Changing Workplace Relations and Sites of Belonging in Swedish University Administration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.150693Keywords:
Organization & Management, Identity, Meaning & Culture, Gender, Ethnicity, Age & DiversityAbstract
Based on a mixed-methods case study, this article explores the impact of formal affiliations and informal associations in professional organizations, relating these questions of belonging to workplace dynamics and collectives. Using the experience of departmental administrators within a Swedish university as an ideal case to investigate the formal and informal connections at work, this article argues that a multiplicity of belongings within organizations brings strain and opportunities, altering the relations at work. The study contributes to discussions on belonging and social relationships at the workplace level by applying the concept of belonging to different sites in the organization. It suggests that sites of belongings within organizations can serve as a discrete concept, useful for adding insights into the dynamics of work organizations.References
Ackroyd S, Kirkpatrick, I., & Walker, R. (2007). Public management reform in the UK and its consequences for professional organization: A comparative analysis, Public Administration 85(1): 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00631.x
Allen, K. A., Kern, M. L., Rozek, C. S., McInerney, D. M., & Slavich, G. M. (2021). Belonging: A review of conceptual issues, an integrative framework, and directions for future research, Australian Journal of Psychology 73(1): 87–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2021.1883409
Allvin, M., & Movitz, F. (2011). ‘Självständiga lärosäten’: Om de förändrade villkoren för högre utbildning och universitetens normalisering. [‘Independent institutions for higher education’: On the changing conditions of higher education and the normalization of universities], Arbetsmarknad och arbetsliv 17(2): 59–73.
Alvesson, M. (2000). Social identity and the problem of loyalty in knowledge‐intensive companies, Journal of Management Studies 37(8): 1101–1124. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00218
Agevall, O., & Olofsson, G. (2020) Administratörerna: Administration, kontroll och styrning vid svenska universitet och högskolor. [Administratörerna: Administration, kontroll och styrning vid svenska universitet och högskolor.] Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys (12): 7–59. https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.12.1
Ashforth, B. E., Harrison, S. H., & Corley, K. G. (2008). Identification in organizations: An examination of four fundamental questions, Journal of Management 34(3): 325–374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206308316059
Axelsson, J., Karlsson, J. C., & Skorstad, E. J. (2019). Collective Mobilization in Changing Conditions: Worker Collectivity in a Turbulent Age, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19190-0
Bach, S., Kessler, I., & Heron, P. (2007). The consequences of assistant roles in the public services: Degradation or empowerment? Human Relations 60(9): 1267–1292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726707082848
Baruch, Y., & Holtom, B. C. (2008). Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research, Human Relations 61(8): 1139–1160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726708094863
Bechky, B. A. (2006). Talking about machines, Thick description, and knowledge work, Organization Studies 27(12): 1757–1768. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606071894
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology, Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2): 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Browning, C. S. (2007). Branding Nordicity: Models, identity and the decline of exceptionalism, Cooperation and Conflict 42(1): 27–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836707073475
Connor, J. (2007). The Sociology of Loyalty, Springer Science & Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71368-7
Collinson, J. A. (2006). Just ‘non-academics’? Research administrators and contested occupational identity, Work, Employment and Society 20(2): 267–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017006064114
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of Qualitative Research, London: Sage Publications.
Dahllöf, U. (1996). Comparative conclusions in a Scandinavian comparative perspective. In: Dahllöf, U., & Selander, S. (Eds.). Expanding Colleges and New Universities. Selected Case Studies from Non-metropolitan Areas in Australia, Scotland, and Australia, Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsalienses: 197–218.
De Coster, M., & Zanoni, P. (2019). Governing through accountability: Gendered moral selves and the (im) possibilities of resistance in the neoliberal university, Gender, Work & Organization 26(4): 411–429. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12304
Dufour-Poirier, M., & Hennebert, M.-A. (2015). The transnationalization of trade union action within multinational corporations: A comparative perspective, Economic and Industrial Democracy 36(1): 73–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X13495743
Ese, J. (2019). Defending the University? Academics’ Reactions to Managerialism in Norwegian Higher Education, Karlstads universitet.
European Commission. (2022). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions on a European strategy for universities, Brussels, Belgium: European Commission
Evans, M. K. (1987). Department secretaries: Unsung heroines in the resolution of professional-organizational conflict, Human Organization 46(1): 62–69. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.46.1.t745746v11w84785
Forssell, A., & Westerberg, A. I. (2014). Administrationssamhället [The administrative society], Lund: Studentlitteratur
Fox, A. (1969). Management's frame of reference. In: Flandes, A. (ed.), Collective Bargaining, Middlesex: Penguin Modern Management Reading.
