European Universities as Complete Organizations? Understanding Identity, Hierarchy and Rationality in Public Organizations

Abstract

This article investigates the form of European universities to determine the extent to which they resemble the characteristics of complete organizations and whether the forms are associated with modernization policy pressure, national institutional frames and organizational characteristics. An original data set of twenty-six universities from eight countries was used. Specialist universities have a stronger identity, whereas the level of hierarchy and rationality is clearly associated with the intensity of modernization policies. At the same time, evidence suggests limitations for universities to become complete, as mechanisms allowing the development of some dimensions seemingly constrain the capability to develop others.

Universitets- og høyskolepedagogikk i lys avhistoriske og internasjonale utviklingstrekk

“…Internasjonalt kan man identifisere en pågående diskusjon om hva slags universiteter og høyskoler samfunnet har behov for, og om de reformer og endringer man ser finne sted i sektoren er positive eller negative i et slikt perspektiv (Henkel 2000;Delanty 2001;Slaughter & Rhoades 2004;Greenberg 2008;Frølich et al 2013;Seeber et al 2015). Dette er en diskusjon som har stor aktualitet for UH-peden og som ikke minst har stor relevans for spørsmålet om hva og hvem UH-peden er til for.…”

“…Internasjonalt har dette betydd at universiteter og høyskoler i mange land har fått økt selvstyre for å håndtere disse forventningene, selv om de også har blitt møtt med sterkere krav til rapportering om hva de gjør og de resultater de oppnår (Stensaker & Harvey 2010). En lang rekke studier har vist at mange laeresteder i flere OECD-land har blitt mer profesjonelle organisasjoner preget av formelle rutiner og spesialisert kompetanse (Shattock 2014;Seeber et al 2015), har fått en mer effektiv og strømlinjeformet administrasjon, en ledelse som utviser større iver og interesse for strategisk utvikling (Stensaker & Vabø 2013) og som har fått nye styringsverktøy (evalueringer, resultatindikatorer) til å implementere de ambisjoner de måtte ha (Slaughther & Rhoades 2004). Disse endringene har hatt stor betydning for den universitetspedagogiske virksomheten.…”

The implications of linguistic diversity for the ERP implementation practices in multilingual contexts

“…This study tends to bridge this gap in literature by investigating the implications of language differences on the employees' familiarity with ERP systems and the effective communication between ERP teams and employees in other departments in the Saudi universities which can be described as complex organizations based on the nature of forms, structures, roles, functions, administration, management processes, and products of higher education institutions (Bolman and Deal, 2017;Harper and Leicht, 2015;Seeber et al, 2015).…”

Professional higher education institutions as organizational actors

“…More recently, one can identify that the traditional pact between higher education and society has been challenged (Gornitzka, Maassen, Olsen, & Stensaker, 2007), and initiatives for change in the sector appear to be speeding up. Recent attempts to transform universities into 'complete' organizations are closely linked to the modernization processes that emphasize autonomy, accountability and competition (Seeber et al, 2015). The concept of organizational actorhood should be seen in the light of these wider changes, where higher education institutions are expected to become more complete, coherent, rational and modern organizations.…”

“…Rather than academic authority being part of the slowly developing organizational sagas that are embedded in the fabric of the organization (Clark, 1972), focus on the definition of goals represents a more managerial and rationalized view of organizational development, where emphasizing quantitative and qualitative indicators, measurement and actual goal attainment gains importance. While rationalization and measurement are often associated with hierarchy (Seeber et al, 2015), quantifiable goals can also reduce leadership discretion, in particular when such goals are set externally (Bleiklie et al, 2015).…”