Leadership skills in management education

Leaders in management education face diverse challenges in today\u27s competitive and changing environment. However, educational administrators are often faculty members with little direct leadership experience, formal preparation, or skill development. Since leadership skills are abilities that can be developed, formal training should take place before these individuals enter leadership roles. This study examines the required skills that lead to effective leadership in hospitality management higher education from the perspective of faculty and academic administrators using Mumford, Campion and Morgeson\u27s (2007) strataplex model of leader behaviors as a framework. Both faculty and administrators ranked business skills as the most important skills for leadership; this was followed by cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, personal values, and strategic skills. Specifically, they unanimously ranked communication as the most important individual leadership skill and indicated that the method of communication depends on the audience and the content of the message. Ethics and fairness were prevalent personal values, as well as recognition that leadership should be able to understand faculty\u27s interpretation of fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR