Does It Really Matter? Assessing the Performance Effects of Changes in Leadership and Management Structures in Nordic Higher Education

Laila Nordstrand Berg,Rómulo Pinheiro,Jonas Krog Lind,Jussi Kivistö,Timo Aarrevaara,Kirsi Pulkkinen,Elias Pekkola,Helge Hernes,Johan Söderlind,Hanne Foss Hansen,Anu Lyytinen,Lars Geschwind,Bjørn Stensaker

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11738-2_1

Abstract

AbstractUniversities are public organisations, which operate in a highly institutionalised environment. They are heavily dependent on public resources. As such, universities are susceptible to shifts in governance arrangements but are also far from being passive recipients of reform agendas. They face demands from multiple internal constituencies (academics, administrators, students, managers) and from a variety of external stakeholders. This chapter explores the interplay between governance arrangements resulting from policy shifts and university dynamics. It sets the stage for the book, asking the following research questions: (1) what characterises changes in governance regimes in Nordic universities in the last decade and a half, and (2) what effects have these changes had in the evolution of higher education systems? The chapter takes a comparative approach and identifies similarities and differences across the Nordic countries. This chapter serves as a frame of reference for the book and includes a common methods and data section.

Highlights

Rationalisation of the universities as organisational actors has been done via the introduction of a more formal structure in terms of a stronger emphasis on quality assurance, evaluation, accountability measures and incentive systems. These can be considered a transnational process linked to the New Public Management (NPM) type of governance reforms (Ramirez and Christensen 2013; Seeber et al 2015)
The social mechanisms of spreading ideas of rationalisation can be highlighted through the perspective of institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell 1983)
Literature on isomorphism concentrates on the increasing similarity of organisational and institutional structures and

Summary

CHAPTER 1

Assessing the Performance Effects of Changes in Leadership and Management Structures in Nordic Higher Education. Helge Hernes passed away in the Fall of 2018.

Introduction

Funding Arrangements