Chapter 5: The Situated University: Political-Cultural Context, Organizational Culture, and Leadership

Based upon experience at 3 regionally diverse universities, each took on the guise of the larger political culture in which it was embedded. This approach is informed by the work of F. G. Bailey and Andrew M. Jones, among others, who explore universities and corporations as deeply situated in their local-regional cultural milieu. Both scholars, furthermore, illuminate how leadership style must be attentive and adaptive to the local scene, or depart from it at great potential peril. In my role as a university administrator, I find that my anthropological background is useful on virtually a daily basis to understand and address a wide variety of institutional challenges.