Abstract:
Leadership training for educational leaders in the academia has been considered paramount to
empower them both for leadership and management skills, knowledge and experience necessary to
bring about quality in teaching and learning. Majority of the academic leaders are appointed without
any preparation for the role and tend to struggle on the role in order to be effective. Most studies
carried out on academic leaders in Africa focus mainly on challenges, roles and theories of leadership.
This study explores the journeys involved in the preparations of academics who become Head of
Departments in a selected university in Ghana in order to enable them play their roles effectively. The
case study approach was used to study the journeys involved in the preparations of 16 academic HoDs
in a selected university in Ghana, focusing on how they accessed their roles, their understanding about
the roles, preparations they have had on the roles and the preparations they would have wished for the
roles. It sought to describe, understand and interpret the learning journeys of academic HoDs
regarding how they became HoDs and preparations they received to be effective in their roles.
Interviews and documentary evidence were employed. Semi structured interviews were conducted with
sixteen university head of departments. Using thematic analysis, the study revealed among others that
most newly appointed academic HoDs were not given formal training before they began to play their
roles, Again, the findings revealed different degrees of preparations which were mainly informal and
were not directly linked to the roles of the HoDs, which were consistent with the literature that majority
of academic HoDs did not receive preparations for their roles and tended to use their experiences to
play their roles. Based on these findings, recommendations are that there should be a formal training on the HoD’s duties and their implementations for all newly appointed HoDs to enrich them with the
necessary skills and knowledge to make them effective and efficient. There is the need to conduct needs
assessment from the HoDs to inform their preparation or training and development of HoDs manual to
serve as a reference guide to the HoDs. It is hoped that the findings will contribute to effective
preparations of the academic HoDs. The research may also lead to the production of HoD’s manuals.
More importantly, it may inform policies to identify areas for effective preparations of the academic
HoDs.
