Capturing the Research Data

Having outlined the design of the approach (above) it seems appropriate to provide an insight in to how the approach went in practice. The researcher contacts each of the thirty universities in the sampling frame (Table 26). This task involves e-mailing the most senior non-academic post holder (i.e. typically the Academic Registrar, University Secretary, or Chief Operating Officer). Subsequently, the researcher obtains permission to undertake this research in sixteen universities, with no response from ten universities, and outright rejection from only three universities. Focusing on Academic Leaders and Administration Managers in sixteen institutions the researcher identifies appropriate candidates through each University’s web site and contacts each candidate by e-mail (Appendices 5). Attached to each e-mail is an informed consent form (Appendices 7) detailing the requirements of participants in this study. Background information is provided briefly detailing the researcher’s status as a PhD student at Lancaster

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University, the project’s foundational underpinnings, and the research objectives (Appendices 6).

The researcher receives forty-four rejections (either by return e-mail or as a non- response after several weeks). Despite this, the researcher obtains 35 acceptances (i.e. 18 Academic Leaders and 17 Administration Managers). This number proves adequate; given that towards the end of all 35 interviews, common themes are frequently emerging, indicating a saturation point. What this does is heighten the researcher’s confidence in having enough data to make a valid and reliable conclusion based on the four interview questions (see below). From the thirty universities initially contacted thirteen of these universities feature in the actual sample that informs these findings. The sample contains interviews from five pairings of ALs and AMs who work together. However, the research data derived from these pairs was not distinct in any way when compared to the data generated when interviewing other research subjects. This is because both parties in the pairings would often express their lived experiences of the phenomenon beyond the time and space afforded to their current circumstances and immediate dyadic relations. Accordingly, while their respective experiences are somewhat unique to them, it would be unwise to encompass their thoughts and feelings in to the confines of the specifics of unique pairings, especially when such experiences derive from a considerable breadth and depth of exposure to the phenomenon.

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Administration Manager Research questions:

RQ1: What does it mean to be effective in your role?

RQ2: Overall, how would you describe your relationship with your Academic Leader? RQ3: What factors have impacted upon how influential you are with the Academic Leader?

RQ4: What sort of upward influencing approaches have you found work best and why?

Academic Leader Research questions:

RQ1: What does it mean to be effective in your role?

RQ2: Overall, how would you describe your relationship with the Administration Manager?

RQ3: What factors have impacted upon how receptive you are to the views of your Administration Manager?

RQ4: How best has an Administration Manager gone about influencing your opinions?

Eighteen Academic Leaders (i.e.15 male and 3 female) agree to participate, ranging in experience from those with limited time in a single managerial role to others that possess experience in several managerial roles in many institutions. Roles in this category include 6 Heads of School, 1 Head of Department, 4 Deans of Faculty, 4 Deans of School, 1 Director of Institute, 1 Pro-Vice Chancellor, and 1 Vice Principal. These participants operate in the areas of business, human and health sciences, health and wellbeing, clinical sciences, arts and humanities, politics, dental education, life sciences, management, psychology, health and medicine, arts and social sciences, built

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environment, environment, actuarial mathematics and statistics, computer science, physics and astronomy, and the classics.

Seventeen participating Administration Managers (i.e. 8 male and 9 female) range in seniority and experience, and possess a range of working titles. These comprise of 1 School Administration Manager, 1 Head of Administration, 1 Administrative Officer, 1 School Services Manager, 2 School Managers, 1 Head of Professional Services, 1 Head of Faculty Professional Services, 1 Director of Administration, 1 Department Manager, 1 Director of Professional Services, 1 School Administrator, 1 College Director of Operations, 1 Executive Administrator, 1 Faculty Manager, and 2 Directors of Administration and School Registrar. These Administration Managers operate in several academic disciplines comprising mathematics, humanities, law, human and health sciences, statistics and actuarial science, business, development and society, management, education, clinical sciences, science, arts and social sciences, medicine, engineering and physical sciences, and languages. Some of them are line managed by an Academic Leader, and others by a Senior Administrative Officer (e.g. University Secretary or Academic Registrar) in their University but outside their immediate area of responsibility.

Administration Managers are employed in formal leadership roles within the University hierarchy. However, their status as a leader is only legitimately acknowledged relative to their line management reports and staff accountability. The same configuration exists at a higher level between the Academic Leader and Administration Manager. Accordingly, this informs how the leader-follower relationship is designed to operate with the Academic Leader having either direct or indirect managerial responsibility for

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the Administration Manager. The Academic Leader is ultimately responsible for the performance of the organisational unit, with the Administration Manager being accountable for contributing and supporting the Academic Leader. The Academic Leader is positioned to have the final say in decision-making, and evaluate and direct the Administration Manager. There is a clear leader-manager dichotomy whereby the leader is responsible, but the manager is accountable to the leader. In that sense, the manager, irrespective of their position amongst their group of staff, is still deemed to be a follower in relation to their leader, and it is that relationship that is the focus of this research project.

Interviews occur over eight months (i.e. July 2014 to February 2015). The eighteen Academic Leaders are sourced from eleven institutions. In six institutions more than one Academic Leader is interviewed, generating a total of 14 hours 52 minutes of recorded interview material. When transcribed this produces 175 pages of written material for analysis. The seventeen Administration Managers are sourced from eleven institutions, but not the same eleven as all of the Academic Leaders. In five institutions more than one Administration Manager is interviewed. The total amount of recorded material equates to 13 hours 40 minutes, which produces 174 pages of written material for analysis. All 35 transcripts are sent to research subjects to validate the accuracy of the content. Academic Leaders edit five transcripts while Administration Managers edit three transcripts. None of the edits made by research subjects detracts from the essence of their lived experiences and merely enhances the accuracy of discussion points made during the interviews.

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