Ecer 2012 kallenberg

Inﬂuence of Functional Related Variables on
the roles of Academic Middle Managers
Ton Kallenberg
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam - The Netherlands

Paper Presentation ECER 2012
The Need for Educational Research to Champion
Freedom, Education and Development for All
Cadiz - Espania - September 18-21, 2012

1. Introduction
1. Introduction to the research
2. the Academic Middle Manager
3. Research Methods and
Results
4. Conclusions
5. Tips, Questions, Dialogue

Higher Education is dynamic
and competitive...
changes on: changes in:
regional level cooperation with ﬁrms, schools and
demographics (aging, cultural variety)
national level legislation (step down government);
performance-oriented ﬁnancing; Quality
assurance (not only used to improve but
also for accountability and accreditation)
international level system change of European HE - BaMa
system
increasing not only in region but also European and
competition global competitiveness
* for the student
* for the they expect excellence, high ranking,
researcher image, extras
* for the teacher

result = expansion, mergers, formation of (thematic) consortia and other forms of
(administrative) cooperation between HE-institutions.

This gives an impulse for
strategic innovation ...
The impulse for strategic innovation sets
requirements for the management of HE-
institutions to
(1) think and act strategically
and also to
(2) translate the organizational strategy to
the operational level (esp. processes of
learning and teaching)

Strategic innovation is an intentional movement to obtain a
fortiﬁed position of the institute relative to others.

So the problem statement
resulting from this is ...
HE institutions have to innovate.

If not (or insufﬁciently):

they lose the competition (for students,
research-grants, image, etc.), their role
becomes smaller, programs will disappear
(esp. Masters!)

But: HE institutions are big
organizations with many
clashes of interest ...
• tension of focus: centralization versus
decentralization
• tension of interest: education versus
research
• tension of functions: administrators
(managerial efﬁciency) versus professionals
(content quality)
• tension of initiative: top-down versus
bottom-up
• tension of control: hierarchy versus
collegiality

Result: Strategic innovations
are difﬁcult to implement

Innovation in large organizations often
prove viscous and unmanageble, without
real clarity of reasons.

In particular the translation of strategic to
operational level results in many clashes of
interest.

Result: Strategic innovations
are difﬁcult to implement

Innovation in large organizations often
prove viscous and unmanageble, without
real clarity of reasons.

In particular the translation of strategic to
operational level results in many clashes of
interest.

“Changing a university is like moving a graveyard:
not entire impossible,
but don’t expect any cooperation from within.”

in the centre of the clashes of
interest:
the academic middle manager
academic middle manager holds a crucial
(paradoxal) position in the HE-organization.

Yet it has hardly been researched.
So it’s not clear which inﬂuence they have.
Therefore this research!

Research Question:
Which roles does an academic middle manager in “You’re damned if you do and
you’re damned if you don’t.”
HE perform during strategic innovations?
Secondary questions:
“You’re in the line of ﬁre
Which factors affect these roles?
whether you want it or not”

Strategic
innovation

context

structure Organizational
variables
culture autonomy
Functional
related variables
engagement

academic leadership
Roles of the
academic middle
manager

Conceptual Framework

Small inﬂuence on Large inﬂuence on
strategic innovations strategic innovations
Organizational variables

Context Stable Turbulence

Structure Mechanic Organic

Culture Conservative Innovative

Functional related Variables

Engagement Low High

Autonomy Small Large

Academic leaderschip / authority Manager Leader

2. The academic
middle manager
a. Who is the academic middle
manager?
b. Roles
c. Expected roles
d. Real roles

Middle management

* the concept is difficult to define; unclear borders.

* in definitions three elements (Livian c.s., 1997):
a. they constitute the middle of the command
line (hierarchy)
b. decisions with regard to time perspective and
range are between strategic and operational
routine decisions.
c. influence in the organization holds the middle
between crucial and barely visible

* several types of middle managers: line versus staff

Academic Middle Manager

...is integrally responsible for program
curricula, within the strategy
- including participation in decisions on
institutional strategy and responsibility for
School/faculty strategy -
through to educational management
- including control of education and research
programs and student relations
within the governing board’s parameters.
(Kallenberg, 2007)

Board University

University
Staff
Departments

Faculty X Dean Faculty Faculty Y

Head / Director
Director Research Director Education
Department

Schools / Educational
Research Institutes
Programs
Managers
Managers
Coordinators / Head
Coordinators / Head

Professionals:
Professors
Associate Professors Administrators
Researchers
Teachers

