The Exemplary Department Chair: : Small Leadership and Advice from the Stone Age

This book is for academics who currently are department Chairs or are thinking about becoming one. I am going to look at the Chair's role from two perspectives. The first is based on analyses by psychologists and sociologists who have studied leadership in small groups. An academic department is a prototypical small group, and I suggest that Chairs can become more effective by adopting evidence-based recommendations about effective leadership in such settings. The second perspective is based on the discoveries of anthropologists and archeologists who have considered how human leadership was enacted in groups 20,000 years ago. It incorporates some ideas about genes and memes and proposes how Chairs can become more effective by adopting some of the leadership practices of our Stone Age ancestors.