How can we, as administrators in ELT organizations, contribute to shaping a successful, knowledge-sharing organizational culture? How can we improve our leadership IQs and management skills for program success? Luckily or unluckily, we keep asking these practical and theoretical questions, taking action, and then reflecting on the outcomes for the sake of a better direction.

How can we, as administrators in ELT organizations, contribute to shaping a successful, knowledge-sharing organizational culture? How can we improve our leadership IQs and management skills for program success? How can we introduce educational innovation to enhance program quality? How can we increase the satisfaction rate of the stakeholders involved and enhance program accountability? How can we create new revenue to meet our institutional demands? Luckily or unluckily, we keep asking these practical and theoretical questions, taking action, and then reflecting on the outcomes for the sake of a better direction.

Yes, ELT administrators are definitely expected to play a multidimensional role: They are simultaneously required to be leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers, thinkers, and visionaries. From the outside, we might seem to hold respected positions in ELT organizations, positions more respectable than demanding. What is the reality? Every single day, we have to juggle dozens of responsibilities (that fall into our laps or that we choose to undertake) to maintain or enhance program quality. The sad reality is that only a small number of people in any ELT administration position have had any real professional training for this demanding job. That is why White, Hockley, van der Horst Jansen, and Laughner’s(2008) From Teacher to Manager was so timely and ground breaking; it met the needs of current and would-be administrators. A few institutions have also developed a joint program that offers an International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (IDELT); this is an ingenious venture to address similar needs.

An especially noteworthy attempt to answer the needs of ELT administrators is A Handbook for Language Program Administrators (Christison & Stoller, 2012). Personally, even after my 15 years of on-the-job training as an administrator in a very reputable TESOL program in Seoul, Korea, I was thrilled with the ideas and practices presented in this volume. How amazing it was to find the commonalities and differences among the expectations of the position and the realities faced in varied sociocultural settings. To reasonably deal with our job responsibilities, we administrators may be asked to display our expertise in fields as varied as educational leadership, applied linguistics, educational leadership, business administration, language teaching, curriculum development, educational law, marketing, and intercultural communication. What a lot of hats to wear!

The multidisciplinary nature of our jobs may serve to raise our self-esteem, but we are soon brought down to earth by the mundane reality that we, as administrators, have to deal with numerous petty details while maintaining complex social relations with many people. In a survey conducted among 190 language program administrators based in the United States and Europe (Panferov, 2012), the respondents’ most frequently mentioned daily responsibilities were prioritized according to the following percentages:

• personnel issues (80.9)
• curriculum (67.4)
• marketing (64)
• budgeting (59.6)
• staff evaluation (52.8)
• time management (50.6)
• cooperation with university programs (48.3)
• teacher training (46.1)
• immigration and legal issues (44.9)
• customized program development (43.8)
• policy (34.8)
• accreditation (32.6)
• technology (30.3)
• fundraising (2.2)
• programs abroad (2.2)

The fact that 80.9% of respondents listed personnel issues as a typical daily responsibility indicates that the job essentially requires tremendous human interactions.

In this regard, I have to admit that my training in English literature has significantly helped me to perform my job as a TESOL administrator. My PhD in that field seemed meaningless when I was almost pushed into my position without knowing what to expect. After struggling for some years on the job, I realized that my previous experience with past and present literary characters and the concept of postmodernism had enhanced my sense of human understanding and broadened my perspectives. This foundation was subsequently strengthened by diverse TESOL leadership opportunities, including the position of national president of Korea TESOL and chair of the Pan Asian International Conference. At the same time, I also have to admit that my many years of on-the-job performance have been complemented by my second PhD work in the field of applied linguistics, TESOL concentration. As you will certainly agree, we should constantly (re)construct our administrative beliefs with theoretical input from relevant fields.

Even after learning from diverse sources, my simple belief is that human interaction skills lie at the heart of an administrator’s successful leadership. Such skills are the foundation of these highly regarded leadership types: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership, situational leadership, intercultural leadership, and others. The willingness to negotiate with diverse others for meaning and mutual understanding definitely leads to success and professionalism. Moreover, in the ever changing ecology of ELT organizations, global and cultural awareness is required now more than ever (Pennington & Hoekje, 2010). We readily admit that teaching is a socioculturally situated practice. Even more so, then, is our administrative process! Negotiation of meaning should take place with diverse stakeholders from diverse sociocultural backgrounds: policy and decision makers, sponsors, intra- and extra-departmental partners, teaching staff, office staff, students, parents, and others.

Well, let’s accept the fact that the job of language program administrator has a wide and varied scope. Our daily responsibilities fall somewhere within a continuum between visionary and servant. Let’s keep reminding ourselves that we should keep more open, flexible, and responsive attitudes to make our human interactions—and our programs—successful. In a similar vein, I truly love the concept of collaboration, and my wish as last year’s PAIS chair was to enhance opportunities for the members to interact and collaborate, and help each other to succeed. As a very busy professional myself, I regret that I could not find enough time to interact with more PAIS members. Launching the first PAIS online newsletter should provide momentum to facilitate interactions among the PAIS members (247 primary members, with a total 1,176 members as of February 2013).

Let’s share and learn from each other! Truly, we will then be better equipped as administrators to successfully deal with the challenging task of being both visionary and servant.

References

Christison, M., & Stoller, F. (Eds.) (2012). A handbook for language program administrators. Miami Beach, FL: Alta Books.

Panferov, S. (2012).Transitioning from teacher to language program. In M. Christison & F. Stoller (Eds.). (2012). A handbook for language program administrators (pp. 3–18). Miami Beach, FL: Alta Books.

Pennington, M., & Hoekje, B. (2010). Language program leadership in a changing world. WA, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

White, R., Hockley, A., van der Horst Jansen, J., & Laughner, M. S. (2008). From teacher to manager: Managing English language teaching organizations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Dr. Kyungsook Yeum is the director of SMU TESOL and the faculty of the MA TESOL program at Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. Her understanding of the TESOL profession has been honed through her work as national president of Korea TESOL and also as conference chair for the Pan Asian Conference (PAC 2010). She waschair of TESOL International Association’s Program Administration Interest Section, 2012–2013.