Robert
Goler
Arts
Management Program
Abstract
This project seeks to increase the
capacity of
Project Thesis
Interim directorships are a fact of
life for
This is not a new phenomenon but the need to anticipate and plan for transitional leadership has taken on new importance in the museum field. Two factors account for this urgency. First, the average tenure of directorships in the nonprofit field is decreasing and now stands at just under six years (Wolford etal 1999). This translates into an executive vacancy rate of approximately 17%, or to put it in more concrete terms, one out of every six organizations is between directors. While the tenure rates in the museum field have not been examined closely in recent years, past studies of museum director tenure identified rates that were comparable to the nonprofit sector as a whole.
Second, museums are experiencing
increasing financial pressures. This
phenomenon has a variety of contributing elements, ranging from increased
competition for earned income by commercial enterprises, such as The Museum
Store® franchises, and the sharp reduction of funding levels for the National
Endowment for the Arts in 1995. The
lackluster economy over the past few years has seen many foundations reduce
support for the arts and for many individual donors to postpone major gifts
until the financial environment improves.
The end result of such factors is an increasing difficulty of museums to
generate income and concomitant pressures on executive directors to manage
under financial duress.
In
the face of these challenges it is critical that interim directorships be a
time of continued progress and momentum at an institution. The interim
directorship offers a unique period of self-assessment for a museum. Rather than perceiving it as a gap that an
institution needs to survive, boards and senior staff should begin to use this
experience as a window of opportunity through which to examine organizational
strengths and weaknesses. Rather than
being a traumatic gulf, the period between regular directors should be used as
time of critical self-examination and evaluation.
However
the facts of interim directorships indicate that there is a significant gap in
the continuity of leadership in
- 1
out of every 7 interim directors had been at the museum less than one year
before their "interim" appointment
- 1
out of every 5 interim directors left their museum within a year of completing
their interim duties
- 1
out of every 3 individuals who served as an interim director went on to an executive
museum position later in their careers
The overwhelming evidence from this
study suggests that: (1) the interim directorship is a significant factor in
career development, (2) those who are selected as interim directors often
assume executive positions without sufficient preparation, and (3) that a
significant number of museums end up losing not just the director, but also the
interim director, as a result of the executive transition (Goler
2004). While it may not be possible to
change the rate of director turnover in the museum field, it certainly is
possible to better prepare institutions and individuals for the interim
directorship situation. A review of the
literature on museums indicates that surprisingly little has been written about
this phenomenon. It is expected that a
body of case studies will help to increase awareness of this important phase of
museum management.
Literature
Review
The literature on interim leadership
in the nonprofit sector draws on examinations of leadership succession and on
role definition within organizations. A
brief sketch of these approaches offers background to the issues raised by
interim museum directorships.
Executive leadership turnover
has received considerable attention from sociologists. Among the first important studies of
managerial succession was Gouldner's analysis of a
mining bureaucracy. Gouldner
described the "Rebecca effect," a phenomenon named after the
principal (but deceased) figure of Du Maurier's novel by the same name that concerns the
"shadow" influence of a leader who has already departed (Gouldner 1954:79-83).
Grusky's landmark study of managerial change
among major league baseball teams investigating the impact of transitions on
performance and proposed a variety of theories, such as "scapegoating" and "ritual performance," to
explain some of the data (Grusky 1963).
More recent investigations
have looked at the managerial styles of leaders. In examining such criteria as IQ levels,
social background and physical characteristics, researchers have identified
specific characteristics of "emergent" leaders that are particularly
pertinent to transitional management.
The appearance of dominance traits has been seen to be "consistently
predictive of leadership" and may be an important factor in those interims
who go on to become directors (House and Baetz
1979:351). An extension of this approach
has been the effort to identify different forms of institutional
authority. In distinguishing the
authority of position from that of leadership, Barnard extended the categories
Weber defined in "The Profession and Vocation of Politics" (Barnard
1938:72; Weber 1994). In addition, his
concept of a "zone of indifference" in which an executive's authority
is acceptable to those s/he supervises is most useful in describing the limits
of authority permitted to an interim director.
