The Managerialization of Higher Education in Germany and its Consequences: Changes in Job Advertisements for Professorships in German Universities, 1990 to 2010
2023; Emerald Publishing Limited; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1108/s0733-558x20230000086003
ISSN0733-558X
AutoresLisa-Maria Gerhardt, Jan Goldenstein, Simon Oertel, Philipp Poschmann, Peter Walgenbach,
Tópico(s)Higher Education Governance and Development
ResumoAbstract Higher education institutions have undergone a transformation over the past few decades, from loosely coupled systems to more centrally managed organizations. Central to this ongoing development is the increasing competition for resources and reputation, driving higher education institutions to rationalize their structures and practices. In our study, we focused on changes in job advertisements for professorships in Germany from 1990 to 2010. Findings showed that the requirements stipulated by universities for professorial positions have become increasingly differentiated (and measurable) over time. In this context, competitive aspects, such as third-party funding, international orientation, or publications, have particularly come to the fore and grown significantly in importance. We discuss these findings in light of an increasing managerialization of higher education institutions, which has a direct effect on collegiality. We argue that the differentiation of professorial job profiles leads to even more formalized appointment processes and may push collegial governance into the background. Keywords Managerialization Higher education Universities Professorships Job advertisements Germany Citation Gerhardt, L.-M., Goldenstein, J., Oertel, S., Poschmann, P. and Walgenbach, P. (2023), "The Managerialization of Higher Education in Germany and its Consequences: Changes in Job Advertisements for Professorships in German Universities, 1990 to 2010", Sahlin, K. and Eriksson-Zetterquist, U. (Ed.) University Collegiality and the Erosion of Faculty Authority (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 86), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 59-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20230000086003 Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2024 Lisa-Maria Gerhardt, Jan Goldenstein, Simon Oertel, Philipp Poschmann and Peter Walgenbach License Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited. These works are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of these works (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode. Introduction Over the past few decades, universities worldwide have experienced increasing competition for students, researchers, financial resources, and reputation (Engwall, 2020; Wedlin, 2020). At the same time, national and international rankings, which have driven this trend, have become increasingly important in higher education (Ramirez, 2010; Sahlin, 2013; Wedlin, 2006; Wilbers & Brankovic, 2021). In response to these competitive pressures, universities have grown more managerialized and have become organizational actors (Brunsson & Sahlin-Andersson, 2000; Drori et al., 2003; Krücken & Meier, 2006; Lee & Ramirez, 2023, Vol. 86; Oliver-Lumerman & Drori, 2021; Ramirez, 2010; Ramirez & Christensen, 2013), that is, autonomous, goal-oriented, and accountable entities (Bromley & Meyer, 2017; Krücken & Meier, 2006; Meyer & Bromley, 2013). The managerialization of universities – that is, the implementation of managerial practices – is, at the same time, a consequence and driver of rationalization (i.e., the construction of new means-ends-relationships). This is made evident in the rising use by universities of standardized metrics to measure their academic excellence, including third-party funding, publications, patents, and graduates (Krücken, 2020; Ramirez, 2010). Indeed, to improve their competitive position, universities systematically measure their research output (Aguinis et al., 2020; Engwall et al., 2023; Marques & Powell, 2020) and engage in reputation management (Christensen et al., 2019; 2020; Ma & Christensen, 2019). In such an increasingly competitive environment, a university's academic staff, particularly its professorial staff, is a key resource for its strategic positioning. Consequently, performance expectations from universities' institutional environments are passed on to the academic staff to ensure uniform goal orientation. Indeed, most university performance criteria strongly depend on the performance of the university's professors (Engwall et al., 2023). Consequently, the appointment of professors is a highly significant decision for universities (Harley et al., 2004; Harroche & Musselin, 2023, Vol. 87). It is, therefore, not surprising that recent studies have underscored that academic recruiting processes are affected by managerialization (Harley et al., 2004; Mantai & Marrone, 2023; Reymert, 2022). Despite this recent research on the reactions of universities, we know relatively little about how the requirements for professorships have evolved over time and how the new requirements may affect collegiality in universities. Understanding this long-term trend is crucial, as these new requirements may have strong and frequently direct effects on the behavior of the professoriate as well as on relationships and collaboration between professors. Thus, the increasing managerialization apparent in academic recruiting may challenge and erode academic collegiality as the modus operandi of universities (Kallio et al., 2016; Mignot-Gérard et al., 2022; Sahlin & Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2016, 2023, Vol. 86). The purpose of our research is to study how the managerialization of higher education has changed the requirements for applicants to university professorships. Based on this analysis, we draw conclusions about the consequences for collegiality in universities. Empirically, we focus on how job requirements for professorships have changed over time by