Bureaucratic, Professional and Managerial Power in University Tenure Track Recruitment

In this chapter, our interest lies in analysing the different powers in recruitment and, particularly, how they are manifested in the new tenure track model in technical fields in Finland. Traditionally, recruitment in higher education has mostly relied on the bureaucratic application of processes and on academics, representing professional power, evaluating academic merit. The new university legislation, granting universities more autonomy in recruiting, has allowed the development of increasingly strategic recruitment models. The novel tenure track recruitment criteria exceed traditional notions of individual merits to include assessments of the strategic visions of universities and departments. We see the use of the tenure track model as a shift both in the recruitment for identity building related to the technical university’s strategy and as a shift in using more managerial power in recruitment. We use a case study approach where we look at recruitment in a similar field in two different kinds of universities utilising tenure track, and we examine how bureaucratic, managerial and professional powers are manifested in the processes. The comparisons are used to highlight the powers in the tenure track process in a technical university.

Beyond Hirsh-index: Status signals among Russian researchers

The article presents the results of a study of signals conveying positive or negative messages about social scientists. We surveyed sociologists actively publishing in the Russian language (N = 810). Subjects were asked to respond to a hypothetical situation in which they were to assess CVs of a fictional applicant for a grant competition. Attributes of scholars comprising a standard academic biography differed markedly both in their salience and in the degree of consensus about their importance. A book written single-handedly was the most unanimously recognized symbol of academic merit among Russian sociologists. The least agreement was about the signals related to the presence at the international intellectual scene (teaching in a “well-known European university”, publishing in international periodicals) and to the participation in dissertation production (supervising or serving as a reviewer of many dissertations). Importance of these groups of signals depends on the overall orientation to the local or global audience and age. There were much more consensus about the attributes in different ways discrediting scientists, such as plagiarizing or multiple publications.

Are Twitter and Blogs Important Tools for the Modern Psychological Scientist?

Psychological scientists have many roles, one of which is, arguably, to communicate their research findings to a broader audience. Twitter and blogging offer relatively inexpensive options for this type of outreach. Engagement in these outreach efforts can lead to career enhancement, but also comes at a cost. We examined a sample of 327 psychological scientists to determine the prevalence of this type of outreach; while the use of Twitter appears to be on the rise, blogging remains very rare. In this piece, we explore the costs and benefits for psychological scientists of blogging and engaging with the general public on Twitter, and how tweeting and blogging might relate to academic merit and varieties of fame in psychology.