scholarly journals Alternatives to managerialism in higher education and science

Upravlenets ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 44-56
Author(s):  
Vyacheslav Volchik ◽  
Maksim Koryttsev ◽  
Elena Maslyukova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Group Research ◽  
Regulation Mechanisms ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Institutional Traps ◽  
Oriented Approach

Commitment to efficiency amid the implementation of competition principles and the market-oriented approach stimulates the emergence of contradictory tendencies such as commoditization and bureaucratization of higher education and science. The paper explores the dissemination of ideas of managerialism and related institutional traps in academic environment. Methodologically, the study rests on original institutional economics and the theory of reforms for analyzing institutional traps in the education and academic sphere. The authors apply qualitative methods and focus group research to identify possible alternatives to managerialism. Using data from three focus groups, we analyze institutional traps in education and science and the mechanisms for eliminating them through identification of opinions, values and experience of respondents (actors). The study underlines that there is a need for considering principles, models and regulation mechanisms in education and science alternative to managerialism. They are being formed either in the context of rules, routines, norms and management technologies emerging as a result of evolution and actors’ adaptation to the changing environment, or as processes deliberately planned and developed within academic self-government and self-organization and/or as a result of state policy. The research develops alternative management mechanisms in the field of education and science with reference to the identified institutional traps and actors that can act as bearers of these alternatives in academic community.

scholarly journals Using Focus Group Research in Exploring the Relationships between Youth, Risk and Social Position

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Merryweather
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Group Method ◽  
Conversational Interaction ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Group Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Focus Group Method

This paper draws upon current research to consider the value of the focus group method for exploring the relationships between youth, risk and social position. Groups comprising young people occupying similar social positions were used to generate talk about aspects of everyday life regarded as risk. Through the processes of conversational interaction facilitated by the focus group method, participants co-produced detailed risk narratives, understood here in Bourdieu's terms as product and producer of the habitus related to social position. Using data from several of the focus groups I illustrate how the method was especially useful in generating narratives indicative of how risks were experienced and understood in different ways according to social positions of class, gender and ethnicity. Such risk narratives also reproduced distinctions between and within different social positions. Consideration is given to certain limitations of the focus group method in respect of this research. Ultimately, however, the ability of the method to generate collaborative narratives reflective of shared social position is viewed as an invaluable means for developing a rich and nuanced account of the relations between youth and risk.

scholarly journals 2010 British General Election Leader Evaluations: Replicating Electoral Focus Group Research

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristi Winters ◽  
Edzia Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
General Election ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Data Coding ◽  
Group Research ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Using Data

This research replicates and expands upon the qualitative electoral research of Winters and Campbell by using data from focus groups conducted in Essex, England to coincide with three leadership debates during the 2010 British general election. The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QES Britain) broadly replicated Winters and Campbell’s research design but includes innovations in data collection to more accurately capture assessments. This innovation means the data coding are based entirely on the evaluations of the participants. In our analysis we innovate in the way we display each leader’s unique evaluation structure. To capture the salience and direction of leadership assessments, we convey the dimensionality of popular perceptions for Brown, Cameron and Clegg using colour and scaling. Our results produce qualitatively informed evaluation structures for each party leader that contextualize quantitative survey findings. Although this case study is limited to a geographically specific group of participants, our results mirror the quantitative BES results. Such similarity in the qualitative and quantitative results increases our confidence that our results provide useful insights into the associations and evaluations ordinary people used in their assessments of the main political party leaders.

scholarly journals Formation of Alternative Approaches to the Modern Reform of Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-115
Author(s):  
Maxim A. Korytsev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
New Public ◽  
Negative Side Effects ◽  
Institutional Traps

One of the general factors that determined the direction of development and, at the same time, large-scale reform of higher education in many countries of the world was the widespread use of various technologies of new public management (NPM) as modern and popular management tools in public sector. Their application was supported and substantiated by the ideology of the new managerialism, which involves the active use of these technologies, along with stimulating the development of a competitive environment through quasi-market institutional approaches. The success of reforming higher education should be linked with the readiness to overcome these traps by significantly adjusting the vector of strategic changes, which should take into account the peculiarities of the logic of the functioning and reproduction of the professional academic community, involve it in the development of strategies for the development of universities, and the development of approaches to assess the effectiveness of their activities. The emergence of the number of institutional traps, stable self-replicating institutional norms, which generally negatively affect the results of higher education's functioning, are tested as negative side effects of the modern reforms. There are the traps of metrics, budget underfunding, human resources, bureaucratization, informatization and digitalization, and others. The values and expectations of the academic community, the features of the professional activities of its various components should be taken into account.

