Vice-Chancellor’s Office Vasaparken, P.O. Box 100, SE 405 30 Gothenburg +46(0)31 786 0000 www.gu.se

Vice-Chancellor’s Office Lars Hansen

Project Outline 1 / 25 6 March 2015

dnr

Jörgen Tholin

Situation and assignments for administrative managers at the University Summary This report contains a description of the work situation for the administrative managers, with a particular focus on comprehensive responsibility and decision-making authority, i.e. those aspects governed via the Head of Department’s delegation. This process has been implemented to rectify the uncertainty among the administrative managers regarding their assignments and authority. The University’s rules of procedure clearly state that each Department shall have an administrative manager “[…] who is responsible for the administrative work for the Department. The mandate and decision-making authority of the administrative manager shall be governed by delegation by the Head of Department” (V 2013/763). This implies that the role of the administrative manager may appear different in various departments according to which tasks the Head of Department chooses to delegate, and which should reasonably be determined by the activities and size of the department. The charting process has been carried out via the collection and analysis of data and documents and via telephone interviews with all thirty-eight administrative managers, based on a semi-structural interview template. Each interview lasted 30 to 90 minutes. The range of ages and gender among the group of administrative managers is relatively similar to that among technical and administrative personnel in general at the University. Three fourths are women and the average age is 46. All except four were already employees at the University when they started in the position as administrative manager, and the average time of employment is 12 years. A large majority (75%) have a background from economics, both in terms of education and work experience. Twenty-two of the positions were advertised externally and four of the positions were filled by external applicants. Almost half have former managerial experience (with responsibility for personnel), mainly within economics. Almost two thirds of the administrative managers have assignments that exceed the role of administrative manager. For certain of the managers, these assignments are their main function, and some spend a total 80 percent of their working hours on other functions than managerial functions. The administrative managers have on average 15 subordinates. The range is however very high, from three to 45 employees, and this is to a great extent a reflection of the size of the different departments. The extent to which the administrative managers have other roles is also to some degree related to the

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size of the department. The estimated average working hours per week for the administrative managers is 45 hours, and around half of the group feel they have excessive pressure at work. It is questionable whether it is reasonable to function as a manager for only less than 50 percent of working hours, at least if you are required to direct and distribute work for ten or more employees, carry out performance and salary reviews, take responsibility for the working environment and work with operational development. The persons interviewed agree that the introduction of the role of administrative manager has been positive for both the departments and the University as a whole. Above all, the role makes the departmental administration more manifest as a specific unit within the department with a manager to direct and distribute the work. The fact that there is one person with main responsibility also implies that it is easier to meet with other departments to exchange experience. The administrative managers at all the University faculties meet regularly (on some occasions together with the Faculty Directors) to discuss common issues. The administrative discussions organised by the University Director are also very valuable. There is also a requirement for recurring network activities for the administrative managers, as a follow-up of their general managerial training. The Heads of twenty three of the thirty eight departments delegate assignments to the administrative managers. Despite this, there are no clear common denominators for such delegation, rather a significant diversity in terms of scope and content. The managerial mandate of the administrative managers also differs among the various departments. Some are solely managers, in charge of management, personnel, economics and development. Then there are those who can be described as having a type of administrative coordination role with no formal managerial mandate. The majority describe themselves as in between these two “extremes”. The fact that delegation to the administrative managers is either entirely lacking or that it is unclear is problematic in a number of ways. Firstly, it negatively affects the capacity to make decisions. Without delegation, all decisions have to be made by the Head of Department. This limits the Head of Department’s capacity to focus on comprehensive issues and additionally limits the administrative managers’ capacity to work efficiently, given that all decisions regarding administration have to be made via the Head of Department. Another important aspect is that when a new Head of Department arrives, he or she will have to become familiar with a wide range of issues and this may slow down the organisation and create uncertainty. Unclear delegation may also represent the risk of inefficiency at work. The lack of or unclear delegation also implies that many administrative managers feel that their role is not clearly defined. At the same time, however, it should be stated that many of the administrative managers have emphasised that they have a very good, close cooperation with the Head of Department and other management. Unsatisfactory delegation – when combined with limitations on the amount of time allocated to the role of administrative manager – implies that many feel they have very little opportunity to actively work on operational development. Several administrative managers also stated that they feel their role as administrative manager has a lower status than other administrative managers at the University. A large majority of the administrative managers would prefer to have more time to spend on the development of administrative operations at their department. This is particularly true for those managers who do not act as managers full-time. They feel that the operational assignments take up so much time that operational development is practically non-existent. Measures:

• More clarity in the rules of procedure, or that the Vice-Chancellor makes a separate decision by which the assignments of the administrative managers are more clearly defined (cf. Faculty Programme Directors)

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• Produce a template with a list of all types of delegation a Head of Department is entitled to make.

• The managerial work should represent minimum 50 percent of working hours. • When recruiting administrative managers, the position should be advertised both in-house and

externally, and former experience of personnel management should be a requirement. • Create a University-wide network for administrative managers. • Recently recruited administrative personnel should have a period of work experience at a

department/the Central University Administration. • Distinguish between the rules of procedure and the delegation authority policy.

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1. Introduction The relatively comprehensive changes to the Central University Administration’s organisation in recent years (the change process entitled “Renewing the University of Gothenburg”) has aimed at releasing more resources for education and research by improving efficiency at work and creating a more appropriate organisation. “The main aim is for the departments to have the resources required to complete their daily administrative tasks, with access to expertise in the Central University Administration.” (Final report on the implementation process regarding a new functional administrative organisation pg. 6). The University Board accordingly adopted new rules of procedure on 15 October 2013 (V 2013/763). According to the new rules of procedure, each department shall have a department council, and the work of the department shall be directed by a Head of Department with a mandate period of six years. In addition, each department shall have a deputy Head of Department (Vice Head of Department), and the Head of Department is entitled, when required, to appoint one or more Deputy Heads with areas of responsibility as defined by the Head of Department. The responsibilities and assignments of the Head of Department are as follows: “The Head of Department is in charge of daily comprehensive work, is responsible for operations at the department and shall promote the development of the department. The Head of Department is also responsible for personnel and the working environment, and represents the University as an employer. The Head of Department is responsible for ensuring compliance throughout the department with the University-wide and Faculty-wide decisions, regulations and policies. The decision-making authority of the Head of Department is defined in the delegation of authority policy.” (V 2013/763). The University’s rules of procedure also clearly state that each department shall have an administrative manager: “Each department shall have an administrative manager who is responsible for the administrative work for the department. The mandate and decision-making authority of the administrative manager shall be governed by delegation by the Head of Department” (V 2013/763). The term “responsible for the administrative work of the department” is relatively open to interpretation. As a result, the role of the administrative managers may appear different within the various departments according to which assignments the Head of Department chooses to delegate. This report contains a description of the work situation for the administrative managers, with a particular focus on comprehensive responsibility and decision-making authority, i.e. those aspects governed via the Head of Department’s delegation. 1.2 Background As a working organisation, the University has certain relatively unique features. Firstly, there is a clear divide between the researchers and the administrative personnel. As a main rule, these two can be compared to two separate worlds meeting within one organisation. The researchers have their own career path, a monopoly on most managerial positions and, as a rule, time devoted to administrative and representative duties. Researchers act as managers as a time-limited assignment and on a part-time basis, then return to their ordinary function. This results in a form of duplicity among research management that has been identified by several observers, for example: “The academic manager is both a formal manager, employed to exercise a certain authority, and at the same time is primus inter pares, elected as manager by colleagues yet fundamentally still a colleague .” (Haikola 1999:16). The culture among researchers also features a low level of confidence in management in general and a strong emphasis on collegiality. A manager is not primarily perceived as someone who independently makes decision and sets targets, but rather a person who is expected to appropriate the comprehensive views of his or her colleagues and subsequently put these into practice. Although the formal aspects of management within the University have been reinforced in recent years with the introduction of the new rules of procedure, the culture remains collegial in the main.

