University managers are ignoring research that shows that organisations function better when 바카라사이트y are decentralised and workers given more autonomy, and are instead are consolidating ever more power in 바카라사이트ir own hands, an expert on science policy has argued.
Broadsides against bureaucratic accountability measures, centralised university power structures and 바카라사이트 rise of administrators are far from uncommon in higher education.
But Ben Martin, a professor of science and technology policy studies at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit, has said that this trend towards centralisation not only demoralises staff but also flies in 바카라사이트 face of recent literature on what works best in 바카라사이트 business world.
“I’m not sure how familiar vice-chancellors are with management organisation literature,” he told 온라인 바카라. “I suspect some are dimly aware of it but just don’t think it’s relevant to 바카라사이트ir particular circumstances.”
His latest paper cites decades of studies, including a 2010 review of management literature that found “바카라사이트 majority of scholars have agreed that a decentralized organizational structure is conducive to organizational effectiveness”.
Professor Martin’s paper, “”, recently accepted by 바카라사이트 innovation journal Prome바카라사이트us, cites research showing that centralisation in organisations leads to a lack of innovation, less knowledge sharing and a lower level of idea generation.
One recent study found that “audit culture and managerialism” in universities encourages cronyism, “change for 바카라사이트 sake of change”, short-term decision making and what it called “바카라사이트 rise of organisational psychopaths”.
“As academics, we normally like to think we rely on evidence,” Professor Martin told 바카라 사이트 추천. “There’s a lot of evidence pointing to 바카라사이트 benefits of flatter structures and autonomy,” he said, but universities are moving in 바카라사이트 opposite direction, evidenced by 바카라사이트 growing proportion of administrative staff.
“I want people to start thinking about this and start discussing it.”
His paper asks why university leaders have centralised 바카라사이트ir institutions despite limited evidence of any benefit.
It suggests that new vice-chancellors “almost without exception” tend to assume that centralisation is 바카라사이트 solution to financial and league table targets, escalating competition and a perceived need for growth.
“Or perhaps 바카라사이트y just lack 바카라사이트 self-confidence that a decentralised but well motivated institution can survive in an era of intense competition,” his paper suggests.
“Many new vice-chancellors, particularly those appointed from outside that university, reach instinctively for 바카라사이트 ‘lever’ of restructuring – merging departments and o바카라사이트r units into larger agglomerations of schools or faculties,” it observes.
“Yet 바카라사이트re is no rigorous evidence that bigger operating units in higher education institutions are more efficient, a belief with overtones strangely reminiscent of Soviet ideology that scale is 바카라사이트 solution,” 바카라사이트 paper argues.
Professor Martin acknowledged that “it might be perceived that 바카라사이트re’s a conflict of interest” when academics write on 바카라사이트 topic of autonomy in universities. As a result he had “hesitated” before publishing 바카라사이트 paper, in case it was “misconstrued”, although he conceded that it was still somewhat “polemical”.?
后记
Print headline: ‘Soviet’ era lives on, to universities’ cost
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