Applying a similar approach to the
museum community, Cargo identified four types of executive authority that
influence the effectiveness of museum directors: professional, organizational,
executive and charismatic. He
articulated the conflict of values between those of art historical scholarship
and those of professional managerialism, arguing that
modern museum managers must embrace these contradictory priorities to ensure
the success of their organizations (Cargo 1990). Cargo's claim recalls Parsons' distinction
between "incumbency" and "technical competence" as forms of
authority (Henderson and Parsons 1947:59).
Similarly, Bonner interviewed 28 museum directors in
The elucidation of the boundaries
between these different forms of authority has brought into focus a more
nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the roles that leaders occupy in
organizations. Van Mannen
and Schein have written about the socialization
process that occurs when individuals assume new roles, and the confidence and
competence that subsequently emerge.
They identified a "level of inclusion" for the new leader that
varies in accordance with the dynamics of the organization and that influences
the degree to which s/he will be able to influence the organization (Van Mannen and Schein 1979). Pitcher undertook a similar project in her
exploration of executive succession at a Canadian bank, coming up with more
complex and multi-faceted roles for the range of top managers and (corporate)
directors (Pitcher 1997). De Vries has explored the psychological dynamics that come
into play with succession, suggesting that they often conflict with
institutional priorities (de Vries 1988). In addition, the process by which CEOs are
selected, and whether they come from the ranks or from outside the
organization, has symbolic importance that can substantially impact employee
and organizational performance (Friedman and Saul 1991; Gifford 1997).
Within
the nonprofit sector a series of studies have drawn upon these scholarly
traditions to examine executive turnover.
The high rate of director vacancies has attracted the attention of
several observers who have given particular weight to the increasing pressures
for fund-raising and marketing required by museums (Riley and Urice 1996, Schwarzer 2002). Noble demonstrated that the turnover rate
among museum directors, averaging every 7.3 years, was less than popularly
believed and was consistent with other categories of professionals (Noble
1988). His attempt to find a relation
between director turnover and the rate of organizational innovation directors
were able to effect, was inconclusive (Noble 1989). A more recent study of executive leaders in
Bay Area nonprofits found that average tenure rates had dropped to less than 6
years, a trend that seems consistent with anecdotal evidence from the museum
community (Wolfred etal
1999).
Within this group, there are a small number of works that speak directly to the interim director experience. Hall found that interim experiences had "profound psychological impact" on organizations, and that those who became interim leaders adopted new "subidentities" that enabled them to adapt to the new position (Hall 1995). In a study of transitional leadership at legal service agencies, Farquhar found results that closely parallel those of the museum community. (Farquhar 1991, 1994).
There are a limited number of
institutional profiles that do address change within museums but none fully
explore the issues of interim leadership.
Gurian describes several different museum
transitions, including one about the illness and death of a department head,
but does not focus directly on the role of the interim leader per se (Gurian 1995). Knauft etal have profiled some
arts groups, but have primarily focused on the relationship between the
executive and the board (Knaupt etal
1991). However, as Schwarzer
has pointed out, the museum field is limited in its efforts to nurture career
development. It is expected that greater
awareness of the interim director phenomenon may help to better prepare
individuals and institutions for transitional situations within museums.
Scope
of Project
The project will develop materials
that can be used in museums and in other settings to train trustees, museum professionals
and graduate students. It will build
upon the major findings of this literature, as well as the research on interim
directors I have previously conducted.
The final product will be a series of case studies accompanied by
teaching notes. To accomplish this I
will conduct interviews with museum staff, trustees and professionals at museum
associations; compile information on specific museum settings as background
information for writing case studies; and, convene some focus groups to test
the case studies prior to publication.