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The administrative part of operations is more similar to a “normal” workplace. The administrators have different functional roles and there are managers who are also specialists within their respective fields. This part of operations at the University is much more formalised. The requirement to present and report various aspects (economy, personnel, training) of operations has increased, and the role of administrators has become more geared towards functions. This is a natural consequence of the renewal process at the University, which represented an increased requirement on all departments to manage all daily administrative tasks, including those that require more in-depth knowledge of e.g. personnel issues. In order to allow for increased specialisation, the authors of the investigative report entitled Renewing the University of Gothenburg (Bexell and Rogestam (2010:12) recommended a minimum size for every department. The departments do not need to be of the same size, but the guideline is for 150-300 employees. It has also been stated that:

It is important for the departments to be of such a size that they can be administratively self-sufficient and only rely administratively on superior functional levels when this clearly generates a gain in terms of coordination. The departments shall have the capacity to execute their assignments in an efficient manner, primarily within the fields of teaching, economics and personnel, but also in relation to student counselling and information. Research and education take place within the departments and the related centres of expertise, and the departments therefore require access to efficient administrative support that allows them to develop their operations. The departments also require a strong management organisation and clearly defined forms for employee and student participation.

Since the above was documented, the organisational changes have resulted in fewer and – with certain exceptions – larger departments. As a result, the University now has thirty eight departments distributed among eight faculties, as follows: The  Sahlgrenska  Academy  •  The  Institute  of  Medicine  •  The  Institute  of  Biomedicine  •  The  Institute  of  Clinical  Sciences  •  The  Institute  of  Neuroscience  and  Physiology  •  The  Institute  of  Health  and  Care  Sciences  •  The  Institute  of  Odontology  

The  Faculty  of  Social  Sciences  •  The  School  of  Public  Administration        •  The  School  of  Global  Studies  •  The  Department  of  Journalism,  Media  and  Communication  •  The  Department  of  Social  Work  •  The  Department  of  Sociology  and  Work  Science  •  The  Department  of  Psychology  •  The  Department  of  Political  Science    

The  Faculty  of  Natural  Sciences  •  The  Department  of  Biological  and  Environmental  Sciences  •  The  Department  of  Physics  •  The  Department  of  Earth  Sciences  •  The  Department  of  Cell  and  Molecular  Biology  •  The  Department  of  Conservation  •  The  Department  of  Mathematical  Sciences  

The  Faculty  of  Arts  •  The  Department  of  Philosophy,  Linguistics  and  Theory  of  Science  •  The  Department  of  Historical  Studies  •  The  Department  of  Cultural  Sciences  •  The  Department  of  Literature,  History  of  Ideas  and  Religion  •  The  Department  of  Languages  and  Literatures  •  The  Department  of  Swedish    

The  School  of  Business,  Economics  and  Law  •  The  Department  of  Business  Administration  •  The  Department  of  Economy  and  Society  •  The  Department  of  Economics  and  Statistics  

The  Faculty  of  Education  •  The  Department  of  Education  and  Special  Education  •  The  Department  of  Education,  Communication  and  Learning  

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•  The  Department  of  Law   •  The  Department  of  Pedagogical,  Curricular  and  Professional  Studies  •  The  Department  of  Food  and  Nutrition,  and  Sport  Science    

The  Faculty  of  Fine,  Applied  and  Performing  Arts  •  Valand  Academy  •  The  School  of  Design  and  Crafts  •  The  Academy  of  Music  and  Drama  

The  IT  Faculty  •  The  Department  of  Computer  Science  and  Engineering  •  The  Department  of  Applied  Information  Technology  

Three of the thirty eight departments are so-called integrated departments, i.e. they are part of both Chalmers and the University. These are the Department of Applied Information Technology and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the IT Faculty, and the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. The administrative managers of two of these (the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering) are employees of Chalmers. With the exception of the IT Faculty, all Faculties have carried out major or minor changes to their organisational structure over the past decade. In 2005, the School of Global Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences was founded when several smaller units were merged. In 2006, the Sahlgrenska Academy carried out a comprehensive organisational change resulting in six large departments. In 2009, the Faculty of Arts reduced its number of departments to six, and since 2010 the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Social Sciences in addition to the School of Business, Economics and Law have also carried out organisational changes. One can also find examples where mergers have been planned but not executed (the School of Public Administration and the Department of Sociology and Work Science). Nonetheless, the size of the departments still varies significantly. The smallest department has 40 employees while the largest department has 450 employees. The average number of employees among the departments is approx. 140, slightly lower than that recommended by the investigative team. Twenty five departments have fewer than 150 employees and twelve have fewer than 100 (Table 1). This implies varying requirements on the administrative support functions and a difference in the premises for management of the administrative work. The larger departments have more opportunities to have specialists within different areas, e.g. economy, personnel, teaching and communication. The size of the departments is also reflected in the number of subordinates an administrative manager has. The range here is from three to approximately 40, but the average number is 15. The number of subordinates can also differ as some departments organise student counselling under the administrative team and some do not. The character of activities also has an impact on the number of technical and administrative personnel – for example, a number of departments have employees who only work with different types of technical equipment used for research and/or teaching. It is in general difficult to make principal calculations in this manner (all the figures originate directly from the administrative managers) as the figures may represent both shared services (research/administrative) and full-time or part-time positions. However, the figures do provide a certain illustration of the situation at the University at a given time. Table  1.  Number  of  employees/department,  number  of  subordinate  personnel  for  the  administrative  managers  Department   Number  of  

employees  Subordinate  personnel  

The  Institute  of  Medicine*   450   45**  

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The  Institute  of  Biomedicine*   330   22  

The  Institute  of  Neuroscience  and  Physiology*   325   35  

The  Institute  of  Clinical  Sciences*   245   26  

The  Department  of  Biological  and  Environmental  Sciences   223   16*****  

The  Department  of  Computer  Science  and  Engineering   200   19  

The  Department  of  Cell  and  Molecular  Biology   200   26  

The  Department  of  Education  and  Special  Education   160   25  

Institute  of  Health  and  Care  Sciences   153   20  

The  Department  of  Business  Administration   150   22  

The  Department  of  Mathematical  Sciences   150   19  

The  Department  of  Education,  Communication  and  Learning   134   11  

The  Academy  of  Music  and  Drama     142   14  

The  Department  of  Psychology   140   16  

The  Department  of  Social  Work   135   11  

The  Department  of  Languages  and  Literatures   130   16  

The  Department  of  Political  Science   130   14  

The  School  of  Design  and  Crafts   130   14  

The  Department  of  Applied  Information  Technology   130   10  

The  Department  of  Economics  and  Statistics   120   17  

The  Department  of  Sociology  and  Work  Science   120   14  

The  School  of  Global  Studies   120   12  

The  Department  of  Historical  Studies   110   12  

The  Department  of  Pedagogical,  Curricular  and  Professional  Studies  

100   10  

The  Department  of  Swedish   100   7  

The  Institute  of  Odontology   100   5****  

The  Department  of  Law   95   10  

The  Department  of  Literature,  History  of  Ideas  and  Religion   95   9  

The  Department  of  Philosophy,  Linguistics  and  Theory  of  Science  

90   6  

The  Department  of  Earth  Sciences   85   6  

Valand  Academy   70   18  

The  Department  of  Economy  and  Society   70   9  

The  Department  of  Food  and  Nutrition,  and  Sport  Science   65   7  

The  Department  of  Conservation   60   11  

The  Department  of  Cultural  Sciences   60   6  

The  Department  of  Physics   60   3  

The  Department  of  Journalism,  Media  and  Communication   50   5  

The  School  of  Public  Administration     40   3  

Total   5,267   551  *  Four  departments  at  the  Sahlgrenska  Academy  have  a  personnel  composition  that  makes  comparison  with  other  universities  difficult.    **  Of  these,  11  are  direct  subordinates  of  the  administrative  manager.  The  others  are  subordinates  to  the  management  of  the  department’s  four  sections.  ***  Of  these,  14  are  teaching  assistants  for  whom  the  administrative  manager  has  recently  been  assigned  responsibility.  ****  There  are  six  curators  at  the  Department  (one  in  each  section)  who  are  supervised  by  the  administrative  manager  but  who  are  subordinate  to  the  Head  of  Department.  

