German higher education managers in the multiple hybrid university and their positioning with respect to third space

Abstract

Based on a re-analysis of data from the KaWuM and WiMaKo research projects, this article furthers our understanding of higher education management in German universities by focusing on communicative skills and competences, as opposed to roles and job descriptions. While higher education management is a relatively heterogeneous field of activity, resulting in a huge variety of different higher education manager roles, we argue that similarities between these managers are found in the skills and competences they need to cope in the unique organisation of the university. German universities can be described as multiple hybrid organisations, characterised by their many structural inconsistencies in their key decision premises. As a result, third space opens up between three university subsystems: academia, administration and leadership roles (mainly the presidium). We suggest that higher education managers need communicative skills and competences, in particular negotiation and mediation, to work in the third space bridging these three subsystems. It is proposed, therefore, that future research on higher education managers should focus more on their skills and competences than on precise tasks, as outlined, for example, in a job description.