The Rise of „Blended‟ Professionals:

Implications for Individuals and

Institutions

Standing Conference on Academic Practice –

7 July 2011

Dr Celia Whitchurch

Lecturer

Institute of Education

University of London

Centre for Higher

Education Studies

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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)

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Contexts II

•Increasingly diverse workforce:

–Movement in and out of higher education

–Teaching/research in eg practice settings

–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

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The Emergence of Third

Space

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

Examples of Institutional Projects

in Third SpaceProfessional Staff Academic Staff

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

Mixed teams

“The Higher Education

Professional”

„Perimeter‟

roles eg

„Perimeter‟

roles eg

Teaching

Research

Outreach/study

skills

Access/equity/

disability

Community/

regional

partnership

„Third leg‟ eg

public service,

enterprise

Adapted from Whitchurch (2008)

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Case Material

•Nine institutions; 70 respondents; UK, US, Australia

•Sub-set of 42 respondents in roles with significant academic elements (teaching, tutoring, programme design, applied research)

•Also with doctorates, publications, and/or experience of teaching/research in tertiary sector

•Backgrounds in eg continuing education, teacher education, English as Second Language, academic literacy, policy research, scientific research/practice

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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”

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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

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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

•Subject discipline no longer interesting/too isolating

•Preferred team working

•Research inactive or preferred Mode 2 orientation

•Pragmatic eg role offered route into higher

education, career development, funding

opportunities; or needed job in specific location

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Extension of academic

identities

Community networks

Teaching and learning networks

Academic

Activity

Project

Portfolios

eg

Project

Portfolios

eg

Widening

participation

Teaching

Web-based

learning

Mode 2

Policy

research

Research

Mode 2

Institutional

research

Community

partnership

Third leg Disciplinary

networks

Business

partnership

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„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

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„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)

• Higher education as an academic field…

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„Blended‟ relationships

•„Partnership‟ rather than „management‟

•Lateral team working among senior/junior staff

•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” (educational technologist)

•Importance of „weak ties‟/networks (Granovetter 1974)

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Legitimacies I

•Credibility likely to be built on a personal basis,

and to be based on social/professional capital:

–“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” (educational technologist)

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Legitimacies 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”

–Applied, Mode 2 activity 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)

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Languages

•“you‟ve got two different groups of people often talking

two different languages” (educational technologist)

•Multi-lingual, understanding and interpreting between

eg educational, socio-economic, market discourses

•Using acceptable language: “I call it management

development, but what I say and what they say are two

very different things” (staff developer)

•Avoiding unacceptable language („customers‟, „prices‟)

•Developing new language around eg partnership,

creativity, project work, teamwork, networking,

institutional R & D

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The „internal project

consultant‟ I•Employed on multiple, fractional contracts/ran own business

•Located between academic department, educational technology unit, central administration

•Involved in teaching, programme development and delivery, organisational restructuring

•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

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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”.

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Implications for individuals I

•New roles arising from contemporary environments co-

exist with traditional academic roles (formal research

training programmes offer generic skills…)

•Possibilities for staff with blended backgrounds to:

– make a career of academically oriented project work

– move in and out of project work but stay in higher

education

– revert to mainstream academia

– make a career in another sector eg policy/funding

agencies, business/industry, NGOs or third sector

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Implications for individuals II

– “I‟ve always tried to take the next step in another area,

so that it moves you forward” (teaching and learning

manager)

– But “I‟m not sure what type of professional I am any

more” (student services manager)

Lack of structure/checks and balances

Inappropriate reporting lines…

Risks of getting out of mainstream/how to get

mainstream experience eg managing budgets/staff

Status of boundary work eg for promotion

Appropriate career/professional development

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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

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Possible responses

• Recognition in workload models/promotion criteria of eg community and partnership activity; developing new funding opportunities

• Support of senior person/mentoring/coaching

• Development opportunities via eg secondments, internal consultancy, work-based research opportunities, attachment to eg higher education unit

• Flexible career pathways

• Responsibilities on individuals as well as institutions…