Glossary Glossary

Download a glossary of terms used in this course.

Responsible leadership is particularly relevant to senior researchers, as you can use your leadership roles to promote a positive research culture that benefits everyone. You can foster research integrity by demonstrating effective communication that shows a genuine interest in respect, fairness and honesty towards those you work with. Leadership is a key part of working in academia. It can look different depending on the context but is relevant across disciplines. For example, someone working in a large team can model good behaviour and positively influence those they work with. Conversely, someone working in a small team or a sole-scholar discipline may focus more on less direct forms of leadership, such as mentoring early- and mid-career researchers to promote their personal and professional development.

It is important to understand all of the groups that you serve and engage with to lead them responsibly, appreciating that research leadership will look different in different contexts. Your leadership approach should incorporate the diverse contexts of individuals in your research team, especially if working with Indigenous researchers and knowledge. Giving feedback and active listening are valuable ways for leaders to communicate with different groups and to promote a vibrant and healthy research environment, as we will explore shortly. Leaders can be found at all levels of research and across all disciplines, and they play a pivotal role in shaping their research environment through an inclusive approach and engaging with others to demonstrate an understanding of their needs. Responsible leadership can be defined as:

an orientation or mindset taken by people in executive level positions toward meeting the needs of...stakeholder(s). As such, it deals with defining those stakeholder(s), assessing the legitimacy of their claims, and determining how those needs, expectations, or interests can and should best be served.

(Waldman et al., 2020: pp.5–6)

 Your context Your context

Your institution may have specific training available for you to develop your research leadership skills. Beyond this, there are other programs available:

Categorise these examples of research conduct into whether they are effective or poor examples of research integrity by dragging and dropping them into the appropriate columnbox.

Categorise practices that support or undermine research integrity.

 Supports research integrity

Others trusting our reliability by having confidence in what we do.

Trust

Making fair judgements without favouritism or discrimination.

Fairness

Being open, honest, and transparent with others.

Transparency

Considering the implications and outcomes of our decisions on others.

Considering others

Providing high-quality, effective and timely feedback to others on their performance.

Effective feedback

Acknowledging the wider implications and recognising the impact of what we do on people, society and the planet.

Recognition of impact

 Undermines research integrity

Not being honest and truthful about what we do.

Dishonesty

Poor rigour in taking a lack of care and thoroughness when making decisions.

Poor rigour

Not communicating a sufficient quality and quantity of information to others.

Weak communication

Privileging and showing favouritism for some groups over others.

Favouritism

Emphasising the implications and outcomes for ourselves and not adequately considering the implications on others.

Self-emphasis

There is great value in leading effectively and developing strong relationships with your colleagues and collaborators. Examples of actions you can take to develop these relationships and become a more responsible research leader include:

  • Sharing and celebrating good practices
  • Addressing poor practices
  • Showing empathy for the contexts of others
  • Appreciating how social and cultural practices (such as sorry business) impact Indigenous researchers' capacity
  • Being honest about your own weaknesses
  • Disclosing your failures as well as your successes
  • Talking about tall poppy and impostor syndrome (see Additional information)
  • Supporting the leadership development of others
  • Supporting the development of the broader discipline.

Overall, it is important to show that you support and nurture those you work with, considering them alongside your other responsibilities. If managed well, your leadership will promote positive research integrity and contribute to a trustworthy research environment for everyone.

 Additional information Additional information

Feenstra, S. et al. discuss the extensive organisational psychology research behind imposter syndrome and which groups are often affected.

Tall poppy syndrome in the Australian context is discussed further in Peeters', Tall poppies and egalitarianism in Australian discourse. A 2018 international study, The Tallest Poppy, edited by Rumeet Billan, analyses tall poppy syndrome as it relates to women in workplaces worldwide.