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****  Of  which  six  persons  within  study  administration  where  the  administrative  manager  is  not  their  supervisor  but  does  have  personnel  responsibility  for  them.   The premises differ also in terms of the “physical format” of the departments. Many departments have activities in several locations and, as a result, administrative personnel in different locations. For some administrative managers, this implies that they meet some of their personnel less frequently than others, and that a lot of management activities in relation to these personnel have to be carried out over the telephone or by mail. What then is the purpose of a decision made centrally whereby each department – irrespective of size, direction etc. – shall have a role/function entitled administrative manager? One answer to this question can be found in the decision memorandum dated 26 April 2011 and entitled “Renewing the University of Gothenburg – direction for future work to develop the University organisation” (pg. 1):

The aim of the change process shall be to safeguard the comprehensive expertise at the University and thereby generate a stronger sense of solidarity and interdisciplinary cooperation both in-house and externally. Successful collaboration requires high quality from both the disciplinary areas and the support functions. The University shall have more coherent operations with a higher degree of uniformity in terms of organisation, structure and procedures of an administrative nature in order to achieve this goal.

In the two paragraphs above, it is stated that “high quality” is linked to a higher degree of uniformity in terms of organisation, structure and procedures of an administrative nature. This is more clearly stated later on in the document, as follows: “that all departments have the same basic administrative organisation (this includes administrative managers, personnel administrators, economic administrators and study administrators) with in principle the same job descriptions;” (pg. 2). A more detailed common description of the organisation has however not been produced. The rules of procedures stipulate “[…] the comprehensive organisation and decision-making structure including liability issues for different officials and functions” (V 2014/765), and sets a kind of minimum level for the roles and functions required. Despite this, several decisions have been made that can be said to have a more governing impact on the departments’ internal organisation. The first of these is the decision that every department shall have a programme director (V 2013/296) and the second is the recently adopted policy regarding student and careers counselling (V 2014/378). More recently, it has been specified that e.g. a position “[…] as student and careers counsellor shall comprise at least 50 percent of a full-time position.” 1.3 Procedure This process of charting the role and assignments of the administrative managers encompasses a number of different factors:

• Delegation • Job descriptions • Management • Contribution to management work • Organisation of work

The first step of the charting process was to request all decisions regarding delegation at the departments from the University’s journals. The result of this request was relatively few documents. Only a small number of the departments had recorded any documents regarding decisions involving delegation in the journals. As the number of persons involved was no more than thirty eight, it was decided to call all persons on the telephone and carry out a semi-structured interview. These interviews lasted around 30 to 90 minutes. The material subsequently analysed is therefore principally

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from interviews, but includes documents (particularly the departments’ rules of procedure, delegation of authority policy and decision-making procedure). 1.4 The administrative managers There are thirty eight administrative managers at the University, i.e. one for each department. Of these, twenty nine are women (76%) and nine are men (24%). The fact that women are in the majority in this position is not that surprising given the female dominance in general at the University when it comes to administrative personnel (women represent three quarters of the total administrative personnel). Four Faculties have only women among their administrative managers (the School of Business, Economics and Law, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts and the Faculty of Education). The Faculty of Social Sciences deviates significantly from this trend as five of six administrative managers are men. One explanation of the female dominance may be that in general all new administrative managers have already worked in administration at the University before taking on their new role. This implies that the main source of recruitment comprises women. Of all the administrative managers, only four are external recruits. Both the average and median age is 46. The youngest is 30 and the oldest 66. Nine managers are younger than 40 and three are older than 60. The average salary is SEK 43,000 (median SEK 42,400) and the lowest salary is SEK 40,000 with the highest SEK 51,500. It is also worthwhile to note that those with the highest salary are employed at Chalmers (for integrated departments), most likely reflecting a higher wage level in general. The average period of employment at the University is 12 years. The manager with the longest period of employment has worked for the University for 43 years (!), but there are also six administrative managers who have been at the University for less than five years. Four of these are external recruits after having applied for the position advertised. 22 of the positions were advertised and involved competition for the job. Recruitment for the other 16 positions varied in form. Certain departments already had administrative coordinators or chief administrators, whose titles were quite simply changed to administrative manager (at times with a new job description). At other departments, some (most often an economist/controller) persons were asked whether they were interested in the position and then employed by the Head of Department i.e. a relatively informal affair. Almost three quarters of the administrative managers have backgrounds as economists, and a considerable share have also worked as economists at the University before. The most common background is within personnel. Almost half the administrative managers have some managerial experience, primarily as some kind of financial manager. The majority of the administrative managers also have assignments that do not involve management of administrative work. The most common “bi-function” is main responsibility for economic issues, often with the title of controller. Many cases involve “inheritance” from former positions where a departmental economist/controller has been asked by the Head of Department to start as administrative manager. All administrative managers are part of the department’s management group. However, it is worthwhile noting that the management group varies significantly in size, from only two persons up to 10 persons. At the majority of departments, the core of the management group is the Head of Department, Vice Head of Department and the administrative manager. Certain departments have chosen both a less operative management group (frequently comprising the Head of Department, Vice Head and administrative manager) and a larger group in charge of more long-term issues. The work of the management group varies from a relatively formalised affair with regular meetings with agendas and minutes taken, to a completely informal method involving personal conversations between the members of the management group. 2. Delegation

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As mentioned, it is the Head of Department who governs the administrative manager’s mandate and decision-making authority via delegation. The Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy (V 2013/764) stipulates the following:

Persons with decision-making entitlement may delegate this, provided that such delegation is not expressly forbidden pursuant to statutes or other schemes. With the current delegation of authority policy, this implies that all decision-making authority can be delegated, unless it is expressly specified that this is not permitted in the delegation of authority policy or the rules of procedure for the University of Gothenburg (Ref. V 2014/765). The term delegation is defined as when decision-making is transferred from a superior level to a lower level within one organisation. The lower level is thereby granted the right to make decisions with the same decision-making authority as at the superior level. The final responsibility remains however with the person at the superior level, who is entitled to partly or fully withdraw delegation in the form of a new decision, at any given time during the administration of an issue. If the delegate does not have the expertise or resources to make the required decisions, the delegation shall be revoked. It is the responsibility of the delegate to report the above to his or her immediate superior.

