Bjørn Stensaker

An Internal Representative System: The Democratic Vision

Introduction In this chapter the focus is on the University as a representative democracy. Universities are also highly politicized institutions – they can be seen as arenas for vested interests and various stakeholders. Such a university characterization, as well as others such as the republic of science (Polanyi 1962), the organized anarchy (Cohen et al. 1972; Cohen and March 1974), or the enterprise university (e.g. Marginson and Considine 2000), refers to the dominance or illumination of particular organizational features. It means that under certain events and conditions specific institutions – formal and informal rule configurations temporarily repress other value systems. This is also our analytical point of departure. Sometimes institutions collide and a new equilibrium with other prevailing institutions may arise where “a possible outcome of collisions is the fall and rise of institutions” (Gornitzka and Olsen 2006). With respect to such collisions not just external factors but also organizational processes are relevant. In this chapter we focus on the internal aspects of the university.

University Strategizing: The Role of Evaluation as a Sensemaking Tool

Higher education institutions (hereafter HEI) are increasingly adopting practices from the private sector. One such practice is strategy formulation and strategic development processes. To study such practices and processes is important as we need to strengthen our knowledge of how new practices may influence and change the HEI on the inside, while also recognizing that strategy formulation is about how the HEI interprets its relationship to the environment.