Centre for Higher Education Studies

1. The Rise of the Blended Professional: Implications for Working LivesHUMANE WSAN Seminar 30 September 2011Dr Celia Whitchurch Lecturer Institute of Education University of London UK Centre for Higher Education Studies

2. Leadership Foundation for Higher Education Studies • Professional Managers in UK Higher Education: Preparing for Complex Futures (2005-2007) • (www.lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research.htm) • Optimising the Potential of ‘Third Space’ Professionals in UK Higher Education (January-December 2009) • (www.lfhe.ac.uk/research/smallprojects/ • ioefinalreport.doc)

3. Case Material • Nine institutions; 70 respondents; UK, US, Australia • Sub-set of 42 respondents in roles with academic elements (tutoring, programme design, applied research) • Also with doctorates, publications • Backgrounds in eg continuing education, teacher education, English as Second Language, academic literacy, policy research, scientific research/practice

4. Contexts • Increasingly diverse workforce: • Movement in and out of higher education • Importing of experience from other sectors • Partnership working (internal and external) • Blurring of boundaries • New cadres of staff: • Professional staff with academic credentials • Academic staff with interests in projects such as widening participation and new modes of learning

5. The Emergence of Third Space ‘Perimeter’ roles eg Examples of Institutional Projects in Third Space ‘Perimeter’ roles eg Professional Staff Academic Staff Outreach/study skills Access/equity/ disability Community/ regional partnership The Student Transitions Project eg Life and welfare Widening participation Employability and careers The Partnership Project eg Regional/community development Business/industry liaison Knowledge exchange The Professional Development Project eg Academic practice Professional practice Project management Leadership/management development Generalist functions (eg registry, department/ school management) Specialist functions (eg finance, human resources) ‘Niche’ functions (eg quality, research management Pastoral support Teaching/ curriculum development for non-traditional students Links with local education providers Teaching Research ‘Third leg’ eg public service, enterprise Mixed teams “The Higher Education Professional” Adapted from Whitchurch (2008)

6. Examples of ‘blended’ activity • Teaching and learning eg tutoring, programme design/documentation, study skills/academic literacy • Community partnership eg employer engagement, workplace learning, outreach sessions • Web-based learning eg online programme design/ • development/adaptation, web-based discussion fora • Research enterprise eg preparation of bids, knowledge transfer, spin out, bespoke programmes for industry • Institutional research into eg student recruitment & outcomes, benchmarking, educational practice

7. Job description – Learning Partnerships Manager (UK) • Blended roles exemplified by job description for Learning Partnerships Manager, requiring: “…academic credibility to ensure that innovative and complex operations are delivered with high standards and quality… [and] experience of generating external income and involvement in project management”

8. Preference for more project-oriented roles • People who could have gone ‘either way’… • Positive choice/intentionality arising from eg: • Ideological commitment to eg widening participation • Functional area no longer interesting • Preferred team working • Pragmatic eg role offered route into higher education, career development; or needed job in specific location

9. ‘Blended’ spaces • Ambiguous conditions: • “Sometimes an academic unit, sometimes an office” (learning partnerships manager) • Turning this to advantage… • Working with given structures for practical purposes, but also critiquing them • Safe space in which to be creative/experiment • but also • Lack of organisational checks and balances • Sense of struggle, challenge and tension

10. ‘Blended’ knowledges • Applied knowledge: eg student trends/outcomes • Contextual/cross-boundary knowledge: “It’s not enough just to… be an accountant… or to manage staff... in order to be effective within a university you need to understand the context.” (faculty manager) • Transforming ‘information’ into ‘knowledge’:“My role is… to try to interpret data. Timing, politics, the media you use, the way you communicate it, is probably even more important than the actual findings of an analysis” (institutional researcher)

11. ‘Blended’ relationships • ‘Partnership’ rather than ‘management’ • Lateral team working among senior/junior staff • Flatter structures/less division between ‘managers’ and ‘managed’ • Key responsibilities eg leading a project at earlier stage of careers • “if you get the relationships right everything else falls into place” (learning support manager) • Importance of ‘weak ties’/networks (Granovetter 1974)

12. Authority I • Credibility likely to be built on a personal basis and to be non-positional: • “There’s no authority that you come with” (planning manager) • “It’s what you are, not what you represent” (learning partnerships manager) • “… I’ve had to create my own role, find my own ways into systems and force my way into meetings, rather than wait for someone to ask me to contribute” (learning support manager)

13. Authority II • Ability to participate in disinterested debate: • “learning to divorce argument from people” (teaching and learning manager) • Appreciating likely responses: • Different academic/professional work “rhythms” • Income generating activity/institutional R&D perceived as “trade” or “dirty” work… • Attitude of academic staff that “If you solve a problem for us, we’ll come back and work with you again” (teaching and learning manager)

14. Language • “you’ve got two different groups of people often talking two different languages” (learning support manager) • New language around eg partnership, project work, teamwork, networking, institutional R&D • Using acceptable language: “I call it management development, but what I say and what they say are two very different things” (HR manager) • Avoiding unacceptable language (customers/prices) • Interpreting between eg educational, socio-economic, market discourses

15. The ‘internal project consultant’ I • Employed on multiple, fractional contracts • Located between academic department, educational technology unit, central administration • Involved in organisational restructuring and programme development and delivery • Contracts arose through contacts/networks: • “most areas try to retain you when they know that you can actually do the job within the parameters…” • Because of ‘casual’ status not always linked into internal communications

16. The ‘internal project consultant’ II • “I’ve never been on a career path as such… [I see myself as] achieving work for the university that benefits academics and students… and showing academics and administrators that they can think kindly of each other and work together”. • “[In the university] there are no positions that allow you to teach and project manage in one role… in the business world there is a great deal more freedom in creating positions that suit the needs of the organisation”.

17. Implications for individuals I • New roles arising from contemporary environments • Possibilities for professional staff to: • make a career of project oriented work • move in and out of project work but stay in higher education • revert to mainstream function • make a career in another sector eg policy/funding agencies, business/industry, NGOs or third sector

18. Implications for individuals II • But “I’m not sure what type of professional I am any more” (student services manager) • “I’ve always tried to take the next step in another area, so that it moves you forward” (teaching and learning manager) • Lack of structure/checks and balances • Inappropriate reporting lines… • Risks of getting out of mainstream (budgets/staff) • Status of boundary work eg for promotion • Appropriate career/professional development

19. Implications for institutions • Relationship with mainstream activity • Encouraging project work while maintaining oversight • Preventing projects developing a life of their own or being too dependent on one individual (succession planning) • Accommodating flexible/portfolio work styles • Appropriate mix of identities • Appropriate employment packages/rewards and incentives

20. Possible responses • Recognition in workload models/promotion criteria of eg community and partnership activity; development of new funding opportunities • Support of senior person/mentoring/coaching • Development opportunities via eg secondments, internal consultancy, work-based research opportunities, attachment to eg HE research unit • Flexible career pathways • Responsibilities on individuals as well as institutions…