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How Peer Review Empowers the Academic Profession and University Managers: Changes in Relationships between the State, Universities and the Professoriate
Abstract
Universities are expected to be important players in the development of knowledge economies; therefore, they are a priority on the policy agenda of the European commission and of member states. To understand the new institutional settings where knowledge production is achieved, we must turn our attention to analyzing the reforms underway.Building on conclusions from the sociology of professions, the sociology of organizations and public policy analysis, this paper argues that the policy instruments developed by public authorities to measure scientific performance and selectively allocate resources rely on peer review processes and reinforce an academic elite. As a result, the internal power distribution within the academic profession as well as within universities has changed.On the one hand, peer review is used as a managerial tool by universities. The decisions made at the university level are largely based on (and legitimated by) evaluations conducted outside the university by an elite sitting in research councils, editorial boards, and evaluation agencies.On the other hand, rather than weakening professional power, the recent reforms have instead led to a reconfiguration of the academic profession. Their influence is twofold. First, they have empowered those individuals who set the norms according to which academic activities are rewarded and funded by public actors. Second, they bolster those who receive positive reviews, since they gain a stronger position to negotiate with the managers of their university.
... Dating at least to the 17 th century with the establishment of the first scientific societies, peer review is expected to provide a system of self-governance to the scientific community (Musselin 2013). In particular, previous research has shown that reviewers create and disseminate norms of academic excellence, and are expected to follow a set of evaluation norms to guarantee the legitimacy of their decisions (Merton 1973;Lamont 2009;Derrick 2018). ...
... Perhaps no other scientific practice is as normative as peer review. By defining what is good research and exercising judgment according to established criteria, reviewers participate in creating and disseminating evaluation norms (Lamont 2009;Musselin 2013). Previous authors have argued that reviewers are "normative agents" (Lamont 2009) who enact "socialized norms of academic excellence" (Derrick 2018). ...
... Previous authors have argued that reviewers are "normative agents" (Lamont 2009) who enact "socialized norms of academic excellence" (Derrick 2018). Ideally, the ability of reviewers to apply their own, intra-scientific criteria of evaluation is supposed to guarantee the autonomy of research from non-scientific actors (Musselin 2013). ...
Punctuated by joy, disappointments, and conflicts, research evaluation constitutes an intense, emotional moment in scientific life. Yet reviewers and research institutions often expect evaluations to be conducted objectively and dispassionately. Inspired by the scholarship describing the role of emotions in scientific practices, we argue instead, that reviewers actively define, display and manage their emotions in response to the structural organization of research evaluation. Our article examines reviewing practices used in the European Research Council’s (ERC) Starting and Consolidator grants and in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action’s (MSCA) Individual Fellowships. These two European funding mechanisms offer different perspectives on the organization of grant evaluation. We conducted interviews with review panel members and analyzed various institutional documents. By drawing on the sociological concepts of feeling rules and emotional work, we demonstrate that reviewers define rules concerning how emotions should be experienced and expressed to ensure the proper functioning of evaluation, and that reviewers experience the need to actively regulate their emotions to comply with these rules. We present four feeling rules concerning the experience and expression of: (1) excitement for novelty during individual evaluation; (2) respect for others’ opinions and the absence of anger in review panels; (3) attentiveness and interest, which are seen as missing in online evaluations. Reviewers also expect ERC candidates to (4) avoid pride and manifest modesty during interviews. These rules demonstrate that proposal peer review is governed by emotional norms, and show the influence of organizational settings and moral requirements on research evaluation.
... For some authors, pressure to incorporate concerned groups within governance has transformed the university from a republic of scholars to a stakeholder organisation (Bleiklie & Kogan, 2007) with negative implications for collegiality and collegial governance. Other work has focussed on the emergence of the enterprise university, and its impact on internal functioning (Harroche & Musselin, 2023, this volume;Marginson & Considine, 2000), including the rise of professional managers (Deem, 2010) and of a new academic elite and ruling class in universities (Capano & Regini, 2014;Musselin, 2013). These changes lead Christopherson et al. (2014) to predict a decline in the ability of these organisations to sustain a model that values all disciplines and domains equally, and Musselin (2013) to conclude that the power of academics is diminished in this context. ...
... Other work has focussed on the emergence of the enterprise university, and its impact on internal functioning (Harroche & Musselin, 2023, this volume;Marginson & Considine, 2000), including the rise of professional managers (Deem, 2010) and of a new academic elite and ruling class in universities (Capano & Regini, 2014;Musselin, 2013). These changes lead Christopherson et al. (2014) to predict a decline in the ability of these organisations to sustain a model that values all disciplines and domains equally, and Musselin (2013) to conclude that the power of academics is diminished in this context. A new professional and managerial elite emerges, sets standards, and applies them in the evaluation of academic or research performance, with significant implications for academic careers and relations among colleagues (Bleiklie et al., 2017;Engwall, 2020). ...
... Research policies may act as important forces of differentiation and dilution of social cohesion among colleagues, with consequences for the enactment of collegiality (Mignot-Gérard, Sponem, et al., 2022b). Not all faculty appear equal in an environment where research and scientific performance become the predominant criteria to demonstrate excellence (Musselin, 2013). With the expansion of research networks and the internationalisation of science, the experience of academic work is changing (see also Kosmütsky & Krücken, 2023, Vol. ...
... There is however evidence that the use of PRM by university leadership does not eliminate the need for faculty consultation or participation. First, some studies show that managerial decisions in universities are better supported when reached via peer review rather than by indicator-based research evaluation systems (Gläser et al., 2010a;Musselin, 2013). Others conclude that "tough decisions" initially based on quantitative performance measurements lack legitimacy and entail unexpected negotiations with the academic community (Gumport, 1993;Hardy, 1988). ...
... In France, Musselin et al. (2012) found that several presidential teams use the AERES grading of research units to allocate research budgets between their departments. In Germany, the DFG rankings and/ or the results of external reviews are used by some university leaders to set scientific priorities or to abandon others (Musselin, 2013). Moreover, when performance measurement is being used, poorer performing units are especially subject to central control (Camerati, 2014;Jarzablowski, 2002). ...
... As a result, managers often seek the input of professionals in decision-making processes (Reay & Hinings, 2005). Some studies on universities highlight that management teams involve research stars and members of the academic elite in their decisions to make them legitimate and accepted by the academic staff (Musselin, 2013;Gumport, 1993;Cloarec & Mignot-Gerard, 2016). As a result, it is not incidental that our respondents from reputed or resourcegenerating departments perceive a higher participation in decision-making than their counterparts. ...
The extent to which collegiality conflicts or merges with managerial ideas and practices has recently given rise to a lively scholarly debate: have universities surrendered to managerialization or, on the contrary, do they continue to exhibit collegial traits? Part of this debate arises from the lack of a clear definition of “collegiality” in prior studies, where it is either reified or viewed through a limited number of different and possibly loosely coupled dimensions. We therefore deconstruct the collegial model and its structural and behavioral aspects, i.e., professional autonomy, organizational citizenship, faculty participation in decision-making, and academic units’ decision-making power. We examine the links between these dimensions of collegiality and performance metrics applied to research activities and outputs (PRM), because they are concrete artifacts of managerial practices seen as particularly deleterious to collegiality. We address this issue by undertaking a quantitative study of all French public universities (1,334 questionnaires analyzed). Our study draws two important conclusions. Firstly, it finds a mix of both conflict and hybridity depending on the dimension considered: the use of PRM is negatively linked with professional autonomy but compatible with organizational citizenship and faculty participation in decision-making. Secondly, we find that academic units’ reputation strengthens the positive link between PRM and faculty participation, but on the other hand, mitigates the increase of organizational citizenship and academic units’ decision-making power. In sum, we suggest that faculty participation in decision-making is the only aspect of collegiality that resists the advance of managerial logics in universities.
... Discussion and research on the rise of what we call the new professionals in higher education began in the early 1990s but took off as a topic in the mid-2000s (see, for example, Gornitzka, Kyvik, & Larsen, 1998;Rhoades, 2009Rhoades, , 2016Kottmann & Enders, 2013a, 2013bWhitchurch, 2012;Enders & Naidoo, 2019). Traditionally, staff working at higher education institutions were perceived as being divided into two groups, those in academic positions and those in other positions, that is administrative and support staff. ...
... Furthermore, peer reviewing academic work is a central and traditional part of the inner quality control of academic outputs by the academic profession. In academic work and careers, academic performance is conducted in the organizational frameworks of universities and career development takes place in the career structures offered by the organization (Musselin, 2013a(Musselin, , 2013b. Therefore, the assessment of academic competence is done primarily by the discipline and with disciplinary traditions and criteria, however they are verified, and career promotions are conducted by the organization. ...
... Academic success as well as career progression are based on the successful peer-evaluation of academic performance. These academic outputs are being assessed in the disciplinary contexts, but the organization is still offering the frameworks in which the individual is performing the work and proceeding in their career (Musselin, 2013a(Musselin, , 2013b. Furthermore, in the promotions and recruitments of universities, these different aspects of disciplinary and organizational power are being exploited (Vellamo et al., 2022). ...
Peodair Leihy and José M. Salazar describe how theories of academic capitalism, which
arose during the 1980s and 1990s, have inspired commentary on expanding academic systems where transactional incentives have greatly informed academic behaviours. Often this transformation has seen not the monetization of academic values, but their squeezing out by more venal operators. In developing academic systems, such as the one they focus on – Chile – that have sought to mimic mature systems in academic career structures, academic capitalism low on real academic capital, which they dubbed academic careerism, can take root. Their chapter illustrates the differences between academic capitalism and academic careerism in a range of dimensions, with examples from the Chilean context, practices and events. A corollary is to dispel the common misconception in countries such as Chile that the troubled practice of academic capitalism in developed academic systems is just about money and power.
... Calls for proposals are also aimed at selectively allocating funds for teaching and technology transfer, as well as evaluation, accreditation, and assessment processes (Schwarz & Westerheijden, 2004). As Musselin points out, these processes are all linked to the rise of an "incentivising" state, which does not prescribe what to do, but develop the rules of a game "which require compliant behaviours if one wants access to funding" (Musselin, 2013(Musselin, , p. 1168 Then, the autonomy given by the state is an illusion, since the incentive-based instruments mean a stronger control over behaviours (Les Galès & Scott, 2010). ...