Friberg, G. T. (2015). Universitetslärare i förändring: en antropologisk studie av profession, utbildning och makt. [University Teachers in Change: an Anthropological Study of Profession, Education and Power.], Universus Academic Press.
Gerring, J. (2004). What is a case study and what is it good for? American Political Science Review 98(2): 341–354. doi:10.1017/S0003055404001182
Glover, L. (2011). Can informal social relations help explain workers’ reactions to managerial interventions? Some case evidence from a study of quality management, Economic and Industrial Democracy 32(3): 357–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x10377810
Grodzins, M. (1956). The Loyal and the Disloyal: Social Boundaries of Patriotism and Treason, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Guetzkow, H. S. (1955). Multiple Loyalties: Theoretical Approach to a Problem in International Organization, Princeton University.
Guillon, O., & Cezanne, C. (2014). Employee loyalty and organizational performance: A critical survey, Journal of Organizational Change Management 27(5): 839–850. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-02-2014-0025
Hall, P. (2012). Managementbyråkrati: organisationspolitisk makt i svensk offentlig förvaltning. [Management bureaucracy: organizational political power in Swedish public administration.] Liber.
Hamel, J., Dufour, S., & Fortin, D. (1993). Case Study Methods, Sage Publications.
Hart, D. W., & Thompson, J. A. (2007). Untangling employee loyalty: A psychological contract perspective, Business Ethics Quarterly 297–323. https://doi.org/10.5840/beq200717233
Hart, R. J., & McKinnon, A. (2010). Sociological epistemology: Durkheim’s paradox and Dorothy E. Smith’s actuality, Sociology 44(6): 1038–1054. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038510381609
Hasenfeld, Y. (2009). Human Services as Complex Organizations, Thousand Oaks California: SAGE Publications.
Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states, Harvard University Press.
Hood, C. (1991). A public management for all seasons? Public Administration 69(1): 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1991.tb00779.x
Hood, C. (1995). The ‘new public management’ in the 1980s: Variations on a theme, Accounting, Organizations and Society 20(2): 93–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(93)e0001-w
Hughes, K. D. (1996). Transformed by technology? The changing nature of women's `Traditional' and `Non-Traditional' white-collar work, Work, Employment and Society 10(2): 227–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017096010002003
Jenkins, R. (2014). Social Identity, Routledge.
Karlsson, A. (2011). Occupational identity in administrative service work: The aspect of carefulness, Gender, Work & Organization 18: e132–e156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00472.x
Karlsson, S., & Ryttberg, M. (2016). Those who walk the talk: the role of administrative professionals in transforming universities into strategic actors, Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy 2016(2–3). https://doi.org/10.3402/nstep.v2.31537
Karran, T., Beiter, K., & Mallinson, L. (2023). Academic freedom in Scandinavia: Has the Nordic model survived? Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy 9(1): 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2023.2180795
Keller, S. (2007). The Limits of Loyalty, Cambridge University Press https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487590
Keisu, B-I., Abrahamsson, L., & Malin, R. (2015). Entrepreneurship and gender equality in academia? A complex combination in practice, Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 5(1): 69–92. https://doi.org/10.19154/njwls.v5i1.4766
Kleinig, J. (2014). On Loyalty and Loyalties: the Contours of a Problematic Virtue, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199371259.001.0001
Korczynski, M. (2003). Communities of coping: Collective emotional labor in service work, Organization 10(1): 55–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508403010001479
Leišytė, L. (2016). New public management and research productivity: A precarious state of affairs of academic work in the Netherlands, Studies in Higher Education 41(5): 828–846. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1147721
Lynch, K., & Ivancheva, M. (2015). Academic freedom and the commercialization of universities: a critical ethical analysis, Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics 15(1): 71–85. https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00160
Lysgaard, S. (2001). Arbeiderkollektivet [Workers collective], Oslo: Universitetsforlaget AS.
MacKenzie, R., & Marks, A. (2019). Older workers and occupational identity in the telecommunications industry: Navigating employment transitions through the life course, Work, Employment and Society 33(1): 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018760212
MacKenzie, R., Marks, A., & Morgan, K. (2017). Technology, affordances and occupational identity amongst older telecommunications engineers: From living machines to black-boxes, Sociology 51(4): 732–748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038515616352
MacKenzie, R., Stuart, M., Forde, C., Greenwood, I., Gardiner, J., & Perrett, R. (2006). ‘All that is solid?’: Class, identity and the maintenance of a collective orientation amongst redundant steelworkers, Sociology 40(5): 833–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038506067509
March, J. G., & Simon, H. A. (1993), Organizations, John Wiley & Sons.