performing a descriptive analysis of the total of 579 job advertisements for professorships in Business, Economics, and Sociology at German universities published in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010 in Die Zeit – a German weekly newspaper in which professorships are generally advertised. In our study, we consider these job advertisements to be a statement of a university's expectations of its future professors (Mantai & Marrone, 2023). In this context, Germany is a fruitful research setting for two reasons. First, there is a historically rooted academic model based on collegial governance (Hüther & Krücken, 2016; Kehm, 2013), which was expected to be strongly affected by rationalization efforts associated with competition. Second, in German universities, this new form of rationalization is apparent but still ongoing. In this regard, Germany is also an interesting context for discussion of the potential unintended consequences of these developments. Our findings show that the requirements listed in job advertisements for professorships have become more differentiated and measurable. Competitive aspects such as third-party funding, international orientation, or publications have particularly become increasingly important. These requirements reflect the core criteria that define a successful academic in the modern university and, in the aggregate of all professors, the criteria of a successful university. More specific and measurable requirements make the appointment process more manageable with regard to the goals of the university and thus reflect attempts to rationalize. At the same time, the implementation of measurable criteria may affect academic collegiality within the faculty in terms of the two dimensions of collegiality elaborated by Sahlin and Eriksson-Zetterquist (2023, Vol. 86), that is, the role of faculty in decision-making processes (vertical collegiality) and social relations and companionship based on shared norms (horizontal collegiality), which we will subsequently discuss in more detail. German Universities in Transition The Historical German Academic Model Higher education systems and the academic labor market are historically anchored and nationally specific (Krücken & Meier, 2006; Ramirez, 2010). Despite the homogenization efforts under the Bologna reforms of 1999, they differ considerably between European countries (Dobbins et al., 2011; Musselin, 2005). In Germany, higher education was particularly influenced by the ideas of Wilhelm von Humboldt at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. It is characterized by the combination of research and teaching; academic freedom (often expressed as Lehr- and Lernfreiheit); education rather than training; the idea of the unity of science and scholarship; and the community of students and teachers. (Östling, 2020, p. 63) The role of the academic community is thereby central not only to research but also to the governance of universities, as universities in Germany are traditionally understood to be self-governing communities of scholars (Dobbins et al., 2011). That is, a high level of academic autonomy and strong self-administration protect the interests of the professoriate and reflect academic collegiality as the modus operandi in German universities (Enders, 2001; Hüther & Krücken, 2016; Schimank, 2005). In line with this, within the traditional collegial academic governance system, a university rector was "primus inter pares," elected by the academic community, and charged with representing the professoriate's interests, without intervening in the core activities of teaching and research (Enders, 2001; Sahlin & Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2016). Such rectors typically act based on a collegial approach, as they commit to serving the academic community (Sahlin & Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2016). This historical academic model enjoyed a strong reputation worldwide (Östling, 2020) and is largely shaped by its traditional recruitment, promotion, and appointment policies (Enders, 2001). The traditional postdoctoral academic university career in Germany was characterized by a habilitation system (Hüther & Krücken, 2018). This system typically consisted of three phases: first, the preparation for habilitation, usually in a temporary civil servant position; second, attaining a habilitation and subsequently becoming a so-called "private lecturer" (Privatdozent), authorized to teach but not endowed with a professorial position; and third, after successful application, appointment to a professorship or a chair at another university by the respective federal state (Enders, 2001). The appointment procedures at German universities are historically regulated by the government of each federal state (Ferlie et al., 2008) and differ considerably in detail between these. However, a commonality is that academic self-administration plays a central role (Kleimann, 2019) and, as a general pattern for these procedures, the following applies (see for more detail, Enders, 2001; Hüther & Krücken, 2018): An appointment commission is established by the faculty, composed of professors, representatives of the mid-level academics (akademischer Mittelbau), an equal opportunities officer, and student representatives. The position and key requirements for the specific professorship are then defined and subsequently announced in a public job advertisement. The appointment commission reviews the application documents and invites prospective candidates for interviews and oral presentations. Following this, the appointment committee asks external reviewers (professors in the field of the advertised professorship at other universities) to evaluate the remaining candidates. The resulting shortlist of candidates for the vacant position must then be confirmed by several academic bodies, including, for example, the academic senate. Historically, the federal state (its Ministry of Education) chose one of the