, relaxed, not 25% stressed 4.2.5.1.2 Development challenges at the case study university Interestingly the participants in the focus groups addressed some of factors in a lack of quality in teaching while discussing the characteristics of quality teaching. They argued that the areas that lack quality in teaching start in later years when they are heavily involved in clinical settings, unlike the first three years where the majority of lectures were at a higher quality. They claimed that the lectures and course content were random and unstructured in later years, and that the majority of the lecturers in the clinical settings were not prepared for sessions and they were not giving equal attention to different topics in the modules. They also think resources like lecture theatres and laboratories needed to be increased to match the increased number of students. 173 The participants found most of the clinicians to be unapproachable for concerns, issues, or complaints and most of the time they would not provide students with convincing or satisfying answers. Moreover, they asserted that the lack of trust between the lecturers and the students was a result of the lack of transparency and isolated decision-making that excluded students. They also argued that clinicians at hospitals and some of the lectures at the campus lack certain skills in teaching methodology and communication and interactions with higher education students as adults. 4.2.5.1.3 Areas of Improvement The nursing participants suggested improvement in a number of areas related to teaching processes. They argued that students’ workloads need to be considered since the pressure is too high and demanding physically and mentally since they have to work shifts as part of their training and at the same time attend sessions. They also suggested a more structured guideline for the graduation research project. In preparation for the project the students suggested improving courses that introduce research methodologies to better equip students with the necessary skills. To improve teaching, nursing participants also suggested using different approaches such as the following: considering students feedback at a higher level; giving more flexibility in choosing which modules to enrol in each semester and not to impose one schedule on all students; giving points or credits for community engagement activities that would motivate students; providing a system that will support students with special circumstances instead of failing them for losing half a mark of the passing grade especially to highly engaged students with a good history; running or delivering the theoretical and practical knowledge together at the same time to maximise the benefits of both; and finally arranging for more activities that connect medical students with nursing students. Remarkably the nursing participants believed that there is a gap between them and the medical students, which could be closed through effectively implementing inter-professional education. They believed that a better relationship between both should be enhanced especially since they will work together in the future. On the other hand, the medical participants thought that there were other areas that require more attention from the university to improve the quality of teaching. All agreed that the physical examination courses needed to be more consistent and to have more structure that follows international standards as this causes confusion for students especially for 174 examinations. Participants also suggested that the university should have a higher degree of coordination with the clinicians in the hospitals at the beginning of the academic year in order to agree on what should be delivered to the students. Moreover, the participants believed that the PAL (Peer Assisted Learning) programme was useful where students learn more from their colleagues at a higher level than themselves but this needs to be monitored and the peers more prepared. Most importantly, they argued that some of the clinicians focus on either knowledge or training which creates a gap in students’ development. The participants believed that knowledge and real life implementation complement each other and cannot be separated. 4.2.5.1.4 Western Teaching Style There are a number of important minor points to note from the participants’ discussion as each group had a different perspective on this topic. The nursing group were more focussed on the effect of culture difference between them and their Western lecturers on their learning. Some articulated the points very effectively. For example, one of the nursing alumnae said, Most of the European lecturers don’t even have an understanding of the religious aspects. So they don’t give us a break for prayer time. So when we ask for prayer time they say why haven’t you prayed at home! [All Laugh] They should consider the national people’s tradition, culture, religious aspects, etc. On the other hand, all the medical participants agreed that most of their professors were highly qualified and had a rich knowledge and experience, however, they lack interest, teaching style, and motivation. They also argued that the clinical learning setting could be humiliating, mocking, or malicious. The main reasons for this could be because of a lack of understanding of students’ learning developmental levels and clinicians’ high expectations of students that were not ideal. Only one participant thought that both Arab and Western ways of teaching were equally good, arguing that: Both Arabic and western teaching styles are good, but at the same time I prefer western teaching style. Why? Because it is more open! The Arabic is like ‘Here is what you need to know learn it and come to the exam’. The western teaching style help us think independently and out of the box ‘I am not going to spoon feed you’ approach! ‘You want certain thing go search it and come we can discuss it and I will correct whatever is wrong about your ideas’. Though that is kind of better. All my friends went to different 175 universities in Bahrain some of them went to AGU. If I am going to compare my experience with theirs according to what they have told me! Certain issues that I feel lucky to be here. Their university system follows Arab style and ours follow Irish or UK system. Why I prefer it? Again because we have a lot of resources, access to online research databases, etc. Similar studies by Eison (2002) and Gardiner (2002) describe the teaching strategies, approaches and academic staff qualities that help students develop professionally in a supportive higher education climate. It is important to note here that ‘Western’ means primarily English, Irish and also perhaps American. 4.2.5.2 Quality Research This section reports on five main themes that emerged from the group discussions, which were the characteristics of quality research, whether students have been prepared well to do research, research improvement for the university case study, alumnae’s perceptions about qualitative and quantitative research, and Western researching styles. 4.2.5.2.1 Characteristics The participants from the two groups had reported the characteristics of quality research presented in Table 36 below. According to one third of the participants’ perceptions and experience, the highest characteristics of quality research were ‘having good supervision,’ ‘educating society and relevancy to community,’ and ‘has good research components’. The second highest identified characteristics were that quality research should have ‘good fund[ing],’ ‘a series of outcomes that can be built on to be further researched,’ ‘available resources like laboratories and equipment,’ ‘having a set of clear goals,’ and ‘valid’. Only one of the participants believed that quality research should be systematic; a culture; non-biased; the ability to choose the research area of interest; the proper research language; and meeting certain standards and requirements. 176 Table 36 Characteristics of Quality Research Quality Research % of Alumnae Quality Research %of Alumnae Characteristics Characteristics Has good funding 25% Freedom to choose interested 12.5% area of research Series of outcomes followed by 25% Setting clear goals 25% further research that you can build on Having a system 12.5% Valid 25% Having a culture for research 12.5% Meeting the standards and 12.5% within the organisation requirement of research Availability of resources 25% Knowing the research language 12.5% Having a good supervision 37.5% Educate and relevant to 37.5% community Non-bias 12.5% Has good research components 37.5% The alumnae raised some important debateable views about the restricted development of quality research while discussing the characteristics of quality research. They argued that the restriction reaches even their areas of interest. One of the participants articulated this very clearly as s/he said: A hospital based research, as an intern I cannot do a research by myself at hospital. There are restrictions! A consultants name should be with me so that I can do this type of research. The hospital has to give you approval to do this research. There is no freedom even in the choice of topic of your interest they will intervene and change your research questions etc. you are taken forcibly to change your topic. This is the situation in hospitals and I am not making this up! They put you off! They don’t sometimes fund you if you don’t follow their wish! This is a huge issue. Secondly, finding the consultant that will approve your questions or accept to put his name with you is difficult! Not all of them are available. Another participant focused on the role of the academic in enhancing the quality of research by saying: 177 Every year, we need to be introduced to a new research method or technique that will improve our skills such as critique, reflection writing, etc. It is funny that the teachers said to us ‘this is the first time we introduce this research skill and we will try it on you!’ this is demotivating for most of us because they said ‘do it by your own!’ we felt that the teachers themselves needed more training in these areas in order to deliver them properly to students, especially Bahraini teachers! 