Celebrating a Profession: The Servant Leadership Perspective

Introduction The celebration of the profession of research administration and the 40th anniversary of SRA International present a good opportunity to examine the origins of the profession and how it has evolved from one of service to leadership. Currently, and for the foreseeable future, research administration offices need to balance both of these dimensions. Additionally, we need to focus on the development of relationships and to be mindful of the responsibilities that we hold, As research administrators we must serve as a resource to our researchers, At the same time, we must provide the leadership required to allow us to fulfill this servant function without impeding the advancement of research. Most research administrators will agree that our offices provide service. The leadership role, however, may not be as explicit, but it is a function we undertake for our researchers, institutions and third parties involved in our research programs. We serve by helping to find funding sources, reviewing guidelines and proposals, and providing advice on post award management, among other things. We lead by suggesting and preparing policies, informing institutional leadership of trends and requirements, and a multitude of other activities. Being both service providers and leaders may seem contradictory, but these two roles combine to form the very heart of our profession. The Need for Service Research administration as a profession was founded on the need for service and the efficient delivery of our "product"--research. In the early years of federally sponsored research, little oversight other than financial compliance was required by sponsors. The service that was needed from the research office usually consisted of searching for funding sources, requesting guidelines, preparing budgets, making copies, and mailing proposals. At that time, these were the services needed to allow researchers to focus on writing proposals and conducting funded activities. In time, proper stewardship of federal research funds took on greater scope and significance, as evidenced by multiple revisions of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A21 in the United States. With this came the need for additional monitoring of awards, which increased the services required from research administration offices. In the 1980s, the federal government further increased the requirements of its research partners, in part by emphasizing compliance with other OMB circulars. There was increased emphasis on financial accountability, which created the need for institutional control systems, along with a host of other administrative requirements, such as the Drug-Free Workplace Act. The need for dedicated research administration offices grew, and their importance in the institutional hierarchy also increased as the consequences of non-compliance became more serious. A decade later, in the 1990s, compliance requirements placed emphasis on such areas as cost accounting standards and misconduct in science, and research administrators broadened discussion to responsible conduct of research. Research administration evolved from more clerical-type functions to interpreting, creating and implementing policy. Electronic research administration became a reality, creating additional requirements. New and different sets of skills, including technical skills, were required to assist researchers. As problems arose at some institutions, others learned the importance of policy and good stewardship, which helped to enhance and elevate the role the research administration office. Slowly and quietly, research offices took on a leadership role in addition to the traditional services they provided. The Servant Leadership Concept In Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf (1991) introduces the concept of the leader as servant, an idea he credits to his reading of Herman Hesse's Journey to the East. …