Structured relations between higher education institutions and external organisations: opportunity or bureaucratisation?

Abstract

This paper explores the introduction of centrally coordinated initiatives aimed at formalising universities' relationships to external organisations. Such initiatives are referred to as structured relations. Based on a review of nine Swedish Universities, we identify three types of structured relation initiatives (network events, collaboration platforms, partnership agreements). In common for all structured relations identified are that they offer new opportunities to manage external expectations on universities, in particular as regards their ability to demonstrate their commitment to outreach activities. The formalisation of outreach activities challenges the academic tradition of giving individual professors discretionary mandates to enter and manage external relationships. Drawing on a collective action perspective, we analyse the tensions that are generated when universities introduce new elements of support and central coordination of outreach activities. The introduction of structured relations potentially contributes to changing the nature of the university as an organisation.

When Average Joe met the Inexperienced Superstar—a case study of the consequences for a university of a partnership with IKEA

“…However, there are a few that deal with the overall consequences for universities related to internal dynamics stemming from university-wide industrial collaboration. Broström et al (2019) put forward a useful conceptualization of formalized university-wide collaborative efforts referred to as structured relations. Drawing on collective action theory, the authors describe how these efforts include an individual dilemma concerning the choice between contributing positively to university-wide consequences by sharing external relations, or keeping these relations to oneself and reaping individual-level benefits.…”

“…On the university-wide level, societal collaboration represents opportunities to strengthen the university's visibility, but also has implications for resource dependencies and appropriation of knowledge that may present challenges for the public good character of research and education (Pinheiro et al 2015a(Pinheiro et al , 2015b. The variety of ways in which these resources are mobilized on different levels may create not just opportunities but also internal tensions, such as when university top management see significant university-wide benefits and set up collaborative arrangements that put pressure on faculty to engage even in the perceived absence of individual level benefits (Perez Vico and Hallonsten 2017;Broström et al 2019).…”

“…This is partly driven by external pressures that create aspirations among university managements to signal that they are willing and able to collaborate with external actors, and subsequently increase their chances to strengthen their branding and competitiveness while reducing their dependence on state resources. However, the actual undertaking of university-wide collaborative efforts induced and organized by top management is critically dependent on faculty engagement (Broström et al 2019). Thus, in order to better understand the conditions for undertaking and organizing university-wide collaborative efforts, it is important to capture and explain how various consequences stemming from such efforts affect actors operating at different organizational levels including both faculty individuals and groups as well as university-wide.…”

Technical Universities: A Historical Perspective

“…The relations to industry remain strong and they have become more institutionalised and structured. It has become commonplace to initiate strategic partnerships with industrial partners, showing responsibility and long-term commitment to major societal challenges (Broström et al 2019). This is also linked to increased focus on branding and corporate behaviour in line with some technical universities being described as entrepreneurial (Clark 1998).…”

Organisational Identities, Boundaries, and Change Processes of Technical Universities

“…In an organisation where an engineering-dominated culture prevails, leaders may be expected to be more unrestrained e.g. in regard to prioritisation and in shaping relationships to external actors (Broström et al 2019).…”