Generation and Life Cycle Effects on Academic Leadership

cademic leadership has an influence on the creativity and the productivity of researchers. Due to changes in the science system and how research is organised, the tasks of academic leaders have been extended over time to include external management and networking activities in addition to traditional internal leadership.

The intention of this study is to first investigate whether different generations of academic leaders have contrasting leadership practices in response to contextual changes in the science system. Generation differences are not the only factor influencing academic leadership.

Of course, leadership practices are also influenced by the skills and experiences of academic leaders, which are expected to change during their careers. Therefore, the second question we address in this paper is whether academic leaders within different life cycle stages (viz. less experienced, experienced and old academic leaders) are characterised by other academic leadership practices.

Our study shows that generation membership and life cycle phase both influence the behaviour of academic leaders. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications for career policy and the organisation of research groups. This is the first study addressing the development of academic leadership over generations and over one‟s lifetime.