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Collegiality: Attribute, Theory or Impossibility?

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Collegiality – Attribute, Theory or Impossibility?
May 24, 2012

Executive Summary

Collegiality is both a professional attribute and a management theory. For this reason, collegiality is often misunderstood. As an attribute, collegiality is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the cooperative relationship of colleagues. Collegial relationships are those built upon respect between people (Curtin, 1995) and allow for the interchange and discussion of ideas from each member of a team (Williams, 1997). Among most professionals, acquiring and developing this characteristic assists in building many of the critical competencies of manager. Knowing how to build and strengthen collegial relationships improves teamwork, increases …show more content…

Furthermore, when teams come together to share opposing views and opinions in a safe setting and use these discussions to make better decisions about products and services, these benefits are then also passed on to customers.

Collegiality in the Professional Arena

Collegiality, or aspects of it, is most prevalent in academia, medicine and law. These occupations generally require formal education, licensing of members and are governed by a sanctioned board of some kind.

Collegiality and Academia

In the chapter entitled “Peer Relations and Collegiality”, The Editorial Team discusses collegiality in an academic setting. The team explains that in academia, there is a community in which authority is usually shared and the faculty has approximately the same level of authority. To be successful, this environment requires more than just polite working relationships. Academic decision making usually necessitates options, debates and consensus. For this reason, the article goes on to say that collegiality is critical to the performance of an academic institution because of the potential affect it has on the instructors, the curriculum and the students trying to learn. The significance of this potential is why they highlight the value of collegiality and the importance in developing this skill

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