Investing in the understanding of today’s multi-cultural landscape in research management and administration

(RMA)

Susi Poli - EdD Candidate, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, spoli@ioe.ac.uk

EARMA Annual Conference 2015 in Leiden

Susi’s participation at the conference has been co-funded through a EARMA AC Travel Bursary (EACTB)

Summary

• Aims • Research into research management • This study: research questions, methodology, methods • Sample of the study • Findings • Reflections on reflection-in-action

Aims • To show results from a piece of research into research

management (study during my professional doctorate)

• An increasing body of literature, more articles coming out, therefore a newer field of investigation in today’s research

• Looking for evidence (quantitative and qualitative methods), having a robust methodology, and then showing findings which can be used in everyday practice

• Eraut and Schon call for research into professional practice, possibly done by practitioners

Research into research management through Eraut

• How to do/disseminate this type of research for practical purposes and enrich the professional community?

• Eraut claims that “the knowledge-development potential of practitioners is under-exploited … further reflection and discussion can enhance the knowledge derived from case experience and organise it in ways that encourage its further development … the researcher-practitioner team will need to combine the analytic skills of the original researcher with the creative skills of the practical problem-solver” (Eraut, 1994: 56)

• Just professional doctorates aim to equip practitioners with analytic skills

Research into research management through Schon

• Schon calls knowledge in action “a manager’s reflection in a context of action” (ibid, 2011:241)

• In Schon’s view, knowledge and practice inform each other and reflection-in-action stands for tackling the (practical) situation in conversation with the situation itself

• This includes the strategy to cope with unique situations, which will be shaped by the interaction with any particular situation (ibid, 2011)

• But also ‘reflection on reflection-in-action, which stands for sharing own reflection in action, which is what managers seldom do

• Reasons why managers are not in a position to help others, especially within the same organisation/community (Schon, 2011) and perhaps also the reason why we need consultants.

This study: research questions, methodology, methods

• RQs = how multi-cultural is today’s landscape in the HE sector, in RMA and in professional associations (like EARMA)?

• Cultures, languages, diversity and gender, HE and research organisations, organisational cultures, clashing regulations, customs but also stereotypes, clashing cultures

• Theoretical perspective: cross-cultural capability, communities of practice, forms of knowledge and social capital as lenses of investigation

• Methodology/methods: qualitative research, through a survey and semi-structured interviews

Target groups in multi-cultural research

• Academics and researchers • Business and industry people • Community people • Consultants who knows the sector and those who don’t • EC people • Research managers (with different years of experience, different

organisations, roles, etc.) • Other university groups (doctoral students but also staff from other

university functions) • Peers in professional networks (nationally or internationally) • Different cultures (countries, continents, languages) • People who ask, people who don’t (cultural reasons, but also internal

barriers) • Women and men • People of different generations • Others? • How many cultures/languages are out there (in research but also in

EARMA)?

Sample of the study

• Members of a EU professional association

• Senior university managers (gender balance, a variety of countries and systems of HE, a number of roles held with research management being one of the functions)

• An interview guide with a set of predetermined themes and sub-themes which aimed to trigger discussion. These arose from the body of literature on HE management and on research management

Looking at some of the themes in HE, RMA and in professional associations

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE MULTICULTURALITY

KNOWLEDGE

Membership and Identification Spreading out (issues of) internationalisation Production and Exchange

Identity Embedding Internationalisation among staff Mode 1 and Mode 2

Learning community Awareness of Intercultural differences Commercialisation of knowledge

Local vs global Understanding of other cultures/customs Knowledge mobilisation

Social practice – Networking and interaction Respecting others Tacit knowledge and Practice Based

Knowledge Sharing values and shaping new

ones Bridging the (cultural) gap with

others Knowledge Management

Sharing practices and shaping new ones

Aligning practices depending on the setting and in different settings

Fragmentation of knowledge and new sites of knowledge production

Alignment in the understanding over the HE sector as a whole

English as the only and dominant language in the global academy?

(Miller, 2013) Competition and knowledge

Findings 1 - The HE sector

• Overall the HE sector regarded as highly fragmented (in all EU

countries), but cultural diversity as strenght which calls to be valorised (knowledge first, and then valorisation)

• Different HE sectors and key features (market-driven, the UK model, the Dutch model refusing the UK model, State funded), with their sets of cultures and regulations (and clashing cultures and regulations)

• Customs and stereotypes (how we know people before meeting them)

Findings 2 – From the whole HE sector to RMA and professional

associations

• Cultural diversity in RMA and in professional associations

• Calls for the understanding of the different communities (academics, administrators, all functions of administrators including research managers, PhDs, others), but also ‘tribes’ (disciplinary cultures) and spaces/territories (knowldge groupings) (Becher and Trowler, 1989)

• Different countries see professional associations differently (culturally), so find out the right way to involve members

Findings 3 – And then to cultures

• Variety of technical languages within the organisation, in RMA, and also in professional associations

• Variety of career paths (blended from academia, from other sectors, from HE management, Whitchurch, 2008)

• Cultures and languages (English): perspective from native and non; forms of colonialism, the predominant culture, in professional associations too.

Reflections on reflection-in-action

• How many multi-cultural landscapes can you spot in today’s RMA or also in EARMA? One made up of many parts or many struggling to match each other?

• What do we mean for culture in RMA? What do we ask culture to be? A new WG in EARMA aims to explore cultures and diversity in RMA

• Culture as awareness, expectations (arising from stereotypes), challenges, blindness, enrichment, our way to see others and to show ourselves (also tied with reputation), struggle, much more effort, switching ear and voice, switching culture and the search for alignment, among others

• Languages: confidence, barriers (internal, for women more?), networking opportunities but also involvement in professional associations, widening participation in EARMA (why not?)

• These skills can be improved in a variety of ways (primarily through your institution? Or your professional association? Or EARMA?)

• Share your case-study

A new EARMA WG on Cultures and Diversity in RMA

• to raise awareness of the effects and impact of different cultures in today’s research as represented within the multi-cultural EARMA community

• to understand how cultures and diversity affect the field of RMA, including implications of not dealing with cultural issues

• to understand how gender equality can improve research and innovation, as well as RMA

• to facilitate the embedding of the cultures, diversity and the gender dimension in core activities in RMA

• to look for best cases of sharing knowledge on cultures, but also of facilitating cultural encounters (among staff and researchers, within and outside the institution, at meetings, coaching, preparation, internationalisation for research purposes, etc.)

• to pop up events in relation to cultures and diversity in RMA • to induce HR staff/stakeholders/policy makers/consultants/business to

address these issues

Themes

• Cultures (culture in HE and in business, customs and stereotypes, different HE systems, preparation for cultural encounters, attitude to understand others and their behaviours, etc.)

• Diversity (any other kind of diversity that may be associated with RMA)

• Gender dimension (mixed teams, enhanced creativity, competitive advantage, effects on research output etc.)

• Languages (English for research purposes, e.g. bid writing, different use of similar terms (“false friends”) - funding dictionary)

• ‘Tribes’ (different disciplinary cultures in research), university communities, the variety of career routes to enter research management (blended professionals)

References

• Becher, T., & Trowler, P. (1989). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual inquiry and the cultures of disciplines. Milton Keyens, United Kingdom.

• Eraut, M. (1994). Developing professional knowledge and competence. Psychology Press.

• Schon, D. (2011). The reflective practitioner.

• 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.

Thanks for your attention

• Let me know your comments, pls • Further suggestions and comments welcome here:

spoli@ioe.ac.uk or at susi.poli@unibo.it