Tenure track career system as a strategic instrument for academic leaders

Abstract

This study examines the purposes for which leaders in universities use academic career systems. It focuses on the tenure track system which is new to Finland. Tenure track represents a newly established internal career path in a situation in which Finnish universities’ organizational autonomy increased via new legislation from 2010. Drawing predominantly on interviews with academic leaders at two universities, the study investigates the goals of the career system. Shared aspirations include using the tenure track to attract high-performing junior researchers and to allocate resources within the university. The study’s main focus is on governance structures: it examines the extent to which internal career paths contribute to making Finnish universities organizational actors. In that respect, the study presents an analysis of the organizational procedures related to tenure track decisions, the tensions created by hierarchical governance structures, and deans and department heads’ sense-making of ambiguous situations for which no clear procedures or instructions exist. Tenure track committees represent new controlling bodies by which universities influence their research fields and the recruitment of academics. As a result, universities strengthen their position as stronger organizational actors, but at the same time they limit the freedom of departments to respond to field-specific needs.

Keywords:

• university organizations
• governance
• academic careers
• tenure tracks

Acknowledgements

Various colleagues have helpfully commented different drafts of the paper. I would especially like to thank Turo Virtanen, Pertti Ahonen, James Fairweather, Minna Nikunen, 9th EUREDOCS Conference participants and EGOS 2014 ‘Universities in Unsettled Times: Effects of Evaluations, Accreditations and Rankings’ sub-theme participants for comments and ideas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work was supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund [grants number 113198, 114057].

Notes on contributor

Maria Pietilä is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki, Department of Political and Economic Studies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund [grants number 113198, 114057].