The Holy Trinity of Organization: the Changing role of administration in modern universities

Description

Our specific purpose is to theorize administration as a central element in organizational development and change, and analyse how changes in administration interrelates with other changes to produce long-term change in core activities of these organizations. We do this by investigating the changes in administrative structures and positions in Swedish universities over time, and analyse the relation to management as well as implications for academic activity. In the first part of the project, we empirically analyse the creation and expansion of administrative units and positions through document analysis of university directories. In the second part, we analyse how new administrative practices and ideals get embodied into the organization and lead to various degrees of coupling between the means and the ends of the organization. We develop ideas from organizational institutional theory to explain the influence of administration practices, and to theorize concepts of decoupling, coupling, and sedimentation of practices and governance. This helps us better understand current pressures on universities and other public organizations to transform into autonomous entities.