1. The academic middle manager shaping the
landscape between policy and practice:
The Change Prism
Ton Kallenberg
Leiden University - The Netherlands
Paper Presentation BELMAS 2014
Educational Policy and Practice: Can leaders shape the landscape?
Stratford upon Avon, England, 11-13 july 2014

2. 1. Introduction
1.Introduction to the research
2.the academic middle
manager
3.Research methods and
results
4.Conclusions
5.Questions & dialogue

3. Higher Education is dynamic and
competitive...
changes on:
regional level
national level
international level
increasing
competition
* for the student
* for the researcher
* for the teacher
changes in:
cooperation with firms, schools and
demographics (aging, cultural variety)
legislation (step down government);
performance-oriented financing; Quality
assurance (not only used to improve but also
for accountability and accreditation)
system change of European HE - BaMa
system
not only in region but also European and
global competitiveness
they expect excellence, high ranking, image,
extras
result = expansion, mergers, formation of (thematic) consortia and other forms of
(administrative) cooperation between HE-institutions.

4. This gives an impulse for strategic
innovation ...
Not only initial education and research, but
also:
• post-initial education
• applied scientific research
• external financed projects
• extra resources and differentiations
• forms of alliances and coalitions
• more focus in image
Strategic innovation is an intentional
movement to obtain a fortified position of
the institute relative to others.

5. So the problem statement
resulting from this is ...
HE institutions have to innovate.
If not (or insufficiently):
they lose the competition (for students,
research-grants, image, etc.), their role
becomes smaller, programs will disappear
(esp. Masters!)

6. But: HE institutions are large
organizations with many clashes
of interest ...
• tension of focus: centralization versus
decentralization (central staff vs faculties)
• tension of functions: administrators
(managerial efficiency) versus professionals
(content quality)
• tension of initiative: top-down versus bottom-
up (and vice-versa)
• tension of interest: education versus research
• tension of control: hierarchy versus
collegiality

7. Result: Strategic innovations are
difficult to implement
Innovation in large organizations often prove
viscous and unmanageable, without real
clarity of reasons.
In particular the translation of strategic ideas
to operational level results in many clashes of
interest.
“Changing a university is like moving a
graveyard:
not entire impossible,
but don’t expect any cooperation from
within.”

8. ...is integrally responsible for program curricula,
from strategy
- including participation in decisions on
institutional strategy and responsibility for
School/faculty strategy -
through to educational management
- including control of education and research
programs and student relations
within the governing board’s parameters.
(Kallenberg, 2007)
who’s in the centre of the clashes
of interest?
the academic middle manager !
“You’re damned if you do
and you’re damned if you
don’t.”
“You’re in the line of fire
whether you want it or not”

10. The academic middle manager holds
an paradoxical in-between position
possibilities:
• unique ‘(tacit) knowledge’ basis (he knows what’s
happening in the organization)
• integrates strategic information with operational
information (and vice versa)
• is in position to speak and negotiate with
stakeholders in the organization on strategic,
organizational and operational level.
in short:
the prism effect of the
academic middle manager
is that he select, interprets
and synthesizes
information and uses this
information in a custom
way elsewhere in the
organization.
constraints:
• encapsulated in processes
• imbalance in role expectations and freedom of
action
• accountable, but no authorization
• leadership is expected, but account with reference
to managerial targets, etc.

11. Yet it’s roles had hardly been
researched.
So it’s not clear which influence they
have.
Therefore this research!
Research Question:
Which roles does an academic
middle manager in HE perform during
strategic innovations?
Secondary questions:
Which factors affect these roles?
Who’s the academic
middle manager?

12. Conceptual Framework

13. Method
• literature research
• survey (2009) - HE in the Netherlands:
14 universities + 44 universities of applied
sciences
• 750 random selected mail-addresses:
304 respondents - 246 in dataset (33,37%)
• interviews
Average view of the respondents: mostly man (61,2%) of 50,96 year old and the vast
majority (81,2%) has a fulltime employment. Their education is at academic level (51,4%
MA / 39,6% PhD). They are faithful to their employer (14,48 year on the same institute)
and their salary is about 5.700 Euro (month). They work for about 5 years as AMM (but
80,7% shorter than 7 years in this function). 44,1% did an additional training on
educational management. They are satisfied with their job (7,9 on 10-scale).