4.2.5.2 2 Preparation Preparation issues started at high school for some of the participants. They argued that: Majority of us comes from public schools where research is not paid attention to. All we knew about research is Google it, copy and paste it in a paper, print it and submit it. Nothing was taught in schools about plagiarism or referencing sources! And when you come to university where you are exposed to new environment where you have to read books and articles then actually cite and reference them. We need to learn the foundations of research and what is good research at year one. We need to be introduced to the requirements of research so that we can the produce a good quality research when we meet these requirements or standards of research. All participants claimed that completing their higher education helped them in a way to be partially prepared for doing research. They argued that they acquired some skills such as interpreting research papers, choosing a research topic, critiquing literature in their field, and deciding on the validity of different research papers. All participants believed that the university should do more to motivate students to conduct research and they suggested some useful ideas in the following: We started there but we need more follow-up to reach higher levels in research. I meant by that having to get feedback from teachers after marking our research to learn more about our weaknesses and strengths. We are prepared partially in research like we can choose our research and be creative in it. We have access to some resources like the website and the library as alumni. 178 We have been prepared to interpret research, but not to conduct it! [All agreed.] We need more workshops that prepare us to do research by our own. Why not prepare us from JC to conduct research. Research is a habit. 4.2.5.2.3 Improvements All participants discussed many ideas to improve practices in the university to further enhance the quality of research by suggesting some techniques. All agreed on the importance of recognition and appreciation for students’ research initiatives. Also they believed that the university could choose the best three graduation research projects to be supervised by instructors or researchers from the university to further develop them and get them published. Participants found hospitals to be rich areas to do research because of many issues where the university could support students by taking their ideas on-board and fund it to be published in international journals. They also believed that the university could create a database for all incomplete research projects to be further developed which could give students an opportunity to develop their research projects, after graduation while waiting for jobs, with the support of their supervisors in the university. However, one of the alumni who is an effective members in the Medical Research Society in the university argued that: I haven’t seen a major improvement! JC2 is when I started doing research and I was part of the medical research society here at the university. We tried to contact each and every doctor associated with the university who seem to have an on-going research or good topics for research. We created a database then we present it to students. We created a tool to connect students with physicians. Then students have the choice to partake in any of these research projects. Some of these projects continued, while the others did not! Why? Because of the conflict of interest or because the students are not prepared enough to do research. We were trying to create an environment for research to change the culture! Collaboration with other medical universities in the country was another area that needs to be developed based on the participants’ collective view. Lastly, they suggested that instead of only validating research papers, they could have been put in training or workshops to develop 179 their mock papers in order to get hands-on experience in the craft and techniques of writing research papers. For example one of the participants articulated this in a way that the whole group agreed on: We have been taught how to evaluate good papers and to criticise them, but to write a research paper I don’t think we are capable to do so. Why don’t we learn to do mock papers instead of validating papers only? 4.2.5.2.4 Qualitative vs Quantitative When asking the two groups about the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, very few responses were elicited and it received the least discussion throughout the focus group sessions. Their discussion included only listing the different methods used to conduct qualitative and quantitative research projects. Only one of the participants gave more detail about both research approaches: Qualitative is about people’s impression about some phenomena and how they feel it incorporate values. For example, questionnaires are quantitative while interviews are qualitative. 4.2.5.2.5 Western Approaches All participants believed that the European or Western research approaches are more developed and ahead of all other approaches in delivering research due to their long history and experience. Interestingly, nursing alumnae added the effect of national culture on the development of research. For example some of them argued that: They are way ahead. For example, there are areas of research that is interesting, but they are considered taboos and we are not allowed to discuss or explore because of the culture such as relationships and related diseases. These are considered like a red line and you cannot cross them. I agree, they will think you are violating the norms and the values of the society. For example: STDs (Sex Transmitted Diseases), if you talk about them in public, people will 180 attack you! Here in Bahrain there is no support for research activities, while in western countries you will find many foundations supporting your research in healthcare. The audience are so hard here in Bahrain. For example: doing a simple test like blood pressure and sugar they will not provide you with a room to raise awareness. It is the culture! 4.2.5.3 University Development The third question about university development in Bahrain and the Arabian Gulf countries elicited few answers and little discussion, probably because few of them have experience outside Bahrain and also because this might be a topic on an institutional level that they haven’t thought about or have little experience with. Medical participants see the Bahraini universities being more developed because of the cultural element: I have a friend in another country in the Gulf who is doing medicine their university doesn’t prepare them in communication skills. The students have to be in contact with patients without being trained on how to do this! Cultural diffusion! Compared to the Gulf universities, Bahrain is more of a multi-culture. It is extremely diverse in Bahrain. This is the strength in Bahrain universities and the open- mindedness. The difference between the groups again surfaced in terms of their focus when comparing the university in the case study to other universities in the country. The nursing participants focused on the quality of the students’ selection and the qualities of Bahraini students: Well, I think RCSI Bahrain has developed a lot better than other universities in Bahrain. That is based on what we hear from students in other universities when we get together for certain national events. The selection criteria for universities in Bahrain are very high. Although we are high achievers we still struggle to get acceptance in universities or get a scholarship. Nurses at the Masters level are joining RCSI because of its reputation and its achievements. Bahraini universities are developing way ahead of all others in the Gulf. 181 If we only have a bigger fund to support us here in Bahrain then no one can compete [with] us! The medical participants still believed that their university compared well with others as it motivates cultural diversity and interaction. This is a unique characteristic for higher education where people share thoughts and experiences which appreciated by all individuals from students to staff (Silver, 2002). 4.2.5.4 Academic Leadership When seeking the alumnae perceptions about whom would they consider as an academic leader and what qualities they should have, they presented a number of different views with some common qualities such as: being humble, giving more responsibilities to students, and pushing the standards high. Below is one example from a medical participant: One from my JC’s, Professor Culligan, He is so cool and so nice with you. Whenever we go to his office he handles all issues at the same time. He makes learning interactive. He motivates you to make it right! He wants you to answer this question so he wasn’t humiliating or cold! He never read things of slides like a robot! He is charismatic which kind of get everyone’s attention. Sense of humour, approachability, kindness, being ready even after hours, he makes this casual environment for learning; he makes you want to learn. I love that! It’s all about self-actualisation where we reached a certain level in our life that we are mature and if they don’t consider us at that level!!! I think they should respect us enough because this is what we are doing and to be doing this is our future. That’s about life, give us some responsibility. We are not like the wall just observing! We are an active part and we are part of the team. We should be able to see patients, etc. why should I give 100% to a person who would only acknowledge my 10%. Professor Kevin is a true leader! He is always motivating us to read about anything that we don’t know and to come back with an answer. That’s what we need! We don’t want to be a baby. We need to be pushed enough that we work hard for it. We are not only taking knowledge from them we learn professionalism and ethics. This is what makes you as a doctor. They are role models. 