Hierarchy and power: a conceptual analysis with particular reference to new public management reforms in German universities

Abstract

For more than 20 years, new public management (NPM) has been the guiding governance model of university reforms in Europe. One central aspect of this governance model is to strengthen the hierarchy within the universities. Recent research shows that the formal decision-making authority of university leaders and deans has increased in almost every European country. While these changes at the formal level are well documented in the literature, researchers have given little attention to the institutional protection mechanisms of hierarchy in organizations. The most important institutional protection mechanisms of hierarchy in organizations are power and the related potential for negative and positive sanctions. By discussing the German university system, we ask whether university leaders and/or deans have the power to use hierarchy within their universities. Three types of power are considered: organizational power, personnel power and power over resources. The article shows that in Germany, neither university leaders nor deans have sufficient power over the academics in order to exercise hierarchical governance. The absence of power at the university leadership level and at the departmental level seems an important barrier to the implementation of the NPM model in Germany. Our perspective on hierarchy and power allows for further comparative research.

Keywords:

• new public management
• hierarchy
• power
• organization
• governance
• Germany

Notes on contributors

Otto Hüther is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Kassel, Faculty of Social Sciences.

Georg Krücken is Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel (INCHER-Kassel) and Professor of Sociology and Higher Education Research at the University of Kassel, Faculty of Social Sciences.

Notes

1. A Junior Professorship (W1 Professorship) has a fixed term of six years. Usually an evaluation takes place after three years to decide whether the professor should continue for the remaining three years. The Junior Professorship was introduced in Germany in 2002 and offers an alternative path to attaining a W2 or W3 professorship to the habilitation.

2. In 2011, 43% of all professors in Germany were still on the C-salary system (Statistisches Bundesamt 2012b).

3. The proportion of academics with tenure in the USA has dropped from 65% in 1980/1981 to 49% in 2007/2008 (cf. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)). According to Chait (2002, 19), there has been a dramatic increase in the number of part-time professorships. As a proportion of all professorships their numbers nearly doubled from 22% in 1970 to 41% in 1995. Donoghue's (2008) analysis shows that in subjects such as humanities or liberal arts with no direct economic utility, and at universities that are profit-oriented and/or only offer training, the increases have been especially dramatic.