Who would be a Dean? Demonising Deans and the question of role modelling leadership in our Business Schools

On my precious research day – the first in a long time – I am searching JMS for articles about diversity and inclusion for a paper I am writing from a recent research project, and I come upon a scathing account of a Business School away day. In a short paragraph we learn who a key baddie of the tale is, the Business School Dean. Broadening my search to other management journals I find there is little empathy for the Business School Dean. They are portrayed variously as using corporate buzzwords, being out of touch from the academic community, and easily seduced by the power that apparently comes from the role. It seems the Dean is a character not only unloved by the management studies community, but also routinely criticised and despised. In the #METOO era, where colleagues would never dream of commenting on the dress of another, the appearance of the Dean - stereotypically presented as a sharp suited male – is a legitimate subject for comment. As portrayed in our academic journals, they are not the kind of characters that any one of us would aspire to be. I go back to my paper, and am struck by how the research participants we interviewed for the diversity research project talk about the need for powerful role models and the avoidance of stereotypes. I reflect on what aspirational role models there are for me, a Business School Dean of six years. I find it hard to think of any, certainly not those portrayed in our academic journals. So why would anyone want to be a Dean? The aim of this essay is to argue that we, as an academic community, need a serious conversation about how we stereotype the Business School Dean. I also suggest a call for action for change in the way all of us – including we Deans ourselves – talk about the role. My argument is that the negative stereotypes of Deans as promulgated in our journals and elsewhere prevent us from having positive Dean role models that others may aspire to. This is important because we need good people to take on Dean roles in our Business Schools. As a community we have critiqued at length the impact of the neo-liberal Business School on our working lives, our research, and our feelings of alienation. There is much commentary about what Deans may be doing wrong, but very little about what they need to do to deliver the kind of leadership we need. To be clear I am not here to defend Deans. As a practising Dean I know we have our faults. We are – in some Business Schools – in positions of considerable power, we are usually paid higher than most people and you could say we have a relatively nice life cushioned away from the realities of the chalkface or the Zoom classroom. To be upfront here, I love my job. I enjoy being a Dean. And that is partly what has inspired me to write this essay; the dissonance between how much I like the job and how it is portrayed more generally in our community