Mason, J. (2002). Qualitative Researching, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
May, V. (2011). Self, belonging and social change, Sociology 45(3): 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511399624
McDonald, R., Waring, J., & Harrison, S. (2006). At the cutting edge? Modernization and nostalgia in a hospital operating theatre department, Sociology 40(6): 1097–1115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038506069851
McLachlan, C. J., MacKenzie, R., & Greenwood, I. (2019). The role of the steelworker occupational community in the internalization of industrial restructuring: The 'layering up' of collective proximal and distal experiences, Sociology 53(5): 916–930. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519836850
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., et al. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria, International Journal of Qualitative Methods 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847
Oglensky, B. D. (2008). The ambivalent dynamics of loyalty in mentorship, Human Relations 61(3): 419–448. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2008.08122ead.006
Orr, J. E. (2006). Ten years of talking about machines, Organization Studies 27(12): 1805–1820. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606071933
Plano Clark, V. L., & Ivankova, N. V. (2016). Mixed Methods Research: A Guide to the Field, Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483398341
Power, M. (1997). The Audit Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198296034.001.0001
Ramazanoglu, C., & Holland, J. (2002). Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices, Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849209144.
Regin, D. Ö., Axelsson, J., & Arvidsson, M. (2020). Tidslojalitet. [Time-loyalty], Sociologisk forskning 57(1): 25–42. https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.20575
Rinne, R. (2021). The Nordic social democratic regime in education colliding with the global neo-liberal regime. In Krejsler, J. B., & Moos, L. (Eds.), What Works in Nordic School Policies? Mapping Approaches to Evidence, Social Technologies, and Transnational Influences, Educational Governance Research 15: 153–172.
Royce, J. (1995). The Philosophy of Loyalty, Vanderbilt University Press.
Salaman, G. (1971a). Two occupational communities: Examples of a remarkable convergence of work and non-work, The Sociological Review 19(3): 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.1971.tb00638.x
Salaman, G. (1971b). Some sociological determinants of occupational communities, The Sociological Review 19(1): 53–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1971.tb00619.x
Salaman, G. (1974). Community and Occupation: An Exploration of Work/Leisure Relationships, CUP Archive.
Saldaña, J. (2016). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, London: Sage.
Skorstad, E. J., & Karlsson, J. C. (2020). The worker collectivity and Anglo-Saxon theories of collectivity, Economic and Industrial Democracy 41(2): 397–418. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x17713115
Smith, D. E. (2004). Ideology, science and social relations: A reinterpretation of Marx’s epistemology, European Journal of Social Theory 7(4): 445–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431004046702
Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People, Rowman Altamira.
SOU 2018:38. Styra och leda med tillit: Forskning och praktik. [Governing and leading with trust: Research and practice.]. Stockholm: Elanders Sverige AB.
Steinþórsdóttir, F. S., Brorsen Smidt, T., Pétursdóttir, G. M., et al. (2019). New managerialism in the academy: Gender bias and precarity, Gender, Work & Organization 26(2): 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12286
Thomas, R., & Davies, A. (2002) Gender and new public management: Reconstituting academic subjectivities, Gender, Work & Organization 9(4): 372–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0432.00165
Trow, M. (1994). Managerialism and the academic profession: The case of England, Higher education policy-london-kogan 7: 11. Working Paper 93-15, UCLA Berkeley.
UKÄ (2022). Universitet och Högskolor. Personal vid universitet och högskolor 2022. [Higher Education. Employees in Higher Education 2022]. Sveriges Officiella statistik. Statistiska Meddelanden, Stockholm: Statistics Sweden.
Van Maanen, J., & Barley, S. R. (1984). Occupational communities: Culture and control in organizations, Research in Organizational Behavior 6: 287–365.
Wall, E. (2020). The invisible civil servant: How female senior lecturers in Sweden narrate work, Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 10(4): 85–101. https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.122194
Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of third space professionals in UK higher education, Higher Education Quarterly 62(4): 377–396.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Belonging and the politics of belonging, Patterns of Prejudice 40:3: 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313220600769331
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Author and Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Copyright Holder of this Journal is the authors and the Journal. Normally the journal use the CC-BY NC-ND 4.0 licence.
Exceptions to the license terms may be granted
If you want to use content in the Journal in another way then described by this license, you must contact the licensor and ask for permission. Contact Bo Carstens at bo.carstens@gmail.com. Exceptions are always given for specific purposes and specific content only.
Sherpa/Romeo
The Journal is listed as a blue journal in Sherpa/Romeo, meaning that the author can archive post-print ((ie final draft post-refereeing) and author can archive publisher's version/PDF.
Copyright of others
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.
Archives policy
All published material is archived at Roskilde University Library, Denmark, and transmitted to the Danish Royal Library in conformity with the Danish rules of legal deposit.
Plagiarism screening
We do not screen articles for plagiarism. It is the responsibility of the authors to make sure they do not plagiate.