14. From To
Character Professionalism Managerialism
Focus Intern oriented and control Management of external relations
Ambition Leaders with own academic
career
Leaders with managerial driving
forces
Appointment Temporarily part time position Permanent full time position
Focus on Learning of students
Academic values
Professional autonomy
Efficiency of students
Efficiency / effectivity
Common output
Control Democratic governance model Hierarchic professional model /
integral management
Trends in the perception on the roles
of the academic middle manager

15. Results (1): Roles of the academic middle manager
(Kallenberg, 2013)

16. Results (2): Roles of the academic
middle manager
general:
• roles Quinn & Rohrbauch do not fit on the population
academic middle managers in the Netherlands
• academic middle managers fulfill four types of
activities that fit on the quadrants
• the Diplomat role is the strongest completed role
subgroups:
• no difference in role fulfillment between men and
women
• difference in role fulfillment between universities and
universities of applied sciences
• small difference in role fulfillment between directors
(Diplomat) and managers (Constructor, Guide,
Guard)
• Academic middle managers with direct contact with
the board fulfill the role Diplomat in a stronger way

17. Guard Guide Diplomat Constructor
Complexity (context) ⬆ ⬆ ,16
Dynamic ⬆ ⬆ ,20 ⬆ ,18
Unpredictability ⬇ ⬆ ,18 ⬆ ,22
Decision-making ⬆ ⬆ ,20
Informal structure ⬆ ⬇ ,20 ⬇ ,23 ⬇ ,23
Complexity (structure)
Identity
Unwritten rules
External orientation
Autonomy ⬆ ⬆ ,35 ⬆ ,17
Engagement ⬆ ⬆ ,22 ⬆ ,31 ⬆ ,31
Authority
Vision on education ⬆ ⬆ ,22 ⬆ ,34
contextstructureculture
organizationalvariablesfunction
related
variables
Results (3): Effect of organizational and
position related variables on the
fulfillment of roles

18. Examples of strategic innovation
starting new
concepts:
f.i. new programs,
merging, formation
of (thematic)
consortia
improving existing
concepts: f.i. better
guidance of
students to improve
the efficiency /
output
fit existing concepts:
renew the dated
educational concept
(f.i. introduction
PBL)
stop existing
concepts: f.i. repel
of differentiations,
specialisations, etc.
0,9%
42,2% 26,5%
30,4%

19. Results (4) Strategic innovations
AMM’s universities: especially examples of revitalize
AMM’s univ applied sciences: esp. examples of transform
men: steady examples of the three types
women: esp. examples of transform
On the base of logistic regression analysis:
Revitalize Transform Explore
Gender women -,725** man 1,047**
Age ⬆ ,165**
Guard ⬆ ,544** ⬇ -,514*
Diplomat ⬇ -,702** ⬆ 1,503***
Complexity (context) ⬇ -,631**
Informal structure ⬆ ,328** ⬇ -,344*
Identity ⬇ -,364** ⬆ ,373*
External orientation ⬆ ,887**
Educational vision ⬆ ,563*

20. Conclusions:
• Academic middle managers fulfill four types of roles in (Dutch) higher
education: Guard, Guide, Diplomat, Constructor
• Cultural variables do not have influence on role fulfilling.
(other organizational variables just a small influence)
• The Diplomat role is influenced by autonomy and engagement
• The Constructor role is influenced by engagement and vision on
Education
• The Guard and Guide role are confined influenced
• The prism effect arises for the most in the role of Diplomat
(In this role he selects, interprets and synthesizes information and uses
this information in a custom way elsewhere in the organization.)
• Do you want to have strategic innovation (“explore”)?
Find a Diplomat for the job !

21. Conclusions:
Meaning of the research
Opportunities in educational organizations (for instance):
• use of the role-instrument in combination with the examples - to determine “the
right man in the right place” (f.i. job interviews).
• accommodate the influencing factors in such a way that the academic middle
manager performs better.
• outline management development programs which are aimed at the enhancing of
the specific tools of academic middle managers
Thanks to this research, knowledge is created:
• who are the academic middle manager, how they are
positioned, and what they do,
• which factors influence the roles of academic middle
managers,
• about the relationship between the rolefulfilling and their
preference for types of strategic innovations (towards
examples).

22. Thank you for your attention:
You are invited to download the presentation on:
www.slidesharenet.com/tonkallenberg
The paper will be available on:
https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/TonKallenberg