Abstract
This article will particularly focus on Norway and the consequences for academic work. Frequently in studies of academic work, focus has been on academics’ individual autonomy and to what extent the latter is challenged (Altbach in Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 448:1–14, 1980; Shattock in High Educ 41:27–47, 2001). One of the shortcomings in literature dealing with academic workplace is lack of attention paid to the emerging division of work generated by an increasing differentiation of the academic profession (Musselin in Knowledge Matters, The public mission of the research university, 2011). In order to better address complexities and dynamics that surround academic work, the article will in particular examine whether academic work is subject to an increasing specialization and collectivization. In our attempt to observe changes in the practices of academic work, particular interest is given to “how the organization of an academic enterprise affects academic work” (Blau in The organization of academic work. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1994:8). Inspired by organizational theorists such as Brunsson and Olsen in The reforming organization. Brunsson and Olsen (The reforming organization. Fagbokforlaget, Bergen, 1997) we also want to attend to the relations between organizational change and academic work. Here we address the relationship between formal organization and informal organization which is likely to develop as decoupled structures—one adapted to institutionalized norms of society and the other for coordinating activities. Furthermore, there are tendencies suggesting that universities are becoming less special as an organization (Musselin in Key challenges to the academic profession. INCHER-Kassel, Paris, 2007) and converge to more general organizational characteristics by constructing dimensions of organizations such as identity, hierarchy and rationality (Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson in Constructing organizations: the example of public sector reform, Organization Stud 21:4, 2000). In this article we are mainly interested in how hierarchy is constructed enabling coordination by an “authoritative centre” (Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson in Constructing organizations: the example of public sector reform, Organization Stud 21:4, 2000:726) and how it interferes with traditional forms of organizing the university. This calls for a concern to whether the specificity of academic work, built of the mainly individual exercise of a large diversity of tasks, remains a key characteristic for organizing academic activities at universities. Empirically this article studies changes in academic work regarding new patterns in organizing research funding and doctoral education in Norway that emerged in the last decade. Like in other European countries, new policies for research funding and doctoral education have led to the creation of new organisational structures within Norwegian HEIs, namely research centres and doctoral schools.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The term Higher education institutions is used in the article due to an assumption that changes are taking place across different kinds of institutions such as universities, colleges and polytechnics.
In the Norwegian context, this phase takes place in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Up to 10 years.
The university board consists of members from the academic community as well as external members such as local politicians and from private sector.
Doctoral schools were already suggested in 1988 by the government appointed Hernes Commission.
In Norway, doctoral schools are mainly called research schools (forskerskoler).
Source: www.mcb.uib.no; downloaded in September 2009.
References
Abbott, A. (1988). The system of professions. Chicago: University Press of Chicago.
Altbach, P. G. (1980). The crisis of the professoriate. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 448, 1–14.
Aubert, V., Torgersen, U., Tangen, K., Lindbekk, T., & Pollan, S. (1960). Akademikere i norsk samfunnsstruktur 1800–1950. Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning, 1(4), 185–205.
Barrier, J. (2008). Industrializing the organization of academic work. Project funding, organizational change and professional autonomy in the engineering sciences in France (1982–2007). Paper presented at 5th Euredocs Conference, Porto, 23–25 May 2008.
Barrier, J., & Musselin, C. (2009). The rationalization of academic work and careers: Ongoing transformations of the profession and policy challenges. In B. Kehm, J. Huisman, & B. Stensaker (Eds.), The European higher education area: Perspectives on a moving target. Rotterdam: Sensepublishers.
Becher, T. (1989). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the cultures of disciplines. Milton Keynes: Society for Research into Higher Education/Open University Press.
Blau, P. (1994). The organization of academic work. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Bleiklie, I. (2009). Norway: from tortoise to eager beaver? In C. Paradeise, E. Reale, I. Bleiklie, & E. Ferlie (Eds.), University governance. Western European comparative perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer.
Bleiklie, I., Høstaker, R., & Vabø, A. (2000). Policy and practice in higher education. Reforming of Norwegian universities. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Bok, D. (2003). Universities in the marketplace: The commercialization of higher education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Brunsson, N., & Olsen, J. P. (1997). The reforming organization. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.
Brunsson, N., & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (2000). Constructing organizations: The example of public sector reform. Organization Studies, 21(4), 721–746.
