Development of a Methodology for the Design and Management of Academic Strategy – A Holist Approach using Multi-criteria Analysis Techniques

Manolis Chalaris,Cleo Sgouropoulou,Stefanos Gritzalis,Manolis Μaragoudakis

doi:10.24018/ejers.2020.0.cie.2303

Abstract

Aim of the current research paper is to propose an innovative solution for the problematic of the holistic management of an academic strategy. The systematic bibliographic surveys conducted showed that the combination of BSC method together with a multitude of MCDA techniques constitute the most important tools for this issue. Thus, we propose a holistic process-based methodology for the management of an academic strategy which spans from its design and oversight, to interpretation issues of the academic classification of departments of Universities or between Universities where assembly bodies (Quality Assurance Unit, HAHE) are active. We claim that our methodology is of particular importance and that its use will highlight the operational quality of well organised Universities.

Highlights

The overall assessment of the design and management of an academic strategy as well as the interpretation of the classification of academic performance, constitutes admittedly a complex issue as a multitude of factors will need to be considered
For the purpose of this paper we shall briefly refer to relevant bibliographical data, we will present the steps of the methodology which we propose for a holistic management of an academic strategy, we will make mention to its previous partial application in relevant papers of ours and reach to our conclusions
The results indicate that analytic network process (ANP) and VIKOR are superior to AHP and TOPSIS combined with Balanced Scorecard (BSC), while DEMATEL is suitable for the calculation of the cause and effect relations between the BSC perspectives

Summary

INTRODUCTION

According to the literature review we performed, BSC alone or combined with other strategic management techniques as well as various types of multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) are methodologically successful tools for the design and management of an academic strategy. The aim of our paper is to synthesize the preexisting knowledge on the subject into a holistic methodology and to add to it the aspect revealed to us by the values system of those determining the academic performance of a University’s department or comparing those of many Universities When these are not satisfactorily documented and call for interpretation and verification. In our effort to determine an optimal solution for the academic classification of the departments of a single University or a multitude of Universities we used the UTASTAR method of the Preference Disaggregation Approach (PDA) The latter assumes that the decision maker reaches to his/her decision based (consciously or unconsciously) on a certain values system and preferences. For the purpose of this paper we shall briefly refer to relevant bibliographical data, we will present the steps of the methodology which we propose for a holistic management of an academic strategy, we will make mention to its previous partial application in relevant papers of ours and reach to our conclusions

LITERATURE REVIEW

PROPOSED HOLISTIC METHODOLOGY FOR THE DESIGN

AN ATTEMPT IMPLEMENTING BSC WITHIN THE GREEK

CONCLUSION