ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects the view that middle leadership remains theoretically and empirically under-explored and that this oversight contributes to the continuance of an unhealthy, unjust and potentially injurious but important organisational role. It seeks to redress this untenable situation by reconceptualising a more relevant, coherent and virtuous theoretical perspective of middle leadership. The chapter is informed by a research study that specifically examined middle leadership as experienced by Chairpersons of Departments (CoDs) within one faculty in a university in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The impetus for the chapter was the widely recognised tensions inherent within the role of middle leaders in higher education. Rather than claiming that middle leadership in higher education necessitates a different form of leadership, it argues that leadership theory itself requires an adjustment, a reconceptualisation. The chapter highlights the interdependency, the seemingly indivisible juncture, between leadership practice and organisational culture.