... To that end, we reviewed the literature that delved into the study of state agencies for higher education policies and new relationships between state policies, agencies, and the academic profession. Musselin (2013) has pointed out that, rather than weakening professional power, the recent reforms have reconfigured the academic profession by reinforcing the power of academics who participate as peer reviewers at state agencies. She argues that the studies concluding that reforms have weakened the academic profession have overlooked the reinforcement of the role of peer reviews conducted by state agencies, with effects on university governance and power distribution within the academic profession. ...
... Testing if Argentina reaches similar conclusions like Musselin's for the European context, we found that academics who served as peer reviewers feel more influence at the three organisational levels than those who do not (Table D), and then H4 can be accepted. The institutional level is the one where Graphic 2: New analytical model for the study of academic institutional influence in the context of external control Musselin (2013) has pointed out that, rather than weakening professional power, the recent reforms have reconfigured the academic profession by reinforcing the power of academics who participate as peer reviewers at state agencies. She argues that the studies concluding that reforms have weakened the academic profession have overlooked the reinforcement of the role of peer reviews conducted by state agencies, with effects on university governance and power distribution within the academic profession. ...
The paper studies the institutional influence of academics in Argentina within a context of increasing external control as a consequence of deep public reforms in the Higher Education system. Drawing on data from the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-Based Society (APIKS) survey, the aim is to analyse how much and in what sense the recent changes on the public policy level and the intermediate level of the state agencies have affected the academic profession in Argentina over teaching, research and social engagement activities, and its effects over the perception of institutional influence. Although we assume that academic power has been reduced within the new scenario, we believe that not all academics have responded in the same manner.
... Küresel olarak, yükseköğretim sektörünün yeniden yapılandırılması ve hızla değişen çalışma koşullarının bir kombinasyonu, akademisyenler ve işyerleri arasındaki ilişkiyi derinden etkilemektedir. Akademisyenlerin giderek daha uyarlanabilir olmaları ve kariyer ilerlemelerinden sorumlu olmaları gerekmektedir (Musselin, 2013). ...
... Åkerlind (2008), küresel olarak, yükseköğretim sektörünün yeniden yapılandırılması ve hızla değişen çalışma koşullarının bir kombinasyonu, akademisyenler ve işyerleri arasındaki ilişkiyi derinden etkilemektedir. Akademisyenlerin giderek daha uyarlanabilir olmaları ve kariyer ilerlemelerinden sorumlu olmaları gerekmektedir (Musselin, 2013). ...
Hemşirelik eğitiminin kalitesi hemşirelik eğitimine ve faaliyet gösterilen organizasyon çerçevesine bağlıdır. Eğitim kurumu, ancak uygun şekilde organize edilmişse etkin bir şekilde faaliyet gösterebilir ve uygun yönetim desteğine sahip olur. Öğretim elemanları, öğrenciler organizasyon yapısı ve kaynaklar, hemşirelik eğitimi verilen kurumların önemli bileşenleridir.
Hemşireler en büyük sağlık profesyonelleri grubunu oluşturduklarından ve 24 saat doğrudan hasta bakımını sağladıkları için performansları hasta sonuçlarında önemli bir rol oynamaktadır (Benner ve ark.,2010). Aynı şekilde, akademik hemşire eğitimcileri de toplumumuzun sağlık ihtiyaçlarını karşılamada ülkenin kaliteli hemşirelik işgücüne sahip olmasında önemli bir rol üstlenmektedir. Bu önemli rollün yerine getirilebilmesi için hemşire öğretim elemanlarının yeterli niteliklere sahip olması gerekmektedir (Ortelli, 2012).Bu kitap bölümü; hemşirelikte araştırma görevlilerinin deneyimlerini ortaya koymakta ve kurum oryantasyonlarının önemine dikkat çekmektedir.
... Universities have not been the only entities subject to organizing efforts targeted at constructing actors that should attract research funding. Although entire universities constitute the primary targets of these efforts, governments across Europe have, since the early 2000s, also sought to construct various parts of universities, including milieus, programmes, and laboratories, as actors that are expected to attract funding (Musselin, 2013). Despite differences, Sweden's Linnémiljöer, France's Grand Emprunt and Germany's Exzellenzinitiative had in common that, as government packages to strengthen research, they all encouraged and accepted applications for funding from various parts of universities. ...
... These councils construct competition through calls for applications, to which scientists respond by submitting project proposals. Once calls close, research councils utilize panellists as adjudicators to evaluate proposals and allocate project grants (Musselin, 2013). Adjudicators are central to the functioning of competition, much like the customer is in a market situation. ...
... Like professional careers, academic careers evolve over time (Baruch and Hall 2004;Teichler et al. 2013;Debowski 2022) and are increasingly reconfigured by national governments, higher education reforms, and research evaluation strategies (Musselin 2013). This is evident in countries such as Germany and France, for instance, (Ferlie, Musselin, and Andresani 2008). ...
... Despite the big dataset we acknowledge that our data does not claim that all open academic positions are advertised online and on Euraxess. It is also possible that universities employ external agents and headhunters to recruit academic talent, especially in countries where governments have input into hiring decisions (Musselin 2013;Ferlie, Musselin, and Andresani 2008). This process might look quite different and is subject to future research. ...
Academic careers are complex, diverse, and increasingly competitive. Building on previous research on selection criteria for admission to early research careers, this research expands the analytical focus to examine attributes requested in job ads at each stage of an academic career. Our data, extracted from a European job platform, draws on over 40 different disciplines, 3000 universities, and 60 countries. We developed a taxonomy from the selection criteria data and analysed 40,819 advertisements for all stages combined and posted in 2016-2021. We analysed the most prevalent and salient attributes listed in academic job ads to determine the most important attributes in the five most represented countries and disciplines, and changes by stage and across the academic career lifespan. We find that degree and achievements play a principal role in academic recruitment at each stage of career, mobility is key to progression in senior roles, teaching gains importance towards professoriate, and senior academics need to be equipped with skills and/or experience in fundraising, curriculum, and outreach. The insights inform policy and practice for institutional researcher development, capabilities framework development, human resources, and academic recruitment, and provide guidance for academic career planning and development.
... Keywords such as 'organizational autonomy' or 'deregulation' imply that the state withdraws from detailed control of public organizations in favor of a governance approach based on competition. However, in contrast, different authors have argued that the increased organizational autonomy associated with competitive governance rather intensifies the state control over organizations through the introduction of incentive-based instruments and output indicators (e.g., Bailey et al., 2004;McLendon et al., 2006;Musselin, 2013). Furthermore, the competition in the bureaucratic-political field, in which state actors compete among each other, impacts universities in public systems. ...
Universities are increasingly perceived as strategic organizational actors that position themselves in the competition for reputation, resources, and talent. This study asks whether such positioning within the organizational field can explain variance in university governance structures. We quantitatively explore and explain the distribution of governance structures in German universities based on the actual organizational structures. Using original, hand-coded data on office, election, and decision rules of 80 German state universities managed by the subnational states (Länder), our study contributes to the existing literature in two regards. First, we provide an innovative and comprehensive, as well as a detailed description of German university governance—capturing the full empirical variance. Second, we test the effects of organizational field positions characterized by (1) state legislation, (2) competition, and (3) disciplinary foci. The findings indicate significant effects on the distribution of governance structures by state legislation and unsystematic effects of strategic and disciplinary organizational fields.
... ren und Kennzahlen durch akademische Expert*innen eine Erweiterung und Legitimation von managerialen Verwaltungspraktiken in der deutschen Hochschullandschaft, da durch persönliche Aneignungsprozesse eine objektive in eine subjektive Wirklichkeit übergeht und die Wissenspolitik des NPM-Diskurses von Wissenschaftler*innen (re-) produziert wird (vgl.Musselin 2013). Mit der Plausibilisierungsstrategie -akademische Subjekte als Vehikel zu nutzen -wird auf die Akzeptanz der Bewertung durch Peers im universitären Feld zurückgegriffen, da das "Peer-Review […] [ein] international etablierter Standard in der Bewertung wissenschaftlicher Qualität [ist]. Allerdings sind der Verlässlichkeit von Peer Revie ...
In diesem Open-Access Buch wird die Transformation von traditionellen zu unternehmerischen Hochschulen unter einer neoliberalen Wissens- und Identitätspolitik untersucht. Vor dem Hintergrund einer Ökonomisierung der Gesellschaft geraten deutsche Hochschulen und ihre Angehörigen ab den 1990er Jahren zunehmend unter Druck, sich unternehmerisch-manageriale Denk- und Handlungsweisen anzueignen, um den wissenschaftspolitischen Forderungen nach einer höheren Wettbewerbs- und Leistungsfähigkeit, einer Qualitätssteigerung sowie nach mehr Transparenz und Effizienz Rechnung zu tragen. Mithilfe der Forschungsperspektive der Soziologie des individuellen Widerstands werden die Subjektivierungsweisen von Wissenschaftler*innen mit den Subjektivierungsformen des Managementdiskurses kontrastiert und (Ent-)Subjektivierungsprozesse in der deutschen Hochschullandschaft rekonstruiert.
... Research makes institutions, companies and universities more advanced and empowered [1]. Some universities make research a grand strategy or differentiation strategy, because the core business of higher education is in the TriDarma of Higher Education, namely education and teaching, research and community service. ...
Widely accessible management is the essence of ethical management of scientific research. This article aims to elaborate on the core ethics, planning, implementation and evaluation of research in Indonesian Islamic universities to contribute to global peace. The research method through content analysis is framed in a qualitative descriptive to suit the publication of the book chapter "Ethics in Scientific Research-New Perspectives". The results show that; i) Islamic ethics, scientific paradigm, and technology as the foundation of research management, ii) research ethics planning through the establishment of scientific research applications and technical manuals, iv) implementation of research ethics through the One Taught System (OTS) http://litapdimas.kemenag. go.id, iv) evaluation of research ethics is carried out by reviewers in the fields of proposal material, research process, financing, outcomes, and research committee policies in a balanced manner.
... Los nuevos enfoques de gestión de la gobernanza organizacional de universidades e instituciones científicas públicas y privadas apuntan a un espíritu empresarial del investigador científico (Vostal, 2016;Whitley et al. 2010). Este agente es llamado a buscar e implementar estrategias comunicativas para dar a conocer su producción científica, visibilizar el impacto que esta produce en la sociedad, promocionar su trabajo y permitir la rendición de cuentas ante los financiadores, bien se trate de empresas, entes públicos o la ciudadanía en general (Musselin, 2013). ...
