Out to Pasture: Transitioning From Servant-Leadership to Post-Leadership Roles in Academia

Faculty in leadership or administrative roles may continue their career advancement until retirement. In some cases, faculty may choose or have chosen for them, to not continue in a leadership role in the academy. An extensive search of the literature on post-leadership roles using the search term post-leadership in Web of Science, Communication Abstracts, PsycArticles (ProQuest), ProQuest Research Library, and Education Full-text (EBSCO) databases failed to uncover research specifically related to post-leadership faculty roles in higher education. According to Jasinki (2020) while much scholarship has focused on leadership development in academia, little scholarship has focused on the phenomena of “stepping down.” Utilizing autoethnographic method (see Ellis et al., 2011), the author seeks to understand the connection between the personal journey and the effects of our cultural expectations of post-leadership in academia on self-identity. This current project aims to begin the conversation by sharing a personal narrative about the process of reflection related to post-leadership roles and offering a critical self-analysis within the context of servant leadership.