A Thematic Literature Review about Academic Leadership Development: Exploring and Comparing Latin American with Non-Latin American Leadership Literature

Abstract

This report is part of the International Study of Leadership Development in Higher Education project (ISLDHE) project which is examining leadership development for university leaders. This paper presents an update to our original exploration of the literature about university contexts and leadership development, but also compares the themes as they relate to Latin American countries and those emerging from other countries. We identified the skills that university leaders should have to appropriately manage the challenges of contemporary universities. We also report on themes pertaining to currently available leadership development programs. The review showed a high coincidence in the skills required for leaders in Latin American contexts to those in non-Latin American universities. We noted that the lack of clarity in the characteristics and formats of optimal leadership development programs were pervasive throughout both western and Latin American literature; however, there was a distinct lack of research on leadership and leadership development emerging from Latin America. One significant difference in Latin American leadership literature was the emphasis on senior leadership levels, whereas in non-Latin American countries, leadership and power were more distributed to decanal and head of department levels as well as senior leadership levels.