The literature on leadership and management in higher education is focused on the challenges faced by individuals holding designated managerial roles at a relatively senior level, such as heads of department (eg Smith et al, 2007). Relatively little attention has been focused on those holding informal and distributed forms of leadership, such as university professors. The shift of the modern university toward a more managerial culture, with a growing cadre of permanent rather than rotating senior academic managers, has cast many professors adrift from expectations that they will participate in the formal leadership of the academy (Harman, 2002). There has been surprisingly little research on the role of professors. Tight’s (2002) paper is an isolated example which identifies a number of roles based on an informal poll of fellow professors. In this respect, it is critical to consider the role of senior university professors who are now increasingly marginalized by a managerial culture from formal leadership and governance responsibilities. While there is a literature about what it means to be an ‘intellectual’ (eg Bourdieu, 1991; Fuller, 2005; Furedi, 2005), the nature of intellectual leadership has received very limited attention (eg Bender, 1993). In generic leadership and management literature, intellectual leadership has been measured as a component of corporate value defined mainly in terms of managers with ‘the capabilities to evaluate situations and take action much more thoughtfully’ (Dealtry, 2001:121). There might also be a connection between intellectual leadership and the concept of transformational leadership (Burns, 1978; Bass 1998). The four key characteristics identified by Burns (1978) - idealised influence (or ‘charisma’), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration – would appear to share common ground with what might reasonably be expected of an intellectual leader. The objective of the study is to determine how intellectual leadership is defined and practiced by university professors. While it is recognized that intellectual leadership is exercised by a range of individuals from the business, scientific and artistic communities, the particular focus of this study is on university professors and how they understand their role as intellectual leaders as opposed to holding more formally designated roles as ‘managers’ (eg Head of Department or Dean). It should be noted that the use of the term ‘professor’ throughout this paper refers to the holder of a university chair or personal professorship, not in the more generic sense of all those who teach in a university.

In order to examine this question, an online survey was established to examine the role perceptions of senior professors. The findings reported are based on 110 survey responses and 20 interviews with professors based in the UK, representative of a range of disciplines, institutional contexts and gender. Responses were analysed to identify key themes and these were explored further with interviewees who volunteered for selection on completion of the questionnaire.

Professors define intellectual leadership in terms of a number of traits or leadership behaviours. The components of intellectual leadership appear to be related to an appropriate blend or balance between academic freedom and academic duty. A university leader must first be credible (Bryman, 2007) to attract ‘followership’. In a higher education context, the possession of an intellectual reputation is needed. In this respect, the professor must exercise their academic freedom as an advocate, a critic, a creator and a communicator. These activities relate to both academic and intellectual identity. Secondly, to be an intellectual leader, a professor must be committed to academic duty. This consists of nurturing others as a mentor whilst acting as a guardian of academic standards and values of the discipline. Academic duty also extends to being an acquisitor of resources and income on behalf of others and an ambassador on behalf of the institution.