Resources of the research-pedagogical community: Administrative and mobilization approaches

Abstract

The study of the research-pedagogical community’s (RPC) resources of Russian universities in the sociological perspective is determined by the new conditions for the implementation of the development strategy of the Russian higher education. An adequate assessment and the full use of the RPC’ potential, including its unused resources, are of particular importance for Russian universities experiencing serious deficits today. The article proposes a new ‘optics’ for assessing the ability of the university management to mobilize traditional and unused resources of the RPC. The article aims at describing the administrative and mobilization management approaches to the analysis of the RPC’ resources in Russian universities. The authors consider the problem at the intersection of sociology of management and sociology of higher education. The article is based on the secondary analysis of the research data collected by the authors since 2016. The authors also consider documents of strategic planning for the development of higher education and science in order to identify the priorities of the RPC’s academic development and the requirements for them in new conditions. The research is based on the analysis of the statistical data on the main indicators for the development of the Russian higher education in 2014-2021, such as databases of the Monitoring of the effectiveness of higher education organizations, statistical yearbooks ‘Indicators of Education’, data of the Monitoring of the Economics of Education of the Higher School of Economics, and other open sources. Thus, based on the theoretical and empirical research of the higher education practices, the authors define the concept and structure of the RPC’s resources; explain the need for a managerial approach in universities as aimed at mobilizing the unused RPC’s resources; reveal the limitations of the university administrative decisions in assessing and use of the RPC’s resources. The authors make three main conclusions: first, about the meaning of the concept and structure of the RPC’s resources as an important means of managerial analysis; second, about the need for a model of the mobilization university management; third, about the consequences of the dominance of the administrative approach in assessing and use of the RPC’s resources.