En este capítulo se analizan las principales propuestas teóricas entorno a la comunicación estratégica de la ciencia, en particular del conocimiento generado mediante procesos de investigación científica, en un escenario marcado por la preponderante incursión de medios y herramientas digitales en las dinámicas comunicativas de académicos, científicos e instituciones con sus stakeholders. Al presentar diferentes perspectivas, se busca delimitar el recorrido que conlleva a la redefinición de nuevos modelos que permitan su efectiva comunicación y contribución al fondo común del conocimiento.
... Los nuevos enfoques de gestión de la gobernanza organizacional de universidades e instituciones científicas públicas y privadas apuntan a un espíritu empresarial del investigador científico (Vostal, 2016;Whitley et al. 2010). Este agente es llamado a buscar e implementar estrategias comunicativas para dar a conocer su producción científica, visibilizar el impacto que esta produce en la sociedad, promocionar su trabajo y permitir la rendición de cuentas ante los financiadores, bien se trate de empresas, entes públicos o la ciudadanía en general (Musselin, 2013). ...
Al hablar de estrategia se evoca comúnmente, y por herencia histórica, modelos y conceptos relacionados con el mundo militar y las cuestiones bélicas, donde la transferencia de información, el intercambio de criterios y opiniones, así como la efectiva comunicación resultan, a decir poco, “estratégicas” para sus
objetivos. Sin duda este concepto se ha trasladado a diferentes contextos de nuestra sociedad conforme se ha detectado la necesidad de estructurar de manera coordinada
iniciativas, programas y acciones que involucran y se dirigen a muchos individuos con el propósito de generar un impacto en la sociedad. Políticos, empresas, asociaciones y organizaciones de distinta naturaleza y facción actualmente se ven obligados a pensar, actuar y, sobre todo, comunicar estratégicamente con su entorno y sus stakeholders.
La efectividad de su aplicación práctica, así como la validez científica de su planteamiento teórico y el análisis de sus procesos, causas y efectos, impulsan a la mayor profundización del estudio de la que es considerada en la actualidad una de las herramientas más eficaces y efectivas a disposición de cualquier tipo de organización de un sistema país o región, bien se trate de empresa, instituciones, publicas, ONG o asociaciones de ciudadanos. Si la sociedad es un sistema abierto, y las organizaciones esposan y son parte de este sistema, la planificación estratégica y coordinación de sus acciones/relaciones y la de sus miembros resultan entonces una filosofía de vida, de gestión, de negocio, más que un conjunto de técnicas y herramientas, capaz de generar un impacto profundo en la identidad y la cultura del conjunto social. La digitalización de la comunicación de casi todo el planeta amplía el abanico de perspectivas y posibilidades para pensar y ejecutar a la comunicación estratégica como un componente visceral y transversal del accionar de cualquier entidad organizativa y, por ende, de una sociedad.
... In most organizations, the generation or control of material resources is a key factor in determining organizational power and performance (Campbell et al., 2012;Finkelstein, 1992). In the case of research institutions, highly funded scientists add disproportionate value to the organization (Hackman, 1985;Musselin, 2013). Thus, research funding is an important signal for predicting the impact of scientists, which in turn is a signal of the university's status (Azoulay et al., 2010;Ma et al., 2015). ...
Environmental, health, and safety management systems have become common in research settings to improve laboratory safety through systematic observation and self-regulation. However, there is scant empirical evidence assessing whether these surveillance and inspection systems meet their intended objectives. Using data from safety inspections in research laboratories at a large university, we investigate whether conducting inspections, and recording and reporting findings back to the formally responsible actors (i.e., principal investigator scientists) lead to the improvement of regulatory compliance. Our analyses identify a population of well-funded, high-status, tenured researchers whose non-compliant practices persist. Our interviews with environmental, health, and safety personnel suggest that higher-status actors disengage from the regulatory system, the compliance officers, and the system’s feedback process by their variable recognition and acknowledgment of relevant regulations, attention to the inspection reports, and responses to the feedback concerning repair of the unsafe situation. This study extends previous literature on regulatory compliance by providing evidence for the role of power and status in explaining actor-level non-compliant behavior.
... We also observed that the use of the data does not differ considerably between the two groups of universities, especially in the case of data on teaching and budget that are mostly used in what research should be [15], legitimizes the attention paid to research indicators by the university managers by the directors of the research units. ...
The use of indicators in the management of French universities is becoming more and more prevalent and advanced, at least as far as HSS (humanities and social sciences) are concerned. In the present chapter, we will provide evidence of the general use of indicators and of differences between disciplinary fields. In order to put these results in context, we will first provide some information on the French system and how the recent reforms favored the development of indicators. We will then describe what we have learnt from the qualitative study on the attitudes of the humanities and the sciences to indicators. We will then present some lessons drawn from a quantitative study in which we were able to compare universities mainly specialized in humanities with universities mainly specialized in the sciences. In doing so, we will start out by looking at the use of indicators. This issue has been largely studied in the management sciences, and different authors have suggested different uses. Simons for instance distinguished between diagnostic use of indicators (indicators are used to produce an evaluation of performance) and interactive use of indicators (indicators are used to reveal strengths and weaknesses and to learn about them). Cavalluzzo and Ittner also distinguish between reporting (i.e. providing information about activities), and steering or making decisions (using indicators in order to introduce change). Drawing on these two typologies, we first look at cases where indicators are used to legitimize what has been done and to account for it. Indicators are produced in order to show that a level of performance is achieved, to provide data required by external actors, describing current achievements. We will also consider cases where data are produced in order to compare units or teams and thus to evaluate their activity. Finally, we look at cases where data and indicators are used in order to make decisions or choices and to take action. The legitimation, evaluation, discussion and decision uses of indicators will be studied for data on teaching, on research and on budgets in order to see whether different issues lead to different uses. A second issue addressed by the present chapter deals with disciplinary differences. In France, there are some 'complete universities' (with or without medicine), but also many universities specialized in law and economic sciences, universities with a strong orientation in the NS (natural sciences), and universities that are specialized in the HSS. This allows us to compare the uses of indicators in the humanities and the science‑dominated institutions (HSS institutions and NS institutions) in the following: the former represent approximately 15% of the French universities and the latter 14%.
... As stated by Musselin (2013Musselin ( , p. 1165, "Higher education plays a major role in knowledge production and is expected to remain a major player in the development of knowledge economies. It is at the forefront in producing research which aids in technology transfer and start-up processes. ...
... The introductory chapter of this book illuminates the far-reaching centrality of scholarly peers and their importance in assessing the quality of scientific work. The role of scholarly peers in a range of review processes has become institutionalised and integrated into most of the activities in academia (Musselin, 2013;Forsberg et al., 2021 in this book). An interesting aspect of this development is how the initial idea of peer evaluation and assessment of the quality of scientific work has migrated into a range of other academic contexts. ...
In this chapter, the role of scholarly peers in systematic review is analysed and discussed. Peer evaluation is an essential element of quality assurance of the strictly defined methods of systematic review. The involvement of scholarly peers in the systematic review processes has similarities with traditional peer review processes in academic publishing, but also important differences. Drawing on an analysis of the functions of peers in systematic review relevant questions for all peers are raised regarding what peer work is about and what peers in varied academic contexts including systematic review are ‘gatekeepers’ of? In systematic review, peers are not only making re-judgements of already reviewed and published research but also gatekeeping the given standards, guidelines and procedures of the review method. The analysis lays a groundwork for a debate on peers in different contexts framed by different processes with different purposes, and questions whether a peer review is the same when the premise of the scholarly activity changes.
... However, traditional approaches to management, training, and development will not provide the learning environment that is required for knowledge work (Kessels 2001). In this sense, intergenerational knowledge transfer in the academic environment is a principal matter in the KBE, as treated by some articles in this cluster (Garrick 2001, Fletcher 2007Lefter et al. 2011;Musselin 2013). At the same time, changes in institutional structures are necessary for enabling universities to transform from single-discipline-based schools to multidisciplinary institutes, encouraging academics to develop new knowledge for industry and societal problems (Mosey et al. 2012). ...
This study aims to synthesize and organize existing the knowledge in the knowledge-based economy (KBE) research field. Using the Web of Science Core Collection, this study conducts a bibliometric literature review of 1228 articles published from 1991 to 2020. The results reveal the research evolution and identify some of the field’s most active and influential articles, journals, and authors. Moreover, this analysis enhances the understanding of the research field’s conceptual and intellectual structure based on a global overview of the relevant literature and its authors. The bibliometric analysis also reveals seven thematic clusters: (1) KBE fundamentals, (2) knowledge management, (3) knowledge work, (4) knowledge generation, (5) knowledge environments, (6) new post-capitalism, and (7) KBE reconceptualization. These clusters provide a holistic view of the field and, in so doing, facilitate future research by providing a research map as to guide the advancement of the existing knowledge on this topic. Based on the bibliometric and content analyses, some future research avenues have been proposed to provide clues for this task.
... The stages of the study were a justification for the relevance of the topic; study of the state of the object and subject of research; study of goals and specific objectives of the study; choice of research methodology; study of the history and current state of the problem; description of the research process; collection, selection and study of information; discussion of results; literary presentation of research materials and work design; formation of conclusions about the results of research, their evaluation and implementation in scientific and methodological and educational activities (Musselin, 2013;Joskow & Rose, 1989). ...
The urgency of the problem stated in the article is due to the fact that the status of the subjects of the educational process has changed significantly throughout the history of Ukrainian statehood, reflecting the type of socio-economic organisation of society, a certain level of civilisation, its degree of humanisation and liberalisation. The purpose of the article is to analyse the various historical stages of formation and development of legal regulation of relations in the field of education in Ukraine. According to the purpose, the leading method of this study was historical, which was based on the study of the origin, formation and development of objects in chronological order and which allowed achieving an in-depth understanding of the legal regulation of relations in education. The article proposes the periodisation of legal regulation of relations in the field of education, concludes that the predominance of public or private law influence on education at different times depends on socio-economic and political conditions. Research materials and formulated conclusions can be used in research activities as a basis for further historical and legal research of relations in the field of education.