182 McKimm and Swanwick (2010) supported this point. They believed that effective educational leader not only that they have a good level of self-awareness but they are also capable and skilful in identifying the strengths and abilities of their students or colleagues in order to motivate them to excel in different tasks. 4.3 Summary The overall results from the document analysis, survey, interviews and focus groups are summarised here for the general results that emerged in this study. These are grouped below in Table 37 organised by the main themes of leadership, teaching and research, grouped by source of data. Table 37 Summaries of the study results Document Survey Interviews Focus Groups Analysis (Faculty (Academic (Alumnae) (International, Members) Administrative Regional, Leadership & National & Regulatory Organizational Bodies) Academic - Professionalism - Future leaders - Relationships - Student centred - Collegiality preparation and interactions -Interaction and Leadership - Governance - Decision - Decision- communication making making - Professionalism involvement & - Academic & ethical. consultation freedom -Relationships - Governance and communication skills University - Capacity - Academic - Training in - Develop clinical building Workload teaching teaching styles & Teaching - Professional -Professional techniques approaches Ethos training considering - Acknowledging - Academics - Teaching different learning extra-curricula workload support and styles activities - Quality and consultation - Team support - Academic staff standards of Collaboration motivation outcomes 183 Source of Data Areas of Development University - Research support - Motivation and - Access to - Training in (Funding, Policy, incentives develop research methods Research Resources) - Training in community - Recognition of - Intellectual research skills research student research. capital and and providing involvement - Funding and community support - Funding & resources development -Access to Resources - Collaboration - Building resources and - Training and networking. networks and funding opportunities approaches -Collaboration - Academics and networking Workload - The main result for leadership demonstrates that in the international documents there is more emphasis on the importance and quality of academic leadership than in the regional and national documents, while the organisation’s documents reflected roughly the same level of attention as the international documents, except for an equivalent discussion of academic freedom in teaching. The results of the survey are that academic leaders need to develop more social and communication skills in involving faculty in decision making, but that in most respects the results were positive for knowledge, expertise and support. The interviews involved two groups with somewhat divergent perspectives: first, the representatives from regulatory bodies thought that universities in general in the country need to develop a much greater academic leadership capacity; and the interviews in the case study generally reported that academic leadership was quite well developed but that their roles restricted them from some activities that could be undertaken. Finally, the focus groups did not have much to say about academic leadership other than the importance of professionalism and ethics for academic leaders. The main reason for this is the alumnae’s focus and experience is more limited to the classroom and therefore, teaching and research activities. For university teaching, the documents across the categories had much the same perspective, which are similar expectations in terms of high quality teaching and mentorship ethos for graduate students as well as a high level of qualification for teaching. The survey indicated that the teaching load is too high and this primarily has the main negative impact on their teaching. In the interviews with representatives of the regulatory bodies, the main focus was on proper qualifications for teaching and additional pedagogical training for higher education, 184 while the academic leaders reported an appreciation for the impact of heavy workloads on teaching quality. The focus groups reported that the main problem lay in clinical rather than classroom teaching and that quality teaching is delivered by those who have a high level of engagement, involvement and professionalism in the teaching process and students. For the last category, research, the document analysis demonstrated that the international and organisation levels had much more focus on a research ethos and high level of expectations of quality research, whereas the regional and national documents have only recently identified research in general as an important characteristic of higher education. The survey showed that faculty need more support and less workload to pursue the level of research that they wish to and which is expected of them. The regulatory body interviews focussed on the need for universities to develop resources to support faculty doing research and to reduce their workloads, a view that was shared by academic leaders in their interviews. Students in the focus groups believe that they need more research training and experience, an element that is not sufficiently addressed in their programmes. 185 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Introduction This chapter has four main sections in it. The first introduces the sections of a wholistic and comprehensive integrated model of leadership for higher education organisational development in teaching and research, and then presents the structure of the integrated model and then, finally, the model in a temporal domain. The second section presents a number of conclusions that can be drawn from the data collected and analysed, ranging from theoretical to practical and applied. The third section identifies a number of recommendations that follow from the integrated model and the conclusions covering policy, organisational arrangements, and teaching and research standards and practices. Finally, the last section identifies a number of further studies that could be pursued in developing this area of higher education research. 5.2 Synthesis of Results into a Comprehensive Integrated Model The integrated model presented here is designed to address the research questions in a comprehensive way with a model that is multi-level and dynamic and designed on a system level. The main research question was to determine what kind of model or understanding of academic leadership should be used in Bahraini universities to foster a higher quality of research and teaching using a case study of Bahraini regulatory agencies and a medical college. The following research sub-questions were developed to identify dimensions and elements of such a topic and consequent model: 1. What conception of leadership do the academic administrators have and is it focused on quality enhancement? 2. What conceptions and characteristics of quality research and teaching do they hold? 3. To what degree do faculty and academic administrative leaders understand the higher education visions and goals of the country? 4. Does their conception of leadership, research and teaching vary by national origin? And how do they understand multicultural relations in this context and whether multicultural staff has an effect on these? 186 5. To what degree are these factors of academic leadership in quality of research and teaching and multiculturalism reflected in the international, national, and organisational documents? The answers to these questions have been approached through four basic conceptual frameworks: the first is the elements of academic leadership and organisational dimensions; the second is the academic ethos elements; the third is the multicultural interaction dimension that has most direct effect on the academic ethos, and indirectly on the rest of the system; and the fourth is the developmental and dynamic system interaction. There is also a fifth dimension to the model that is extra-organisational – the international, regional and national contexts within which the organisation rests and which it is influenced by in many different ways, most of which are not the focus of this study, although the regulatory aspect is included. Each of these are presented and discussed below and then will be relate in following sections to conclusions, recommendations and further research. The theoretical foundation for each will be identified and the main research results relating to each will be included in the discussion. The first framework is “Academic Leadership and Organisational Dimensions” which are represented below in Figure 25. The main elements of this framework, individual, social, organisational/structural and the policy and disciplinary organisational context for the previous three are represented sequentially below. As presented in Chapter Two, this scheme comes from Bolden, Petrov and Gosling (2008) and Bolden et al. (2012) where personal qualities, social identity and networks, the organisational systems, processes and practices as well as the organisation’s policy environment for these interact producing an organisational perspective on leadership formation and practices (e.g., such as providing resources and rewards). In this kind of model, leadership development involves shared goals, aims, values and purpose. Those results that most closely relate to these dimensions are the survey and interview data of the university academic and administration staff who all referenced or identified these elements as significant in quality development, as well as some of the results from the focus group with alumni in which a distinction was made between the organisation and individual members who are more effective than others in the hierarchy 187 Figure 25 Academic Leadership and Organisational Dimension The second framework, the “Academic Ethos” (See Figure 26), consisting of