Rómulo Pinheiro

Bridging the Local with the Global: Building a new university on the fringes of Europe

In Norway, the higher education landscape is undergoing profound transformation. This process is being driven by a number of factors, including demography, competition and academic aspirations, with many so-called “university-colleges” aspiring to become fully-fledged universities. We shed light on the dynamics of one such institution, the recently established University of Agder, by posing three questions: what drove internal actors to attain full university status and what immediate effects have been felt across the university? What are the needs and expectations of regional constituencies? What types of university models have internal actors been working with? Conceptually, the article builds on the notion of the university as an organization and institution. The findings, which have implications for both theory and practice, suggest that the case university is attempting to find a balance between its global and local aspirations, but that it faces a number of challenges.

Handling Uncertainty of Strategic Ambitions—The Use of Organizational Identity as a Risk-Reducing Device

Organizational identity can be designed to reduce the risks of uncertainty about future states of public organizations and the inherent potential issues related to evaluation and assessment. As such, organizational identity may shape a congruent and credible self-representation of the university, where a consistent narrative articulates compliance to diverse institutional frameworks, commitment to organizational distinctiveness, and a sensible rationale for strategic change. By examining the strategic plans of four European universities over a 10-year period of major organizational change, the paper discusses the subtleties of the specific combinations of the three different functions and the implications for institutional leadership.

One and two equals three? The third mission of higher education institutions

In modern, knowledge-based societies, universities play an increasingly important role in achieving economic growth and social progress. Their traditional roles and missions are being broadened as to accommodate activities that facilitate engagement with various stakeholder groups. Universities do not want to be regarded as isolated and separated islands from their surrounding communities and have therefore developed internal mechanisms to bridge their activities with the needs and expectations of external actors. In this paper, we take stock of recent scholarly work and ongoing debates surrounding universities’ third mission (TM). Broadly speaking, TM refers to the changing roles and functions of universities which, despite recent developments, have always been a matter of debate amongst academics and society at large.

Strategic agency and institutional change: investigating the role of universities in regional innovation systems (RISs)

ABSTRACT Strategic agency and institutional change: investigating the role of universities in regional innovation systems (RISs). Regional Studies. Past analyses rooted in the thick description of regions successful in constructing regional innovation systems have given way to analyses more focused on the intentionality in these processes, and how actors in regions with their own wider networks can shape these high-level changes in regional fortunes. As part of this, place-based leadership has emerged as a promising concept to restore both agency and territory to these discussions, but it remains under-theorized in key areas. This paper contributes to these debates by arguing that there remains a reduction of agency to organizations, and that place-based leadership research needs to take into account organizational dynamics and interests in for bettering our understanding of the dynamics of place-based leadership in regional innovation systems.

The institutionalization of universities’ third mission: introduction to the special issue

Globally, debates on the notion of a third set of activities aimed at linking higher education institutions more closely with surrounding society are not new. In the last decade or so, calls for a re-engagement of the university in helping to tackle the great challenges facing societies and local communities have propelled the third mission to the forefront of policy discussions – this time under the mantra of ‘relevance’ and ‘social impact’. Yet, as some of the articles in this special issue attest, there is a fundamental tension in the notion of a third mission. The chief aim of this special issue is to provide a critical assessment of the extent to which the third mission has become an integral part of universities’ core structures and primary activities – from the perspective of institutionalization. The individual contributions provide different accounts and perspectives on internal developments surrounding the third mission, but they all share the notion that major tensions and volitions surrounding its institutionalization remain largely unresolved.

Handling Different Institutional Logics in the Public Sector: Comparing Management in Norwegian Universities and Hospitals

Abstract In this study, we are addressing changes in managerial logics after the introduction of New Public Management (NPM)-reforms in two public sectors in Norway, namely the hospital and the university sectors. These sectors were previously dominated by professional and political logic in management, and the focus is on professionals in managerial positions. We are asking: How do professionals in managerial positions across universities and hospitals mediate between previous and newly introduced logics in management after NPM-reforms? We have chosen to compare changes in management across the hospital and the university sectors. Both sectors are largely publicly owned and dominated by professions, but their mission differs. The empirical material comprises interviews with formal leaders from dissimilar professional backgrounds, at different levels in the organisations in two cases. The findings show that management influenced by the market logic has been introduced, but in a hybrid version. The professional logic has however not been left behind, but expanded and supplied by a neo-bureaucratic logic. Leadership is functioning as a ‘catalyst’ to handle the different logics. The originality of this paper is a comparison of management in health care and higher education related to a model of hybrid management.

The Role of Internal and External Stakeholders

The importance attributed to stakeholder issues in contemporary higher education affairs across the globe is a reflection of the changing nature of the social pact between higher education and society, brokered via the state, with new notions of trust and accountability as well as responsiveness to societal needs and demands as key attributes. This chapter takes stock of the key findings across the BRICS as per the individual contributions presented in part III of this volume.

Change Dynamics and Higher Education Reforms

Higher education institutions have become in practically every society the main institutionalized domains for handling advanced knowledge. They have survived since their origin in more or less the same organizational form (Kerr, 2001), which is all the more remarkable given the fundamental changes that have taken place in their environments. Their main organizational building blocks have always been the knowledge areas around which chairs, departments, faculties, schools and centres are positioned (Clark, 1983), and universities and colleges are populated by academic staff, students, and administrators, whose interactions determine the institutional day-to-day life. These relatively stable elements can still be found as basic organisational characteristics in any higher education institution in the world and are still used as reference points for legitimisation or quality assurance purposes.

Higher Education and Health Organizational Fields in the Age of “World Class” and “Best Practices”

Abstract The paper sets forth and examines the assumptions underlying two global ideas – world class and best practices – and their application to (higher) education and health organizations. Our basic (ex-ante) assumption is that both sectors are influenced by organizational fields that embody these ideas. However, we also assume that these sectors differ, and thus, that one should find between sector variations in the influence of such ideas. The findings suggest that both sectors have been affected by hegemonic ideas, yet in rather different ways, and that these ideas, particularly the metrics being used, pose different challenges in the two sectors.

Higher education and economic development in the OECD: policy lessons for other countries and regions

ABSTRACT This paper sheds light on the role of tertiary or higher education in economic development across two successful OECD case studies: Finland and South Korea. A number of key aspects are discussed, from the nature of the social contract between higher education and the economy to the endogenous characteristics of domestic higher education to the links between the sector and regional development, innovation and the labour market. The lessons learned are of importance to policy makers and institutional planners across the world, not least to less developing nations and regions, due to the unprecedented opportunities brought by a global, knowledge-based economy.