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This lecture discusses the traditional role played by universities and their shifting role as a bi-professional organization. The presenter also focuses on the change in management and leadership functions and structures within the higher education institutions.
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The Institutional Conditions of
Higher Education
MPhil/HEEM Programme in Higher EducationIntroductory semester, Unit 3, lecture 3Oslo, 26 September 2007
• Discussion of the management and leadership functions and structures in higher education institutions
Starting-point:How does the central position of knowledge
affect the organization of higher education systems and institutions?
Who is actually in charge in Higher Education Institutions?
Main trend:Institutional management from a
necessary ‘evil’ to a self-justifying function
Administration Management
Collegiality Leadership
Government Governance
Management:coping with complexity in and around the institution; efficiency oriented
Leadership:deal with change and give direction; effectiveness oriented
Governance:Who is steering and who is rowing? Interactive policy and decision making; intra-institutional and institution vs environment
University / college characteristics
• Knowledge provides building blocks
• Fragmented
• Loosely coupled decision-making structures
• Incremental, grass-root changes
University/college: Professional organisation
Professional occupations want not only control over the conditions of work, but also over the definition of work itself
Professionals seek:
1. Regulative control: determine what actions are to be prohibited and permitted and what sanctions are to be used2. Normative control: determine who has the right to exercise authority over what decisions and actors in what situations3. Cognitive control: determine what types of problems fall under their responsibility and how these problems are to be categorized and processed
How are Univ./Colleges different from other organisations?
- Raw material not clearly defined- Unique combination of democracy and efficiency- Quality of output difficult to measure- Legal basis, and governance approach by government- Universities have a different notion of time- University important institution for rest of social system- No strong unifying goal- Large level of freedom of employees (academic freedom)- People main resource, unpredictable - Truth, but not in an absolute way, is an issue- There is no true market- Various specialisations
How are Univ./Colleges different from other organisations?
- Ship with various captains- Chain of control- Professional autonomy and equal responsibilities- Basic and applied research (both dimensions)- Holistic institution- Societal expectations high- Constant pursuit of knowledge- Conservative decision making
How are Univ./Colleges different?
1. HEIs lack a single, clearly definable production function2. HEIs demonstrate low levels of internal integration3. The commitment of staff to discipline and profession is higher than commitment to the organisation4. HEI’s managers ability to hire and fire is low
How are Univ./Colleges different?
5. HEIs managers are accountable to morestakeholders than their counterparts in business6. More and more HEIs have to be managed as hybrid organisations (public and private elements)
New Public Management(Managerialism / reinventing government)
“The New Public Management has championed a vision of public managers as the entrepreneurs of a new, leaner, and increasingly privatized government, emulating not only the practices but also the values of business”(Denhardt and Denhardt 2000)
New Public Management
NPM assumes that market competition rather than centralised bureaucratic regulation will deliver to the public ‘value for money’ from public expenditures.However, NPM has failed to deliver on many of its promises, and cracks are appearing in its intellectual and ideological foundations
Institutional governance/management is about managing the gap between intentions and reality.
NPM addresses the gap by denying its existence.
Challenges:
1. Find an appropriate balance between academic and administrative management and leadership2. Find an appropriate balance between managinginternal and external interests3. Find an appropriate balance between managingpublic and private institutional activities and structures
How to manage a hybrid institution?