teaching and learning, research, and community engagement and service provision, where community is both the international scholarly community and the local community within which the organisation is located. This model is a more general one that reflects the common international dimensions of a faculty member’s professional duties and responsibilities that are reflected in contracts and regular performance and quality reviews, although the conceptualisation of these are influenced, as discussed in Chapter Two, by Edward Shils’s (2008) landmark book, The Calling of Education: "The academic ethic" and Other Essays on Higher Education and the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (2011). The ethos in these three areas are all informed by underlying values of collegiality, academic freedom, original contributions, professionalism 188 and autonomy. There are other values and practices that are part of this tradition that play a strong role in organisational development for quality teaching and research. Those most associated with teaching include trust, credibility, consultation, openness, equity, diversity and idiosyncratic support (which refer to valuing individuality in academic roles). Those most associated with research include peer review, originality, interdisciplinarity, an international perspective and intellectuality. The empirical results of the study that most relate to the elements of the ethos are those from the survey that emphasised the importance of better support research activities, the interviews emphasised that research, although able to pursue it individually still needed more development and support, and the focus groups also reported that the clinical teaching needed improvement and that research also required more attention. The document analysis demonstrated that academic freedom is missing from most documents examined and that their emphasis was placed primarily on teaching with research presented as minor activity as well as a focus on the need for the governance level to have more expert knowledge and experience in the full range of university activities. Figure 26 Academic Ethos Elements The third framework, the “Multicultural Interaction” (See Figure 27), that is important increasingly internationally given population migration and into many areas of the developing countries, like Bahrain, is the multicultural composition of society and its organisations, including universities. The model for this was chosen from Schein (2010), Schultz (1994), and 189 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2004, 2012), with an inclusion of Islamic and Arab cultural values from Branine (2011). Their perspectives are necessary in more accurately representing the beliefs, values and practices that vary across faculty and academic administrators who come from different countries and cultures, in this case, Irish/Anglo/Australian, Bahraini/Arabian Gulf, expatriate Arabs from such countries as Egypt, Sudan and Iraq, and expatriate Asians like the Philippines, China and India. The main results based on nationality and ethnicity demonstrate that the Bahraini and expatriate Arabs reported the highest level of lack of support for their development, which is an indication of the more collectivist orientation of Arab cultures and the higher individuality expectations and orientation of non-Arab Westerners. This dimension is examined in this study for its direct influence on the Academic Ethos aspects, and only indirectly as it affects others. Figure 27 The Multicultural Interaction The fourth category, the “Dynamics System Interaction” (See figure 28), is the socially interactive dynamic developmental system that integrates directly the Academic Leadership and Organisational Dimensions with the Academic Ethos. The model for change comes from the dynamic aspects of some of the theories already being used for the individual frameworks. For example, in Bolden, Petrov and Gosling (2008) and Bolden et al. (2012) the organisational model that he uses is examined for its complex interaction of levels as developmental change takes place. Also, Trompenaars (in Trompenaars & Woolliams, 2002) approaches cross- cultural aspects of organisations as an increasingly common experience internationally given 190 globalization factors at play, and the changing composition of organisations. On an individual level for leadership formation, the work of Gmelch (2013) and Gmelch and Buller (2015), is relevant here since they use a dynamic developmental model containing three dimensions - conceptual understanding, skill development and reflective practice – that have to grow together to inform and produce a comprehensive academic leadership. In order to connect the levels in each of these the developmental covers a range of changes in practices and processes from the individual, through the group, to the organisational level (e,g,, skill acquisition, career trajectories) including integrated structural systems or components (i.e., the schools and the administrative departments), career profile for the faculty as whole, and changing collective needs and priorities. This category is dynamic in a number of ways including the following: changing structures and processes on the organisation level, interdisciplinary activities on departmental levels, and reflective practices, professional identity formation and knowledge and skill enhancement of individuals. These changes require a number of conditions such as sufficient resources and interpersonal trust. The results of the data in the survey indicated that the two main barriers are a lack of sufficient organisation culture of mutual support, mostly from the senior level, as well as a critically important problem of workload that is too high to allow for adequate development as scholars. The interviews indicated that they have a high level of awareness of gaps and weaknesses but that they don’t have authority over resources and so are limited in their ability to assist the development processes that need to take place. All of the documents examined did identify the importance of professional development and capacity building for both teaching and research, but they generally do not contain solutions since the primary problem is lack of funding over which they have little influence. 191 Figure 28 The Dynamics System Interaction The integrated model presented below as Figure 29 is the elements synthesized into their relative relationships based on the theories and models that informed the study. This approach emphasises the complex nature and levels of organisational development consisting of all the components discussed above that interact in both positive and negative ways. The results overall, from all data sources, indicated that most people are cognizant of the fact that social and organisational reality is multi-dimensional and multi-level, and that development involves complex sets of changes throughout this system. Another important feature of Figure 29 is that conditions and context within which the organisation and its people are located can also have a strong and sometimes determining (e.g., external funding sources) influence over all aspects of teaching, learning, service and the organisation’s overall culture and health. These forces that form a foundation of external factors that also have to be taken into consideration on international, regional and national levels due to intellectual and academic standards and practices, international and regional policies, globalization which is having a pan-global cultural effect, economic conditions that affect funding levels, and geo-political conditions that can affect staff and student mobility. There are influences through these sectors (i.e., intellectual, cultural, economic, political) that also heavily influence in direct and indirect ways quality standards and regimes (e.g., quality assurance), as well as on a national level where the local society has invested heavily over a few decades in national development of its social institutions. 192 Figure 29 The integrated Model 193 The final dimension of this integrated model, is to project it into a temporal dimension (Figure 30) of comprehensive change. Figure 29 focuses only on internal change, whereas this model, since it is also contextualised into extra-organisational conditions, in other words, international, regional and national contexts, change and development that has influence also has to be recognised since organisations are embedded. It is important to note that internal change and development is affected by external changes in political, economic, cultural, social and intellectual forms. Some of the more prominent for a university in Bahrain is the economic status of the country and its regional and international neighbours, on a political level cross- national agreements and diplomatic connections (i.e., Ireland-Bahrain), and socio-cultural changes taking place through expatriate labour and more Bahrainis travelling than was possible 40 years ago as well as international consumer goods in the country. On an intellectual/academic level, Bahrain, like other countries in the Arabian Gulf have fairly new but rapidly expanding higher education systems that attract academics from many parts of the world that provide knowledge and experiential exchange. 