The hiring is done mostly by professors, who are usually highly competent in their field.
But being competent in your field doesn’t make you a good manager or leader. The problem is that you have valuable technical experts with poor leadership abilities put into power. If there is an HR problem, the institution is usually incentivized to defend the expert and their atrocious behavior over junior staff.
And it doesn’t end up being a problem for academia if researchers leave the toxic workplace because spots are desirable and there isn’t an issue replacing those who leave.
But being competent in your field doesn’t make you a good manager or leader.
Except it kind of does. Surviving in academia requires being able to sell yourself well, and to be able to network and set up collaborations with other groups. Stereotypes and some exceptions notwithstanding, professors usually have good social and management skills.
But being competent in your field doesn’t make you a good manager or leader. The problem is that you have valuable technical experts with poor leadership abilities put into power. If there is an HR problem, the institution is usually incentivized to defend the expert and their atrocious behavior over junior staff.
And it doesn’t end up being a problem for academia if researchers leave the toxic workplace because spots are desirable and there isn’t an issue replacing those who leave.
Except it kind of does. Surviving in academia requires being able to sell yourself well, and to be able to network and set up collaborations with other groups. Stereotypes and some exceptions notwithstanding, professors usually have good social and management skills.