In the delegation of authority policy, the following are delegated to the Head of Department: On  delegation  from  the  Dean,  the  Head  of  Department  is  entitled  to  make  decisions  regarding:      General    -­‐     the  systematic  working  environment  according  to  prevailing  regulations    -­‐     sustainable  development  and  environmental  management  system  in  addition  to  archiving    -­‐     issues  relating  to  gender  equality  and  equal  treatment    -­‐     working  environment  for  students    Administration  of  education    -­‐     accreditation  of  former  education  and  other  knowledge  and  skills  regarding  courses  at  basic  and  advanced  levels  and  

examination  for  postgraduate  students    -­‐     establish  course  syllabus;  for  courses  covered  by  the  department  or  Faculty-­‐wide  educational  programme,  the  course  

syllabus  is  established  in  consultation  with  the  Faculty  board  /  related  boards  or  equivalent    -­‐     appoint  examiners  at  basic  and  advanced  levels    -­‐     prepare  course  certificates  on  request    -­‐     limitation  of  the  number  of  times  a  student  is  allowed  to  take  an  exam  or  work  experience  or  similar  educational  

period  -­‐     admissions  to  postgraduate  programme    -­‐     appointment  of  opponents  for  licentiate  theses    -­‐     appoint  supervisors  for  doctoral  students;  main  supervisors  and  other  supervisors    -­‐     establish  individual  study  plans    -­‐     admission  of  waiting  list  applicants  to  courses  and  educational  programmes  including  admission  to  subsequent  parts  

of  educational  programmes      -­‐     approved  leave    

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-­‐     provisional  cancellation  of  courses    -­‐     student  and  career  counselling  for  the  department    Organisation    -­‐     The  department  and  department  management’s  organisation  and  other  forms  of  work    -­‐     local  arrangements  and  other  infrastructure    Finances    -­‐     signing  agreements  on  behalf  of  the  University  related  to  department  activities    -­‐     receipt  of  gifts  and  contributions  according  to  the  donation  scheme    -­‐     receipt  of  external  research  contributions    -­‐     signing  agreements  regarding  educational  and  research  assignments,  including  decision-­‐making  on  permission  to  

appoint  legal  persons  to  educational  activities    -­‐     accounts  and  results    -­‐     grant  exemptions  from  the  University’s  expense  regulations    Personnel    -­‐     employment,  with  the  exception  of  professors  (senior  lecturers,  associate  senior  lecturers  and  research  assistants  

according  to  special  preparation)    -­‐     initiation  of  recruitment  of  professors    -­‐     decisions  that  an  appointment  as  a  professor  or  a  senior  lecturer  shall  be  combined  with  employment  at  a  healthcare  

unit,  in  accordance  with  chapter  4,  §§  2  and  8  of  the  Swedish  Higher  Education  Ordinance.  Units  at  which  odontological  education  and  research  are  carried  out  also  count  as  healthcare  units.    

-­‐     service  plans  for  teachers    -­‐     appointment  of  the  department’s  representatives  in  Faculty-­‐wide  and  University-­‐wide  bodies,  unless  otherwise  

prescribed    -­‐     responsibility  for  application  and  treatment  of  personal  data  in  accordance  with  the  Swedish  Personal  Data  Act        When  applicable,  all  decisions  shall  comply  with  the  decisions  made  by  the  Vice-­‐Chancellor  and  Dean.

The rules of procedure clearly state that “the mandate and decision-making authority of the administrative manager shall be governed by delegation by the Head of Department” (V 2013/763).” The above may be classified as a requirement from the management, but there has obviously – at least not to the extent of my knowledge – not been issued any orders to do so or how to do so. At the time of writing, the Heads of twenty three departments formally delegate assignments to the administrative managers.1 Table 2 illustrates the distribution of delegation among the Faculties. Table  2.  Number  of  Faculties  and  number  of  delegations  to  the  administrative  manager Faculty   Number  of  

departments  Formal  delegation  to  administrative  manager  

The  School  of  Business,  Economics  and  Law    

4   4  

The  Faculty  of  Arts   6   4  The  IT  Faculty   2   2  (Chalmers)  The  Faculty  of  Fine,  Applied  and  Performing  Arts  

3   2  

The  Faculty  of  Natural  Sciences   6   3  The  Sahlgrenska  Academy   6   4  The  Faculty  of  Social  Sciences   7   3  The  Faculty  of  Education   4   1  Total   38   23  

The delegations appear relatively disparate, differing in terms of both scope and clarity, but common features can be found. A number of departments have chosen to base delegation on the statements in 1 Several of the departments that currently do not have delegation are however working on preparing such a scheme, so the ratio with delegation will most probably increase in the near future.

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the Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy for University delegation. One example of this can be found in the Department of Law’s delegation of authority policy, which states that it: “[…] is based on the delegation of authority policy adopted by the University of Gothenburg Board on 17 December 2013, Ref. V 2013/764, to apply until further notice and the rules of procedure adopted by the University of Gothenburg Board on 15 October 2013, Ref. 2013/763, and applies until further notice from this date.” (V 2013/799). At other departments, delegation is expressed in more general terms, with the main feature most frequently being to “manage and distribute the administrative work”. There are also delegations that only comprise a few items, for example to make a decision on the suitability of the administrative system and on working hours for technical and administrative personnel. Table 3 provides examples of a delegation of authority policy for a department, with a number of different types of assignments and how they have been delegated to different members of staff. The delegation of authority policy is subsequently signed by the Head of Department and the members of staff who have received delegation. Table  3.  Example  of  delegation  of  authority  policy  Item   Adopted  by   Delegation   Delegated  to   Preparation/decision  

in  consultation  with  The  systematic  working  environment  according  to  prevailing  regulations  

Head  of  Department  

No     The  Department  Council  

Issues  relating  to  gender  equality  and  equal  treatment  

Head  of  Department  

No      

Appoint  examiners  at  basic  and  advanced  levels  

Head  of  Department  

Yes   Deputy  Head  of  Department  at  basic  and  advanced  levels  

 

Approved  leave   Head  of  Department  

Yes     Deputy  Head  of  Department  at  basic  and  advanced  levels  

 

Appointment  of  opponents  for  licentiate  theses  

Head  of  Department  

Yes     Deputy  Head  of  Department  for  research  and  postgraduate  studies  

 

Appoint  supervisors  for  doctoral  students;  main  supervisors  and  other  supervisors  

Head  of  Department  

Yes   Deputy  Head  of  Department  for  research  and  postgraduate  studies  

 

Responsibility  for  archives   Head  of  Department  

Yes   Administrative  manager  

 

Applications  for  client  ID   Head  of  Department  

Yes   Administrative  manager  

 

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3. The Faculties Below is a description per Faculty of the situation for the administrative managers. The reason for providing a description per Faculty is the relatively high disparity among the Faculties in certain respects, and that this to a certain extent has an impact on the administrative work in the departments. 3.1. The School of Business, Economics and Law The School of Business, Economics and Law has four departments: The Department of Economy and Society, the Department of Business Administration, the Department of Law and the Department of Economics and Statistics. In 2013, a process of organisational change was implemented that primarily implied that three relatively small activities (Economic History, Cultural Geography and the Department for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) were merged to one department – the Department of Economy and Society – while the remaining three departments mainly retained their original scope (although Economic Geography was merged with Business Administration). Administration of the main teaching programme for the Faculty – economy – was formerly at faculty level, but was transferred to the Department of Business Administration during the reorganisation. This also implies that four teaching administrators were moved to the department. The departments have between 70 and 150 employees, and the number of administrators is between 10 and 20. All the departments have an established delegation of authority policy. The delegation of authority policies for the Department of Business Administration, the Department of Economics and Statistics and the Department of Law are relatively similar both in form and content. They comprise one document in table form with a long row of decision-making assignments that the Head of Department is entitled to delegate to other members of staff (see table 3 above). These are based on the University’s delegation of authority policy but contain a relatively large number of assignments that are not included in the University document. One example of this is a large number of personnel assignments: setting salaries, overtime/extra hours, semester applications, applications for leave of absence, salary reviews, development reviews etc. Delegation to the administrative managers primarily involves two areas – administrative personnel (leave, salary/performance reviews, skills development etc.) and administrative issues (system suitability, archives, inventory etc.). The delegation of authority policy adopted by the Department of Economy and Society appears completely different and contains both brief delegation of authority policies and rules of procedure. Admittedly, it does contain a number of items from the University’s delegation of authority policy but far from all items, and they are not as systematically arranged as with the other departments in the Faculty. Neither is the administrative manager mentioned in the delegation of authority policy, although a subsequent supplement to the delegation of authority policy contains a stipulation by the Head of Department as follows (under the heading rules of procedure): “The administrative manager is responsible for management of the administrative personnel. The administrative manager is authorised to manage all invoices involving support activities and is authorised to approve leave for administrative personnel in the Self-reporting system.” (V 2013/190). All four administrative managers at the School of Business, Economics and Law are women. Three have backgrounds as economists and one within law. Three of the positions were advertised externally while one was recruited from among the administrators, when the Head of Department asked the person in question whether she was interested in the position. All four have experience of administrative issues at the University (three from the School of Business, Economics and Law and one from the Central University Administration). Two work 50% with economy and 50% as administrative manager. One works 40% on personnel issues and the fourth works part-time as management support. None of the Faculty’s administrative managers have any deputies. All four administrative managers estimate that they work more than 40 hours a week, although not more than 50. They are all members of the department’s management group, and meet with their own

