Mikä meitä ohjaa? : artikkelikokoelma Jyväskylässä 5.-6.9.2005 järjestetystä korkeakoulutuksen tutkimuksen IX symposiumista

Artikkelikokoelma Jyväskylässä 5.–6.9.2005 järjestetystä korkeakouluksen tutkimuksen IX symposiumista

Does It Really Matter? Assessing the Performance Effects of Changes in Leadership and Management Structures in Nordic Higher Education

AbstractUniversities are public organisations, which operate in a highly institutionalised environment. They are heavily dependent on public resources. As such, universities are susceptible to shifts in governance arrangements but are also far from being passive recipients of reform agendas. They face demands from multiple internal constituencies (academics, administrators, students, managers) and from a variety of external stakeholders. This chapter explores the interplay between governance arrangements resulting from policy shifts and university dynamics. It sets the stage for the book, asking the following research questions: (1) what characterises changes in governance regimes in Nordic…

The Many Guises of Nordic Higher Education Mergers

In this final chapter, the volume’s editors reflect upon the empirical and theoretical contributions from the book. The chapter is structured according to a number of ‘dimensions’ which have appeared in the previous chapters. It is concluded that the historical contexts and path dependencies play crucial roles also in the case of mergers. Furthermore, the importance of key actors is highlighted, not least the role played by formal top leaders, but also informal brokers and change agents at the institutional level. In terms of future research, two lines of inquiry are identified. The first is to delve deeper into process-related issues, which is still an unexplored aspect of mergers, and the…

The Users' Role in Primary and Secondary Healthcare in Finland and Norway

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A World Full of Mergers: The Nordic Countries in a Global Context

In this introductory chapter to the volume, the editors present the findings from a literature review undertaken on the topic, and link classical organizational perspectives to the study of merger processes involving higher education institutions. The chapter provides a brief overview of developments across Nordic higher education by referring to Burton Clark’s famous ‘triangle of coordination’. The authors conclude by sketching out the rationale and aim of the comparative study, the ways in which the volume is organized and by providing a short summary of its individual contributions.

Towards a novel conceptual framework for understanding mergers in higher education

ABSTRACTThis paper tries to develop a conceptual framework for a comprehensive understanding of the merger process, which is regarded as a matter of institutionalization of organizational innovation. In the framework, a number of factors affecting merger process or institutionalization of merger are identified, such as those related to environmental issues, economic benefits, institutional compatibility and human agency. The framework hopefully narrows our knowledge gap on theorizing innovation process, in general, and university merger, in particular. It also has a potential to better assist decision-makers and managers in planning and implementing university mergers.

The Changing Roles of Academic Leaders: Decision-Making, Power, and Performance

AbstractMajor reforms in the Nordic countries have increased the formal autonomy of higher education institutions (HEIs) to make decisions over their own activities, both academic core tasks and managerial/administrative activities. The issue addressed in this chapter is how these changes have affected the role of the academic leader. Across the four countries, we see clear signs of change regarding academic leadership comprising a mix of institutional logics in the interviews: the professional, collegial traditional academic leadership, which is based on rotating systems, election among peers, and collegial decision-making, has been complemented with, and in some places replaced by, a mana…

Mergers in higher education

ABSTRACTIn this special issue of the European Journal of Higher Education, a number of experienced scholars provide a broad picture of the most recent round of mergers involving higher education institutions in Europe and beyond. In doing so, they address issues pertaining to the different phases described above and from various theoretical perspectives and in the light of particular historical trajectories and institutional conditions. The primary aim is to provide both an empirical account of recent developments as well as an initial foundation for more sophisticated and robust conceptual models used to illuminate on the complex phenomenon surrounding mergers in higher education, and, in …

Kilvoittelusta kilpailuun?: artikkelikokoelma korkeakoulututkimuksen juhlasymposiumista 25.-26.8.2008

Strategic mergers in the public sector: comparing universities and hospitals

Strategy as Dialogue and Engagement

AbstractThis chapter illuminates two critical aspects underpinning university life in the Nordic countries, namely, who gets involved with strategic processes and to what extent these processes affect behaviour across the organisation. Participation in strategy work was found to be unstable, which in turn further weakens the legitimacy of the strategy. The comparative data also show that some academic staff are not involved in the strategy process at all, and hence do not relate their daily tasks to the goals and/or values expressed in the strategy. The importance of strategies appears to lie in recognising the relevant problems, values, and normative postures, including the excellence and …

Nordic Higher Education in Flux: System Evolution and Reform Trajectories

AbstractThis chapter provides a brief description of how the four national systems included in this study—Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—are currently organised and structured. In doing so, it illuminates several specific features such as the types and sizes of the institutions, enrolment patterns, performance measures, and funding. In addition, the chapter gives a snapshot of how higher education systems have evolved historically by shedding light on policy dynamics from the late 1990s to 2013, the baseline period for the FINNUT comparative study, the research project that provides the basis for this edited volume. This is followed by a section describing the aim, methods, theoretica…