| 1. |
- Ryttberg, Malin, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Organising Professional Support Staff at Higher Education Institutions: A Multidimensional, Continuous Balancing Act
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Centralisation is a recurrent theme when the organisational structure of contemporary higher education institutions is on the agenda. This may be in large part because of the unsolicited effects of decentralised organisational structures. The aim of this study is to explore how professional support staff at higher education institutions perceive the organisational structure of support and the rationales for this organising. An analytical framework based on the dichotomy of centralisation/decentralisation was applied in 18 interviews with professional support staff at one Dutch university and one Norwegian university. A common theme in the findings was the consciousness among the professional support staff that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the organising of efficient and effective support. The pursuit of centralisation and standardisation was clearly on their agenda, but their focus was on the elements of a well-functioning support structure, not the specific spatial solution. The study also highlights the objection to the trend towards centralisation that some organisational changes may be too short sighted to be sustainable. From the perspective of the professional support staff, it can be said that organisational structure is a continuous balancing act based on dialogue between the academic and support staff.
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| 2. |
- Ryttberg, Malin, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Organising professional support staff at higher education institutions: a multidimensional, continuous balancing act
- 2021
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Ingår i: Tertiary Education and Management. - : Springer Nature. - 1358-3883 .- 1573-1936. ; 27:1, s. 47-58
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Centralisation is a recurrent theme when the organisational structure of contemporaryhigher education institutions is on the agenda. This may be in large part because of theunsolicited effects of decentralised organisational structures. The aim of this study is toexplore how professional support staff at higher education institutions perceive theorganisational structure of support and the rationales for this organising. An analyticalframework based on the dichotomy of centralisation/decentralisation was applied in 18interviews with professional support staff at one Dutch university and one Norwegianuniversity. A common theme in the findings was the consciousness among the professional support staff that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the organising of efficientand effective support. The issue of centralisation and standardisation was clearly on theagenda, but their focus was on the elements of a well-functioning support structure, notthe specific organisational solution. The study also highlights the objection to the trendtowards centralisation, and that some organisational changes may be too short sighted tobe sustainable. From the perspective of the professional support staff, it can be concludedthat organisational structure is a continuous balancing act based on dialogue between theacademic and support staff.
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| 3. |
- Ryttberg, Malin, 1970-
(författare)
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Professional Support Staff at Higher Education Institutions : Navigating Ambiguities in Hybrid Roles
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on how professional support staff within the support services at higher education institutions (HEIs) perceive their roles. A combination of the broader expectations on HEIs from the surrounding society, changed ideals for governance and research indicating changed profiles for the roles of these support staff has motivated this research. Staff at HEIs have commonly been described by dividing them into those with academic positions and those with positions designated non-academic in much of the literature. This thesis focuses on a category of support staff who do not describe themselves as administrators, but who do not have academic positions either. Embedded in the roles of this category of staff are tensions in relation to academics. What do these professional support staff do, how are they organised and what does the division of labour in the HEIs look like? The overarching aim of this thesis is to explore how the professional support staff understand their roles with a particular emphasis on their working relationship with academics. The opening chapter provides an overview of the discussion of the roles of professional support staff in previous research. This includes an outline of structural and national features, as well as discursive aspects related to their roles. In addition, the implications of the changing roles of the professional support in relation to academics are discussed. Related to these changes is an inherent increase in their level of expertise in which a high level of discretion is a central feature. This is discussed under the umbrella of theories about professionalism. A complementary theoretical approach is the concept of a third space, which is developed as a tool to explore and understand the roles of both professional support staff and academics, as well as their working relationship. The thesis includes four papers based on interviews with three different professional support staff categories at Swedish HEIs. Their perceptions of their roles have been mapped and analysed from different perspectives. These three categories represent professional support staff with roles related to strategic work at their HEIs. A fifth paper is based on interviews conducted in Norway and the Netherlands, with a focus on professional support staff with management roles and their perceptions of how well-functioning support should be organised. One finding that runs through all five papers is that these professional support staff perceive themselves as back office support staff. They are clear 2 about having support roles and not being decision makers. Another finding is that they describe themselves as having great discretion both in the design of their roles and in the way they organise their work. On the one hand, this discretion is described as a central precondition for the attractiveness of the role. On the other hand, it may also imply some vulnerability concerning their competences. The combination of their closeness to the university leadership team, the tasks related to the HEIs’ strategic work and the fact that they themselves have designed their roles implies that these roles could be described as examples of hybrid forms of professionalism. This is an expression of the coming together of different and potentially contradictory sets of principles, values and logics in the structuring of work in one role. These professional support staff have to navigate between the logics of the governance ideals of the university leadership team and their own claims to expertise. This navigation is played out in a field dominated by the norms and values of academics.