... Questions about the role of universities in society, however, have been growing (Leten, Landoni & Looy, 2014;Musselin, 2013;Vieira, Bellen & Fialho, 2006;Weber, 2010), leading some of them to seek to better communicate the benefits they generate for their communities and for society in general (Lendel, 2015;Marcovitch, 2019;Martin, 2012;May & Perry, 2006). ...
Resumo Este artigo explora a questão do impacto das universidades sobre as comunidades nas quais estão instaladas. A partir de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, foram identificados e sistematizados três tipos de impacto: socioeconômico; científico-tecnológico e na cultura e imagem da região. Esses três tipos de impacto foram integrados em um modelo conceitual que poderá ser utilizado como base para um modelo prático voltado para avaliar o impacto de uma universidade sobre a região na qual se encontra. Além deles, o artigo também sugere passos para a implantação do modelo de avaliação de impacto. O texto contribui para o avanço dos estudos sobre o papel das universidades e pode ser útil para os gestores universitários na organização de projetos de avaliação de impacto.
... Nonetheless, universities and academics have largely accepted and conformed to the pressures generated by university rankings [9][10][11]. Many studies have shown that academics are perceptive and responsive to the resource requirements (e.g., funding and reputation) set out by states, research funding agencies, and the academic community [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. ...
Academics may actively respond to the expectations of the academic status market, which have largely been shaped by the World University Rankings (WURs). This study empirically examines how academics’ citation patterns have changed in response to the rise of an “evaluation environment” in academia. We regard the WURs to be a macro-level trigger for cementing a bibliometric-based evaluation environment in academia. Our analyses of citation patterns in papers published in two higher education journals explicitly considered three distinct periods: the pre-WURs (1990–2003), the period of WURs implementation (2004–2010), and the period of adaption to WURs (2011–2017). We applied the nonparametric Kaplan–Meier method to compare first-citation speeds of papers published across the three periods. We found that not only has first-citation speed become faster, but first-citation probability has also increased following the emergence of the WURs. Applying Cox proportional hazard models to first-citation probabilities, we identified journal impact factors and third-party funding as factors influencing first-citation probability, while other author- and paper-related factors showed limited effects. We also found that the general effects of different factors on first-citation speeds have changed with the emergence of the WURs. The findings expand our understanding of the citation patterns of academics in the rise of WURs and provide practical grounds for research policy as well as higher education policy.
... De plus, comme nous l'avons montré auparavant(Mignot- Gérard et Musselin, 2005; Barrier et Mignot-Gérard, 2013), il est fréquent que les équipes présidentielles cooptent des universitaires aux échelons intermédiaires de la pyramide universitaire pour mettre en oeuvre des projets. Enfin, depuis la création d'agences nationales d'évaluation et d'allocation des moyens, les présidents d'université s'appuient également sur le jugement par les pairs qui s'exerce au sein de ces instances nationales (par exemple l'AERES) pour imposer des décisions d'allocation des moyens sélectives entre leurs équipes de recherche(Musselin, 2012). Il est notable que ces modes de gouvernement excluent souvent les dirigeants académiques élus (notamment les directeurs d'UFR, mais aussi les membres des instances de décision). ...
Les universités sont en général considérées comme des organisations publiques collégiales. Elles se caractérisent par une action collective entre pairs et par des processus de décision ne pouvant se résumer à un processus hiérarchique. Le présent chapitre examine les différents modèles théoriques de prise de décisions dans les organisations collégiales (modèle collégial, modèle bureaucratique, modèle politique et modèle de la poubelle). Les modalités de cette prise décision sont illustrées par l’étude des répercussions des réformes récentes de la gouvernance des universités françaises sur leur processus de décision.
... The general result of bureaucratization is an increase in control at all levels (individual and institutional), as reflected in the spectacular development of accreditation and evaluation agencies in the 1990s (Schwarz and Westerheijden 2004 for Europe) as well as the development of external reviews (Musselin 2013). Additional administrative personnel and new processes have been needed to produce all the requisite evaluation reports. ...
This review explores the two sides of university governance. From a meso perspective, it deals with universities as organized structures where priorities have to be set, decisions made, budgets allocated, teaching programs developed, and research achieved. This perspective relates to the sociology of organizations, and this review first explores the four founding models that aimed to qualify university governance and how they have helped understanding the evolution of universities in recent years. But at a macro level, university governance deals with universities as a sector and focuses on how they interact with one another, their relationships to the state, and how they are affected by national as well as transnational and global transformations. University governance is studied as a state-steered national system, as a field, or as a competitive arena.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... Challenge: Universities are primarily organised around disciplines and departments Traditionally such units held significant decision making autonomy over their own activities and future direction. However, what has changed significantly is how these departments and faculties are managed and lead (Musselin, 2013White et al, 2011). Universities have centralised decision making that has lessened the automony of units and individual faculty members have with respect to their activities and future directions. ...
El acceso a la información presenta el desafío de organizar el vasto conocimiento disponible. Este estudio realiza un análisis bibliométrico de publicaciones sobre gobernanza universitaria indexadas en Scopus. Se emplearon las palabras clave "Governance" y "University", seleccionando 20 revistas con mayor impacto (SJR). Se analizaron 543 publicaciones para identificar temáticas, autores, teorías y tendencias, utilizando VOSviewer para analizar redes de autoría, palabras clave y colaboraciones entre países. Las revistas más prolíficas fueron Studies in Higher Education y Higher Education, con 201 publicaciones en total. El número de artículos aumentó significativamente desde 2013, siendo 2020 el año con mayor producción. Francisco Ganga-Contreras, de Chile, fue el autor con más publicaciones (27), y Ka Ho Mok, de Hong Kong, el más citado (232 citas). El análisis de coautoría mostró a Ganga-Contreras como figura central entre autores latinoamericanos. En citaciones, Mok, de Boer y Shattock lideraron, con el artículo más citado de Bleiklie y Kogan (193 citas). En términos de colaboración entre países, Estados Unidos se destacó como actor clave, con fuertes vínculos con Europa y Asia. Las palabras clave más frecuentes fueron 'university governance' y 'higher education, resaltando temas como la autonomía universitaria y la gobernanza corporativa.
This chapter looks into the fundamental ideas of accreditation within the sphere of higher education. The chapter presents a full discussion of accreditation requirements, the intricacy of the accrediting systems, and their deep significance in the educational landscape. By exploring the historical development of accreditation, dissecting accreditation standards and criteria, elucidating accreditation processes and procedures, and examining the vital role played by accreditation agencies, this chapter illuminates how accreditation serves as a bedrock for ensuring the quality and legitimacy of higher education institutions. Furthermore, it evaluates the far-reaching impact of accreditation on educational quality, while also addressing the different issues and critiques associated with this crucial component of the educational ecosystem.
رؤية مقترحة لتحقيق الاحتراف الأكاديمى لأعضاء هيئة التدريس جامعة بنها فى ضوء مدخل الجدارة المهنية
This chapter aims to analyze how some recent privatization trends in French Higher Education and Research system are transforming the geographies of universities at different levels. A succession of reforms implemented since mid-2000’s to conform to globalized scripts of international attractivity has fostered dynamics of privatization, in a general context of decreasing recurrent public funding and transformation of the State involvement. Certain trends towards corporatization, marketization and entrepreneurialism have an impact on the landscape and organization of public universities. It calls into question the publicness of the French public university model, and its spatial dimensions. The hierarchization of the university system, the competition through selective public call for funding, and the diversification of the public and private universities’ resources by local involvement challenge some spatial dimensions of what has been considered as the public character of French universities: the uniformity of institutions and their members, the equivalence of study and working conditions, and a balanced distribution of sites over the national territory.
We draw on a general model of the governance of organizations to analyze the dynamics among various actor types given the present ubiquity of evaluations in and around universities. Regulators demand evaluations to assess the return on taxpayers’ money. Market actors, particularly publishers of academic journals, promote different metrics, including citation scores and impact factors. Scrutinizers, such as media companies, professions, auditors, and nongovernmental organizations, create further evaluations by developing university rankings, accounting systems, and investigative reports. There are also initiatives for evaluations inside universities: vice chancellors, department heads, and other academic leaders launch voluntary internal assessments, and researchers assist regulators, market actors, and scrutinizers throughout their evaluations. We conclude that multiple actors are responsible for the current evaluation regime in academia, and that none of them is responsible alone. Rather, it is in the dynamic relationships among actors at different levels that we find the strongest processes driving a seemingly ever-increasing number of evaluations in contemporary academia.
The European Research Council (ERC) receives many high-quality applications, but funds only a few. We analyze how members of ERC review panels assess applications in the first, highly competitive step of evaluations for ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants. Drawing on interviews with ERC panel members in different fields, we show that they adopt a set of evaluation devices that offer pragmatic and standardized ways of evaluating in a time-constrained and highly competitive setting. Through the use of evaluation devices, panel reviewers enact and generate a distinct reviewing expertise that encompasses subject-specific knowledge and knowledge about how to accomplish evaluation within a situated setting. We find that ERC panel reviewers employ four evaluation devices during the first step of ERC reviews: first, reviewers base judgments on applicants’ prior achievements (delegation devices); second, they adjust their evaluations of individual applications to the quality of a given set of applications (calibration devices); third, they combine multiple elements to assess the feasibility of proposals (articulation devices); and finally, they consider the impact of the proposed research on science and society (contribution devices). We show that the current use of these devices generates what we have termed evaluative pragmatism: a mode of reviewing that is shaped by and accommodated to the need to review many high-quality proposals in a short time period with possibly limited expert knowledge. In conclusion, we discuss how the prevalence of evaluative pragmatism in the first step of ERC panel reviews shapes candidate selection, particularly regarding human and epistemic diversity in European research.
