The Administrator As Superhero: A Commentary On Balkin And Mello'S "Facilitating And Creating Synergies Between Teaching And Research: The Role Of The Academic Administrator"

As a way to achieve better alignment of the ongoing teaching-research activity gap in business schools, David Balkin and Jeff Mello suggest that schools need to hire academic administrators with significantly developed management skills. The author responds to this recommendation with two concerns. First, many of the causes of the research-teaching gap are deeply embedded in the structure of the academic reward system and beyond the control of the academic administrator. Second, if academic administrators are to achieve what they propose, we need far better selection and training of these administrators.