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| 4. |
- Schneijderberg, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Academics’ Societal Engagement in the Humanities and Social Sciences: : A Generational Perspective from Argentina, Germany, Portugal, and Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Higher Education Policy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0952-8733 .- 1740-3863. ; 34, s. 42-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Political discourse and policy reforms worldwide have highlighted the importance of promoting the knowledge economy by stimulating academics’ societal engagement (ASE). Such narratives partly aim at influencing academics’ attitudes and behaviors. Earlier work that has investigated such influence has tended to overlook the development in humanities and social science, and focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. This paper contributes to filling this gap. Based on the assumption that academics’ views are, to a significant extent, shaped during their early years in academia, we investigate whether there are generational differences in attitudes to ASE. Four different higher education systems, including both Napoleonic and Humboldtian models, are investigated: Germany, Sweden, Portugal, and Argentina. Our analysis of the results of the international Academic Profession in the Knowledge Society survey reveals marked country-level differences in the way academics perceive the importance of ASE activities. Overall, there is no strong evidence that the current generation of HSS academics has very different attitudes to ASE than previous generations. We do, however, find indications that post-2006 academics are more likely to consider ASE activities from an instrumental perspective.
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| 5. |
- Almlöv, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Trust within capacity building for the development of supervision training
- 2021. - 1
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Ingår i: The Future of Doctoral Research. - : Routledge. ; , s. 79-91
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter analyses ‘trust’ within a collaboration between Sweden and Mozambique on doctoral supervision training at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.The case study uses Simmel’s concept of trust as a lens for analysis. Drawing on individual semi-structured interviews with project members from Sweden and Mozambique, in their different roles and responsibilities, we identify a continuum of experiences from distrust and doubt to trust. This case study provides a more nuanced understanding of trust conceptually within a capacity-building context. Furthermore, it presents how trust is built in the development of doctoral supervision training for the future – through faith.
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| 6. |
- Antonowicz, Dominik, et al.
(författare)
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The Footballisation of European Higher Education: : Different Fields, Similar Games?
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Marketisation of Higher Education.. - Cham : Palgrave Macmillan. ; , s. 397-422
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter investigates how recent developments in European higher education resemble the current state of the most popular sport on earth: football. It begins by showing how both football and higher education, as organisational fields, have emerged as deeply embedded entities within national and/or local contexts, with only weak links to the transnational environment. It continues, however, by further showing that with global marketisation processes gradually coming to the fore, both fields have become subject to convergence pressures, including de-contextualisation as a result of the rise of global markets.
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| 7. |
- Avramović, Aleksandar, et al.
(författare)
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Gender and the Marketisation of Higher Education: : A Nordic Tale
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Marketisation of Higher Education. - Cham : Palgrave Macmillan. ; , s. 267-292
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter investigates the gender differences in managerial practices across three Nordic countries: Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It analyses two aspects: (1) perceptions regarding competition, and (2) motivations for undertaking academic work. The chapter is based on an empirical dataset which was compiled from national surveys (conducted in 2015 and 2016) of senior academic staff (professors, associate professors, and academic leaders), which aimed to assess the perceived effects of recent government-led reforms which focused on performance management and managerial practices.
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| 8. |
- Barman, Linda, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Digital Transformations in Nordic Higher Education : A Step Towards Unpacking a Multifaceted and Emergent Phenomenon
- 2023. - 1
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Ingår i: Digital Transformations in Nordic Higher Education. - Cham : Springer Nature. ; , s. 3-26
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digitalisation-related challenges and opportunities in higher education are not new, but awareness of their transformative potential has increased, with global trends including massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other forms of technology-enhanced open education. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of flexible forms of teaching and learning, and, as a result, has intensified the adoption of technological platforms and solutions across the board. In this introductory chapter to the volume, the editors provide a state of the art on the topic of digital transformations, including clarifications on concepts and definitions, alongside the articulation of a systemic framework that considers the complexity, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon under investigation.
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| 9. |
- Barman, Linda, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Possible Scenarios for the Future of Digital Transformations in Higher Education
- 2023. - 1
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Ingår i: Digital Transformations in Nordic Higher Education. - Cham : Springer Nature. ; , s. 269-274
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A broader systemic framework pertaining to multiple manifestations at various scales and involving an increasing number of internal and external stakeholders was introduced in the first chapter of the volume, and further explored empirically in the following chapters. In this final chapter, the editors further discuss the complexity, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon under investigation, and add perspectives on how to expand future debates on digital transformations in higher education.
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| 10. |
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