Die rasante Entwicklung der Soziologie des Wertens und Bewertens, kurz zusammengefasst von Lamont (2012) als (Be)Werten berücksichtigt mit dem Makro-Mikro-Fokus bei
der Untersuchung von (Be)Wertenspraktiken bisher nicht die Mesoebene der formalen Organisation von (Be)Werten. Zur Schließung dieser Forschungslücke untersuchen wir geleitet von Luhmanns (1983, 2005, 2014) operativem Konstruktivismus der Legitimation durch Verfahren das (Be)Werten in
Akkreditierungsverfahren als organisationsabhängiges Interaktionssystem. Die Ergebnisse des Struk-
turgleichungsmodells (Fragebogenerhebung bei Gutachtern; Rücklauf 45,6%, n=2704) zeigen erstens,
dass (Be)Werten in Gutachtendengruppen bei Akkreditierungsverfahren transsituativ erfolgt und un-
abhängig von Verfahrensart, Akkreditierungsagentur und Hochschultyp ist; zweitens, dass (Be)Wer-
ten in Gutachtendengruppen durch die Verfahrensmäßigkeit organisational eingebunden ist; und drittens, dass die bzw. der Agentur-Referent(in) eine zentrale Scharnierfunktion zwischen Verfahren und (Be)Wertenspraxis erfüllt.
Traditionally, professorial recruitment has been controlled by scholars themselves selecting the best qualified candidates as new member of the academic community according to scientific criteria. Recent studies have, however, documented that recruitment has become increasingly influenced by managers and HR personnel who approach professorial recruitment as a strategic opportunity to satisfy organizational needs following a strategic organizational logic. Thus, today professorial recruitment is shaped by both an academic and an organisational logic. However, the complex interplay between these logics and how this complexity is handled remains unclear. Drawing on interviews and semi-confidential reports from professorial recruitment processes at Norwegian universities, we show that recruitment is a sequential decision-making process and that different logics dominate different phases of the process. Sequential decision-making eases tension, meaning that multiple logics can operate harmoniously if appropriately separated. However, we also document that the sequential problem-solving has altered the power balance between the logics, leading to a moderately increased reliance on organisational logic.
Depuis le milieu des années 2000, la réforme de l’évaluation et du financement de la recherche et la mise en place d’agences dédiées à son gouvernement ont souvent été analysées comme une remise en cause de la place des scientifiques dans le pilotage des politiques de recherche. Cet article montre pour sa part que les transformations contemporaines de la participation des membres de la profession académique aux politiques scientifiques s’enracinent dans une histoire longue, qui débute dès les années 1960. En s’appuyant sur le cas de la biomédecine, il étudie, sur une soixantaine d’années, le triple processus d’expansion, de division du travail et de spécialisation des rôles qui caractérise le gouvernement de la recherche dans ce domaine scientifique. L’analyse socio-historique permet d’expliquer le passage du gouvernement des patrons à celui d’ex-pairs en reliant les évolutions morphologiques du réseau formé par celles et ceux qui gouvernent la science aux réformes successives des politiques scientifiques.
Purpose of the study: The quality of work-life focuses on everyone's attention. This innovative concept led us to look for appropriate ways to put it into practice in academic environments, particularly within the University of Constantine 3 in Algeria's teaching community and to which we are affiliated. Methodology: An online survey has been conducted for the attainment of the purpose. It has collected the lecturer’s satisfaction levels with their framework and working conditions. The researcher, therefore, targeted two groups of respondents to obtain the most varied possible feedbacks. The first group came from a social branch and the second from a technical one. A questionnaire was sent to both groups Main Findings: Results were cross-referenced with the objectives of the 2020-2024 establishment project initiated by the same University. The latter wants to prioritize wellbeing, improve the framework and means available to teachers. These cross-referenced elements have revealed a great concordance between the teachers' expectations and the University’s undertaken project. This shows promising prospects for the realization of high human quality. Applications of the study: The study is a perfect recommendation to emphasize the pre-eminence of High Human Quality HHQ in universities and make its economic, social, and environmental interest prevail for more sustainable, more competitive, and more attractive university spaces... Novelty/Originality of the study: Participating in these ongoing reflections allows us to make our reflections even more engaging. The human capital becomes then the essential element on which this research focuses: It is a question of searching for the probable reasons for its unproductivity and working to make it the instigator of the HHQ Label within the University.
France differs from other European countries for presenting a heterogeneous higher education and research system in which multiple and different institutions are involved. In this system, universities have undergone substantial changes in recent decades, both in their relations with the central government and at the corporate level. The chapter dwells in particular on the transformations that have occurred with regard to: strengthening and centralising the evaluation of academic activities; contracts between the university and the ministry; interventions to promote mergers between universities and aggregation of universities; policies to promote excellence. Performance measurement mechanisms play a central role in each of these transformations even though their establishment does not follow linear trajectories and encounters resistance, especially at the university level.
This open access volume explores peer review in the scientific community and academia. While peer review is as old as modern science itself, recent changes in the evaluation culture of higher education systems have increased the use of peer review, and its purposes, forms and functions have become more diversified. This book put together a comprehensive set of conceptual and empirical contributions on various peer review practices with relevance for the scientific community and higher education institutions worldwide. Consisting of three parts, the editors and contributors examine the history, problems and developments of peer review, as well as the specificities of various peer review practices. In doing so, this book gives an overview on and examine peer review , and asks how it can move forward.
Eva Forsberg is Professor of Education at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research focuses education governance and evaluation, academic work and the interface between educational policy, practice and research.
Lars Geschwind is Professor in Engineering Education Policy and Management at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. His main research interests are higher education policy, institutional governance, academic leadership and academic work.
Sara Levander is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Education at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests are higher education, academic work and faculty evaluation in academic recruitment and promotion.
Wieland Wermke is Associate Professor in Special Education at Stockholm University, Sweden. His research interest focuses on comparative education methodology, and teacher practice at different levels of education.
The recruitment of full professors is critical for the formation of academia. The professorship is critical not only for the prosperity of the HEIs, but especially so for the establishment, development and communication of the discipline. In this chapter, we analyze the initial step of the typecasting process in the recruitment of full professors. We use a few cases to illustrate how the intellectual and social organization of the field of education science(s) is manifested in publicly posted job advertisements. The analysis shows that the field is characterized by heterogeneity and no longer has a basis in one single discipline. New relations between research, teaching, and society can be observed, as well as a narrowing of authority of the professorship but an increase of responsibilities.
Many warnings are issued against the influence of evaluation machineries (such as bibliometric indicators) upon research practices. It is often argued that human judgment can function as a bulwark against constitutive effects of evaluation machineries. Using vignettes (small case narratives) related to the Danish Bibliometric Research Indicator (BRI), this chapter shows that gatekeepers who “know the future” and use this “knowledge” in a preemptive or precautionary way play a key role in the construction of reality which comes out of the BRI. By showing that human judgment sometimes enhances or multiplies the effects of evaluation machineries, this chapter contributes to an understanding of mechanisms which lead to constitutive effects of evaluation systems in research.
Peer review is the most legitimate form of evaluation in academia, and a pillar of many decisions and processes in education, research, and other areas of life in higher education. Its legitimacy is based on the peer having relevant expertise to make judgements about the evaluand, and on its presumably external and disinterested character. However, in this chapter we identify what we call “peer advocacy”: when peer reviewers take on the role of promoter or advocate for the evaluand, or for any of the stakeholders involved. To explore this phenomenon, we analyse four cases in the context of Swedish higher education, based on documented studies and the authors’ own experiences. The cases are analysed to show how peer advocacy can be attributed not only to the peer reviewers themselves, but also to the evaluation model, conditions, and expectations. With a view to preserving the legitimacy and integrity of peer review, recommendations are made both to those who commission evaluations and to peer reviewers.
In this chapter, our interest lies in analysing the different powers in recruitment and, particularly, how they are manifested in the new tenure track model in technical fields in Finland. Traditionally, recruitment in higher education has mostly relied on the bureaucratic application of processes and on academics, representing professional power, evaluating academic merit. The new university legislation, granting universities more autonomy in recruiting, has allowed the development of increasingly strategic recruitment models. The novel tenure track recruitment criteria exceed traditional notions of individual merits to include assessments of the strategic visions of universities and departments. We see the use of the tenure track model as a shift both in the recruitment for identity building related to the technical university’s strategy and as a shift in using more managerial power in recruitment. We use a case study approach where we look at recruitment in a similar field in two different kinds of universities utilising tenure track, and we examine how bureaucratic, managerial and professional powers are manifested in the processes. The comparisons are used to highlight the powers in the tenure track process in a technical university.
In this chapter, we outline the notion of peer review and its relation to the autonomy of the academic profession and the contract between science and society. This is followed by an introduction of some key themes regarding the practices of peer review. Next, we specify some reasons to further explore different practices of peer review. Briefly, the state of the art is presented. Finally, the structure of this volume and its individual contributions are presented.KeywordsPeer reviewScientific communicationEvaluation
While research merits have long been the priority in the recognition of institutions and scholars, teaching is often downplayed, appearing as a practice of less worth in Academia. To counteract this tendency, various systems to upgrade the value of education and to promote teaching excellence have been introduced by higher education institutions on a global scale. In this chapter, we explore the values and beliefs unveiled in the promotion of academics in such a system. We employ empirical data collected from an inquiry into the promotion of distinguished university teachers at a comprehensive university in Sweden. An analysis of reviewers’ judgements and legitimations shows that the intersection between promotion, peer review, and excellent teaching affects not only the peer review process, but also the notion of the distinguished university teacher.
The bold idea of random grant allocation is heatedly discussed as an alternative to peer review. The debate centers on advantages and disadvantages of the established measures to control scientific quality, compared to funding by chance. Recently, studies also investigated acceptance of lotteries in the scientific field. However, they provide only inconclusive findings due to their restricted scope. This paper examines scientists’ views on current funding conditions and the idea of random grant distribution. An online survey of PhD holders reveals that most participants are against pure randomness, although they would try random elements if such procedures were combined with peer review. Moreover, while fewer established and recognized scientists differ in their assessments of peer review and expectancies on lotteries’ impact, they hardly vary in their positions on random elements. Funding organizations therefore should be encouraged to further experiment with, and closely examine, practiced lotteries.
