{"id":84831,"date":"2019-04-17T06:11:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T04:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/eksperter-eliteadministrationen-handler-om-magt-og-frygt-for-at-fejle\/"},"modified":"2019-04-17T09:22:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T07:22:10","slug":"experts-elite-administration-is-about-power-and-the-fear-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/experts-elite-administration-is-about-power-and-the-fear-of-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts: Elite administration is about power, and the fear of failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of administrative specialists has tripled in the past 20 years at the University of Copenhagen while the number of secretaries has been almost halved.<\/p>\n

But while management at the University of Copenhagen explains the trend by pointing to an increased complexity in administrative tasks, several experts and observers say that the root cause is a culture of control and fear of failure.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThere has been a dramatic build-up of power and skills around top management and the university’s central administration relative to previous years. Management structures have changed,\u00ab says one of the country’s most experienced experts in public management, emeritus professor J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen of the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University.<\/p>\n

They carried out reforms, so to speak, that made room for people who enjoy power<\/p>\n

Emeritus professor J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00bbThey carried out reforms, so to speak, that made room for people who enjoy power,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

Reforms in recent years including the change of the funding system has created an increased need for administrative specialists who can help write complex EU and funding applications and manage students and finances.<\/p>\n

But according to J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen, the external changes in the university community are only part of the explanation. The other part of the explanation is an increase in top-down management and interference which is making universities more bureaucratic and inefficient:<\/p>\n

“You also see it in many other countries. The previously informal procedures at the universities now take longer because of the internal centralization and control. Considerably more resources are spent on study programme administration today, and there are far more deadlines and work procedures than before,\u00ab says J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: Elite administrators have taken over Danish universities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have become scared of making mistakes<\/h2>\n

Anthropologist and author of the book Pseudoarbejde<\/em> or \u2018pseudo work\u2019 Dennis N\u00f8rmark points out that the fear of failure means that administrative resources are being spent on unnecessary tasks.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThey claim that the administration of a public institution is more complicated today. But we also complicate things ourselves. We have become so afraid of making mistakes. They therefore use huge sums on hiring lawyers and financial managers who are good at arguing for their own indispensability in a modern institution,\u00ab says Dennis N\u00f8rmark.<\/p>\n

He doubts whether the expensive senior consultants in the administration help make the public institutions better. And at the same time, he questions the logic of, on the one hand employing highly paid specialists in administration, while on the other hand firing secretaries to make savings on the administration budget.<\/p>\n

We have judges, doctors and university professors who do the administrative work that secretaries did in the past.<\/p>\n

Anthropologist Dennis N\u00f8rmark<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00bbThis is a trend we see everywhere in society. We have judges, doctors and university professors who do the administrative work that secretaries did in the past. Ostensibly to afford\u00a0 lawyers, economists and communications staff<\/secret>having offices in the administration to ensure that the public institutions are run professionally and flawlessly. And to avoid negative publicity,\u00ab says Dennis N\u00f8rmark.<\/p>\n

According to Dennis N\u00f8rmark there is no proof that a public institution such as the University of Copenhagen has become better from getting a more professional administration.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThere are a lot of lawyers and economists, telling themselves and each other that the work they do is really useful. The problem is that their logic and thinking is never challenged, because the people who hire them have the same educational background as they do, and think in the same way. You have to, of course, manage and administer things. But it does not make sense that those that have to do research need to spend half a day filling out a travel reimbursement form and are not allowed to buy their own pens,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

Has consequences for academic level<\/h2>\n

Henning J\u00f8rgensen, labour market researcher from Aalborg University, sees the growing administrative elite as part of a New Public Management culture that has characterised universities in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n

New Public Management<\/p>\n

NPM is the idea of running the state as if it was part of the liberal market economy.<\/strong> Many political reforms in Denmark since the 1980s have been shaped by the NPM approach, like for example the privatisation of state-owned monopoly companies and the \u2013 for universities \u2013 policy of placing research funding in foundations, which the universities then have to compete for.<\/p>\n