194 Figure 30 The Temporal Domain (Change & Development) 195 5.3 Study Conclusions and Implications There are a number of conclusions that are drawn from the results of the study that fall into five categories: theoretical conclusions, methodological conclusions, pedagogical and curricular conclusions, policy conclusions, and those related to the current domination of neoliberalism internationally in education. There are a number of theoretical conclusions important in this study. First, more than one uni- dimensional model is necessary to capture the development and complexity of higher education-building in developing countries since they are too simplistic. Internal dynamics as well as external factors have to be taken into account for an accurate and true picture of the nature of professional development and the considerations that leadership has to have in order to successfully support quality enhancement. What also can be concluded is that the various elements in the integrated model all have influence on each other so realistically they should not be separated and dealt with independently. This applies, for example to professional development which is influenced by organisational factors of all kinds, is affected by external factors like economic conditions, and which has its own complex character involving individual change, interpersonal relations, and affected by the state of the organisational culture. There are also some theories and models that are demonstrated to not be applicable to the Arabian Gulf region, or which would require modification or alteration to accommodate culture, values and social norms such as Hofstede’s (1984) because of its cultural bias (Shaiq et al., 2011). Generally, those models or theories which are secular, materialist, exceptionally individualistically oriented or are lacking in historical perspective are not able to capture the dominant values in Muslim and Arab cultures (Branine, 2011). One feature of the complexity is multicultural and cross-cultural qualities of an organisation that require an analysis with a strong emphasis on the social, on values and belief systems, on patterns of behaviour that are often deeply entrenched since they help shape identity and character. Expatriate labour populations represent a quite large percentage of the population of most Gulf countries, with people coming from as many as 200 countries to live and work in the Gulf region. Most organisations, particularly educational organisations, have very high levels of diversity and consequently these factors have to be taken in account in any kind of organisational change or development, and are a large part of social interaction on a daily basis such as communication, respect, understanding, and tolerance for different kinds of work 196 styles. Some authors’ work, like Trompenaars, has taken into account many different kinds of societies in the formation of his studies and theory, but increasingly cross-cultural studies are coming out of Asia that better reflect the true nature of these societies removing bias that has existed in previous studies. More recently some work has been done by Arab and Muslim scholars (e.g., Branine, 2011), but there is still a huge gap in the literature reflecting societies in the Middle East, which means that quite often theories that don’t accommodate the values and culture are being used. Leadership as well is an embedded social and role construction that is a function of and which also influences organisational culture, others’ social interactions and their professional development in their career trajectories. Quality enhancement in teaching and research is dependent upon these organisational structures and relationships. Leadership in a medical university has to be more sensitive in these respects since a high quality of standard is demanded of healthcare professionals given the potential risks that can affect the lives of clients. Since leadership is embedded theories and models that are defined by independent position qualities are inadequate because they do not research leadership as part of a social system, either organisationally or culturally. There are a few methodological implications that come out of the experience of data collection and analysis in this study. First, the mixed methods approach can work very well for a case study where the largest representation across the organisation has to be made. A survey instrument that can be administered to a large number allows for including them in a study where a solely qualitative approach would not be able to handle this. Equally, qualitative is necessary in studying professionalism development in higher education and the role that leadership can play because qualitative is more suitable for capturing people’s ideas, values, culture, and social relationships. What was also discovered in this study, which originally did not have focus groups in its design, but was added later to meet with alumni groups as the rich discussion and insights that develop in these interactive sessions. The interviews were just as important in allowing people to open up and express their thoughts, feelings, and anxieties. While more emphasis should be placed on regulators of universities, it is often difficult to get access and approval in some areas of data collection, particularly in some countries where transparency of government and regulatory bodies has not been part of societal norms. 197 There are also a few issues about pedagogy and curriculum that are relevant. Firstly, faculty in medical colleges need some pedagogical training, and many would like at least workshop training sessions in various kinds of methods and techniques of teaching, developing curriculum, and conducting assessments that could be beneficial. A major issue for many was a lack of time due to workload (partly because they are teaching in the hospitals and the university) that limits their development as teachers and also restricts the time they have for course development and preparation. In the research area there were two main concerns. First, most faculty did not have training in qualitative research methods and felt the need to have at least some background and training. Secondly, their workload also limited to a high level of concern their ability to pursue research they should have been conducting, either in the numbers of studies or the size of studies. There were a few also who expressed the need for junior faculty to be mentored by experienced faculty, an issue that arose both on the part of junior faculty and experienced faculty who were interesting in sharing their knowledge and expertise. There are a number of policy conclusions that can be drawn from the results of the study relating to teaching and research quality improvement as well as effective leadership in their development. First, as many respondents reported there are areas of policy that could address these issues such as research funding, sabbaticals, teaching workload levels, and the level of committee work. This is particularly important for young scholars who have to invest more in their scholarly development, and also require access to mentoring in adjusting the university environment and develop as teachers. An important policy initiative could be a faculty mentoring policy especially for young faculty in their first years who could benefit from the experience and guidance of more senior faculty. A result of the document analysis demonstrates that in some areas, the new Higher Education Council is often importing foreign policies or policy developers from very different jurisdictional contexts where these ideas do not necessarily translate very well to conditions in Bahrain and where there are already university policies that have formed effectively under Bahraini conditions. One last conclusion that there is some evidence for in the data is what is often referred to as neoliberal education, which is using an economic model for education including managerialism and quality assurance regimes that tend to be highly micro-managerial and quantitative in 198 nature. The issues that faculty and students have raised are that teaching and research are part of a more humanistic perspective which involves higher order values that are not economic ones to evaluate the health and functioning of a university and that the social and interpersonal relations are critically important in the development of teaching and research. Many aspects of these are qualitative in nature and require a suitable framework. There is in the data some reference to values associated with the traditional collegial model for governance in an university, including associated values of academic freedom, a shared community of scholars, and a regard for legitimate differences of opinion based on the various schools of thought within disciplines, all of which should be protected. Related to this is the issue of globalised education, which has come under considerable criticism internationally as discussed in the literature review. The main issue here related to the data is that not all practices and models coming from the two dominant systems in globalised education, the British and the American, are necessarily wholly suitable for other countries. 5.4 Recommendations Based on the conclusions above, and in consideration of the data upon which they were formed, there are a number of recommendations that can be made for each of the above conclusion sections. In theoretical area there are four main recommendations 1. Research studies conducted on universities in the Arabian Gulf should use culturally sensitive and relevant theories and models for their design, which are able to accommodate the social and institutional characteristics within a certain context. 2. Given the increasing multiculturalism in most countries, and especially in the Arabian Gulf, leadership and organisation theories should have cultural and cross-cultural dimensions. 3. Given the strong impact of globalisation on developing countries, more theoretical development should be done reflecting the perspectives of developing countries. 4. More theoretical development in the area of policy transfer needs to be conducted in order to identify better the kinds of modifications and adjustments that should be made in higher education programmes and institutions reflecting the jurisdictional 199 characteristics of the countries receiving transfers of knowledge, personnel and organisational practices. Research recommendations: 1. A national funding agency should be established to provide research funding for scholars in Bahraini universities, since there are many gaps in the international literature due to lack of representation from the GCC region. 