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Incentives and Performance pp 69–86Cite as

Incentives and Power: An Organizational Perspective

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Abstract

Over the last years new incentives for professors were introduced into the German university system in order to strengthen the external motivation and the productivity of professors. At the same time a critical reflection has begun, in which the effects on internal motivation and deficiencies concerning the measurement and the overall effects on the science and higher education system were discussed. In addition to these criticisms, we will argue from an organizational perspective. From that perspective, incentives are a central aspect of power in organizations. This allows us to put incentives in a broader perspective, in which also other forms of power in higher education organizations come into light. Such forms are the power over resources, careers, and, ultimately, membership. The article argues that due to the specificities of the German university system and its organizations, the nexus between power and incentives is rather weak as compared to other systems. However, such a structure is not per se problematic. It generates a specific set of advantages and disadvantages with regard to the missions of universities in a knowledge society and some critical side-effects of a strong nexus between power and incentives can thus be avoided.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The discussion shares many parallels with that currently underway in regard to the public sector as a whole (Frey et al. 2013).

  2. 2.

    For more details on these three power structures in German higher education institutions see Hüther and Krücken (2011, 2013).

  3. 3.

    For reasons of simplicity we will not consider the Junior Professors because they hardly figure in the German system. Only 4 % of professors are Junior Professors (Statistisches Bundesamt 2013).

  4. 4.

    In contrast to other systems, this distinction is usually not directly visible to outsiders. Normally one can not find this information on the professors’ websites or their business cards.

  5. 5.

    See, for example, Musselin (2010), Enders (2000b).

  6. 6.

    The number of tenured academics in the USA declined from 65 % in 1980/1981 to 49 % in 2007/2008 [cf. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)]. According to Chait (2002, p. 19) the number of part-time professorships nearly doubled from 22 % in 1970 to 41 % in 1995. According to Donoghue (2008) this trend is particularly dramatic in subjects like humanities from which no immediate economic utility can be expected, or at higher education institutions that are orientated toward profit and/or training.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel (INCHER), University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany

    Otto Hüther & Georg Krücken

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  1. Otto Hüther
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  2. Georg Krücken
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Correspondence to Georg Krücken .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Isabell M. Welpe

  2. TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Jutta Wollersheim

  3. TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Stefanie Ringelhan

  4. Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany, and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Margit Osterloh

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Hüther, O., Krücken, G. (2015). Incentives and Power: An Organizational Perspective. In: Welpe, I., Wollersheim, J., Ringelhan, S., Osterloh, M. (eds) Incentives and Performance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09785-5_5

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