Includes bibliographical references and index.

It is an old cliché that leading and managing academics is like herding cats. This book challenges this myth and presents a way to deal with the many challenges of academic leadership, from managing departments, research groups and teams to managing tensions between research and teaching. The book is a practical and stimulating guide to different pathways to successful academic leadership, both in personal and organizational terms. PART I Challenges of being an academic leader -- On the particular challenges of managing professionals -- Relevant leadership: the dynamic equilibrium of managing and leading academic departments -- The role of academic leaders of a business school: an internal tensions perspective -- PART II Transformational and performance leadership -- The head of department as the key transformational leader -- Leading with purpose: developing the first business school for public good -- Leading academic departments -- Individual performance management: enabler or threat to academic performance? -- Deploying systems thinking to create a 'triple-crown' business school -- PART III Inclusivity, team spirit and career development -- 'Don't think you can be everyone's friend': dealing with conflict in an academic department -- Smells like team spirit: a user's guide for department heads -- 'Now you see it': gender, inclusion and diversity -- Leading faculty as teachers -- Inclusive onboarding in academic departments -- PART IV Building, leading and funding research groups -- Building research groups -- Dilemmas in university management: the case of Copenhagen Business School -- Pathways to external funding at departments: how to strengthen a change of culture by empowerment, supportive organizing and leadership? -- PART V Collaboration with other disciplines and practitioners -- Collaborating with practitioners -- Leading academics in a public-private partnership: balancing value and performance-based leadership in times of (climate) change -- Undertaking cross-disciplinary research -- PART VI Leadership in different contexts -- Framing business schools as a socio-technical system: issues around complexity and emergence -- Business school leadership in an era of change and uncertainty: complex structures, executive education and accreditation -- Academic leadership: the Danish case -- PART VII Personal leadership reflections -- Responsibilities of the department chair: lessons from the frontline -- How to lead an academic marketing department: some personal observations and reflections -- From head to dean: academic leadership.