LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN THE TRANSITION ROMANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM Constantin BRĂTIANU Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the higher education system in the transition period of Romania, by using a contingency approach combined with change dynamics. This post communist transition, which actually happened in all the European former communist countries, represents a quite new and unique historical construct and it can be characterized by some generic aspects and many other specific developments for each country. Since universities represent core public institutions, their reform is strongly related to the governmental strategy and the evolution of all the political, social, economical, technological and ethical aspects during transition. Our analysis show a very slow transition process from the socialist management pattern to the present democratic management pattern, due to strong inertial forces and to a chronic governmental ignorance of the change dynamics. Key words: academic leadership, Bologna process, closed system model, higher education, strategic management, transition, university management. 1. Introduction The Higher Education System (HES) contains all accredited institutions of higher education, regardless of their structure and profile. In Romania, before 1989 there were two kind of higher education institutions: colleges and universities. The first kind of institutions offered three years programs, and the universities offered four or five years programs. Immediately after the changing of the political regime, all higher education institutions became by law universities. Due to their essential role in knowledge acquisition, generation, transfer and diffusion, and in cultural value preservation, universities represent core institutions of any country (Bok, 1990; Duderstadt, 2000; Jongbloed, Maassen and Neave, 1999; Winckler, 2007). Changing the political, economical, social and cultural environment in the postsocialist transition put a high pressure on HES to transform itself. According to the boundary value theory, this transformation depends on the dynamics at the interface of the system between the internal field of forces and the external field of forces. According to the change dynamics theory, within HES transformation processes depend on the balance between the change promoters and the inertial forces (Burnes, 1996; Darwin, Johnson and McAuley, 2002). In this complex historical transition, hundreds of higher education institutions in tens of countries were challenged to: “change their governance and management structures to more democratic ones that would allow more autonomous behaviour; change their curricula to match the transformation from socialist economies to market economies; change their mission from mainly teaching oriented to incorporate