Positive Leadership in Universities – Mission Impossible?

Positive feelings and experiences support problem-solving skills and the ability to act in an innovative way. Positive experiences are, therefore, interconnected with motivational factors and work performances. Positive psychology asks the question “what we can do right with people and how we can teach people to have more of that?”

It is obvious that the implementation of positive leadership is a very challenging task in universities.  One widespread assumption is that critical dialogue is synonymous with negative critique, at the expense of other types of ‘critical thinking’. However, an organizational environment requires leaders who thrive on the challenge of change, who foster an environment for innovation and who encourage trust and learning. Positive leadership emphasizes that it is important to discuss university leaders’ self-perception in relation to the idea of caring leadership, authentic leadership and self-perception.

Professor Jari Stenvall’s and Professor Antti Syväjärvi’s presentation is based on a current  research project on positive leadership in universities. In the research, university leaders from Finland and United States of America were asked to describe concrete positive or successful situations or chains of events where their leadership had a significant role. The purpose is to find out what kind of situations leaders find  the most rewarding in terms of positive or successful experience. The universities selected in this research were University of Lapland and Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences, from Finland, and the University of South Florida from the United States.

THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Jari Stenvall is Professor in Administrative Sciences at the University of Lapland in Finland. Professor Stenvall has done, evaluated and conducted several assessments and research projects related to public administration reforms and applied public information technology. His research has included topics like change management, trust, organizational reforms, service innovations, and the use of information technology in organizations. Professor Stenvall’s scientific production contains numerous national and international publications. Professor Stenvall has lectured at the Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania and the Queen’s University, Belfast, in the United Kingdom and was a Research Professor of at the University of Tampere in Finland

Dr. Antti Syväjärvi is currently Professor of Administrative Science at the University of Lapland and Adjunct Professor in Tampere University, Finland. Professor Syväjärvi’s academic work is concentrated in the fields of information management, leadership, human resource management and electronic government. He is currently leading a number of research projects in these areas of enquiry. Professor Syväjärvi has published numerous academic articles in refereed science forums. In addition to his Finnish Universities, Professor Syväjärvi also teaches and researches across and outside Europe.

Questions and discussion are encouraged as part of the Seminar.