A qualitative study involving six rural community college presidents was conducted with the intended purpose of understanding what dimensions of leadership emerge from rural community college presidents during times of sustained financial distress. Unexpectedly, the presidents pointed the study's discussions to insights much broader than the issue of leading institutions with decreased budgets and instead presented qualitative data that redirected the researcher to explore what dimensions of rural community college leadership emerge because of the \"new reality\" of higher education. The new reality describes a higher education environment that--along with significantly decreased funding--includes rapidly changing technology, competition from for-profit institutions, the expanding reaches of e-education, and next-generation students who demand a flexible and sophisticated educational delivery. The researcher discovered five dimensions of leadership, which describe the presidential roles necessary for leading in the new reality of higher education: discerning speculators, impassioned advocates, hope-builders, decisive action-makers, and relationship-architects. A multidimensional leadership model was constructed to demonstrate how the concepts work synergistically.
","abstract_html":"<p>A qualitative study involving six rural community college presidents was conducted with the intended purpose of understanding what dimensions of leadership emerge from rural community college presidents during times of sustained financial distress. Unexpectedly, the presidents pointed the study's discussions to insights much broader than the issue of leading institutions with decreased budgets and instead presented qualitative data that redirected the researcher to explore what dimensions of rural community college leadership emerge because of the "new reality" of higher education. The new reality describes a higher education environment that--along with significantly decreased funding--includes rapidly changing technology, competition from for-profit institutions, the expanding reaches of e-education, and next-generation students who demand a flexible and sophisticated educational delivery. The researcher discovered five dimensions of leadership, which describe the presidential roles necessary for leading in the new reality of higher education: discerning speculators, impassioned advocates, hope-builders, decisive action-makers, and relationship-architects. A multidimensional leadership model was constructed to demonstrate how the concepts work synergistically.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Raich, Michael John"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Educational Leadership","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Margaret Healy"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:26:24Z","subjects":["Community College, Higher Education, Leadership, Multidimensional, Presidents, Rural"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.und.edu/theses/1472","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Margaret Healy"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Raich, Michael John"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educational Leadership"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Community College, Higher Education, Leadership, Multidimensional, Presidents, Rural"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.und.edu/theses/1472"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["A qualitative study involving six rural community college presidents was conducted with the intended purpose of understanding what dimensions of leadership emerge from rural community college presidents during times of sustained financial distress. Unexpectedly, the presidents pointed the study's discussions to insights much broader than the issue of leading institutions with decreased budgets and instead presented qualitative data that redirected the researcher to explore what dimensions of rural community college leadership emerge because of the \"new reality\" of higher education. The new reality describes a higher education environment that--along with significantly decreased funding--includes rapidly changing technology, competition from for-profit institutions, the expanding reaches of e-education, and next-generation students who demand a flexible and sophisticated educational delivery. The researcher discovered five dimensions of leadership, which describe the presidential roles necessary for leading in the new reality of higher education: discerning speculators, impassioned advocates, hope-builders, decisive action-makers, and relationship-architects. A multidimensional leadership model was constructed to demonstrate how the concepts work synergistically.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Multidimensional Leadership Model For Rural Community College Presidents"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Margaret Healy"],"dc:creator":["Raich, Michael John"],"dc:description.abstract":["A qualitative study involving six rural community college presidents was conducted with the intended purpose of understanding what dimensions of leadership emerge from rural community college presidents during times of sustained financial distress. Unexpectedly, the presidents pointed the study's discussions to insights much broader than the issue of leading institutions with decreased budgets and instead presented qualitative data that redirected the researcher to explore what dimensions of rural community college leadership emerge because of the \"new reality\" of higher education. The new reality describes a higher education environment that--along with significantly decreased funding--includes rapidly changing technology, competition from for-profit institutions, the expanding reaches of e-education, and next-generation students who demand a flexible and sophisticated educational delivery. The researcher discovered five dimensions of leadership, which describe the presidential roles necessary for leading in the new reality of higher education: discerning speculators, impassioned advocates, hope-builders, decisive action-makers, and relationship-architects. A multidimensional leadership model was constructed to demonstrate how the concepts work synergistically.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.und.edu/theses/1472"],"dc:subject":["Community College, Higher Education, Leadership, Multidimensional, Presidents, Rural"],"dc:title":["A Multidimensional Leadership Model For Rural Community College Presidents"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educational Leadership"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:26:24Z"}