The Meaning of “Good Presidential Leadership”: A Frame Analysis

Abstract

Administrators use different organizational perspectives, or “frames,” to help them understand situations, problems, and day-to-day activities. In higher education, four such frames have been identified as bureaucratic, collegial, political, and symbolic. This study identifies the frames used by thirty-two college presidents in their responses to the analytic question, “How would you define ‘good presidential leadership’?” and analyzes them according to content, complexity, institutional type, and length of presidential tenure.