The Institutional Conditions of Higher Education MPhil/HEEM Programme in Higher Education Introductory semester, Unit 3, lecture 3 Oslo, 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 used 2. Normative control: determine who has the right to exercise authority over what decisions and actors in what situations 3. 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 function 2. HEIs demonstrate low levels of internal integration 3. The commitment of staff to discipline and profession is higher than commitment to the organisation 4. HEI’s managers ability to hire and fire is low

How are Univ./Colleges different? 5. HEIs managers are accountable to more stakeholders than their counterparts in business 6. 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 leadership 2. Find an appropriate balance between managing internal and external interests 3. Find an appropriate balance between managing public and private institutional activities and structures How to manage a hybrid institution?