Planning the academic's workload: different approaches to allocating work to university academics

This paper examines workload planning of academic staff in UK university departments. Two case studies are presented and links made to a third, previously published, case. The first case is located in the department of, what was at the time, a polytechnic business school and describes a workload planning system based on teaching contact. The second, more recent, case is situated in an old university and features an approach to planning academic workloads in actual hours. The previously published case focuses on workload planning principles in a business school of an established university. Drawing from these cases discussions centre on a number of major areas. These include workload planning principles, computerised decision support, the institutional contexts, the political dimension of workload planning and the management of change. Some comments are made on further opportunities for research.     

Professional loyalties of university academics: Four ideal types

University academics display a high degree of internal differentiation in terms of their professional interests, diverse roles and divided loyalties. Perceptions from academics at the University of Melbourne regarding these elements are used in this paper to construct a typology which distinguishes four different groups according to their levels of research and institutional commitment. Such typologies serve to highlight not only the essential nature of universities but also the importance of the research culture. Implications of emphasising research are seen to have possible detrimental effects on the functioning of a university and these are addressed.     

Faculty acceptance of a workload survey in one major university

The faculty survey or workload instrument becomes the focal point for both praise and criticism about measuring how faculty spend professional time. While research on the workload instrument often centers on the design and administration of the survey, NCHEMS has questioned how faculty react to such workload analysis, a researchable area seemingly overlooked. In a 1973 report, NCHEMS suggested that faculty reaction or acceptance may be related to the degree of faculty self-governance, experience in completing the survey, the positive use of data for departments, and the expectation that faculty are required to complete the survey for an external governing board. Faculty on one large state-supported midwestern university were asked how they felt about the workload survey administered on campus and whether the NCHEMS' factors were related to their acceptance of the survey. Multivariate analysis and a path model helped to analyze and interpret faculty responses to a questionnaire administered by this author. Results upheld one of the four NCHEMS relationships, namely, that a positive attitude toward a survey is related to perceived value of the data for allocating faculty resources and communication in the department. Several practical and methodological considerations are reviewed to extend research on faculty acceptance.     

Redefinition of the relationships between academics and their university

This paper primarily deals with the relationships between academics and their university in European countries. The aim of this paper is therefore not to produce new results but provide a synthesis of the main trends that can be identified from the literature and then suggest what can be borrowed from sociological theories to highlight the on-going evolutions. The first section of the paper reviews the main results to be drawn from previous research on this issue and focuses on the management of academic careers and the management of academic activities at the university level. The second section suggests alternative interpretative frameworks to be borrowed from sociological theory in order to complete the already existing research and develop new perspectives to explain and interpret these changes in the relationships between academics and their institutions. Four perspectives are successively explored particularly useful here: a sociology of work; a labor market perspective; an analysis in terms of careers and trajectories and finally considerations about the traditional tension between organizations and professions.     

Managing university culture: an analysis of the relationship between institutional culture and management approaches

Universities are complex social organizations with distinctive cultures. On the one hand, academic freedom and autonomy are inviolable values and, on the other hand, changing environmental conditions exert strong influence on the primary functions of universities. This paper analyzes the ability of university cultures to adapt to these changes and describes management approaches that mirror the specific culture of a university. Various methods for assessing culture are described, a typology for interpreting university culture is introduced, and management approaches are analyzed. For administrators as well as researchers this work helps to explain the implications of university culture for management processes. This integration steers university leadership in a new direction combining strategic and symbolic management actions.     

Images of a new sub-culture in the Australian university: Perceptions of non-nurse academics of the discipline of nursing

It is crucial to the development and credibility of the nursing profession that its knowledge base be recognised as legitimate scholarly endeavour by established members of academia. For that reason, this report concerns examination of the attitudes and values of a group of non-nurse academics employed in universities in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the degree to which they view nursing as an epistemic entity. Perceptions are considered within the dual contexts of recent major changes in nursing education and in academia. Naturalistic Inquiry, informed by a hermeneutic attitude, is employed as a heuristic to examine the sub-culture of nursing within the broad culture of academia. Analysis of extensive interview data provided by the contemplation of study participants provides emergent themes. Several metaphors are chosen to explicate the findings that nursing is largely perceived to be nebulous, atheoretical, and subservient to the medical profession. Implications are discussed and recommendations are made with the view to encourage modernisation of the university through improving internal communication and challenging traditional models of operations within the tertiary sector.     

Branding higher education: an exploration of the role of internal branding on middle management in a university rebrand

Tertiary Education and Management - Although research on branding in higher education has grown, a specific focus on internal branding in this sector is still scarce. Brand support by mid-level...     