L'enseignement supérieur saoudien connaît des évolutions importantes depuis les années 2000. Elles ont notamment conduit à la création d'une nouvelle institution publique : la Commission nationale d'évaluation et d'accréditation de l'enseignement supérieur. Cette réforme est intervenue après que l'enseignement supérieur saoudien a été défini comme un problème public, à la suite des attentats du 11 septembre 2001. L'action publique élaborée par cette institution s'est construite à partir de l'appropriation de notions et d'outils empruntés < l'extérieur de l'Arabie saoudite, notamment les « acquis de l'apprentissage ». Ce recours à l'international a induit un renforcement de la proximité de l'enseignement supérieur saoudien avec le monde hégémonique (Etats-Unis et Europe). L'analyse de l'introduction de cette réforme dans une université - Alpha Uni - montre l'impact de cette politique publique sur cette organisation : les tensions et les opportunités qui sont créées, la redistribution du pouvoir entre certains acteurs, la recomposition de certaines relations professionnelles. Cette analyse donne un aperçu de l'intrication entre réforme instrumentale, processus de bureaucratisation et modalités de gouvernement. La réforme de l'enseigne ment supérieur saoudien par l'évaluation et l'accréditation apporte un éclairage sur la mise en œuvre du New Public management (NPM) dans un pays où cette doctrine n'a pas été élaborée. Dans un gouvernement où sont mises en œuvre des formes de contrôle politique et moral, la diffusion du NPM, en développant un contrôle formel sur les enseignants par la prolifération des écrits et des procédures, a contribué à desserrer le contrôle politique.
Criteria for assessing candidates are essential elements for the functioning of evaluation practices in academia. This article addresses a relevant issue of academia: the preference for evaluation criteria for tenure and promotion, as reported by female and male academics employed at Spanish universities. We use survey data from 4,460 faculty members, testing whether there are differences in the evaluation criteria that women and men prefer and exploring the factors that account for such preferences. Our focus is on bibliometric evaluation criteria. We propose an analytical model that considers the influence of career and quality factors, values about universalism and the mission of universities, and beliefs about meritocracy in the context of the academic evaluation system. We use a binary logistic model to explain the preference for bibliometric criteria and develop the comparisons by gender using predicted probabilities and marginal effects for estimating the difference. We find that female academics do not have the same preferences as men and report lower preferences for bibliometrics. However, women at the highest research quality levels have similar probabilities than males to prefer bibliometric criteria for evaluation.
Der Band gibt einen Überblick über aktuelle Debatten zu der »unternehmerischen Universität« und den Auswirkungen auf die Arbeitsbedingungen und Karrierechancen des wissenschaftlichen Mittelbaus. Dafür wird die Wandlung der Hochschulen unter den Aspekten des akademischen Kapitalismus, des Bologna-Prozesses und der Hochschulgovernance betrachtet. Es werden Daten zur Lage des wissenschaftlichen Mittelbaus vorgelegt und akademische Personalstrukturkonzepte sowie die Initiative »Für gute Arbeit in der Wissenschaft« vorgestellt. Abschließend werden Mitbestimmungsmöglichkeiten des wissenschaftlichen Mittelbaus in Hochschulen erörtert.
Aus dem Inhalt:
Arbeitswelt Hochschule im Wandel
Kapital und Arbeit im akademischen Shareholder-Kapitalismus. Fatale Allianzen auf dem deutschen Sonderweg zur wissenschaftlichen Exzellenz; Prestigekonkurrenz und akademischer Neofeudalismus; Hochschulgovernance in Deutschland. Historische Entwicklungen und aktuelle Herausforderungen; Prekäre Beschäftigungs- und Studienverhältnisse durch leistungsorientierte Mittelvergabe. Wertewandel durch Kennziffer-Steuerung an deutschen Hochschulen am niedersächsischen Beispiel; Der Bolognaprozess und seine Folgen für die Lehr- und Studienorganisation: Forschen, Lernen und Lehren an der Hochschule
Arbeitsbedingungen an Hochschulen
Zur Arbeitssituation des wissenschaftlichen Mittelbaus in Deutschland; Universitäre Personal- und Karrierestrukturen. Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich; Wissenschaftliche Lebensführung. Zwischen kulturellem Eigensinn und fremdgeführter Lebenspraxis; Der Ausnahme- als Normalzustand. Was bedeutet die Corona-Krise für Wissenschaftsarbeiter:innen?
Demokratie an Hochschulen
Auf dem Weg zum Traumjob Wissenschaft. Perspektiven einer Reform von Karrierewegen und Beschäftigungsbedingungen am Arbeitsplatz Hochschule und Forschung; Den prekären Mittelbau organisieren. Organisierungskontext, Ansatz und Praxis des Netzwerks für Gute Arbeit in der Wissenschaft; Mitbestimmung des wissenschaftlichen Mittelbaus an der gemanagten Hochschule. Geschichte, Problemfelder und Perspektiven demokratischer Beteiligung; Gesundheitsrisiko befristeter Vertrag. Herausforderung an den Arbeitsschutz; Die Politisierung der Wissenschaft. Plädoyer für eine erneuerte Idee der Universität
Mit Beiträgen von:
Jens Ambrasat
Peter-Paul Bänziger
Rüdiger Helm
Nicola Hericks
Per Holderberg
Florian Kappeler
Maria Keil
Andreas Keller
Richard Münch
Peter Müßig
Yoshiro Nakamura
Axel Oberschelp
Tilman Reitz
David Salomon
Christian Seipel
Peter Ullrich
Karin Zimmermann
Universities worldwide have gone through a variety of changes over the last half-century. From the offspring of institutes for learning and teaching in higher education in the late 1960s to the current emphasis on e-learning, methodological and systematic approaches to academic teaching have more and more replaced the belief in the natural teaching abilities of university professors. Educating university students has come to be seen as something that can be taught like physics or languages, and the individual style and aura of the professor gives way to a more sober and rationalized image of academic teachers. Likewise, the societal conception of academic research has undergone profound transformations.
This chapter addresses the impact of changes in higher education on the academic profession in the past, present and possible future. We start by arguing that the growth of the academic profession implied increased differentiation. We then examine the ongoing transformation of working and employment conditions in the academic workplace, which challenges its traditional power structure. Finally we look at the restructuring of the international academic community. One of our conclusions is that demographic changes are likely to play a minor role in the reshaping of the academic profession.
This paper presents an overview of government policies for funding higher education in 11 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In particular, it describes the mechanisms for funding the university sector and the extent to which the grants to universities are oriented on performance. Are universities funded on the basis of what they produce in terms of graduates and research outputs? And what is the share of public funding supplied through research councils? Although in recent decades the attention paid to issues of efficiency, effectiveness and quality has increased, there are only few governments that explicitly link universities' resources to universities' results in the areas of teaching and research. This is illustrated by means of a graph. A number of tentative reasons for the popularity of enrollments-based funding approaches are presented in the final section of the paper.
Organized anarchies are organizations characterized by problematic preferences, unclear technology, and fluid participation. Recent studies of universities, a familiar form of organized anarchy, suggest that such organizations can be viewed for some purposes as collections of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which they might be an answer, and decision makers looking for work. These ideas are translated into an explicit computer simulation model of a garbage can decision process. The general implications of such a model are described in terms of five major measures on the process. Possible applications of the model to more narrow predictions are illustrated by an examination of the model's predictions with respect to the effect of adversity on university decision making.
Over the last two decades the classical model of hierarchical and integrated government has been gradually replaced by a more horizontally structured and fragmented arrangement. A central aspect of this development in many countries has been a change in how regulatory activities are organized. Regulation based on central command and control from the top has been weakened in favor of more regulation by autonomous regulatory agencies. We discuss this development first by looking at concepts like regulation, the Regulatory State, agency, and autonomy, thereby drawing together the different strands of literature about regulation and agencies. Second, we outline various theoretical approaches-rational-economic, organizational-structural, and institutional-used to analyze the development and effects of the new regulatory model and review a number of empirical studies of reform processes and effects. Finally, we discuss how some of the main empirical features may be interpreted using these different approaches.
During the past few decades traditional state-centred governing arrangements have been critiqued and replaced by alternative modes of governance. Higher education is one of the public sectors where such shifts in governance have been seen. As a consequence of the reshuffling of authority and responsibilities across the different levels in Dutch higher education, universities as organizations have become important foci of attention in the system’s coordination. The main question addressed in this article is to what extent we can speak of an organizational transformation of Dutch universities. Based on conceptual ideas from researchers such as Greenwood and Hinings (1996), Ferlie et al. (1996), and Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson (2000), we use a framework that focuses attention on the concepts of the construction of identity, hierarchy and rationality to systematically analyse the various aspects of transformations of professional organizations.
Even if convergences are to be observed among the orientations adopted by higher education policies in European countries, they still are characterized by strong national features. One of the most striking national patterns of each system is its academic labor market, salaries, status, recruitment procedures, workloads, career patterns, promotion rules, being very different from one country to another. Nevertheless, specific national academic labor markets are experiencing a common evolution that can be summed up by the emergence of more regulated internal labor markets. At the same time, the qualification of the academic production (knowledge) as a public good is questioned and academic activities rely less on individual autonomy than before. Two main transformations can be mentioned: the development of individual assessment and incentive devices in universities and the increasing role of higher education institutions in the issues previously in the domain of the academic profession. The paper relies on a limited number of cases and on empirical studies recently carried out in France and Germany. The evolution engaged in the two countries will be reviewed in order to show that they lead, in different ways, to more regulated ‘‘internal labor markets’’. It will also be argued that this is a general trend. In the last section, the implications linked to this evolution and the questions raised, the role of the academic profession, and the transformation of the status of scientific and pedagogical activities will be discussed.
Many countries have introducedevaluations of university research, reflectingglobal demands for greater accountability. Thispaper compares methods of evaluation usedacross twelve countries in Europe and theAsia-Pacific region. On the basis of thiscomparison, and focusing in particular onBritain, we examine the advantages anddisadvantages of performance-based funding incomparison with other approaches to funding.Our analysis suggests that, while initialbenefits may outweigh the costs, over time sucha system seems to produce diminishing returns.This raises important questions about itscontinued use.
Harry de Boer, Jürgen Enders, Uwe Schimank Since the 1980s the mode of governance has changed considerably in the public sector of many countries. "New public management" (NPM) has been he keyword, and the higher education and research sector - we will speak about the university system in the remainder of this article - has been subjected to it, just as the health care system or public transport. "Less state" and "more market": these are the superficial neo-liberal slogans often associated with NPM. In this article, we will take a more differentiated and analytical view on NPM in the university systems of four European countries. We will compare changes in university governance in England, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany over the last 20 years. The analytical tool that we have devised for this work is what we call the "governance equalizer"; it is presented in the first part of this article. The second part is devoted to broad analytical assessments, with the help of the governance equalizer, of what has happened in the four countries. Finally, in the third part we will draw some comparative conclusions.