2. Higher Education Council should develop workload policies and procedures to ensure that academic staff members are provided with equal opportunity to excel and participate in research and scholarly activities. 3. Senior academic staff should provide an opportunity for junior staff to collaborate and participant in research projects and networks. 4. Students’ final year projects should be adopted and supported by academic advisors/ supervisors who are experts in the field. Teaching recommendations: 1. All universities should provide continuous professional development courses in teaching for their staff to keep them abreast with the latest development in the teaching and learning techniques. 2. Developing interdisciplinary teaching programmes across different schools within a university could lead into more collaboration projects. 3. Training academics effective techniques on how teach students as adults and independent learners. Curricular recommendations 1. The school curricula should consider developing content that best prepare and motivate students from very early years to develop research skills which will have a big impact on them when you join university where research excel. 2. At the higher education level, the research curricula should be designed and run by experts who are passionate about research to move students to be creative in different research areas. 200 Institutional recommendations 1. Team-building, mentoring, and coaching skills training should be introduced across university for all staff either administrators or academics since they work together on daily bases in an academic organisation to learn how to work effectively together on different levels. 2. Policies and procedures on academic freedom, equal opportunity: on both country and institution level should be developed to protect academic staff and scholars in higher education systems. Leadership recommendations: 1. A more structured and transparent criteria should be designed for the recruitment of the academic leadership, which is consistent and used by all higher education institutions in the country. In addition to the knowledge in the discipline, other areas like the ones mentioned in the model should be some of the requirements for the selection of the academic leaders with a more focus on the cultural and the academic ethos. 2. Professional academic leadership development programmes should be designed to prepare academic leaders to better understand academic leadership and governance systems. 3. On the long run more complex courses should be introduced using multi-level dimensions of academic leadership like the ones in the integrated model of this thesis. 4. Academic leadership should be prepared in building and developing skills that help them better network and integrate with community. 5.5 Further Research There are a number of possible studies that could be conducted for further research. First, the study could be expanded to include more universities in Bahrain, and could also be further expanded to include a comparison of private and public universities in the country. There is also a need for this kind of study in universities in other Gulf countries to provide both information about similarities and differences in universities across these countries. Another direction for comparative studies is to examine the home universities and their branches in Gulf 201 countries. These studies should also provide a basis of comparison with universities in other developing parts of the world to determine whether there are patterns of development despite regional differences. This also could be expanded to provide more detailed information about universities in developing countries with those in ‘developed’ countries, for example, how in relative terms they have responded to neoliberalism. There are also ways in which further research could go deeper into the data collected by conducting a longitudinal study of the university, perhaps over a 3 or 5 year period, or add additional data collection methods through observations (of committees, activities, and individual teaching and research practices), adding focus groups with faculty and staff, or designing much more in-depth interviews of a more hermeneutic and phenomenological character to go deeper into their experience. A study that investigates the leadership in greater depth by using more in-depth and sequential interviews (a series of 3 or 4) as well as using journaling and other writings and more documents of the individuals concerned (e.g., reports, studies). A further study could also use interviews with students and alumni, collecting much more data on their learning experiences and professional development. 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(2000). Administrative ethics and organizational learning in Kuwait and the United States: An empirical approach. International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 23(1), pp. 21-52. Zajda, J., Daun, H. & Saha, L. (eds) (2008). Nation-building, identity and citizenship education: Cross cultural perspectives. New York: Springer. 246 APPENDIX I Document Thematic Content Analysis Document Name Thematic Analysis A. Teaching & Research Practices 1.1 Teaching Values & Beliefs 1.2 Teaching Training 1.3 Pedagogical Approach 1.4 Relationship with Students 2.1 Knowledge of Research Methods 2.2 Value & Purpose of Research 2.3 Team Values & Practices B. Organizational & Contextual Elements 1.1 Values Attached to Teaching 1.2 Cross-Cultural Inconsistencies & Tensions 1.3 Adequate Infrastructure (e.g., library, equipment) 1.4 Academic Freedom in Teaching 2.1 Active Networking 2.2 Adequate Infrastructure 2.3 Adequate Research Funding 2.4 Workload Issues 2.5 Academic Freedom in Research 2.6 Collegial Environment (professional) C. Multicultural Factors 1.1 Degree of Diversity 1.2 Degree of Difference in Teaching Ideals 1.3 Degree of Difference in Research Approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) 1.4 Obedience to Authority vs Autonomy by faculty (Academic Freedom?) 1.5 Style of management and leadership 1.6 Degree of Organizational Autonomy (Governance) D. Ongoing Changes 1.1 Career Pathway: Stagnant or Growing 1.2 Intellectual Capital Development (for students and locals in staff) 1.3 Professional Ethos 1.4 Community Development (Added-Value) 2.1 Research Support (policy, workload, funding, etc.) 2.2 Quality & Standards in Student Work 247 APPENDIX II Semi-Structure Interviews Academic Administrative Leadership Interviews Interview Guide:  Introduce the topic to the interviewee  Ethical Considerations (Approvals, Purpose, risks & benefits, confidentiality & rights to withdraw from the study). Participant code: _____________ Nationality & Origin: __________________ Personal Information: 1. What is your main academic leadership role? 2. For how long have you been working in this organization? 3. Have you worked in another higher education organization in a leadership role prior to working here? In any non-leadership and leadership roles? For how long in each? Introductory Questions: 4. What does leadership mean to you? 5. What does multiculturalism mean to you? What does cross-cultural mean to you? 6. How would you describe this institution? As ‘multi-cultural/cross-cultural organizations’? 7. In what way is it important for leaders in senior positions to understand cultures? 8. Do you think it is motivating for your team to work in a multicultural organization? Are there any challenges for it? 9. What is quality research? 10. What is quality teaching? 11. Do you think Teaching and Research Quality are affected by the national origin of Academics? Or is it affected by their work experience in more than one country? Main interview Part: Personal: 12. Can you think of an academic administrator that you have been working with whose leadership style you liked? What are the personal qualities that have made them good leaders? 13. Can you talk about your progress through the academic management pathway and how have you adapted your style and mode of leadership as you have progressed through your career? 14. Do you consider yourself to be an effective leader? Why? What special qualities do you have that makes you this? 15. What is your role as a leader in times of change or transition? Give examples 16. What do you do to reassure your subordinates during these times? 17. What do you do in crisis or problem situation? Do you consult your colleagues or do you make decisions alone? Give examples. 248 18. What kind of support do you provide for members of staff who are very active in both research and teaching? Any additional supports for those who have high activity in both but are facing excessive workload? 19. Do you see research and teaching as autonomous or interrelated? Explain. 20. Do you have an influential role in your organization through specific access to resources, networks, and academic reputation? Explain Social: 21. How do you think leadership was accomplished within universities generally? And in Bahrain specifically? 22. Do you think formal and informal relationships and networks within and beyond the institution are important for the development of academic leadership? Explain & give example. 23. How do you think these relationships and networks can help in developing shared norms, goals, and trust? Or share experiences and ideas for teaching and research? How are these related to academic freedom? To collegiality? 24. Do you think the shared sense of dignity and purpose within and between groups are important for the development of social identity, research and teaching? Explain 25. Which is more important to your academic professional practice? to be connected to the discipline? Or to the institution you belong to? Are there cross-cultural differences in any of these? Structural: 26. What do you think of the higher education system in Bahrain? Why? 27. What are the goals of the HEC in Bahrain for Teaching & Research? 28. To what degree does everyone of the faculty members in the organization is aware of the HEC vision and goals of T & R in Bahrain? 29. Are these goals emphasized in HEC & QAAET documents? 