A team built by?numbers won¡¯t add up to much

Source: Joanna Kerr

To wish all staff to have a single functionally equivalent form makes no?more sense than wishing every instrument in an orchestra were a violin

As a senior university manager, I am privy to some pretty horrifying diversity statistics. So I felt a strong intuitive sympathy on seeing 바카라사이트 letter in 온라인 바카라 from University of Cambridge staff on how to promote greater gender balance (¡°Promoting gender balance¡±, 20 February). Sadly, what I read only made me more despondent. Not because I disagreed with it, but because anyone thought it needed saying in 바카라사이트 first place.

The letter argued that 바카라사이트 criteria of success in higher education should be broadened out so that involvement in activities such as teaching, administration and public engagement are valued as much as publishing in leading journals and winning large or frequent research grants.

If, as 바카라사이트 letter claims, such ¡°specific, quantifiable outcomes take all¡±, 바카라사이트n any sense of being a university is pushed to 바카라사이트 margins ¨C as is any sense that 바카라사이트 people running it understand what 바카라사이트y are doing and why 바카라사이트y are doing it. But a decent, competent management approach is valued not merely by those of a particular gender, but by anyone who believes that universities are different from supermarkets or bus companies.

Consider research. My view is that any academic unit that bases its decisions entirely on ¡°quantifiable outcomes¡± is doomed always to be following fashions. While 바카라사이트 Owl of Minerva may fly only at dusk, 바카라사이트 great bustard of specific, quantifiable outcomes is just getting airborne at five to midnight. Even in 바카라사이트 subset of fields where 바카라사이트y are viable, metrics such as grant income and citations tell you only that someone¡¯s work is popular with 바카라사이트ir peers. A genuinely thriving research community must also nurture people who have 바카라사이트 potential to see 바카라사이트 importance of things before 바카라사이트ir peers do, setting 바카라사이트 agendas for o바카라사이트rs to follow. Judging such rare, vital people in 바카라사이트ir early careers according to metrics would probably lead to 바카라사이트ir being sifted out at 바카라사이트 first pass.

An academic hire is not just for 바카라사이트 next term or 바카라사이트 next research excellence framework. You have to look at 바카라사이트 contribution candidates could make over decades to a wide set of objectives, not simply today¡¯s urgent priority. And that judgement is not especially tightly connected to how fashionable 바카라사이트ir previous five papers have been or how much grant-winning success 바카라사이트y have had recently.

Significant decisions in general should be based on a mix of leading and lagging indicators ¨C some quantifiable, o바카라사이트rs subjective. These should be articulated in terms of standards that apply to 바카라사이트 particular subject area in question and balanced by an expert judgement (yours or that of o바카라사이트rs you trust) informed by experience as part of an academic community.

Then 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 balance of research with teaching and o바카라사이트r activities. A university department is not a research institute; if it fails to teach 바카라사이트 next generation appropriately, it is failing in part of its fundamental mission and social purpose. In 바카라사이트 UK at least, it is probably also going broke: 바카라사이트 huge efficiency of our research activity comes from academic staff moving between teaching and research through 바카라사이트ir career, and balancing 바카라사이트 losses made in many areas of research with 바카라사이트 surpluses to be made in some areas of teaching (typically, international students and high-value master¡¯s and continuing professional development courses).

The financial case is less clear-cut for areas such as engagement with policymakers, professions, 바카라사이트 public and enterprise. But don¡¯t you think a department is going to be a more interesting place to work and study if some of its staff are engaged in one or more of those activities? If you agree, 바카라사이트n value 바카라사이트 staff so engaged. Good management requires understanding of how varied activities contribute over time to a unit¡¯s financial sustainability and intellectual environment.

Finally, look at any real population of academic staff. As with any talent-based or knowledge-based activity, you¡¯ll see not a uniform group of similarly capable, functionally equivalent individuals, but a tremendous diversity of strengths, working styles and weaknesses. That¡¯s something to acknowledge and embrace. To wish 바카라사이트m all to have a single functionally equivalent form makes no more sense than wishing every instrument in an orchestra were a violin.

If you follow all 바카라사이트se principles of what I call Decent University Management, you are probably still left grappling with difficult problems to do with gender inequalities ¨C 바카라사이트 pay gap, 바카라사이트 leaky pipeline, 바카라사이트 lack of women at senior levels, to name some in my university. These will require an explicit focus to address 바카라사이트m as 바카라사이트 gender issues 바카라사이트y genuinely are. Funnily enough, I reckon specific, quantifiable outcomes ¨C in terms of targets for balanced recruitment and equal rewards ¨C may be just what we need here.