This article focuses on the steering of higher education systems in the light of political science and public management approaches.
It first recalls that an important part of the existing literature on higher education is focused on public policies in terms
of reforms and decision-making, while the other part is dedicated to discovering and understanding the policy network or the
policy regimes producing these policies. Both perspectives tend to look at higher education as a specific field. By contrast,
the authors state that the transformations experienced in higher education are similar to those experienced by other key public
services, an can be understood as a redefinition of the role of the nation state in the public generally. They therefore suggest
to look at the steering patterns in higher education by investigating the underlying ‘narratives’ of public management reform
and their variation or combination from one European nation state to another. Three main narratives of public services reform
are discussed: the New Public Management (NPM), the Network governance and the Neo-Weberian narrative. For each narrative,
the authors try to predict some ‘signs and symptoms’ that should be observed in higher education. Drawing on this reflection,
the authors finally suggest further research perspectives which could be developed.
Global Science and National Sovereignty: Studies in Historical Sociology of Science provides detailed case studies on how sovereignty has been constructed, reaffirmed, and transformed in the twentieth century by the construction of scientific disciplines, knowledge practices, and research objects. Interrogating the relationship of the sovereign power of the nation state to the scientist's expert knowledge as a legitimating - and sometimes challenging - force in contemporary society, this book provides a staggering range of case studies in its exploration of how different types of science have transformed our understanding of national sovereignty in the last century. From biochemical sciences in Russia, to nuclear science in the US and Europe, from economics in South Asia, to climatology in South America, each chapter demonstrates the role that scientists play in the creation of nation-states and international organizations. With an array of experts and scholars, the essays in Global Science and National Sovereignty: Studies in Historical Sociology of Science offer a complete redefinition of the modern concept of sovereignty and an illuminating reassessment of the role of science in political life.
This volume presents a rich account of the development of accreditation and evaluation in 20 European countries. The authors are leaders in the field and they have cooperated in this effort by writing richly different, often deep and insightful analyses of the situation in their country. The two editors have added a synopsis detailing the main trends, and sketching commonalities as well as contrasts in the developments across Europe. The book shows how accreditation is becoming a main mechanism in the steering of higher education all over Europe. The book is unique in its analysis of forces driving towards the spread of different models of accreditation in the emerging European Higher Education area. Readers will obtain an up-to-date picture of the state of affairs of accreditation in the framework of evaluation activities in Europe. They will gain an understanding of why accreditation and evaluation systems have evolved the way they have, and subsequently, they will obtain more realistic views on potentialities for European comparability and cooperation in this area.
Seit Anfang der 1990er Jahre lässt sich ein Reformtrend in der europäischen Hochschullandschaft beobachten, der die Entstehung eines neuen Dienstleistungssektors initiierte und begleitete: die Einführung von Qualitätssicherung, besser gesagt von Evaluations- und Akkreditierungsmechanismen in die nationalen Hochschulsysteme.
Zusammenfassung
Der Aufsatz behandelt die Frage, warum, auf welche Weise und mit welchen Konsequenzen zentral organisierte Verfahren zur Evaluation der Forschungsleistungen von Fachbereichen - als Teil einer durch New Public Management forcierten Governance durch Peer Review und/oder Kennziffern - nicht einfach Leistungsdifferenzen und eine entsprechende Rangordnung messen bzw. ermitteln, sondern diese Differenzen und die Rangordnung selbst konstruieren, reproduzieren und verfestigen. Es wird zunächst eine Fallstudie zur Evaluation der Wirtschaftswissenschaften in Bayern im Jahre 1999 in zwei Schritten durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Fallstudie werden dann theoretisch im Hinblick auf Ursachen, Begleiterscheinungen und Konsequenzen interpretiert und erklärt. Der wesentliche Befund besteht darin, dass zentral veranstaltete vergleichende Evaluationen von Fachbereichen dazu beitragen, sich selbst reproduzierende Statushierarchien zu erzeugen. Es werden drei Mechanismen der Konstruktion und drei Mechanismen der Reproduktion von Statushierarchien offengelegt.
The first results of the author's underway research on the French and German university systems compare how these universities operate. The basic differences between French and German establishments (in particular, the fact that German professors have a stronger commitment and sense of belonging to their university) can be explained neither by diverging conceptions of higher education, nor by dissimilar formal, internal, structures, nor even by differences in the contents of scientific and teaching activities. However the German universities' role on the «disciplines market » whenever professors are recruited apparently creates the conditions for the development of a moral contract between the professor and his establishment ; and it contributes to the stronger institutionalization of these universities.
In this wide-ranging analysis, Elliot Krause considers the autonomy and leverage of modern professional groups---medicine, law, university teaching, and engineering---in the United States and four European countries over the past three decades. Finding that each group has experienced a decline in its power relative to that of state and capitalist institutions, Krause considers the implicatons for professionals and those they serve.
The effects of subunit power on organizational decision making and the bases of subunit power are examined in a large midwestern state university. It is hypothesized that subunits acquire power to the extent that they provide resources critical to the organization and that power affects resource allocations within organizations in so far as the resource is critical to the subunits and scarce within the organization. Departmental power is found to be most highly correlated with the department's ability to obtain outside grants and contracts, with national prestige and the relative size of the graduate program following closely in importance. Power is used most in the allocation of graduate university fellowships, the most critical and scarce resource, and is unrelated to the allocation of summer faculty fellowships, the least critical and scarce resource.
This paper addresses a puzzle: how to account for changes in the routine behavior of groups, organizations and individuals in Britain? Following a detailed analysis of state-market interdependence and the role of the state in creating the market, an analysis drawn from the thinking of Weber and Polanyi, we suggest adapting Weber's notion of bureaucratic revolution: in what we call the British bureaucratic revolution, the state has played an essential role in social change by creating institutions and rules that are lastingly reorienting actors' behavior. The example of the healthcare field is examined in order to identify the specific mechanisms that have been impacting on behavior within an approximately ten-year period; namely, the introduction of 1) competitive practices (sanction/reward) and 2) auditing and inspection. If this interpretation is valid, then it is reasonable to assume that the effects of this bureaucratic revolution extend beyond Britain.
Against the backdrop of the conflict observed between managers and professionals, two definitions of collegiality emerge: on one hand, a specific organizational form (bottom up) and, on the other, a procedure of bureaucratic management (top down). A study of networks of priests in a Roman Catholic diocese in France is used to explore how those two definitions are related. Questions are raised as to the effects of a too narrow organizational rationalization that uses collegiality only as a top down, bureaucratic, managerial procedure. This always entails the risk of making the work done by experts sterile because it overlooks the first type of collegiality, which is based on the nature of non-routine tasks that members perform together thanks to an endogenous organizational structure of a bottom up type.
More and more reforms in public administrations are being conducted that are based on the principles and instruments of “new public management”. They have set off protest and collective actions by several professional groups in various sectors (health, education, justice, social work, research…), whence questions about the future of professional groups in public services, in particular about their autonomy, which these reforms threaten. The opposition between this new public management and certain professional groups, is not the final explanation to draw from an analysis of this situation. Should these changes be seen as the decline of professional groups and of their autonomy, as a mutation of professional models, an overhaul of professionalism, etc.? These questions, which current events in France and Europe have raised, are a matter for ongoing sociological thought. They are approached empirically, from the field, using varied scales of analysis and research. Forms of tension between this new public management and professional groups are explored.
In France, political authorities’ favorite tool for funding public research is now “project-based financing.” The reasons for this are well-known, but few studies have delved into its impact inside laboratories, on relations at the workplace and the meaning thus given to scientists’ commitment to research. A survey conducted in laboratories of physics in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology shows how its members coped with these new institutional arrangements. Several aspects of the changes introduced in scientists’ practices and in the benchmarks of professional recognition are articulated. Light is thus shed on the concrete and symbolic effects of public authorities’ actions on the formation of scientific professions.
Transnational Higher Education: A New Strategic Issue?
T hroughout the 1990s, transnational higher education, i.e. everything involving international student and teacher mobility, curricular exchanges and inter-institutional educational cooperation, has grown considerably and constitutes one of the most notable forces transforming higher education systems. This article documents the growth and diversification of transnational higher education and analyzes the strategies of various countries and higher education institutions, which can be spurred on by motives as diverse as mutual comprehension, improve quality and competitiveness of their higher education offer, attracting talents, the construction of a service export industry. It argues that the various forms of transnational higher education should continue to grow in the coming decades, whether there is international convergence or diversity of national strategies.
More so than other types of social actors, the professions in modem society have assumed leading roles in the creation and tending of institutions. They are the preeminent institutional agents of our time. Different professions work in various ways: some attempt to create general cultural-cognitive frameworks; others to devise normative prescriptions to guide behavior; and still others to exercise coercive authority. Also, individual professionals assume varying roles within their professional community: some concentrate on devising and testing general principles, others transport these ideas to varying communities; and still others work to apply the principles to individual cases. Professions themselves adhere to an institutional model, but this model has undergone important changes over time.
Professions in the United Kingdom have been periodically marginalized and The Management their growth suspended, but they have shown considerable capacity to adapt. The evolution of 'new model' professions at the end of the last century and the beginning of the present one, which occurred without governmental regulation or patronage, was associated with the development of an effective and independent form of occupational organization for professional groups. This organization combines control of the labour market with informal cooperation and control within employing organizations, and is identified as a form of occupational 'double closure'. It is characteristic for occupations organized in this sort of way to become encapsulated groups or quasi organizations within formal organizations. This argument is developed in the body of the paper through a consideration of the contemporary situation of professionals in manufacturing industry and the public services, where new model professions have established themselves firmly in the present century, and where there are some very similar informal structures. The influence of current social and economic change on these forms of professional organization is then discussed, and it is argued that although they are clearly embattled in some of the areas of their traditional strength, because of their developed organizational attributes, professional groups are likely to persist. Contemporary management of professional services is not without difficulty in these circumstances; and, in areas where professions are well-established, re-organization is taking place round encapsulated professional groups rather than by re-constructing them. Despite some superficial similarities, therefore, the management of services is different between traditional professional services and newer commercial ones. Moreover, if the account of professional self-organization developed here is a reliable guide, in the longer term we may expect it to extend to new services, despite current differences in their organization and forms of managerial control.