30. What do you think about how your organisation is structured and how it functions formally? 31. Are you happy with the teaching and research processes in your organization? Why? 32. Do you think teaching and research practices and resources should be improved in your university? How? Contextual: 33. What do you think of the external context of your organization (the educational system, government, country)? Does it culturally encourage teaching and research to develop? 34. Do you think that there is a pressure on you as an academic leader and on the collegial forms of your organization because of the commercial and market focus? 35. Do you believe that the culture, history and/or priorities of your organization are affecting the quality of teaching and research? 36. What are the aims, goals and objectives you are trying achieve? How successful have you been? 37. Where do you see institutional and governmental teaching and research policies heading? 249 Developmental: 38. How do you cope, as a leader with the on-going and changing developmental needs of your subordinates? 39. How has your role shifted from being actively engaged in teaching and research to more of a facilitator and supporter? Concluding Questions: 40. What do you think are the required abilities that an academic leader should have to enhance Teaching and Research quality in higher education in Bahrain that is described by its cross-cultural diversity? Thanks you for your participation in this interview. 250 APPENDIX III Academic Leaders Invitation Dear Dr , I would be grateful if you could kindly provide me with the opportunity to meet with you as an academic leader. Your role and contribution as a director of ……. Cycle for the last …… years has definitely made a change on both teaching and research levels at RCSI Bahrain. Therefore, I would highly value your involvement in my research project where you can share your experiences, challenges and success stories. The main purpose of this research project is to gain a better understanding of and more insight in the experiences and roles of academic leadership administrators in higher education in Bahrain while enhancing teaching and research quality, and investigating the current quality management model used for effective leadership, and what style of leadership best handles the challenges of diversity within Bahraini higher educational organizations. The major contribution of this study is to enhance the quality of teaching and research across all private higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The research title is: ‘Academic Administrators’ Leadership Abilities to Enhance Teaching and Research Quality in Bahraini Cross-Cultural Professional Higher Education Organizations’. If you are interested to contribute to the study, kindly let me know of the most convenient time and venue for the meeting. More details about the study will be provided to you upon your agreement to be involved in this study. Should you require further details, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Amal Al-Gallaf Quality Officer RCSI Bahrain P.O. Box 15503, 
 Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain
 T: +973 17351450 Ext 2181
 E: agallaf@rcsi-mub.com W: www.rcsibahrain.edu.bh RCSI DEVELOPING HEALTHCARE LEADERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE WORLDWIDE 251 APPENDIX IV Semi-structured Interview Quality Assurance Authority Member Introduction  Introduce the topic to the interviewee  Ethical Considerations (Approvals, Purpose, risks & benefits, confidentiality & rights to withdraw from the study). Participant code: _____________ Gender: _____________________ Nationality & Origin: __________________ I. Personal Information: 1. What is your educational background (Degree/ Field)? 2. What are your main roles and responsibilities? For how long have you been working in this organization? 3. For how long have you been working in Bahrain/ Institution? 4. What other positions have you held and in what organization/country prior to working here? For how long? II. Main Interview Part A. Challenges 5. What are the challenges that HEIs face in Bahrain in general? 6. What actions/support has the HERU taken to overcome these challenges? 7. How do HEIs response to this actions/support? Give examples 8. Is the DHR happy with the responses? Why/ why not? 9. Do any of these have an effect on quality development? B. Influences & Improvements 10. What are the main pillars of Quality in HE that DHR is focusing on in their agendas? 11. How much can the DHR influence practices within HEIs? 12. What has the DHR achieved so far in enhancing the quality of research in universities? Give examples. 13. What has the HEC achieved so far in enhancing the quality of teaching in universities? Give examples. 14. What hinders the improvement of research processes in HEI? 15. What hinders the improvement of teaching processes in HEI? 16. Whose responsibility is it to enhance the quality of teaching and research in universities? 252 17. How do you monitor the quality of teaching and research in universities? Any particular tools? Kindly provide. 18. What support do you provide in enhancing teaching and research improvements? 19. What policies could be changed to increase quality support and what programmes could be initiated to provide more support to HEI’s? 20. Are there other agencies that do or could contribute to increased teaching and research quality? 21. How do you see the role of HEC in improving the quality of Teaching & Research in Universities? C. Leadership: 22. How do you see academic leadership’s role (Vice President of Academic Affairs, Deans, Heads or Directors of schools/programmes) in university development in Bahrain? 23. Do they play an effective role in enhancing the quality of teaching & research in their organizations? Explain. 24. Do they need changed policies or changes in their mission to do this? 25. How has the HEC and the HERU prepare academic administrative leadership to meet or to be ready to enhance the quality of teaching & research that reaches world standards? 26. Does the HEC regulate the recruitment of academic leadership? Why or why not? 27. What do you think are the required abilities that an academic leader should have to enhance teaching and research quality in higher education organisations in Bahrain that is described by its cross-cultural diversity? D. Framework, Policies, Regulations 28. What quality standards framework is used/ adapted by the HERU to evaluate and maintain its consistency & efficiency in practices across HEIs? 29. What do you think of the HEC’s policies, strategic plans? Are they the best tools to handle gaps in teaching & research qualities in HEIs? 30. Where do you see these governmental policies & strategies heading? Why? III. Concluding Questions 31. If you could change one thing in the universities that would contribute to increased quality? What would it be? Why? Thank you for participating in this research study 253 APPENDIX V Faculty Survey Faculty survey (DIRECTORS/ DEPARTEMENT CHAIRS/ DEANS) By completing this survey you consent to participate in this research This survey should only take 30 minutes to complete. Please note that your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. This study ensures your right to privacy: participants’ confidences will be protected and their anonymity will be preserved. 1. Ethnic origin: ____________________________ 2. Gender: Male / Female 3. Highest qualification: _________________________________________________________________ 4. Where have you obtained your last degree from (country)? __________________________________ 5. For how long have you been working in this university? ______________________________________ 6. I have worked with my current Cycle/Year Director for: a. Less than a year b. 1-2 years c. 2-3 years d. 3+ years 7. I have worked with another Cycle/Year Director in the same university for: a. Less than a year b. 1-2 years c. 2-3 years d. 3+ years e. None No. My Director/ SA A N D SD Department Chair … Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree 8 Understands my own cultural background 9 Inspires me to excel in research 10 Provides me with access to research resources/ networks 11 Supports me during times of change and transition 254 12 Reassures me during workplace crisis 13 Guides me toward developing better teaching skills 14 Consults me in challenging situations 15 Communicates with me clearly & effectively 16 Involves me in decision making 17 Listens to my concerns & responses constructively 18 Understands my professional development needs 19 Takes my research ideas to higher level 20 Provides me with effective solutions for teaching related issues 21 Understands my teaching workload 22 Has an influential role in the university through access to resources, networks & academic reputation 23 Is an effective leader & has special personal qualities 24 Believes in the importance of formal & informal relationships for the development of the team 25 Maintains a good relationship with everyone 26 Helps the team to develop shared norms, goals & trust (i.e. the community of scholars) 27 Encourages teaching & research development through sharing ideas & experiences 28 Encourages the team to develop a shared sense of dignity & purpose 29 Is knowledgeable in research 30 Is knowledgeable in teaching 31 Encourages me to be more connected to the discipline (area of specialization/ specialty) 255 32 Encourages academic professional practices (professionalism) 33 Understands cultural diversity within the team & helps minimize any cultural gaps 34 Encourages inter-disciplinary research 35 Understands my developing needs in research and provides required support 36 Understands my developing needs in teaching and provides required support 37 Prepares me to take leadership roles 38 Acknowledges me for developing my research professional skills 39 Acknowledges me for developing my teaching professional skills 40 Respects my choices in research & my academic freedom 41 Encourages collegiality among the team 42 Gives the team members equal opportunities to be actively engaged in national & international conferences 43 Treats me fairly & in a transparent way when it comes to research funding or professional training 44 Supports me in applying for promotion based on my teaching & research contributions 45 Provides me with opportunities to lead research projects 46 Is aware of the national & international quality standards for enhancing research 47 Is aware of the national & international quality standards for enhancing teaching 48 Helps me plan my career pathway 49. What is the role of your current and/or previous Cycle/Year Director in enhancing the quality of teaching within your department? 