Universities as Organisations

Jon File

The university as a mini-city

The university as shopping mall?

“Sometimes thought of as a series

of individual faculty entrepreneurs

held together by a common

grievance over parking”

Clark Kerr 1963: 20

The University

“About eighty-five institutions in the western world established

by 1520 still exist in recognisable forms, with similar functions

and unbroken histories, including the Catholic church, the

parliaments of the Isle of Man, of Iceland and of Great Britain,

several Swiss cantons, and seventy universities. Kings that rule,

feudal lords with vassals, guilds with monopolies are gone. These

seventy universities, however, are still in the same locations with

some of the same buildings, with professors and students doing

much the same things, and with governance carried on in much

the same ways.”Clark Kerr: 1982: 152

University management -University management -a 700 year old problem?a 700 year old problem?

“ “ Whatever the differences in scale and Whatever the differences in scale and technology, there is a hard core of perennial technology, there is a hard core of perennial problems which have taxed the minds and problems which have taxed the minds and ingenuity of university legislators from the ingenuity of university legislators from the thirteenth century to the present day. Matters of thirteenth century to the present day. Matters of organisational form and democratic procedures organisational form and democratic procedures … are just some of the issues which reveal the … are just some of the issues which reveal the strands of continuity linking the medievalstrands of continuity linking the medievalstudium generale and the universities of the studium generale and the universities of the modern world.”modern world.”

Cobban, 1975Cobban, 1975

NATIONAL

INSTITUTIONAL

BASE UNITS

Levels of authority

USA UK

Differences across systems

CE

A new convergence?

Key characteristics ofUniversities as organisations

• Goal ambiguity

• Knowledge provides building

blocks

• Multiple clients/stakeholders

• Problematic technology

• High professionalism

• Fragmented - loosely coupled

Predictable and perverse

black boxes(Birnbaum 1988, parrot by CHEPS)

BOX # 1

The predictable black box

BOX # 2

Hmm, looks the sameas the first. Here I goaround again!

The perverse

black box

(offset) rotor

Connectorbar

gear

black boxmoderator

large wheelrubber band

plasticpiping

Are universities different?

• HEIs lack a single, clearly definable production function • HEIs demonstrate low levels of internal integration • The commitment to discipline and profession is higher than

commitment to the institution• HEI managers ability to hire and fire is relatively low• HEI managers are accountable to more stakeholders than

their counterparts in business. • More and more HEIs have to be managed as hybrid

organisations (public & private elements)• More businesses are knowledge based

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them

Tensions between the patients and the nurses

A necessary evil

Them and us

Up and down the hill

Senate House

Professional Bureaucracy?

“COUNCIL”supervisory

EXECUTIVEstronger

ADMINISTRATIONprofessionalising

FACULTIESSCHOOLS

Teaching, research& contracts

The five major sites ofThe five major sites ofinternal institutional authorityinternal institutional authority

“SENATE”academic policy

Four Models of University Decision Making

• The Bureaucratic Model

• The Collegial Model

• The Political Model

• The Organised Anarchy Model

The Bureaucratic Model

• Clear and consistent goals

• High level of consensus

• Well understood technology

• Adequate knowledge base for decisions on

means

• “deliberate calculation and purposive choice”

The Collegial Model

• Organisations respond to internal and external

demands

• Informal organisation has unplanned and

emergent properties

• integration between parts of system via shared

culture

• “The community of scholars”

The Political Model

• Diversity of interests

• Lack of shared goals

• Differential access to power and resources

• Problem solving based on bargaining and

compromise

The Anarchistic Model

• Organised Anarchy - ill defined goals, unclear

technology, fluid participation, ambiguous history

• Garbage can metaphor for organisational choice -

problems, solutions, participants and

opportunities

• Loosely coupled organisations - elements weakly

connected to each other

Your university?

• Bureaucratic

• Collegial

• Political

• Anarchical

Your unit?

• Bureaucratic

• Collegial

• Political

• Anarchical

“ “ The leader of a bureaucracy makes rational The leader of a bureaucracy makes rational decisions, the leader of a community of equals decisions, the leader of a community of equals searches for common ground and consensus, searches for common ground and consensus, the leader of a political system uses power to the leader of a political system uses power to craft coalitions and compromises, and the craft coalitions and compromises, and the leader of a cultural system manipulates symbols leader of a cultural system manipulates symbols to influence the way the organisation creates to influence the way the organisation creates meaning.meaning.

A good academic leader is one who can do all A good academic leader is one who can do all these things, even when doing one of them is these things, even when doing one of them is inconsistent with doing another.”inconsistent with doing another.”

Birnbaum (1998) on leadership and models of university decision making

American universities constitute oneof the largest industries in the nation but are among the least businesslike andwell managed of all organizations

George Keller, 1983:Management revolution in HE.

HEIs suffer from demand overload and a lack of capacity (including management capacity) to deal with these growingdemands

Bob Clark, 1998:Creating entrepreneurial universities

American colleges and universities are poorly run but highly effective

Bob Birnbaum, 1989: How colleges work

Speculation 1: the success of the system has come about in spite of bad management, and if management could be improved the system could be made even more effective

Speculation 2: in universities and colleges management and performance are not closely related. Management improvements will not affect performance too much

Speculation 3: Colleges and universities are successful because they are poorly managed. Attempts to improve management might diminish organizational effectiveness