applicants and offered this person a Ruf (a call). More recently, in several federal states, the appointment decision has been delegated to the university leadership (Hüther & Krücken, 2018; Schimank, 2005). Negotiations between the candidate and the university determine the final appointment of the new professor. Against the backdrop that German professors receive permanent employment contracts (i.e., an appointment as a tenured civil servant) and enjoy a high degree of academic freedom (Enders, 2001; Hüther & Krücken, 2018), it is not surprising that the appointment procedures were and still are strictly regulated by the government of each federal state (Ferlie et al., 2008; Hamann, 2019). Nonetheless, in the traditional appointment system, the faculty was granted a central and decisive role in the selection of appropriate candidates. Rationalization and Managerialization Attempts in German Universities The traditional German academic model is now contrasted by a new rationality, characterized by a much more managerial understanding of the university, in which competition for resources and reputation has become central (Drori et al., 2016; Gumport, 2019; Harley et al., 2004; Y.-N. Lee & Walsh, 2022). A number of events have contributed to this development. First, several reforms over the past several decades were particularly significant for developments in higher education in Germany. This began in 1998 with the fourth amendment to the Framework Act for Higher Education (Hochschulrahmengesetz), which served to equalize the academic systems between the federal states (Hüther & Krücken, 2018). In addition, the pan-European Bologna process for harmonizing student programs, initiated in 1999, facilitated comparison and competition between universities throughout Europe (Enders, 2001; Fischer & Kampkötter, 2017; Hüther & Krücken, 2018). Second, with respect to research activities, international rankings, which began to flourish in the 2000s and 2010s (Hedmo et al., 2001; Sahlin, 2013; Wilbers & Brankovic, 2021), further drove competition between universities around the world, including in Germany (Hüther & Krücken, 2018; Krücken, 2020). Third, from 2000 on, the German "Excellence Initiative" (Exzellenzinitiative) particularly underscored the need to strive for excellence. This initiative was the German government's response to the EU's Lisbon Program of 2000, in which the EU member states committed to investing in their education and science systems to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. The Excellence Initiative was intended to strengthen Germany as a center of science, improve its international competitiveness, and make top-level research at German universities visible. A total of 4.6 billion euros in funding was thereby made available to the 44 German universities that successfully applied to the program (Fischer & Kampkötter, 2017; Hüther & Krücken, 2018). The Excellence Initiative pushed competition between universities and reinforced the focus on excellence in research and corresponding measurable performance indicators (Fischer & Kampkötter, 2017; Hüther & Krücken, 2018; Kehm, 2013; Krücken, 2020; Östling, 2020). To meet the new expectations and demands emerging from this competition, formal organizational structures and processes were accordingly rationalized at German universities (Hüther & Krücken, 2016). German universities thereby experienced a "shift from a loosely coupled, decentralized expert organization to a strategically acting, managed organization" (Krücken, 2020, p. 165). Indeed, an increasing differentiation of organizational units was seen in universities; they prepared mission statements (Oertel & Söll, 2017) and shifted toward a more professional, management-oriented governance system (Hamann, 2019; Krücken, 2020; Reihlen & Wenzlaff, 2016; Sahlin & Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2016). University leadership is now increasingly staffed with managers, that is, university presidents often come from outside the individual university and are responsible for ensuring progress with the competition-oriented goals of the university (Sahlin & Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2016). Not surprisingly, an award for the best university manager (i.e., president) of the year has been established in Germany. It is awarded, for example, for the integration of structural elements typically found in business organizations, such as sustainability management, into the formal organization of a university. This finding is in line with Bromley and Meyer's (2021) observation that universities, as organizational actors, are expected to expand their goals and vision beyond their core purpose (e.g., by addressing sustainability and health protection issues). Although the academic community in Germany still maintains significant influence and decisions are still made rather collegially compared to other countries (Krücken, 2020), in the new paradigm, university leadership gains power and influence relative to the academic community. For example, some responsibilities for research and teaching agendas have shifted from the academic community to university leadership and the external actors with whom it has contracted (Ferlie et al., 2008; Fleming, 2022; Musselin, 2005). It is argued that these developments have weakened the role of the academic community in decision-making within universities (Kehm, 2013). These developments have also affected procedures for the appointment of professors, which have changed since the 2000s (Hüther & Krücken, 2018). Power in the professorial recruitment process has shifted from the faculty and the state to university leadership (Hamann, 2019). Subsequently, university leadership has aimed to rationalize professorial recruitment, for example, by providing appointment guidelines and criteria to which the faculties must adhere. The collegial decision-making process has thus been altered by managerial practices to formalize it in line with