Reforms, Organizational Change and Performance in Higher Education: A Comparative Account from the Nordic Countries

This open access book investigates the effects of changes in leadership and managerial structures of Nordic universities resulting from reforms in the last decade. It builds on a rich, comparative dataset across a multiplicity of system-wide (macro) and organisational (meso and micro) dimensions, namely: reform or policy initiatives; drivers, aims, instruments and actors; structural changes within universities; strategic and performance management; the rise of accountability regimes; incentive and evaluative systems; and perceived changes/effects by the key actors involved, at various levels. The volume provides critical insights to the larger phenomenon of change and adaptation within the public sector. Its findings and implications are of relevance to social science researchers, policy makers, managers/administrators, and external stakeholders. Rómulo Pinheiro is Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the Department of Political Science and Management at the University of Agder, Norway. Hanne Foss Hansen is Professor in Public Organisation and Administration at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lars Geschwind is Associate Professor in Engineering Education Policy and Management at the Department of Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Kirsi Pulkkinen is a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland, Finland, and Advisor of co-creation at the Research Services of University of Helsinki, Finland.

Chapter 1: Does it really matter? Assessing the performance effects of changes in leadership and management structures in Nordic higher education -- Chapter 2: Performance in higher education institutions and its variations in Nordic policy -- Chapter 3: Nordic higher education in flux: system evolution and reform trajectories -- Chapter 4: National performance-based research funding systems: constructing local perceptions of research -- Chapter 5: External research funding and authority relations -- Chapter 6: The changing roles of academic leaders: decision-making, power and performance -- Chapter 7: Strategy as dialogue and engagement -- Chapter 8: Evaluation practices and impact: overload? -- Chapter 9: Governing performance in the Nordic universities: where are we heading and what have we learnt?