The actorhood imperative. On universities as organisational actors

ABSTRACT

Organisational actorhood denotes the agency and capacity of organisations to act for and out of themselves. Sociological neoinstitutionalism has shown how notions of empowered actorhood have spread globally and across modern society. It has however neglected how organisations act upon this notion. Drawing on Foucault’s writings on governmentality, actorhood can be conceived as a ‘technology of the self’ that allows individuals (and organisations) to define how to act for themselves. Understanding actorhood as an imperative to take action in the name of the self, the paper extends the neoinstitutional perspective to account for how organisations perform actorhood. Taking organisational action as starting point for analysing organisational actors allows to overcome the passive conformity of organisations vis-à-vis environmental expectations. This perspective is applied to empirical findings on how German universities act as organisations in teaching. Though actorhood was highly scripted by a national funding scheme, universities more or less used the extra resources to pursue their own goals. Focussing on organisational action shows that universities as organisational actors do not just respond to environmental expecations but act within a field of possible actions that simultaneously pushes and constrains actorhood. The paper therefore proposes to study how universities act as organisational actors.

KEYWORDS:

• organisational actorhood
• sociological neoinstitutionalism
• governmentality
• teaching
• organisational change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Foucault speaks of a ‘total structure of actions brought to bear upon possible actions “which is always” a way of acting upon an acting subject or acting subjects by virtue of their acting or being capable of action’ (Foucault 2000b, 341).

2 ‘Qualitätskapazität – Untersuchung des Mehrwerts von zusätzlichem Lehrpersonal des Qualitätspakts Lehre für die akademische Lehre’ [Quality-capacity – investigation of the surplus for teaching through extra teaching faculty funded by the Pact for Quality in Teaching], funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 2015-17.

3 The complex calculation involves the number of teaching positions, teaching loads, and standardized discipline-specific teacher-student-ratios (Mitterle, Würmann, and Bloch 2015). Since access to higher education is constitutionally granted once the necessary credentials (Abitur) are obtained, rejected applicants may sue universities for admission on the grounds of miscalculated or not exhausted teaching capacities.

4 Of altogether 87 public research universities that were eligible to participate, 78 were funded from 2011–2015 and 71 from 2016-2020. Also, universities of applied sciences and art and music colleges received funding.

5 There is almost no leeway for faculties since the calculations are based on the complete exhaustion of teaching capacity. Any shortfall or reduction of teaching loads requires equal compensation, for instance through increasing individual teaching loads or by hiring adjunct faculty. In any case, some departments struggle every semester anew to get hold of the faculty necessary to maintain regular teaching.

6 Verwaltungsvereinbarung zwischen Bund und Ländern über ein gemeinsames Programm für bessere Studienbedingungen und mehr Qualität in der Lehre vom 18. Oktober 2010 (Administrative agreement between the federal and Länder governments on a joint program for better study conditions and more quality in teaching from October 18, 2010), transl. Preamble.

7 The resources were concentrated in the faculty of education and teacher education was central to the university’s profile.

8 As part of this reconfiguration, the Pact expired in 2020. The successor program does not fund anymore extra teaching faculty but rather innovative projects in teaching. It no longer requires an organizational strategy in teaching.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roland Bloch

Dr. Roland Bloch is research associate at the Center for School and Educational Research at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. He has studied political science, philosophy, and American studies at University of Leipzig and at Vanderbilt University. His dissertation dealt with the effects of the Bologna study reforms on student practice. His research focusses on the organisational transformation of universities in teaching, doctoral education, and academic careers, and on emerging stratifications in higher education.