Cet article s’inscrit dans les débats sur les transformations du travail des « professionnels » face à l’émergence de nouvelles formes de contrôle et de régulation de leurs activités. En s’appuyant sur une enquête empirique sur la recherche en électronique et micro/nanotechnologies, il s’interroge sur les évolutions du travail des chercheurs académiques face à l’essor des politiques de financement sur projet. L’article montre que, en redéfinissant les conditions de possibilité de l’autonomie professionnelle des chercheurs, l’évolution des régimes de financement contribue à reconfigurer profondément le contenu et l’organisation de leur travail.
This article analyzes Weber's writing on the topic of collegiality in Economy and Society in order to reintegrate the concept of collegiality with his other concepts of legitimate domination, status group closure, bureaucracy, and legal formalism. An ideal-type of collegiate organization is identified, and the consequences of the emergence of collegial social structure of this form in professional contexts are examined. These arguments provide a critique of the predominant understandings of the relationship between professionalization and bureaucratization, in which professional ideology is conceived of as ethical commitment. The article calls for ar restoration of Weberian understandings of the rationalization of modern life as the outcome of a contest for domination between interest groups rather than as the institutionalization of transcendent normative structures.
Organizations are socially constructed phenomena. A crucial task for organizational research is to analyze how and why people construct organizations rather than other social forms. In this paper, it is argued that recent public-sector reforms can be interpreted as attempts at constructing organizations. Public-sector entities that could formerly be described as agents or arenas have been transformed into 'more complete' organizations by installing or reinforcing local identity, hierarchy and rationality. This interpretation helps to explain important aspects of the reform process.
In contrast to the prevailing image that elements in organizations are coupled through dense, tight linkages, it is proposed that elements are often tied together frequently and loosely. Using educational organizations as a case in point, it is argued that the concept of loose coupling incorporates a surprising number of disparate observations about organizations, suggests novel functions, creates stubborn problems for methodologists, and generates intriguing questions for scholars. Sample studies of loose coupling are suggested and research priorities are posed to foster cumulative work with this concept.
The effect of subunit power on resource allocation decisions in one university is examined. Measures of departmental power in a university are found to be significantly related to the proportion of the budget received, even after statistically controlling for such universalistic bases of allocation as work load of the department, national rank, and number of faculty. Subunit power in the organization is also related to the correlation between a subunit's resources--budget and instructional staffs--and work load over time. The more powerful the department, the less the allocated resources are a function of departmental work load and student demand for course offerings. Subunit power is measured by both interviews of department heads and the analysis of archival records of departmental representation on major university committees. Intercorrelations between these measures of subunit power indicate that it is possible to obtain unobtrusive measures of organizational political systems without direct interviewing.
Using data gathered in a series of interviews with management and union officials in over 75 companies between 1964 and 1969, this report analyzes the concept of the internal labor market and describes its relevance for federal manpower policy. The management interviews, which were mostly in personnel, industrial engineering, and operations areas of manufacturing companies, were supplemented by data on the disadvantaged provided by civil rights, poverty, and manpower agencies. The report utilizes the framework established in the study to show that the internal market does not imply inefficiency and may represent an improvement in dealing with structural unemployment. (BH)
A central theme of approaches to new public management is the emulation of the market through state‐induced competition. Basing state funding allocations on comparative performance is one way of setting an incentive for competitive practice amongst universities. Reforms in funding allocation have occurred in Germany at both state and university level. These have concentrated on indicator‐based models, and an analysis of these procedures is the focus of this article. In general, it can be concluded that indicator‐based models are used extensively at state and university level and that their general structure suggests a ‘tool box’ of indicators, commonly used at both levels. In many cases, performance‐based funding only determines a marginal part of total budget allocations and discretionary, incremental funding dominates. Besides being a question of allocation model construction, this has both to do with the continuing need to improve institutions' capability to compete with one another and—directly connected to this—the reluctance by many German states to complete the transition to ‘steering at a distance’. The article concludes with an outlook for the future of models of performance‐based funding in Germany.
The role of semi-public intermediary institutions is underestimated in political research. This paper elaborates the dynamics of the interaction pattern of mission-agencies, promoting and conducting research in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany. The principal-agent-model serves as the organizing theoretical concept. By stressing the role of the third party, usually neglected in the model, it is shown that intermediary agencies in policy-making are drawn into cooperative and almost symbiotic relationships with the recipients of programs. The use of intermediary agencies becomes a double-edged sword for policy-makers. While close relationships with the scientific community improve the acceptance of political research programs, the formulation of research policies becomes subject to compromise and coalition building within funding agencies.
It is often assumed in the literature on public management reforms that radical changes in values, work and organization have occurred or are under way. In this paper our aim is to raise questions about this account. Focusing on three services in the UK, each dominated by organized professions – health care, housing, and social services – significant variations in the effectiveness of reforms are noted. The available research also suggests that these outcomes have been inversely proportional to the efforts expended on introducing new management practices. The most radical changes have been in housing, where, paradoxically, successive UK governments focused least attention. By contrast, in health and social services, management restructuring has been less effective, despite the greater resources devoted to it. This variation is attributed to professional values and institutions, against which reforms were directed, and the extent to which different groups became locked either into strategies of resistance or accommodation.
Synthesizes the empirical literature on organizationalstructuring to answer the question of how organizations structure themselves --how they resolve needed coordination and division of labor. Organizationalstructuring is defined as the sum total of the ways in which an organizationdivides and coordinates its labor into distinct tasks. Further analysis of theresearch literature is neededin order to builda conceptualframework that will fill in the significant gap left by not connecting adescription of structure to its context: how an organization actuallyfunctions. The results of the synthesis are five basic configurations (the SimpleStructure, the Machine Bureaucracy, the Professional Bureaucracy, theDivisionalized Form, and the Adhocracy) that serve as the fundamental elementsof structure in an organization. Five basic parts of the contemporaryorganization (the operating core, the strategic apex, the middle line, thetechnostructure, and the support staff), and five theories of how it functions(i.e., as a system characterized by formal authority, regulated flows, informalcommunication, work constellations, and ad hoc decision processes) aretheorized. Organizations function in complex and varying ways, due to differing flows -including flows of authority, work material, information, and decisionprocesses. These flows depend on the age, size, and environment of theorganization; additionally, technology plays a key role because of itsimportance in structuring the operating core. Finally, design parameters aredescribed - based on the above five basic parts and five theories - that areused as a means of coordination and division of labor in designingorganizational structures, in order to establish stable patterns of behavior.(CJC)
New Public Management (NPM) was the catch phrase of the reforms in the public research and higher education sector for the last decades. The postulated effect of the NPM reforms is increased efficiency in governmental resource spending on the public higher education and research institutions. Though backed by theoretical considerations, this hypothesis has hardly been tested empirically. Using a unique dataset of German research units, this paper deals with the influence that NPM mechanisms have on research performance. Controlling for different university mission, it can be shown that both greater internal hierarchy (especially "strong presidents") as well as greater operative flexibility for the researchers themselves increase research performance. Some of the variables, including the presence of research councils, have a positive effect on research efficiency under some definitions of research output. On the other hand, the introduction of resource accounting systems has a negative impact. All in all, we conclude that the public science sector reforms implemented in most of the Western economies were heading into the right direction by providing greater performance incentives and increasing allocative efficiency in resource spending. Also we provide some ideas of how NPM may be combined in order to construct a sensible governance system. We conclude that the mechanisms should be selected based on the mission of the university.
This paper focuses on two categories of teaching personnel, those inside and outside of the tenure stream, who together provide instruction in North American post-secondary institutions. Segmented labor market thinking is used to examine the extent to which entry to the tenure stream is achieved by those who begin on appointments outside of these internal labor markets. Tabulations provided by Statistics Canada on the fate of seven entering cohorts of full-time instructors at Canadian universites (excluding Quebec) seven years after their initial appointment are analyzed. We find that a consistent and meaningful proportion of each cohort achieves entrance to the tenure stream from an initial external labor market appointment and that such an employment history accounts for almost half of all entrants who actually remain. Thus, despite the hardships of many who have no opportunity to be considered for continuing employment, external labor market appointees are, nonetheless, an important pool for recruitment of permanent faculty. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge that identifies their major role in the provision of post-secondary instruction. Disadvantages accruing to women and young academics and their relationships to external labor markets are discussed, as are the implications of these patterns for the changing career trajectories of those currently entering academe.
Many recent discussions of state science and technology policies in OECD economies since the end of the Second World War have
distinguished a number of distant phases or ‘paradigms’ (Ruivo 1994) in state-science relations, which reflected both different
perceptions of the role of scientific research in industrialised societies and changes in the size and complexity of the public
science systems (see e.g. Brooks 1990; Freeman and Soete 1997: 374-395; Martin 2003).
A perennial challenge for universities and colleges isto keep pace with knowledge change by reconsideringtheir structural and resource commitments to variousknowledge areas. Reflecting upon changes in theacademic landscape of public higher education in theUnited States over the past quarter of a century, theauthor diagnoses a macro-trend whereby the dominantlegitimating idea of public higher education haschanged from higher education as a social institutionto higher education as an industry. Threeinterrelated mechanisms are identified as havingadvanced this process: academic management, academicconsumerism, and academic stratification.This pattern of academic restructuring reflects multiple institutional pressures. Whilepublic universities and colleges have increasinglycome to rely on market discourse and managerialapproaches in order to demonstrate responsiveness toeconomic exigencies, they may end up losing legitimacyas they move away from their historical character,functions, and accumulated heritage as educationalinstitutions. Thus, responsiveness to compellingeconomic pressures that dominate contemporaryorganizational imperatives in an attempt to gainlegitimacy in one dimension may result in loss for another.Wholesale adaptation to market pressures and managerialrationales could thereby subsume thediscourse about the future of colleges anduniversities within a logic of economic rationality ata detriment to the longer-term educational legaciesand democratic interests that have long characterizedAmerican public education.
This article explores the significance of status processes for generating and reproducing hierarchy among producers in a market. It develops a conception of a market as a status order in which each producer's status position circumscribes the producer's actions by providing a unique cost and revenue profile for manufacturing a good of a given level of quality. An examination of pricing behavior among investment banks in the underwriting of corporate securities provides impirical support for this status-based model of market competition. Extension are discussed.