256 50. What is the role of your current and/or previous Cycle/Year Director in enhancing the quality of research within your department? 51. What recommendations would you make to enhance the quality of teaching within your department? 52. What recommendations would you make to enhance the quality of research within your department? 53. How much and what kind of support do you get from your colleagues in the department in teaching and research? Please confirm if you are happy to be involved in a follow-up session in relation to this survey.  No, Thank you  Yes, I am happy to do so. Email: __________________________________ Thank you for completing this survey 257 APPENDIX VI Focus Group By attending this focus group session you consent to participate in this research Please note that your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. This study ensures your right to privacy: participants’ confidence will be protected and their anonymity will be preserved. The purpose of this focus group is to explore your understanding and expectations of teaching and research quality at the university. The sessions will be audiotaped. Each student will be identified only by first name in the session, but in the transcripts all will receive a code for identification purposes. The sessions will be approximately 2 hours with a 15 min break after the first two topics. Please fill out the below short demographic survey: 1. Nationality & origin: ____________________________ ____________________________ 2. Gender: Male / Female 3. Age Group: e. 18 - 20 f. 21 - 23 g. 24 – 26 4. I have been studying/ studied in this university for: a. Less than a year b. 1-3 years c. 4-6 years 5. I have been studying/ studied in this programme: f. BSc in Medicine g. BSc in Nursing & Midwifery h. BSc in Nursing (Bridging) i. MSc in Nursing 5. I have been trained/ have worked in the clinical practice for: a. Less than a year b. 1-2 years c. 2-3 years d. 3+ years e. None The order of topics and questions for discussion are as below: 258 1. What is quality teaching? - What are the characteristics? - What lack of quality is there at RCSI? - What areas can be improved (even if it was good)? - Does the Western teaching style work well in Bahrain? - What do you think of the UK style of writing papers (Exams) and other assignment? 2. What is quality research? - What are the characteristics? - Are you being prepared well enough to carry out quality research? - Are there aspects that are missing? - What kind of improvements has taken place at RCSI in preparing you for research? - What is qualitative and quantitative research? - What do you think of the Western approaches to research? 3. What do you think of the development of universities in Bahrain and Gulf? 4. How would you compare RCSI with other universities in the Gulf? Thank you for participation in this session 259 APPENDIX VII Case Study Approval 260 APPENDIX VIII Regulatory Body Request letter & Approval Dr Jawaher Shaheen Al Mudhahki Chief Executive NAQQAET Doha Plaza – 13th Floor, Building 2334, Road 2830, Block 428, Seef District, P.O. Box 30347, Kingdom of Bahrain 5 May 2015 Subject: Approval for conducting interviews with Directorate of Higher Education Reviews Dear Dr Jawaher, I would like to express my deep gratitude for your continuous cooperation and support to educational research initiatives across the Kingdom of Bahrain. I am currently working on my doctoral research thesis which is entitled ‘Academic Administrators’ Leadership Abilities to Enhance Teaching and Research Quality in Bahraini Cross-Cultural Professional Higher Education Organizations’. I have gained approvals from The British University in Dubai and from RCSI Bahrain to conduct this study. For the study, I have completed phase one of the research, which is collecting data from the ‘Implementers’. I also started phase two which is the ‘Regulatory Bodies & Policy Makers’. Therefore, I would highly appreciate your support in providing me with an opportunity to interview two key personnel from the Directorate of Higher Education Review, preferably the Director and one of the Review Directors. Please find enclosed a summary of the thesis proposal, research ethics committees’ approvals, and the interview guide for your kind reference. I look forward to collaborating with you in this project and to hearing from you soon. Yours sincerely Amal Al-Qallaf 261 262 263 APPENDIX IX Consent Form CONSENT FORM The British University in Dubai and those conducting this project subscribe to the ethical conduct of research and to the protection at all times of the interests, comfort, and safety of subjects. This form and the information it contains are given to you for your own protection and full understanding of the procedures. Your signature on this form will signify that you have received a document, which describes the procedures, possible risks, and benefits of this research project, that you have received an adequate opportunity to consider the information in the document, and that you voluntarily agree to participate in the project. Any information that is obtained during this study will be kept confidential to the full extent permitted by law. Knowledge of your identity is not required. You will not be required to write your name or any other identifying information on the research materials. Materials will be held in a secure location and will be destroyed after the completion of the study. Having been asked by (Amal AL-Gallaf), a Doctorate student at The British University in Dubai to participate in: A doctoral research on (Academic Administrators’ Leadership Abilities to enhance teaching and research Quality in Bahraini Cross-Cultural Professional Higher Education Organizations) for the doctoral thesis data collection. Purpose: This project is conducted to collect preliminary data for the doctoral thesis, some parts of which may be presented in conference papers and published in journal articles. The ultimate purpose of conducting this study is to fill a gap in the international organization literature by contributing to knowledge on the Bahraini educational context and investigating in depth the part of quality management that is not dealt with sufficiently in the world of research and literature as it links two important areas: cross-cultural or multicultural higher educational organizations of a high level of complexity and academic leadership role to enhance the quality of teaching and research in education by managing cultural diversity in higher education institutions in Bahrain. The thesis will answer the following main question: What kind of model or understanding of Academic leadership should be used in Bahraini universities to foster higher quality of research and teaching? The purpose of thesis is to investigate this topic and these are the research sub-questions that will be: 1. What conception of leadership do the academic administrators have? 2. What conceptions and characteristics of quality research and teaching do they hold? 3. To what degree does everybody understand the visions and goals of the country? 4. Does their conception of leadership, research and teaching vary by national origin? And how do they understand multicultural relations in this context? Whether multicultural staff has an effect on these? 5. To what degree are these factors of academic leadership in quality of research and teaching and multiculturalism is reflected in the relevant international, national, and organizational documents? Interview process: 264 There will be 12 interviews, each one 45 to 60 minutes long and held in a place chosen by the participants. A voice recorder will be used upon the agreement of the participants and in case they do not agree, a notes will be taken. The interviews will be transcribed and a copy will be given to the participants upon request. The CD record, interview notes, and transcription will be kept in a locked cabinet and the researcher will be the one with sole access to it. Upon completion of the assignment or the thesis, the soft copy of the recordings and original transcripts will be destroyed. I have read the procedures specified in the document. I understand the procedures to be used in this study and any personal risks to me in taking part. I agree to participate by taking part in: 60 to 90 minute interview. At: _________________________________________________ I understand that I may withdraw my participation in this study at any time. I also understand that I may register any complaint I might have about the study with the researcher named above or with: Dr. Solomon David, Director of Studies (Supervisor) Faculty of Education at The British University in Dubai Email: solomon.david@buid.ac.ae I may obtain copies of the results of this study, upon its completion, by contacting: Name: Amal Al-Gallaf Mobile: +973 39244160 Email: agallaf@rcsi-mub.com I have been informed that the research material will be held confidential by the Researcher. I understand that my supervisor or employer may require me to obtain his or her permission prior to my participation in a study such as this. NAME (Please type or print legibly): ___________________________________________ SIGNATURE: ____________________________________ DATE: _________________________________________ ONCE SIGNED, A COPY OF THIS CONSENT FORM SHOULD BE PROVIDED TO THE SUBJECT. 265