"Chairs have choices about how to organize meetings, help staff feel included or excluded, coach new assistant professors about participation norms, and assign people to committees. How chairs do these routine tasks can have powerful effects on how department members relate to one another and the quality of relationships that develop. Cumulatively, small moments of interaction have a profound influence on a department and its culture"
"However, many chairs aren't used to noticing all the ways their everyday chair work impacts work relationships. To take advantage of the opportunity to positively impact relationships in departments, chairs need to develop their relational attention, or ability to notice opportunities to impact how people connect. Two years ago, I developed a six-part workshop series, Healthy Relationships at Work Fellowship, for chairs at University of Massachusetts Amherst, for a small cohort to work on just this issue."
Department chairs often treat their role as a list of operational tasks, but routine actions also shape interpersonal dynamics and relationship quality. Meetings, committee assignments, inclusion practices, and coaching influence how faculty and staff relate. Small, cumulative interactions profoundly affect departmental culture and workplace health. Many chairs lack awareness of these relational impacts and need to build relational attention—the capacity to notice and act on opportunities to improve connections. A six-part Healthy Relationships at Work Fellowship for chairs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst showed that research-based practices can increase leadership competence and confidence while improving departmental relationships. Four practical approaches can help chairs cultivate relational attention and foster inclusion.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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