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personnel around once per month. They also carry out salary and development reviews with their personnel, but the Head of Department is responsible for setting salaries. The administrative managers at the Faculty meet once a month with the Director of the Faculty. The issue most frequently discussed during these meetings is premises, as this is a faculty decision at the School of Business, Economics and Law. 3.2. The Sahlgrenska Academy The Sahlgrenska Academy has six departments, entitled Institutes at the Academy: The Institute of Biomedicine, the Institute of Clinical Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, the Institute of Odontology and the Institute of Health and Care Sciences. These six major departments were founded in 2006 via the merger of a relatively large number of smaller departments. Today, the departments are divided into sections and/or units that in terms of size are similar to many departments in other faculties. However, it is difficult to determine exactly how many employees these departments have as a significant share of personnel (particularly doctors) are also employees of Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU). A couple of departments also have more than 200 so-called external doctoral students, i.e. doctoral students who are employed in another organisation (e.g. doctors or nurses at the SU or other regional hospitals) but carry out their postgraduate work at the Sahlgrenska Academy. This complexity makes some requirements on administration in terms of both economy and personnel management. There are however additional disparities within the Faculty. The Institute of Health and Care Sciences is perhaps the most similar to departments in other faculties. It has 135 employees, all offices in the same premises and has relatively few external doctoral students. The Institutes of Medicine, Clinical Sciences, Biomedicine and Neuroscience and Physiology are relatively similar in terms of size and method of organisation. They all have activities that are highly integrated with the hospital and personnel who share their working hours between the hospital and the University. Some of the units or sections are the same size as entire departments in other faculties, and in certain perspectives are more similar to “normal sized” departments than the four major departments. As opposed to other faculties, the Sahlgrenska Academy still has a secretariat providing all support activities for the faculty. The secretariat has 50 employees working with economics, personnel, communication and teaching issues. It is primarily the teaching section that has assignments that directly involve the departments’ administrative activities. They provide student counselling for all the Faculty’s courses and also deal with issues such as admissions from waiting lists and student exchange agreements, i.e. assignments that are dealt with at department level in other faculties. Four of the six departments have established delegation to the administrative managers (the Institutes of Biomedicine, Clinical Sciences, Neuroscience and Physiology and Health and Care Sciences). These are in principle similar to the arrangement at the School of Business, Economics and Law, with a number of assignments the Head of Department has delegated to a subordinate. The Institute of Medicine delegates authorisation of administrative systems to the administrative manager. The Institute of Odontology has absolutely no form of delegation. At all the four departments that practice delegation, all except one of the administrative managers fill this role as a full-time position. Three of the six administrative managers at the Faculty are women. Three have backgrounds within economy and the other three have qualifications within personnel, behavioural science and public administration. Five of the positions were advertised externally and one was recruited in-house. All except one have work experience from administrative issues at the University before taking the position as administrative manager. The one exception is a person who came directly from commerce, with a background as controller and project office manager. Four work full-time as administrative manager, one works 80 percent and one 50 percent. At one of the departments, a deputy has been appointed for the administrative manager, and all except one have time devoted to administrative and representative duties.

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All the administrative managers estimate that they work more than 40 hours a week, although not more than 50. They are all members of the department’s management group, and meet with their own personnel around once per month. Within all the departments, with the exception of one, the administrative managers also carry out salary and development reviews with their personnel, and one of the administrative managers has even been assigned the task of setting salaries. The administrative managers at the Faculty meet a couple of times each month to discuss issues that involve several departments. 3.3. The Faculty of Natural Sciences The Faculty of Natural Sciences has six departments: The Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, the Department of Physics, the Department of Earth Sciences, the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, the Department of Conservation and the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Several of the above have a very close cooperation with Chalmers, and also have premises in the Chalmers campus. The Department of Mathematical Sciences is also fully integrated with Chalmers. In 2012, the Faculty carried out a reorganisation process involving several mergers of departments. The three former departments for marine ecology, plant and environmental sciences and zoology were merged to form the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, and the departments for chemistry and cell and molecular biology merged to form the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. Both the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology have well over 200 employees, while the Department of Physics, the Department of Earth Sciences and the Department of Conservation have less than 100. Some of the departments at the Faculty have activities located outside Gothenburg. The Department of Conservation has a branch office in Mariestad, housing two basic education programmes, and the Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences has activities at marine research stations in Kristineberg and Tjärnö. The Heads of three of the departments formally delegate assignments to the administrative managers. One of these however is one of the departments integrated with Chalmers, so there are in fact only two departments with formal delegation. Both of these have delegation stipulated as a list with a number of assignments primarily involving management and distribution of administrative work, and dealing with personnel issues for administrative personnel. The lists do not fully comply with the Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy, but do contain parts of it. Five of six administrative managers at the Faculty are women, and one is employed by Chalmers. Five have backgrounds within economy and one is a building conservationist. Only one of the positions was advertised externally, the others were recruited in-house, mainly by a reorganisation and renaming of positions. All have work experience from administrative issues at the University before taking the position as administrative manager. Half of the six work full-time as administrative manager, the others work between 20 and 50 percent in that role. None of the six have deputies and all except one have flexible working hours. All the administrative managers estimate that they work more than 40 hours a week, and some more than 50. They are all members of the department’s management group, and meet regularly with their own personnel. Within all the departments, with the exception of one, the administrative managers also carry out salary and development reviews with personnel. At the sixth department, the Head of Department carries out salary reviews. The administrative managers at the Faculty meet informally for lunch meetings and meet with the Director of Faculty every third week.

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3.4. The Faculty of Arts The Faculty of Arts currently has six departments: The Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, the Department of Historical Studies, the Department of Cultural Sciences, the Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion, the Department of Languages and Literatures and the Department of Swedish. In 2009, the Faculty carried out a major organisational change that involved merging sixteen departments – many of which were relatively small – in a new organisation. The only department that in principle was not involved in the reorganisation was the Department of Swedish which, by virtue of its size, became one of the new “major departments”. The reorganisation also included the introduction of the role of administrative manager (chief administrator) for the new departments, and a job description was compiled:

Assignments for the administrative manager − personnel management for the administrative personnel (including distribution of

administrative tasks) − coordination, organisation and strategy for personnel, student and economy administration − participation in the management group, work for the Department Council and any other

decision-making bodies − in-house information to personnel − development reviews with administrative personnel − assist the Head of Department during salary reviews − assist the Head of Department in the event of psychosocial problems − assist the Head of Department with quality work etc. − assist the Head of Department on issues involving employment law − providing regular decision-making documentation to the Head of Department (within deadline

for response to proposal etc.) − contribution during recruitment of administrative − personnel/charting of requirement for new recruitment − assist the Head of Department with distribution of rooms