Expected roles of the (middle) manager
(Quinn & Rohrbauch, 1983)
Human Relations Model Open Systems Model
Cohesion, morale and Flexibility, Innovation,
Human Resources Synergy

mentor innovator
facilitator

broker
producer
monitory

coordinator director

Internal Process Model
Rational Goal Model
Process Management,
Productivity, efﬁciency
hierarchy, stability,
"The Bottom Line"
control


Monitory - f.i.:
mentor innovator
quality education;
educational work
facilitator

broker
plan; ﬁnance;
accommodation
(ICT); controll

Coordinator - f.i.:

producer
monitory

time-table
(students and
teachers), student
coordinator administration
director

Rational Goal Model
Process Management,
"The Bottom Line"
control


mentor innovator
Mentor - f.i.:
coaching, training,
facilitator

broker
accompany (new
teachers)

Facilitator - f.i.:

producer
monitory

organising meetings,
knowledge
dissemination,
conﬂictmanagement

Rational Goal Model
Process Management,
"The Bottom Line"
control


Innovator - f.i.:
mentor innovator
bring in new
ideas, maintain
facilitator

broker
developments,
new methods and
concepts

Broker - f.i.:
maintain and

producer
monitory

build contacts (in/
extern); create
support;
represent school
Rational Goal Model
Process Management,
"The Bottom Line"
control


mentor innovator
Producer - f.i.:
facilitator
focus on results

broker
(quality/quantity);
timemanagement

producer
monitory

Director - f.i.:
deﬁne vision,
strategy, planning

Rational Goal Model
Process Management,
"The Bottom Line"
control

Inﬂuencing the strategic
innovation

The Academic Middle has the position to
inﬂuence strategic innovation because he
has:
• a unique (tacit) knowledge base (of what is
happening in the organization)
• the opportunity to integrate strategic
information with operational information
(and vice versa)
• he’s in the position to deal and negotiate
with strategic, organizational and
operational level...

4. Research methods
and results

Method
• survey (2009) - HE in the Netherlands:
14 universities + 44 universities of applied
sciences
• 750 random selected mail-adresses:
304 respondents - 246 in dataset (33,37%)
• constructs: caesura on Cronbach’s alpha > ,75
Average view of the respondents: mostly man (61,2%) of 50,96 year old and the
vast majority (81,2%) has a fulltime employment. Their education is at academic
level (51,4% MA / 39,6% PhD). They are faithful to their employer (14,48 year on
the same institute) and their salary is about 5.700 Euro (month). They work for
about 5 years as AMM (but 80,7% shorter than 7 years in this function). 44,1% did
an additional training on educational management. They are satisﬁed with their job
(7,9 on 10-scale).

Result 1: real roles

mentor innovator

,787 ,698
facilitator

broker
,717 ,818

,580 ,833

producer
monitory

,624 ,861

Rational Goal Model
Process Management,
"The Bottom Line"
control

Results 2 - correlation
Functional related variables with
Roles AMM

Mentor Broker Producer Director
Autonomy ,014 ,243** ,093 ,086

Engagement ,168* ,291** ,326** ,241**

Academic ,136* ,066 ,321** ,377**
Leadership

** = Correlation is signiﬁcant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed)
* = Correlation is signiﬁcant at the 0,05 level (2-tailed)

Roles AMM
(split in University and Univ. of Applied Sciences)

Autonomy University -,039 ,188* -,069 -,036
University of
Applied Sciences
,073 ,318* ,333** ,237*
Engagement University ,180* ,114 ,183* ,125
University of
Applied Sciences
,085 ,463** ,453** ,304**
Academic University ,141 ,001 ,337** ,388**
University of
Leadership Applied Sciences ,064 ,130 ,287** ,382**

Roles AMM
(split in Directors/deans and Managers/heads)

Autonomy Director/dean ,071 ,402** ,157 ,169
Manager/head -,031 ,043 ,138 ,113
Engagement Director/dean ,265** ,298** ,386** ,351**
Manager/head ,080 ,378** ,283* ,138
Academic Director/dean ,131 ,022 ,361** ,464**
Leadership Manager/head ,123 ,156 ,362** ,237*

Conclusions
• ad 1. Because an Academic Middle Manager
fulﬁlls only a few roles during strategic
innovations, the management cycle is not
complete. Therefore strategic innovations
remain unmanageble
• ad 2. The broker-role correlate with
authonomy and engagement, but...
• ad 3. especially at Univ. of Applied Sciences!
• ad 2. producer and director correlate with
Engagement and Academic Leadership, and..
• ad 3. engagement especially at Univ of
Applied Sciences

Thank you for your attention:

You are invited to download the presentation on:
www.slidesharenet.com/tonkallenberg
The paper will be available on:
http://eur.academia.edu/TonKallenberg

Tips - Questions - Dialogue

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