Étienne Bourgeois

Influence in Academic Decision-making - Towards a Typology of Strategies

Several authors have argued that academic decision-making can be viewed as a political process. This implies that under certain conditions, academic decisons are most likely to be resolved through the use of influence strategies (Baldrigeet al. 1977; Pfeffer 1981). One issue that can be raised from this theoretical perspective concerns the types of influence strategy that can be found in that kind of process. This article presents, discusses, and illustrates a typology that can be used as a descriptive instrument for dealing with this issue. The typology is based on the assumption that influence strategies can be described along two independent dimensions, namely, mode of influence and power resources. A critical review of the literature led us to distinguish two basic modes of influence (pressure vs legitimation), and seven types of organizational resources (expertise, monetary resources, information, time, rules, coalitions, language and symbolic actions). The assumption is that each of these organizational resources can be associated with either mode of influence, which gives 14 possible types of influence strategy. The typology was applied in the study of a case of decision-making process in a university. This case study provided illustrations of some of the types of strategy identified by the typology.