The job description also states that: “the position of administrative manager does not require specialised expertise and can therefore be combined with economic administration, personnel administration or study administration.” This description allowed for a relatively open base for recruitment. Four of the six departments have established delegation to the administrative managers (the Departments of Swedish, Historical Studies, Languages and Literature and Literature, History of Ideas and Religion). Delegation in these departments varies significantly in format from the delegation lists based on the Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy found at the School of Business, Economics and Law and the Sahlgrenska Academy. They also have some different designations: job description, rules of procedure and delegation of authority policy, organisation and delegation of authority policy. The Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion has rules of procedure that contain a comprehensive description of the administrative manager’s assignments, which can partly be classified as a delegation of authority policy. Irrespective of the name chosen for their governing documents, there are a few common features. Primarily, these involve the management and distribution of administrative work, execution of development and salary reviews, decisions regarding working hours for technical and administrative personnel etc. All these governing documents are similar in that they contain features from both the Central University Administration’s governing documents, i.e. the rules of procedure and the delegation of authority policy. All six administrative managers at the Faculty are women. Three have backgrounds from economy, one is a personnel manager and the other two have taken independent courses. Five of the positions

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were advertised externally and one was recruited in-house. All except one have work experience from administrative issues at the University before taking the position as administrative manager. The exception came directly from Sahlgrenska Hospital, where she had worked as a unit manager. One works full-time as administrative manager, two work 50 percent, two work 40 percent and one 33 percent. At four of the departments, a deputy has been appointed for the administrative manager, and all have flexible working hours. All of the Faculty’s administrative managers feel that they have a high work load, and a couple state that the work load is very high. They are all members of the department’s management group, and meet regularly with their own personnel. At all the departments, the administrative managers carry out performance reviews with personnel, and even salary reviews at four departments. The Faculty’s administrative managers meet around once per month to discuss common issues. The agendas are slightly different, and experts are at times invited from the Central University Administration. 3.5. The Faculty of Education The Faculty of Education has four departments: The Department of Education and Special Education, the Department of Education, Communication and Learning, the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies and the Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science. In 2010, the Faculty carried out a major reorganisation that involved the closure or move of one major unit (the Department of Education and Didactics) and two smaller units (the Department of Work Science and the Department of Food, Health and Environment) to form four completely new units. The Department of Work Science moved to the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, and the activities of the Department of Education and Didactics were distributed among the new departments. The only department at the Faculty that has a formally adopted delegation to the administrative manager is the Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science. This is similar in format to the governing document found at the Faculty of Arts, i.e. a kind of combined rules of procedure and delegation of authority policy where the main issues are the management and distribution of administrative work. All the Faculty’s four administrative managers are women and have backgrounds as economists. The administrative managers also have in common that they have the role of department controller, i.e. that they are also responsible for economy and budgeting. The reason for this is that the role of department controller was introduced as part of the reorganisation in 2010, and when the new rules of procedure were to be introduced, these roles were quite simply assigned to the position of administrative manager. In their own judgement, two of the administrative managers at the Faculty have a total of 80 percent of working hours as department controller. The other two work respectively 50 percent and 40 percent as administrative managers. At one of the departments, a deputy has been appointed for the administrative manager. In general, the Faculty’s administrative managers feel that they have a high work load, and in some cases, a very high work load. They are all members of the departments’ management group. At all the departments, the administrative managers carry out performance reviews with personnel, but not salary reviews. The Faculty’s administrative managers do not meet regularly, but get in contact with each other as needed. 3.6 The Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts

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The Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts has three departments: The Valand Academy, the School of Design and Crafts and the Academy of Music and Drama. This segmentation is the result of an organisational change executed after the first half of 2012. Two of the three departments have adopted delegation to the administrative managers (the School of Design and Crafts and the Academy of Music and Drama). Delegation at both the above could equally be designated as job descriptions than dedicated delegation of authority policies (even though this is the designation they have chosen). The Academy of Music and Drama however clearly stipulates: “delegated responsibility for management, personnel and students and economic responsibility”. The delegation of authority policy for the School of Design and Crafts has also taken certain items from the Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy. All the Faculty’s three administrative managers are women. Two have backgrounds within economy and one is a political scientist. All three positions were advertised externally, and those who were recruited to the position already worked with administrative issues at the University. They all work full time as administrative managers and have time devoted to administrative and representative duties. The School of Design and Crafts also has a technical manager who supervises the technicians and acts as deputy for the administrative manager. All the administrative managers feel they have a reasonable work load, but at times have to work more than normal working hours. They are all members of the department’s management group, and meet regularly with their own personnel. At all the departments, the administrative managers carry out salary and development reviews with personnel. The administrative managers and Director of the Faculty meet every second week, and there is a rotation scheme for the person who has to set the agenda. The administrators within the different functions at the Faculty also have meetings. 3.7. The Faculty of Social Sciences The Faculty of Social Sciences has seven departments: The School of Public Administration, the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Social Work, the Department of Sociology and Work Science, the Department of Political Science and the School of Global Studies. As opposed to many other faculties, the Faculty of Social Sciences has not carried out any comprehensive reorganisation in recent years. In 2005, the former independent departments and educational centres – Peace and Development Research, Human Ecology, Social Anthropology, Regional Studies and the Study of Human Rights – merged to form the School of Global Studies (and formed links with Museion in 2010). In 2012, what was then the Department of Work Science moved from the Faculty of Education to the Faculty of Social Sciences, and together with the Department of Sociology, founded the new Department of Sociology and Work Science. The School of Public Administration is the smallest department in the University with around 40 employees. There are plans for a merger with the Department of Sociology and Work Science, but these have never materialised. Three of the seven departments have adopted delegation to the administrative managers (the Department of Social Work, the Department of Political Science and the Department of Sociology and Work Science). Two of these (the Department of Social Work and the Department of Sociology and Work Science) have adopted the format of lists based on the Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy, as with the School of Business, Economics and Law and the Sahlgrenska Academy. They also make use of the designation “delegation of authority policy”. The Department of Political Science however has rules of procedure and a delegation of authority policy that are primarily rules of procedure describing the different roles and bodies at the department. This did not originally comprise the role of administrative manager, but the role has subsequently been added via supplementary rules of procedure and delegation of authority policy. At the Department of Psychology, the administrative

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manager has been delegated the task of making payments. The administrative managers at the School of Public Administration has been delegated responsibility for the working environment, and the administrative manager at the School of Global Studies has been delegated the task of co-determination negotiations (for technical and administrative personnel). Five of the seven administrative managers at the Faculty are men, and as such the Faculty differs significantly from the other faculties. Six have some kind of background from economics and one is a social worker. Five of the positions were advertised externally and two were filled by external applicants. Both the external recruits have experience as administrative managers at schools. The others had work experience from administrative issues at the University before taking the position as administrative manager. Three work full-time as administrative managers, one works 60 percent, one works 50 percent, one 40 percent and one 30 percent. Among the administrative managers who have multiple roles, three are economists and one works with personnel issues. At four of the departments, a deputy has been appointed for the administrative manager, and all have flexible working hours. The Department of Psychology has both an administrative manager and a chief administrator (who also functions as deputy). The other departments have not appointed any deputies. Some departments have an administrative cooperation that implies for example sharing personnel administrators. All the administrative managers feel they have a reasonable work load, but three of them work 45-50 hours per week. They are all members of the departments’ management groups, and the majority have regular meetings with their own personnel (completely informally at a couple of departments). At all the departments, the administrative managers carry out salary and development reviews with personnel. 3.8. The IT Faculty The IT Faculty has two departments that are both integrated with Chalmers: the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Department of Applied Information Technology. The situation for the administrative managers at these departments is different as the employees are either employed by Chalmers or the University. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering has only 40 of its 200 employees from the University, while the Department of Applied Information Technology is practically the reverse, with 80 University employees out of a total 130. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering has activities in both the Lindholmen and Chalmers campuses, and the administrative manager for the department is also an employee of Chalmers. Both departments have formal delegation to the administrative managers. The delegation document is however from Chalmers and not the University (see below). Both administrative managers are women and both are economists. One is currently acting administrative manager and the other position was filled when the department’s economist was asked if she would to take the position. Both had work experience from administrative issues at Chalmers/the University before taking the position as administrative manager. One works full-time as administrative manager and the other equally divides her time between administrative manager and economist. None of them have any deputies. 4. Chalmers Chalmers has also made the decision to have an administrative manager at each department. The administrative managers have also been assigned the task of developing Chalmers’ administrative activities by the Vice-Chancellor (C 2006/191):