When it comes to management and administration, NPM has resulted in an objectives and framework management policy, where relatively autonomous and highly paid managers implement objectives defined in contracts<\/strong>, and where the achievement of targets triggers government funding. The University of Copenhagen, for example, has a contract with the Ministry for Higher Education and Research. The trend has been that the politicians over time want to measure more and more things, and this has reduced the freedom in relation to NPM -the ideal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00bbThis trend has been very visible at the University of Copenhagen. It has become a more market liberal university, where benchmarks mean more to management than the prime purpose of universities, namely research and education. Work has become performance, and this means that it is no longer intellectuals that management teams want, but merely intellectual workers,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

According to Henning J\u00f8rgensen, managers see themselves as important and indispensable business leaders.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThe universities have become competitors, and managers compare themselves to business leaders in the private sector. It is therefore also important for them to have many people around them checking and preparing communication strategies, so that they look good relative to the competition.\u00ab<\/p>\n

Henning J\u00f8rgensen says that the cult of competition has consequences for the academic content, and that he is concerned about the new management style, which he calls ‘management by fear’:<\/p>\n

\u00bbThere is a self-imposed silence among staff at universities. You have to look good in the competition and you are afraid of being fired. There are therefore fewer and fewer people who dare to speak out in public about these conditions,,\u00ab says Henning J\u00f8rgensen.<\/p>\n