Caplow, T. (1978). The sociology of work. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Clark, B. (1987). The Academic profession : National, disciplinary, and institutional settings. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Currie, J., & Vidovich, L. (2009). The changing nature of academic work. In Tight, Malcolm Routledge international handbook of higher education.
Enders, J., & Musselin, C. (2008). Back to the future? The academic professions in the 21st century: Higher education to 2030 (Vol. 1). OECD.
Enders, J., & Teichler, U. (1997). A victim of their own success? Employment and working conditions of academic staff in comparative perspective. Higher Education, 34(3), 347–372.
Etzkowitz, H., & Kemelgor, C. (1998). The role of research centres in the collectivisation of academic science. Minerva (Vol. 36).
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245.
Frølich, N., & Waagene, E. (2008). Administrative arbeidsoppgaver for det vitenskaplige personalet ved universiteter og høyskoler i lys av kvalitetsreformen. Nifustep Report, 10, 2008.
Gappa, J. M., Austin, A. E., & Trice, A. G. (2007). Rethinking faculty work, higher education’s strategic imperative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gibbons, M., et al. (1994). The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage.
Halsey, A. H. (1992). The decline of donnish dominion the British academic profession in the twentieth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Henkel, M. (2005). Academic identity and autonomy in a changing policy environment. Higher Education, 49(1–2), 155–176.
Holley, K. (2009). The challenge of an interdisciplinary curriculum: A cultural analysis of a doctoral-degree program in neuroscience. Higher Education, 58, 241–255.
Høstaker, R. (2006). Policy change and the academic profession. In M. Kogan, M. Bauer, I. Bleiklie, & M. Henkel (Eds.), Transforming higher education: A comparative study. Netherlands: Springer.
Kyvik, S. (2002). Evaluering av forskerutdanning. Oslo: Norges Forskningsråd.
Kyvik, S., & Olsen, T.B. (2007). Doktorgradsutdanning og karrieremuligheter. En underssøkelse blant to årskull doktorgradskandidater. NIFU-STEP: Rapport, 35, 2007.
Michelsen, S. et al. (2006). Kvalitetsreformen mellom undervisning og forskning. Delrapport 10. Evaluering av Kvalitetsreformen.
Musselin, C. (2007). Transformation of academic work: Facts and analysis. In M. Kogan, & Ulrich T., (Eds.), Key challenges to the academic profession. UNESCO Forum on Higher Education Research and Knowledge International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel. Paris and Kassel: INCHER-Kassel .
Musselin, C. (2011). The academic workplace. What we already know and what we still don’t know and what we would like to know: Calhoun, C. and Rhoten, D, Knowledge Matters. The public mission of the research university.
Nilsen, Y. (2005). En sterk stilling Norsk forskerforbunds historie 1955–2005. Bergen: Vigmostad & Bjørke.
Paradeise, C., Reale, E., Bleiklie, I., & Ferlie, E. (2009). University governance, Western European Comparative perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer.
Ravetz, J. (1996). Scientific knowledge and its social problems. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Readings, B. (1996). The University in ruins. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Schuster, J. H., & Finkelstein, M. J. (2008). The American faculty: The restructuring of academic work and careers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Segal-Horn, (1998). The strategy reader. Oxford: Blackwell Business.
Shattock, M. (2001). The academic profession in Britain: A study in the failure to adapt to change. Higher Education, 41, 27–47.
Slaughter, S., & Leslie, L. (1997) Academic capitalism: Politics, policies and the entrepreneurial university.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy. Markets, state and higher education. Baltimore, NJ: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Stahler, G. & Tash, W. R. (1994) Centers and institutes in the research university. Journal of Higher Education, 65(5), 540–554.
Turner, (2000). In practicing interdisciplinarity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Tvede, O. and Hovdhaugen, E. (2002). Belysning av den organiserte doktorgradsutdanningen ved Universitetet i Bergen. NIFU skriftserie nr. 20.
Weingart, P., & Stehr, N. (2000). Practicing interdisciplinarity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Ziman, J. M. (1994). Prometheus bound: Science in a dynamic steady state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ziman, J. M. (1996) Postacademic science: Constructing knowledge with networks and norms. Science Studies, 1, 1996.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Christine Musselin and Ivar Bleiklie for comments. We would also like to thank the project “Steering of Universities” (PRIME–Network of Excellence/VI EU Framework Program) for inspiring to our doctoral projects.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nyhagen, G.M., Baschung, L. New organisational structures and the transformation of academic work. High Educ 66, 409–423 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9612-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9612-1