the new competitive goals of the university. Moreover, final decision-making power in appointment procedures is increasingly concentrated in the president's office (Hamann, 2019). As Harley et al. (2004, p. 337) describe: It is suggested that the introduction of strong management structures, modern management techniques, performance related pay, the abolition of lifetime employment, and the evaluation of teaching and research would make universities competitive and efficient organizations. These rationalization efforts by the university are said to diminish the role of the faculty community in selecting future colleagues (Harley et al., 2004; Reymert, 2022; van den Brink et al., 2013). Analysis of Job Advertisements for Professorships at German Universities, 1990–2010 In light of these developments in the higher education system, how should researchers demonstrate and investigate this focus on the new rationality at German universities? In our study, we analyze job advertisements for professorships and examine how the tasks and requirements that universities communicate to applicants have changed over time. We argue that academic job advertisements represent the qualifications universities are seeking and therefore reflect what they consider to be their organizational needs with respect to their competitive goals (Mantai & Marrone, 2023; Rafaeli & Oliver, 1998; Reymert, 2022). The announcement of a vacant position in public job advertisements is part of the appointment process, and, as illustrated above, these processes may be superficially diverse but are similar at their core. We will, therefore, not analyze in great detail the complex decision-making processes and criteria applied in the selection of applicants (for an overview of studies on this, see Hüther & Krücken, 2018). This is because we neither can generalize as to who may be responsible for the emphasis on specific requirements in academic job advertisements, nor is this crucial for our study. On the contrary, we argue that recurring patterns in academic job advertisements should be understood as socially constructed. They result from implicit or even unconscious isomorphic processes that reflect a variety of expectations, demands, and actors in society (Rafaeli & Oliver, 1998). With regard to the changes at universities outlined above, we thus argue that the job advertisements will be found to be increasingly shaped by managerialization and competition (Mantai & Marrone, 2023). Indeed, we assume that the requirements in job advertisements correspond to a large extent with the ongoing changes to the understanding of the objectives of universities (Bromley & Meyer, 2021) in the sense of a means-ends relationship. To succeed competitively, universities define criteria in job advertisements that favor their competitive position. The criteria in job advertisements, thus, represent a proxy for the imagined relationship between means (specific profiles of future professors) and ends (favorable competitive positioning of the university). Data and Analysis The data in our study are based on job advertisements for professorships at German universities published in Die Zeit – the central outlet for academic job advertisements in Germany – in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010. This time period was chosen because it covered periods of major change in the German higher education system, as illustrated above (Hüther & Krücken, 2018). We focus our analysis on professorships in the social sciences as we consider them to be a "middle ground" in the context of the rationalization trend: between the natural sciences, where research excellence has long been measured (Enders, 2001) and the humanities (in Germany, termed Geisteswissenschaften), where this is not yet common. We consider disciplines in the social sciences to be a fruitful context in which to observe the impact of the current rationalization attempts. Within the social sciences, we chose disciplines that are particularly relevant in Germany in terms of size (student and staff numbers) and are sufficiently similar (overlapping research areas). We therefore focus on the disciplines of Business Administration, Economics,1 and Sociology. There is a particular affinity within the Business Administration and Economics areas for a more market-oriented understanding of the university and there has been an increasing push for excellence there. Our data collection and analysis can be characterized as follows: First, we collected all job advertisements for university professorships related to business administration, economics, and sociology for the selected years. In a few cases, the assignment of a job advertisement to one of the aforementioned disciplines was not immediately clear, for example, when the position involved not only aspects of business administration but also of communication sciences. Such cases were then examined more closely (e.g., regarding assignment to a specific faculty) and accordingly included in or excluded from the dataset. The final dataset included 579 job advertisements from 81 universities in Germany. Next, we carefully read all job advertisements to gain a better understanding of their content and structure. We then looked more deeply into the job-related descriptions provided in the job advertisement, that is, the tasks and requirements, which are the central subject of our study.2 In a subsequent step, we developed codes for these. We began with an open coding scheme and coded 50 job advertisements from each year. Following discussion, we then standardized the coding criteria, resulting in 11 requirement categories (see Table 1), including more general tasks (e.g., research and teaching) and formal criteria (e.g., habilitation and doctorate) as well as concrete requirements (e.g., publications, third-party funding).3 Table 1. Examples of Job Requirement Coding in the Job Advertisements. Requirement Coding Examples Research Representation of the discipline in