A typical university in the Netherlands is a big organisation, with thousands of employees. It is plausible to expect that people in top management roles may have a different view on execution of policies from those who are experiencing change from the department floor. But the top management also does not have all the strings in their hands. In fact, the semi-autonomous steering of departments and research institutions has been seen as one of the success factors for a thriving university. At the same time, a modern research university is much more complex than “a collection of departments connected only by a central heating system.”
In a previous post I had expressed my hesitation that steering from the central management, often compared with changing course of a container-ship, may be impossible without cooperation of the local managers:
“Some who believe in transforming the system from within, and are patient and organization-savvy enough to reach the higher decks of leadership (way up), may reach the captains tower, only to see that the metaphor was not that precise: There is no container ship; just a big flotilla of small and big boats sailing alongside each other, competing for the wind, pulling and pushing each other. Each boat has its own sailor and each sailor its own perception of the right path.”
This does not mean that the central management is powerless. They are writing the rules and policies, have a big say on filling in the leadership positions, and they have the big asymmetric advantage of early reporting signal.
Utrecht University has been one of the early adopters of transforming their recognition and rewards processes according the diversified and qualitative principles that strongly align with an open science mindset. Because of this head-start, several policies have already been executed long enough for assessment and reflection from the work-floor.
In the coming three episodes of the Fairly Recognised podcasts, I present 3 different experiences with the execution and results of the reform programme at Utrecht University.
My first interview is with prof. Henk Kummeling, who was the rector magnificus (vice-chancellor) and a member of the University board when the programme was firs rolled out, He is currently the chair of the steering board of CoARA, an international coalition on reforming research assessment.
