At many colleges and universities, tension between members of the faculty and the staff appears to be almost endemic. In these environments, faculty members get annoyed because they feel that they receive disrespect and poor service from the staff. Staff members are frustrated because they feel that when faculty members are not ignoring them altogether, they are treating them rudely and as “second-class citizens.” Part of the problem results from the very way in which most colleges and universities are organized. Although higher education institutions place a great emphasis on decentralized governance and respect for individual voices, their actual organizational charts are surprisingly hierarchical. Faculty members report to chairs who report to deans who report to a vice president who reports to a president who reports to a governing board. Even among these individual levels, there tend to be hierarchies within hierarchies, such as assistant, associate, and full professor or administrative, support, and hourly staff. It is no wonder sometimes that individuals who work in such an environment tend to carve out their own private fiefdoms or otherwise tend to act as though they are living in a feudal system. Is there any way to overcome these seemingly inherent tensions?

Serve as a good role model.

In any hierarchical system, the tone for the behavior of a unit is established by the person at the top. So ask yourself what you are doing or not doing that could exacerbate the very situation you are trying to avoid. Do you treat members of the faculty and staff in differential ways that could be interpreted as license to imitate your example? Do you tend to approach situations from a hierarchical perspective even when that is not necessary? For instance, a president who speaks dismissively of a dean, saying something like “You sound just like the faculty!” is sending several undesirable messages. First, the president is implying that an “us versus them” mentality is acceptable, rather than a philosophy that “we’re all in this together for the good of the institution.” Second, the president is revealing that he or she really doesn’t have a very high opinion of the faculty; anyone who hears such a remark is likely to think, “I wonder whether the president has any respect for me either.” People, in other words, draw all sorts of conclusions from your actions and casual remarks. You never want your message of institutional unity to be undermined by your actions or tone in ways that are difficult to overcome.

Discuss a creed or code of conduct.

Another way to help promote faculty and staff cooperation is to develop a creed or code of conduct that members of your unit are expected to follow. A good code is one that does not merely focus on the negative by outlining the sorts of activities that are forbidden, but emphasizes the positive by discussing the values that you share with others and your commitment to a common goal. A creed may look something like this:

The very process of holding a community-wide dialogue as you develop your own code of conduct can be extremely valuable, as members of both the faculty and the staff realize that their voices are heard and their opinions matter.

Use cross-functional teams whenever possible.

Just as a community-wide dialogue can be a useful way of developing a community code, so can this type of group interaction reduce faculty and staff tension in other ways. Too many committees at colleges and universities tend to represent horizontal “slices” of the institution: staff members meet with staff members, faculty with faculty, chairs with other chairs, deans with deans, vice presidents with vice presidents, and so on. This type of arrangement tends to make an “us versus them” mentality all but inevitable: when a segment of the community cannot explain why a procedure has been established as it has, it can be very easy to dismiss it as foolish or counterproductive; when people who can actually implement the solution to a problem are not involved in the discussion, the solution that is proposed may be impractical. For this reason, institutions should rethink their committee structures and either replace or complement certain committees with “cross-functional teams,” groups of individuals representing multiple levels of the university.

Rather than developing bodies based on a job description (a Deans’ Council, a Staff Forum, a Department Chairs Committee, and so on) and then assigning tasks to existing committees, consider identifying the various tasks that must be performed and problems that must be addressed first and then developing appropriate teams to deal with these issues. What are the various tasks that an institution may need to complete? The institution has to set dates for the academic calendar, develop strategies for recruitment, discuss ways of retaining current students and promoting their academic success, review the quality and viability of programs, address various budget challenges, and so on. Rather than parceling out these tasks to existing committees, it can be very effective to ask, “Who are the most important stakeholders on this issue? Who is most directly affected by, for instance, the academic year calendar that is developed?” Then create a new approach to committees that is task-based, not job-based, and that brings representatives from the important stakeholders together for the discussion. Simply by doing so, you can help to relieve tension: it is far less easy to hate someone with whom you’ve developed a face-to-face relationship than someone whom you barely know. Cross-functional teams also help individuals understand the challenges faced by people working at other levels of the institution.

Acknowledge instances of poor behavior when you witness them.

Finally, it pays to be proactive in responding to incidents of poor interactions between members of the faculty and staff. When you witness an altercation or an act of rudeness, you may assume that it is best to deal with the matter privately so as not to make too much of what may well be a minor situation, to avoid embarrassing the person who was on the receiving end of the poor behavior, to let tempers cool, or to adhere to a management philosophy of discussing all personnel matters in private. Because of your position, however, the signal you may actually be sending is that you tolerate or even agree with the poor behavior that you have witnessed. Even if you only say, “That’s not appropriate. Come on, let’s have a talk in my office,” you are making it clear that you find lack of collegiality unacceptable and that failure to live up to your expectations will be dealt with quickly.

It may be particularly necessary to intervene when you start noticing “memo wars” or “email barrages.” These are the situations in which two or more individuals begin exchanging increasingly tense and brusque messages, accusing each other of faults, positioning themselves in a positive light, and copying other individuals (including you) so as to establish their position. This type of exchange inevitably increases animosity and wastes time that could be better spent on more pressing issues. At an early stage of a conflict of this kind, have the main participants gather face-to-face with a mediator; discuss the issue openly; assure everyone that, although there are differences of opinion at times, the good of the institution is paramount to everyone; and make it abundantly clear that you expect no further such exchanges in the future.

Jeffrey L. Buller is dean of the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of The Essential Department Chair: A Practical Guide to College Administration and The Essential Academic Dean: A Practical Guide to College Leadership (forthcoming). (Both books are published by Jossey-Bass.)

This article first appeared in Magna Publications' newsletter Academic Leader. If you are an academic dean, provost, academic vice-president, department chair/head or have any role in academic leadership, then Academic Leader is for you! But don't take our word for it--try it free for 3 months and make the decision for yourself!