research Should be designated in research in the field of the position Be proven by research work Research achievements at the international level Teaching Represents the subject in teaching Teaching experience Teaching in the above fields Teaching on a high didactic level Qualification with regard to assigned teaching duties Participation in the teaching program Habilitation Proof of habilitation in economics Be proven by a habilitation Habilitation is a requirement for employment Doctoral degree A doctorate is a prerequisite for employment Doctoral degree required Scientific achievements (doctoral degree) Should hold a doctoral degree International orientation International research and practical experience Research achievements at the international level Projects at the international level International relations International network International research collaborations Foreign language skills/teaching in English Command of the English language at an appropriate level Ability to offer courses in the English language Third-party funding Third-party funding is expected Experience in the acquisition of third-party funds Implementation of third-party funded projects Publications Proven through relevant publications Scientific publications Evidence of outstanding scientific qualifications through publications in high-quality international journals Relevant publications in national and international journals Participation in academic self-administration Willingness to actively and constructively participate in self-governing bodies of the university is required Participation in academic self-administration of the university Practical (non-academic) work experience Practical professional activity outside the university sector Professional practice in a field corresponding to the subject to be represented Pedagogical skills Recruitment requirement is pedagogical aptitude Appropriate pedagogical aptitude Should have the necessary pedagogical aptitude Third, based on this coding scheme, we trained two student research assistants, who manually coded all job advertisements independently. In addition, we collected general information from each job advertisement, for example, the name of the university, the federal state in which the university was located, the field and focus of the individual professorship, the type of professorship, and the temporary/permanent status of the position. Once coding was complete, we reviewed the coding with the student research assistants and discussed differences until we ensured the coding was consistent. Changes in Job Requirements for Professorships Against the Background of Increasing Rationalization in German Universities We began our analysis by obtaining a more precise overview of whether and in what way the number of coded job requirements per job advertisement for a professorship in Germany had changed over time. The results are provided in Table 2. While job advertisements in the 1990s were shorter and more vague, in the two more recent decades studied, they included more explicit and specific requirements. For example, while a job advertisement in 1990 mentioned an average of 2.38 of the 11 coded requirements (i.e., mainly the general tasks of teaching and research), in 2010, the number had more than doubled to an average of 5.14 requirements per job advertisement. Table 2. Number of Job Advertisements Analyzed Per Year, with Minimum, Maximum, Mean, and SD Number of Job Requirements for Each Year (Max. = 11). Year Number of Job Advertisements Analyzed Number of Requirements Per Job Advertisement Min. Max. Mean Median 1990 96 0 6 2.38 2 1995 96 0 5 2.83 3 2000 90 0 7 3.67 4 2005 114 0 8 4.15 4 2010 182 0 10 5.14 5 This trend is illustrated by the two examples of job advertisements provided in Figs. 1 and 2. Both are job advertisements for professorships in sociology. The first, from 1990, is relatively short and vague. The second, from 2010, is much longer and more detailed, with an extensive catalog of specific requirements. Figure 1 Example of a Job Advertisement for a Professorship in 1990, translated and replicated by the authors based on a German language Job Advertisement by Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, published in Die Zeit (1990, Issue 24, p. 55). The representation is not true to original and the university logo included in the original is omitted. Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences has a vacancy for a Professorship (C 4) in Sociology beginning in the 1990/91 winter semester. Applications are sought from academics who, in addition to general Sociology, are also qualified in the field of empirical social research and in areas related to Economics. We especially welcome applications from qualified female academics. Applications, including the customary documents, must be sent by July 2, 1990, to the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Professor Dr. Jürgen Hauschildt, Olshausenstraße 40, D-2300 Kiel 1. Figure 2 Example of a Job Advertisement for a Professorship in 2010, translated and replicated by the authors based on a German language Job Advertisement by University of Bayreuth published in Die Zeit (2010, Issue 50, p. 7). The representation is not true to original and the university logo included in the original is omitted. UNIVERSITY OF BAYREUTH W2 Professorship in Political Sociology The University of Bayreuth is a research-oriented university with an internationally competitive and interdisciplinary-oriented research and teaching profile. The Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Bayreuth has a vacancy for a tenured including permanent civil servant status, beginning on October 1, 2011. Applicants should have a proven track record of research in the fields of political sociology, social structure analysis, and institutional studies as well as relevant publications in national and international journals. An international comparative quantitative orientation with a focus on North Ame
Referência(s)