Changing managerial roles in Danish universities

Abstract

The article analyses changes in university managerial roles in the wake of a range of reforms, most notably a radical Danish management reform in 2003, using institutional work as the theoretical framework. Both qualitative and quantitative data is drawn upon, the former consisting of interviews with academics and managers on all levels and the latter in the form of payroll data for all Danish university employees. By combining these data in a mixed methods study, the analysis reveals how managerial roles have changed slowly, steadily, and substantially in the years since the reforms, resulting in extensive change. The article hereby questions the resilience of universities as organisational incarnations of a traditional collegial template.