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Since 1 January 2005, each department has had an administrative manager who is in charge of all administrative personnel at the department and who is responsible for management and coordination of the department’s administration. From an organisational perspective, each department shall have certain similarities as this allows for more efficient exploitation of resources, exchange of experience and support not only between departments but also between the departments and the Chalmers central organisation. In 2005, the administrative managers, together with the Administration and Service management, developed a network to enable coordination of Chalmers’ administration, and played a dominant role in this development. The network has also provided improvements to information transfer not only between the departments but between the departments and Administration and Service. Decision The Vice-Chancellor instructs the group of administrative managers to -­‐ develop Chalmers’ administrative activities together with Administration and Service -­‐ aim for common working methods between the departments -­‐ facilitate exchange of experience and understanding between researchers/teaching personnel and

personnel who work with administration and service. As opposed to the University, Chalmers has a common document describing the areas of responsibility for the administrative managers: Areas  of  responsibility  for  administrative  manager  NN,  at  the  Department  of  X  1.  Area  of  responsibility  The  administrative  manager  is  in  charge  of  and  coordinates  the  administrative  activities  at  the  department  and  is  the  head  of  the  department’s  administrative  personnel.  This  area  of  responsibility  comprises  contributions  towards  the  development  of  Chalmers’  administrative  activities.    The  administrative  manager  reports  to  the  Head  of  Department  and  is  a  member  of  the  department’s  management  group.    2.  Delegation  The  Head  of  Department  delegates  to  the  administrative  manager  decisions  regarding  measures  required  to  manage  and  coordinate  the  department’s  administrative  activities.  This  delegation  includes  responsibility  for  the  working  environment  for  the  personnel  subordinate  to  the  administrative  manager.  Chalmers’  operating  document  “Operating  responsibility  regarding  working  environment”  states  the  main  assignments  covered  by  responsibility  as  an  employer,  see  appendix  1.    In  cases  which  directly  or  indirectly  involve  basic  education,  postgraduate  education  or  research,  the  administrative  manager  shall  consult  with  the  Head  of  Department  or  the  person  appointed  by  the  Head  of  Department,  if  this  is  of  significant  importance  for  handling  the  case  or  making  a  decision.    The  Head  of  Department  can  also  delegate  to  the  administrative  manager  responsibility  for  other  activities  or  personnel.    The  administrative  manager  is  entitled  to  delegate  to  other  subordinates  decisions  regarding  other  cases  or  groups  of  cases  or  implementation  of  measures  adopted  by  the  administrative  manager.    Decisions  regarding  delegation  and  reversal  of  delegation  shall  be  recorded.  Delegation  involving  individual  cases  shall  be  documented  by  making  notes  on  the  document.  Copies  of  delegation  documents  and  reversal  of  delegation  documents  shall  be  archived  in  the  Central  Administration’s  archives.    3.  Restrictions  Handling  of  economic,  personnel  and  salary  issues  shall  take  place  in  accordance  with  the  procedures  established  by  the  Finance  Manager  and  Personnel  Director.  Decisions  regarding  salaries  for  new  recruits  and  promotions  are  taken  in  consultation  with  Human  Resources.    Personnel  issues  are  dealt  with  by  Human  Resources,  who  are  subordinate  to  the  Personnel  Director.  In  cooperation  with  

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Human  Resources,  the  administrative  manager  is  responsible  for  coordination  of  personnel  issues  with  other  administration  at  the  department.  The  administrative  manager  is  not  entitled  to  exceed  the  restrictions  laid  down  by  the  Vice-­‐Chancellor  in  the  delegation  to  the  Head  of  Department.    The  administrative  manager  is  not  permitted  to  make  decisions  on  issues  of  an  unusual  nature  or  scope  relating  to  the  contents  of  operations.  

5. Summarised conclusions and reflections This charting process of the roles and assignments of the administrative managers illustrates a relatively substantial disparity at the University in terms of the methods utilised by the departments to delegate assignments to the administrative managers. This implies that the administrative managers have different mandates according to the assignments delegated by the Head of Department. The role of administrative manager also differs in terms of number of working hours – whether they are administrative managers full-time or also have other assignments (e.g. controller). This disparity is mainly attributed to the size of the departments, but also the contents of operations and the history of the department. The University’s rules of procedure also clearly state that each Department shall have an administrative manager: “Each department shall have an administrative manager who is responsible for the administrative work for the department. The mandate and decision-making authority of the administrative manager shall be governed by delegation by the Head of Department” (V 2013/763). This – I believe – shall be interpreted as such that there shall be some kind of delegation to the administrative manager. The assignments to be delegated or to which members of staff is however up to the Head of Department. The delegation of authority policy stipulates that the Head of Department can delegate his/her decision-making entitlement, “[…] provided that such delegation is not expressly forbidden pursuant to statutes or other schemes.” (V 2013/764). However, there is no directive for how a department shall format a delegation of authority policy. Nor are there any examples/templates to help simplify this process. A Head of Department can not only delegate to an administrative manager but to other members of staff at the department, particularly to the Deputy Head of Department, with responsibility for education and/or research. For many of the administrative managers, their role is relatively unclear and their managerial mandates also differ substantially according to department. Some are solely managers, in charge of management, personnel, economics and development. Then there are those who can be described as having a type of administrative coordination role with no formal managerial mandate. The majority describe themselves as in between these two “extremes”. The Heads of twenty three of the thirty eight departments delegate assignments to the administrative managers. Despite this, there are no clear common denominators for such delegation, rather a significant diversity in terms of scope and content. A number of departments have chosen to base their delegation on the Vice-Chancellor’s delegation of authority policy for in-house delegation. They have compiled one document specifying the Head of Department’s delegation to the Deputy Head of Department, Vice Head of Department, administrative manager etc. At other departments, delegation is expressed in more general terms, with the main feature most frequently being to “manage and distribute the administrative work”. There are also delegations that only comprise a few items, for example to make a decision on the suitability of the administrative system and on working hours for technical and administrative personnel. Several of the departments which currently do not have delegation are however working on preparing such a scheme, so the ratio with delegation will most probably increase in the near future. Some administrative managers have a very close and successful cooperation with the other members of the department management, and do not feel the need for formal delegation. At other departments

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however, the lack of formal delegation is seen as a significant problem and it has been confirmed that they relatively frequently experience situations (not necessarily conflicts) where it is not clear who is responsible for different assignments. Improved clarification of delegation can be seen as providing support to (particularly new recruits) Heads of Departments as they will be able to eliminate further discussions on or clarification of lines of responsibility with regard to the administrative personnel and their assignments. A number of departments have prepared governing documents that contain both the rules of procedure and the delegation of authority policy. I strongly recommend that these two be kept separate and comply with the structure of the University-wide document. This requires rules of procedure that describe “the comprehensive organisation and decision-making structure including responsibility issues and assignments for different members of staff and functions” (V 2014/765), and a delegation of authority policy where the Head of Department decides in which areas decision-making authority can be delegated to subordinates. The rules of procedure are thus an organisational description in which you can both describe the different bodies within the department and their assignments, in addition to the different roles of and relations between members of staff. Both the rules of procedure and the delegation of authority policy are categorised as governing documents. The governing document entitled Procedure for governing documents (V 2013/970) states the following:

If the decision-maker is not prepared to secure the implementation of a governing document, then the relevant document should probably not be adopted. Effective implementation requires that the recipient is clearly defined and able to influence the activity to which the governance relates. In order for the governing document to have the intended effect, it must also state who it addresses, and efforts must be made to raise awareness of the document’s existence. Decisions shall clearly specify which position is responsible for implementation and how this shall be communicated. The main principle however is that the executive/preparatory body is responsible for communication of governing documents and for their implementation. Decisions on governing documents, specifically decisions on policies and plans, should be accompanied by decisions on how to follow up on the application and effects of governing documents. The party that decides on the governing document is also the party that decides on follow-up. The party responsible for follow-up should be specified in the decision.