The
Smithsonian Institution is an ideal setting in which to pursue this
project. In the past few years there
have been a significant number of interim directors at its museums. Indeed, all but three of the Smithsonian's
museums have experienced leadership changes since 1999 and, looking back a
little longer, there have been a total of 22 director "turnovers"
since the beginning of Robert McCormick Adams' tenure as Secretary in 1984. These circumstances allow for discussions
with stakeholders from multiple perspectives and offer the possibility of
exploring a range of organizational cultures.
Those who have served as interim directors at the Smithsonian will be
contacted as will those who succeeded these individuals as directors. Other staff members who worked through these
interim situations will be approached to gain their insights into the effect of
the interim directorship on the museum.
Finally, former Smithsonian staff with significant involvement in the
selection and evaluation of interim directors will be contacted. My intent is to develop a 360-degree
perspective of the interim directorship experience.
In addition to interviewing those at
the Smithsonian, I plan to supplement these conversations with interviews of
key individuals in the nonprofit sector located in the
Presentation
Format
The final products of this project
are designed to promote awareness and pro-active planning for effective interim
museum directorships. They consist of
case studies and seminars for the museum profession. One of the primary goals of increasing
awareness of the positive possibilities of the interim directorship is to build
leadership capacity within the museum profession. Every effort will be made to have these
materials available for use by the museum and academic communities.
The
case study method, long used in business schools and in the corporate world,
has begun to take shape in the field of nonprofit management. Specific cases on cultural organizations,
however, have lagged behind.
Case
Studies
These case studies will be prepared
to promote greater understanding and discussion of the dynamics of the interim
directorship. They will be based on the
past research that I have conducted, combined with interviews at the
Smithsonian (and institutional data drawn from the Smithsonian Archives) and
with leaders in the museum field. It is
hoped that different case studies can be developed to examine the situation of
interim directors who (a) come from within the museum staff, (b) come from the
museum's board, or (c) come from outside the museum.
It also is important to recognize
that not all museums are the same, or in more colloquial terms: "one size
does not fit all." Each institution
has its own specific culture and different discipline museums - - from art to
history, natural history to childrens' - - have
different characteristics. Through in
the factors of institutional age, budget size, endowment or funding patterns,
and governance and you can quickly see that transitions can take radically
different shapes. Even within the
Smithsonian there are significant differences between museums: in addition to
divergent collections, each appears to have a distinctive organizational
culture, and those with legislatively-mandated boards have a more complex
governance structure that do those solely overseen by "the Castle."
Yet, the common elements of the
interim directorship are such that a handful of case studies should be
sufficient to address the major elements of transitional leadership within
museums. To facilitate the application
of these case studies to different settings, each will be accompanied by
teaching notes and they will be made available for others both in hardcopy and
electronically through an existing case study resource or electronic portal.
Seminars
As the development of case studies
progress, I will offer to conduct seminars on effective interim
directorships. These programs will use
the case studies as the basis of discussion and will be made available to
groups of museum professionals at the Smithsonian Institution as well as at
regional museum associations and mid-career training programs. The Museum Trustee Association and the New
England Museum Association have each expressed interest in incorporating this
topic into one of their upcoming meetings.
Adaptability
The phenomenon of interim museum
directorships is a national one with common characteristics across each region
of the country. Indeed, the approaches
of museums to this transitional period are generally consistent across all
disciplines and budget sizes (Ferrin 2002, Goler 2003). Over
90% of all interim appointees are chosen from within the museum itself, with
small percentages of interim directorships being filled by those outside in the
institution ("deliberate" interims) or by a member of the museum's
board of trustees. Thus the lessons
derived from these case studies have the potential of being applied in a wide
range of museum settings.
Interestingly, the experience of the
museum profession is not unique and the possibility of disseminating these case
studies outside the museum community may have value. Studies of interim leadership in other
nonprofit disciplines have identified characteristics that are nearly identical
to those of the museum community (Farquhar 1991, Thibodeau 2002).
These similarities suggest that those lessons learned from the museum
community's response to interim directorships may well also benefit other
nonprofit disciplines.
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