The impact of human resource challenges on central ADUs

Application:

The impact of human resource challenges on the provision of effective institutional higher education learning and teaching support from central ADUs

Human resource challenges occur in every workplace including academic development units (ADUs). It would be advantageous  to better understand these issues from the perspective of ADU Directors and to provide a framework and/or guiding principles that would assist current and future ADU Directors with managing these challenging academic and professional situations.

An ADU Director and their senior team, can often spend a significant amount of energy on management and leadership human resource challenges, whilst trying to successfully deliver learning and teaching professional development across an institution. Learning key strategies to manage such situations and sharing these nationally, would be a worthwhile project which will enhance ADU Directors ability to successfully overcome specific challenges and continue to meet the needs of their target audience. This project will provide a current understanding around supporting ADU Directors and providing them with targeted professional development in wellbeing, resilience and positive psychology.

To my knowledge, this research has not been conducted in the past. CADAD solely focuses on ADU staff, effectiveness and functions thus, this project is particularly relevant to the wellbeing and success of ADU Directors, their respective areas and their ability to meet their target needs.

Update

Nina made a presentation to members at the CADAD/ACODE conference on 3 November 2017: Exploration of HR challenges

She has also published a chapter: “The Role of Mindfulness in Managing HRM Challenges for Senior Higher Education Learning and Teaching Leaders” in  Lemon and McDonough (eds) (2018), Mindfulness in the Academy, Springer: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-981-13-2143-6_11.pdf