Hybridity in higher education: Implications for leadership and management practice

Winter, Richard; Bolden, Richard

Abstract

Our chapter critically explores the nature of hybridity in higher education institutions (HEI) and the implications for leadership practice. We define hybridity as a boundary condition in HEI whereby competing values and diverse institutional logics do not easily fit together and persist over time. In response to this boundary condition, our chapter is structured as follows. First, we review current gaps in knowledge about hybridity and conceptualise hybridity as a dynamic, values-driven process. Second, we utilise the concept of hybridity to make explicit some of the key tensions and challenges facing individuals and HEI holding competing values systems. Third, we explore the notion of ‘hybrid configurations’ of leadership as a way of balancing and/or combining different values systems and ways of working in HEI. Finally, we offer some observations for how leaders in HEI might (re)construct hybrid identities in an increasingly marketised sector.

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2020
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 169-185
• Book Title: Handbook on Hybrid Organizations
• Chapter Number: 10
• ISBN: 9781785366109
• Keywords: leadership, higher education, hybridity
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/904096
• Publisher URL: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-on-hybrid-organisations-9781785366109.html
• Contract Date: Jan 14, 2016