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The aim of the paper is to theoretically and empirically explore the issue of well-being (WB) of female administrative employees who work on managerial positions at higher education institutions (HEIs).

This study is based on both literature studies and explorative empirical research conducted in Poland with the use of snowball sampling. It adopted a questionnaire authored by Parker and Hyett and covered 121 respondents.

Literature studies show that invisibility of work, low level of empowerment, increased stress, workload and expectations, reduced resources, high level of anxiety, fatigue and low level of vitality negatively impact the WB of HEIs’ administrative staff. The presented research provides insight into the internal structure of the administrative staff’s WB. Both the main construct (i.e. employees’ WB) and its subconstructs are on moderate level. Respondents’ age and tasks performed are correlated only with the subconstruct of WB in the form of intrusion of work into private life.

Although the research is not based on large sample, it provides both practical and theoretical implications.

Most of studies discuss the issue of WB of scholars. The paper fills the research gap in terms of examining female administrative employees who work on managerial positions at HEIs.

Management of students’ affairs constitutes one of the key elements of the educational process, even though neglected and often treated as a minor issue. In all Polish higher education institutions (HEIs) the units charged with this administrative task are dean’s offices (in Polish, dziekanaty). The pace of work of dean’s offices is related to the schedule of the academic year. While resources are constant throughout the year, the workload differs significantly and peaks around October, when not only the new semester begins but also many students defend their theses and need to receive their award certificates. Work at dean’s office is therefore often demanding with many tasks cumulated in the same very short period of time and repeatable, that is, as many times as the number of students, which can be from 350 to over 700 per employee. This chapter examines innovative ways of managing students’ affairs at selected Polish HEIs. These innovations can be either top-down, that is, provided by HEI authorities responding to the needs of dean’s offices, or bottom-up, that is, worked out by the dean’s office staff (often due to lacking support of HEIs authorities).

The notion of ‘happy dean's office’ (DO) seems to be at best an oxymoron as these units are usually understaffed, overworked and perceived at the very bottom of university hierarchy. Contrary to these beliefs the article aims to identify and analyse DOs which could be labelled as ‘happy’, i.e. units which are good places to work in, according to their staff, and/or are valued high by their students. Happiness is treated symbolically rather than a psychological state of human being and refers to a workplace which provides its employees with satisfaction and well-being, and at the same time is perceived as efficient and effective. Our source material are 16 individual in-depth interviews with managers of DOs at Polish HEIs and 3 focus groups. In most cases we visited the DOs and so could also use some participant observation. These and other DOs at the same HEI share the same legal environment, infrastructure and are situated in the same manner in HEIs structure. What makes them different, and so might influence their level of happiness, are: (1) management style, (2) organisational culture, and (3) students. In our research we focus on the first two aspects, the last one, due to lacking data, is skipped. Basing on our research and practical experience – as one of us has been managing a DO for almost 20 years and the other has been serving as a vice-dean for six years – we want to provide recommendations on how a DO can be turned into a good place to work.

Over the past few decades, the higher education landscape underwent dramatic changes, causing strain on higher education institutions (HEI) worldwide. The academic debate is filled with very well-argued accounts of these developments. Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) add an additional layer to this already complex reality. Against this backdrop, it is necessary that the question of managing and administering HEI today be rethought. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing, augmented, virtual and mixed reality (R+), Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, bear the promise to effectively assisting HEI administrators in navigating their institutions through the period of profound change. This chapter offers a brief account of that.