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By Jane S. Halonen and Dana S. Dunn
Chairs don’t — and shouldn’t — last forever. Most departments function on the assumption that it is healthy for the leadership job to change hands regularly. But what happens when it comes time to pass the torch … and no one wants it?
Choosing a replacement chair can be a tricky business in the best of circumstances. Most departments have formal bylaws or an informal understanding that chairs should have a predictable term of office. A common arrangement involves the chair serving three years with an option for a renewable term.
Viewed from the outside, a failure to develop willing leaders in a department might be seen as a manifestation of faculty selfishness. It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that professors avoid the chair’s job because they don’t want to surrender their autonomy or become involved in endless meetings. However, ascribing a leadership problem to a shared personality shortcoming commits what psychologists refer to as the fundamental attribution error — that is, the tendency to explain deficient behavior as the result of a personality defect rather than examining the relevant external forces that influence a problematic outcome.
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