Translated by Mike Young<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The administrative elite has grown. Both at the University of Copenhagen, and among its competitors. Three experts doubt that this has led to a better university<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":84769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[842],"class_list":["post-84831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-administration-en","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nExperts: Elite administration is about power, and the fear of failure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/experts-elite-administration-is-about-power-and-the-fear-of-failure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Experts: Elite administration is about power, and the fear of failure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The administrative elite has grown. 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is a trend we see everywhere in society. We have judges, doctors and university professors who do the administrative work that secretaries did in the past. Ostensibly to afford lawyers, economists and communications staff having offices in the administration so they can ensure that the public institutions are run professionally and flawlessly. And to avoid negative publicity,\u00ab says Dennis N\u00f8rmark"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"Administration","text":"Tre eksperter kritiserer, at eliteadministrationen er vokset p\u00e5 K\u00f8benhavns Universitet og hos konkurrenterne. De stiller sig tvivlende over for, om det har givet et bedre universitet.","use_post_excerpt":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>The number of administrative specialists has tripled in the past 20 years at the University of Copenhagen while the number of secretaries has been almost halved.<\/p>\n<p>But while management at the University of Copenhagen explains the trend by pointing to an increased complexity in administrative tasks, several experts and observers say that the root cause is a culture of control and fear of failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere has been a dramatic build-up of power and skills around top management and the university’s central administration relative to previous years. Management structures have changed,\u00ab says one of the country’s most experienced experts in public management, emeritus professor J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen of the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>They carried out reforms, so to speak, that made room for people who enjoy power<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Emeritus professor J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00bbThey carried out reforms, so to speak, that made room for people who enjoy power,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>Reforms in recent years including the change of the funding system has created an increased need for administrative specialists who can help write complex EU and funding applications and manage students and finances.<\/p>\n<p>But according to J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen, the external changes in the university community are only part of the explanation. The other part of the explanation is an increase in top-down management and interference which is making universities more bureaucratic and inefficient:<\/p>\n<p>“You also see it in many other countries. The previously informal procedures at the universities now take longer because of the internal centralization and control. Considerably more resources are spent on study programme administration today, and there are far more deadlines and work procedures than before,\u00ab says J\u00f8rgen Gr\u00f8nneg\u00e5rd Christensen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/elite-administrators-have-taken-over-danish-universities\/\">Elite administrators have taken over Danish universities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>We have become scared of making mistakes<\/h2>\n<p>Anthropologist and author of the book <em>Pseudoarbejde<\/em> or \u2018pseudo work\u2019 Dennis N\u00f8rmark points out that the fear of failure means that administrative resources are being spent on unnecessary tasks.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThey claim that the administration of a public institution is more complicated today. But we also complicate things ourselves. We have become so afraid of making mistakes. They therefore use huge sums on hiring lawyers and financial managers who are good at arguing for their own indispensability in a modern institution,\u00ab says Dennis N\u00f8rmark.<\/p>\n<p>He doubts whether the expensive senior consultants in the administration help make the public institutions better. And at the same time, he questions the logic of, on the one hand employing highly paid specialists in administration, while on the other hand firing secretaries to make savings on the administration budget.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have judges, doctors and university professors who do the administrative work that secretaries did in the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Anthropologist Dennis N\u00f8rmark<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00bbThis is a trend we see everywhere in society. We have judges, doctors and university professors who do the administrative work that secretaries did in the past. Ostensibly to afford\u00a0 <secret text=\"Defined as members of the trade union Dj\u00f8f for lawyers, economists, and other academic groups in communication, management etc. The union has 95,000 members, half in the public sector.\">lawyers, economists and communications staff<\/secret>having offices in the administration to ensure that the public institutions are run professionally and flawlessly. And to avoid negative publicity,\u00ab says Dennis N\u00f8rmark.<\/p>\n<p>According to Dennis N\u00f8rmark there is no proof that a public institution such as the University of Copenhagen has become better from getting a more professional administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere are a lot of lawyers and economists, telling themselves and each other that the work they do is really useful. The problem is that their logic and thinking is never challenged, because the people who hire them have the same educational background as they do, and think in the same way. You have to, of course, manage and administer things. But it does not make sense that those that have to do research need to spend half a day filling out a travel reimbursement form and are not allowed to buy their own pens,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<h2>Has consequences for academic level<\/h2>\n<p>Henning J\u00f8rgensen, labour market researcher from Aalborg University, sees the growing administrative elite as part of a New Public Management culture that has characterised universities in recent years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">New Public Management<\/p>\n<p>NPM is the <strong>idea of running the state as if it was part of the liberal market economy.<\/strong> Many political reforms in Denmark since the 1980s have been shaped by the NPM approach, like for example the privatisation of state-owned monopoly companies and the \u2013 for universities \u2013 policy of placing research funding in foundations, which the universities then have to compete for.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to management and administration, NPM has resulted in an objectives and framework management policy, where relatively <strong>autonomous and highly paid managers implement objectives defined in contracts<\/strong>, and where the achievement of targets triggers government funding. The University of Copenhagen, for example, has a contract with the Ministry for Higher Education and Research. The trend has been that the politicians over time want to measure more and more things, and this has reduced the freedom in relation to NPM -the ideal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00bbThis trend has been very visible at the University of Copenhagen. It has become a more market liberal university, where benchmarks mean more to management than the prime purpose of universities, namely research and education. Work has become performance, and this means that it is no longer intellectuals that management teams want, but merely intellectual workers,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>According to Henning J\u00f8rgensen, managers see themselves as important and indispensable business leaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe universities have become competitors, and managers compare themselves to business leaders in the private sector. It is therefore also important for them to have many people around them checking and preparing communication strategies, so that they look good relative to the competition.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Henning J\u00f8rgensen says that the cult of competition has consequences for the academic content, and that he is concerned about the new management style, which he calls ‘management by fear’:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere is a self-imposed silence among staff at universities. You have to look good in the competition and you are afraid of being fired. There are therefore fewer and fewer people who dare to speak out in public about these conditions,,\u00ab says Henning J\u00f8rgensen.<\/p>\n<p><em>Translated by Mike Young<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"Dansk","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Receive a weekly newsletter in your inbox","button_text":"Tilmeld nu","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":42,"name":"Education","slug":"education","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":661,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":842,"name":"Administration","slug":"administration-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":842,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11488,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/forskermedstolen-1280x951.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84831"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84852,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84831\/revisions\/84852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}