Reaching for different ends through tenure track—institutional logics in university career systems

Abstract

In this study, we used the institutional logics perspective to identify the logics underpinning the tenure track career system, how the logics manifest themselves in recruitment and performance management and how academic leaders and academics negotiate between the logics. The study contributes to research on governance dynamics in academia and to universities’ organisational transformation in the context of strategic actorhood. The data comprised interviews with academic leaders (vice-rectors, deans, department heads) and academics in tenure track positions at two Finnish universities. Empirically, the study explores two key areas of human resource management: recruitment and performance management. The findings show that in the area of recruitment, the leaders at the highest hierarchical levels emphasised organisational visions and priorities. On the other hand, academic leaders constantly negotiated on the weight given to the managerial and the professional logics. The managerial logic also stands out in the area of performance management, but in daily life, it is mediated by the professional and the market logics. Theoretically, the findings underscore the complex interplay between different, yet coexisting institutional logics, as well as the agentic role of academic leaders and academics in addressing the tensions that unfold.

Recruitment of academic staff: An institutional logics perspective

“…This study does not question the cases of inbreeding that have surfaced or that there is a lack of mobility. However, this study has shown that academic recruitment is a tangle of different practices and ideals that sometimes pull in different directions, and recruitment practices include a constant negotiation between different logics (as also shown by Pietilä & Pinheiro, 2020). Heads of departments who are placed in the middle note that their recruitment practices are the result of several considerations, balancing different ideals.…”

“…Academic recruitment practices make up an interesting case because of the high level of importance and strategic potential ascribed to them and because they offer us an interesting mix of logics and ways of thinking (Pietilä & Pinheiro, 2020). The seven logics of family, community, religion, state, market, profession and corporation formulated by Thornton et al (2012) were used as a starting point to explore the tensions in recruitment practices at universities in Sweden.…”

A Value Co-Creation Perspective on Faculty Staffing

“…Future research could also investigate the position of Aalto Mikkeli within the academic labor markets in Finland (e.g. Pietilä , 2019;Pietilä & Pinheiro, 2021) and the other Nordic countries .…”

Challenging career models in higher education: the influence of internal career scripts and the rise of the “concertina” career

“…& The responses of individuals, particularly early career staff, to less certain conditions and the increasing pressures of academic life (Archer, 2008;Gornall et al, 2014;Jones et al, 2020;Marini, 2019;McAlpine, 2010;McAlpine & Amundsen, 2018;Ortlieb & Weiss, 2018;Rosewell & Ashwin, 2019;Ylijoki and Henriksson, 2017;Ylijoki & Ursin, 2013;Yudkevich et al, 2015). & The impact of career structures at national levels, including the use of tenure track arrangements and market mechanisms such as the UK Research Excellence Framework and the knowledge economy (Coates & Goedegebuure, 2010;Enders & de Weert, 2009;Musselin, 2013;Pietilä, 2017;Pietilä & Pinheiro, 2020;Strike & Taylor, 2009;Watermeyer & Tomlinson, 2021). & Career typologies focusing on the individual, including the concept of the kaleidoscope career (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2006), suggesting that the individual has multiple considerations when making decisions about their career (Baruch, 2013;Sullivan & Baruch, 2009), which can involve "intersecting identities" (professional, personal and relational) (Pifer & Baker, 2016: 192).…”