The Handbook for Focus Group Research.

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 39 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Group Research

Recognizing Job Apathy Patterns of Iraqi Higher Education Employees Using Data Mining Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa S. Abd ◽  
Suhad Faisal Behadili
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Data Mining ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Human Life ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Attribute Selection ◽  
Specific Class ◽  
Data Mining Techniques ◽  
Using Data

Psychological research centers help indirectly contact professionals from the fields of human life, job environment, family life, and psychological infrastructure for psychiatric patients. This research aims to detect job apathy patterns from the behavior of employee groups in the University of Baghdad and the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This investigation presents an approach using data mining techniques to acquire new knowledge and differs from statistical studies in terms of supporting the researchers’ evolving needs. These techniques manipulate redundant or irrelevant attributes to discover interesting patterns. The principal issue identifies several important and affective questions taken from a questionnaire, and the psychiatric researchers recommend these questions. Useless questions are pruned using the attribute selection method. Moreover, pieces of information gained through these questions are measured according to a specific class and ranked accordingly. Association and a priori algorithms are used to detect the most influential and interrelated questions in the questionnaire. Consequently, the decisive parameters that may lead to job apathy are determined.

scholarly journals Conducting focus groups in neurodegenerative disease populations: ethical and methodological considerations

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e041869
Author(s):  
Annabel Jones ◽  
Philippa Morgan-Jones ◽  
Monica Busse ◽  
Victoria Shepherd ◽  
Fiona Wood
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Neurodegenerative Disease ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Group Research ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Impact Data ◽  
Based Medicine

BackgroundInvolvement of vulnerable populations in research is critical to inform the generalisability of evidence-based medicine to all groups of the population.ObjectiveIn this communication, we reflect on our previous research, and that of other authors, to identify and explore key ethical and methodological considerations.DiscussionFocus groups are a widely implemented qualitative methodology, but their use, particularly in vulnerable neurodegenerative disease populations, is not straightforward. Although the risk of harm is generally low in focus group research, neurodegenerative disease populations are particularly vulnerable to issues relating to comprehension and their capacity to consent. Physical and cognitive impairments may also affect social interactions among participants and therefore impact data collection and analyses.ConclusionWe offer a number of ethical and methodological recommendations to facilitate the processes of recruitment and data collection when conducting focus groups with neurodegenerative disease populations.

scholarly journals Organizational Change Management in Higher Education through the Lens of Executive Coaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 269
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Vlachopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Change Management ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Organizational Change Management ◽  
Executive Coaches ◽  
Leadership In Higher Education ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Higher Education Leaders

This study investigated perceptions of organizational change management among executive coaches working with British higher-education leaders and factors that make leaders effective when managing change. This basic qualitative research used semi-structured interviews with eight executive coaches selected through purposeful sampling. As main challenges to efficient, inclusive change management, participants mentioned leaders’ lack of a strategic vision or plan, lack of leadership and future leader development programs, and lack of clarity in decision-making. They recognized that leaders’ academic and professional profiles are positively viewed and said that, with coaching and support in leadership and strategic planning, these people can inspire the academic community and promote positive change. Additional emphasis was given to the role of coaching in the development of key soft skills (honesty, responsibility, resiliency, creativity, proactivity, and empathy, among others), which are necessary for effective change management and leadership in higher education. The paper’s implications have two aspects. First, the lessons of the actual explicit content of the coaches’ observations (challenges to efficient change management and views of leaders); second, the implications of these observations (how coaching can help and what leaders need).

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