At first glance, this may appear relatively clear. “Decisions shall clearly specify which position is responsible for implementation and how this shall be communicated.” However, the next section is not so clear: “Decisions on governing documents, specifically decisions on policies and plans, should be accompanied by decisions on how to follow up on the application and effects of governing documents.” There is a vast difference between the use of “shall” and “should”. The use of “should” makes it significantly more difficult for responsible parties to order implementation, and there is a high risk that implementation does not take place (or at least is not given priority when there is a high work load). There is room for improvement to the implementation and follow-up of rules of procedure and delegation of authority policies so that they are more in accordance with the Procedure for governing documents. This report could be described as part of this process, but I believe that the University management should take a much more active approach towards follow-up of the work carried out by the faculties and departments on rules of procedure and delegation of authority policies. This is mainly a question of supporting operations with an aim to make decision-making more clearly defined and efficient. The persons interviewed agree that the introduction of the role of administrative manager has been positive for both the departments and the University as a whole. Above all, the role makes the

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departmental administration more manifest as a specific unit within the department with a manager to direct and distribute the work. Given the frequent turnover in Heads of Department, Deputy Heads and Vice Heads of Department, it is important that the administration can continue to function as a stable part of activities providing support to the academic management irrespective of whether the persons involved have held their managerial position for a long time or are recent recruits. Some administrative managers have also expressed concern prior to impending changes in Head of Department, as it is uncertain how the new Head will act. This situation could be rectified somewhat by having clearly defined general delegation for administrative managers in particular. The fact that there is one person with main responsibility also implies that it is easier to meet with other departments to exchange experience. The administrative managers at all the University faculties meet regularly (on some occasions together with the Faculty Directors) to discuss common issues. All the administrative managers are very satisfied with the training provided to administrative managers when they take on the position, but some felt that there should have been a stronger focus on management. The administrative discussions organised by the University Director are also very valuable. There is also a requirement for recurring network activities for the administrative managers, as a follow-up of their general managerial training. One option here is the network meetings held for faculty programme directors by the Pedagogical Development and Interactive Learning (PIL) unit. As the role of administrative manager (as with faculty programme director) is new at the University, some form of management/support is most probably required to achieve this aim. One good example is provided by Chalmers, where the administrative managers are assigned specific tasks by the Vice-Chancellor in order to develop administrative activities. Some administrative managers should be allowed a certain leeway in their role in order to sustain activities. Almost two thirds of the administrative managers have assignments that exceed the role of administrative manager. The most common “bi-function” is main responsibility for economic issues, often with the title of controller. Second to this is responsibility for PA-HR, and in particular recruitment, which claims a lot of time. For certain of the managers, these assignments are their main function, and some spend a total 80 percent of their working hours on other functions than managerial functions. The administrative managers have on average 15 subordinates. The range is however very high, from three to 45 employees, and this is to a great extent a reflection of the size of the different departments. The number of subordinates is also affected by the personnel categories subordinated to the administrative manager. This varies in particular according to whether the student counsellors are subordinate to the Head of Department or the administrative manager, or whether they (as in the Sahlgrenska Academy) are part of the Faculty Office. The question of whether the administrative managers fill this role as a full-time or part-time position is also to some degree related to the size of the department. The estimated average working hours per week for the administrative managers is 45 hours, and around half of the group feel they have excessive pressure at work. Several administrative managers also stated that they feel their role as administrative manager has a lower status than other administrative managers at the University, e.g. division managers at the Central University Administration or the Directors of Faculties. It is felt that this becomes evident when for example the administrative managers are not invited by the Vice-Chancellor to take part in meetings with Directors and Heads of Departments. Many administrative managers would prefer to have the time to work more on long-term strategic issues. The greatest obstacle to this is the operational work that takes up so much time, in particular for those who have multiple roles requiring them to act not only in a managerial function but also with operations involving economics and/or personnel issues. It is questionable whether it is reasonable to function as a manager for only less than 50 percent of working hours, at least if you are required to direct and distribute work for ten or more employees, carry out performance and salary reviews, take responsibility for the working environment and work with operational development.

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The administrative managers who have worked in different areas at the University emphasise how valuable it is to gain such experience. Many of them are also of the opinion that new recruits to the Central University Administration or other offices should be required to gain work experience at a department. Having at least an insight into the work involved in a department’s core activities is very beneficial when working on the development of shared support. This kind of work experience should comprise at least two weeks, and the preparation of a model for this work experience could be a task for the network of administrative managers. This should also apply vice versa; i.e. that administrative personnel employed by a department should spend a period of work experience at a central University facility. I have identified three main approaches for a University-wide process to deal with the issue of delegation. Firstly; to specify in the rules of procedure that the administrative manager is in charge of a department’s administrative personnel. For example: “The administrative manager is in charge of and coordinates the administrative activities at the department and is the head of the department’s administrative personnel.” (cf. Chalmers). This is relatively similar to the current wording, but does clarify the managerial mandate. Secondly; the Vice-Chancellor adopts a decision whereby the assignments of the administrative managers are made more clear. This could be compared to the Vice-Chancellor’s decision for a job description for the faculty programme directors at the departments (V 2013/296). Thirdly; to compile a template containing a list of all possible delegations by a Head of Department, from which the individual Head of Department can choose which types of delegation are most appropriate. The University management could thus stipulate that this template shall be filled in and be adopted by the Head of Department. The preparation of such a template could also be an appropriate task for the network of administrative managers. It is of course also possible to combine the three above approaches. What is most important at the time of writing is to take some form of action to support the administrative managerial work at the departments. The choice of approach should also support the work on the rules of procedure and delegation of authority policy for the departments that have not yet completed such documents. Improved clarification of delegation can also be seen as providing support to (particularly new recruits) Heads of Departments as they will be able to eliminate further discussions on or clarification of lines of responsibility with regard to the administrative personnel. With the exception of the issue of delegation, the above can be summarised and several factors highlighted that have emerged during the interview, as follows:

• The managerial work should represent minimum 50 percent of working hours. • When recruiting administrative managers, the position should be advertised both in-house and

externally, and former experience of personnel management should be a requirement. • Create a University-wide network for administrative managers. • Recently recruited administrative personnel should have a period of work experience at a

department/the Central University Administration. A number of departments have prepared governing documents that contain both the rules of procedure and the delegation of authority policy. I strongly recommend that these two be kept separate and comply with the structure of the University-wide document. This requires rules of procedure that describe “the comprehensive organisation and decision-making structure including responsibility issues and assignments for different members of staff and functions” (V 2014/765), and a delegation of authority policy where the Head of Department decides in which areas decision-making authority can be delegated to subordinates. The rules of procedure are thus an organisational description in which you can both describe the different bodies within the department and their assignments, in addition to the different roles of and relations between members of staff. Both shall be live governing documents that require continuous follow-up and updates in line with the developments in operations.

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A network of administrative managers could also play an important role in this context by continuously benchmarking support for all departments. Government using governing documents is partly reliant on the governing documents being perceived as relevant and reliable, and partly on the documents providing support to local management and development activities. If this is not achieved, there is a substantial risk that these documents will be no more than very expensive “shelf warmers”.