Creativity and performativity: Counterpoints in British and Australian education

This article explores the complex interplay of power between performativity and creativity agendas—a mutual tension that resides in British and Australian education. Accountability constraints and conflicting policy debates are problematised against the wider imperatives of similar government agendas. This ‘counterpoint’ of freedom and control has significant implications for pedagogy and, through accommodating performativity, teacher agency and professionalism are under threat. The authors propose a ‘rebalancing’ where pedagogy transforms from a site of struggle for control, to one where a higher trust is placed in teacher professionalism. The idea of ‘rebalancing pedagogy’ offers a way for teachers to navigate and be supported through the opposing demands of performativity and creativity. It acknowledges the importance of teacher agency and where teaching is judged against the characteristics of a systemic approach that facilitates the building of creative learning communities capable of supporting any curricula or content‐focused programmes in and beyond schools.     

The influence of market force culture on British and German academics

Higher education (HE) in Germany and the United Kingdom is being continually subjected to the discipline of market forces. An empirical study was conducted using questionnaires with academic staff in 12 institutions in each country to discover the extent to which their values and attitudes were converging and were in keeping with what might be expected within a marketized system. Academics in both countries felt that HE was seriously under‐resourced, yet they were not strongly in favour of increased executive power for their leaders; they believed that the good functioning of their higher education institution (HEI) was impeded by excessive state‐sponsored interference, but did not agree that their HEIs should act more commercially and entrepreneurially. The British especially were opposed to greater privatization of the system. Attitudes in keeping with a market force philosophy seem to be superficially embedded in the value system of these academics, and though the British were more stressed, more hard‐worked and suffered from a status‐deficit in comparison with the Germans, there was no statistical difference between the two groups on a summative judgement of professional satisfaction. There appears to be an underlying professional ethos that enables the academics to remain positive despite the turbulence that market forces may cause, though their dedication may also make them vulnerable to exploitation.     

Evolution of quality culture in an HEI: critical insights from university staff in Bangladesh

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - This paper evaluates experiences of quality culture as actualized by academic and administrative leaders in a nonprofit, private Bangladeshi...     

Access and targeting: an exploration of a contradiction

To attempt to understand Access to Higher Education provision as an educational social movement is to become caught up in a dialectial dilemma. Is Access allied to the older radical traditions of adult education through a collective emancipatory role or is its role to serve the educational needs of the individual student and/or the economic needs of society? Research carried out at the University of Exeter has shown that while there is a strong rhetoric within the Access movement that supports the more emancipatory approach, practitioners contradict this when questioned about the prime purpose of Access. Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony can be used to address this contradiction by examining how sub‐cultures, such as the group of Access practitioners, create a mosaic of meaning or a reality map which is drawn from the conflicting ideologies which surround them.     

Employability,managerialism, and performativity in higher education: a relational perspective

This article combines Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and cultural capital with Lyotard’s account of performativity to construct a three-tiered framework in order to explore how managerialism has affected the academic habitus. Specifically, this article examines the adoption of group assignments as a means of developing teamwork skills in one Australian case study organisation. On a macrolevel, by viewing the employability imperative as one manifestation of managerialism in the higher education field, we argue that managerialism has created a performative culture in the case study organisation evidenced by an increasing emphasis on performance indicators. On a mesolevel, by examining how academics use group assessments to respond to demands made by governments and employers for ‘employable graduates’, we highlight the continuity of academic habitus. Finally, on a microlevel by drawing on alumni reflections regarding their experiences of group assessments at university, we are able to shed some light on their evaluation of this pedagogical tool.     

大学教师:大学文化的守护者

大学教师是大学文化传承与发展的守护者。大学教师不同的大学精神选择对大学文化的守护和传承产生不同的影响和作用,以知识为志业的知识人抉择守护着大学文化,以政治为志业的政治人抉择偏离了大学文化,徘徊于知识人与政治人之间的冲突性角色知觉到了大学的本真文化精神。为守护大学文化,大学教师应该回归本位,实现知识人与政治人角色的整合性认同。     

浅谈企业文化的改造

企业文化是企业生存、发展的重要组成部份,是企业的灵魂。要建设优秀的企业文化,就要做好企业文化的改造,而在改造企业文化过程中则要坚持实事求是、从上而下、抓住机遇、机制支持、要素匹配、专家辅助、累积成果、积极谨慎等原则。     

Functions of an institutional culture of access: Student choices and transitions to university in South Africa

International Review of Education - When students choose their university, this is determined by academic entry requirements, acceptance into a programme, sufficient funding and tips from their...     

Teaching portfolios and university culture

The teaching portfolio has been proposed as a useful management tool for monitoring and improving teaching. It is one of the accountability mechanisms that universities have introduced in a market‐oriented environment. However, there has been considerable resistance to the compulsory introduction of teaching portfolios from a wide range of teaching staff. This paper links research on staff practice with research on management practices and considers the impact that teaching portfolios might make on the university culture. Our analysis shows that although the development of an initial teaching portfolio within a mentoring relationship has value, the mandatory use of the multipurpose teaching portfolio described by Seldin is likely to impact adversely on the effectiveness of the organization in which its use is mandated.