There are, I think, quite a few solid textbooks out there which are full of helpful advice for Heads of academic departments or schools.
(For example: Managing the Academic Unit, by Allen Bolton, Open University Press, 2000 and Chairing an Academic Department by Gmelch and Miskin, Atwood, 2004)
None though is quite as pithy as Mark Harrison’s “Survival Guide for Department Chairs”. Would be hard to imagine anything more straightforward and to the point.
He also has a slightly more extensive set of advice pages for undergraduates which are well worth a look.
(Thanks to Rona for spotting these).
Interesting advice and perhaps relevant to those of us who manage the admin support in large departments where we deal with both academics and support staff. One to discuss a little more I think. Nathan.
I thought you might be interested to know that Mark has published another essay on academic departments and universities, this time thinking about their similarities and differences to Stalinist Russia. Interesting and insightful, IMHO:
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/markharrison/entry/quiet_flows_the/