Role of academic administrators in decision making processes for sustainability

Abstract

This paper explores the role of academic administrators of higher education institutions in decision making processes regarding sustainability. The role of academic administrator is in line with the aspirations of the institutions which are decided by academic administrators' communication, participation and involvement. Four Pakistan public universities academic administrators were selected based on purposive sampling technique. Data were gathered by employing open-ended interview. Thematic data analysis technique produced three themes: autonomous role of academic administrators, top executives priority to make the campus sustainable and lack of support from top executive management. These themes have shown that academic administrators are facing barriers such as lack of autonomy, lack in observing the defined autonomy, bureaucratic organizational structure, lack of priority from top executive management, lack of support and top executive management resistance to change. These barriers can be removed by taking three initiatives: frequent informal meetings between university management and academic administrators, initiation of change by the top executive management and policy revision for stakeholder engagement, especially, academic administrators. Resultantly, academic administrators can realize the sense of ownership and take interest to work effectively for the efficiency of the organization.