As a Dean, You Are Stuck between the Top Management and Academia, a Bit Like the Patty in a Hamburger: Hybrid Roles of Academic Middle Managers in Finnish Universities

Abstract

Middle managers in universities work in an environment where their institutions face a variety of pressures to change and demands for organisational development. When universities adapt to their changing environments and apply different logics and values in their activities, they are referred to as ‘hybrid organisations’. While academic middle managers manage the change in universities, they are also affected by it. They have two roles with specific logics and values: as academic professionals and as managers of the organisation. In this chapter, we explore the work of academic middle managers and the perceptions of deans and heads of departments of the challenges they face in their work within the context of hybrid universities. The data consist of a survey conducted in Finnish universities in 2020 and 2024. The results showed that there are many tensions inherent to the work of university middle managers that reveal the conflicting logics that exist within universities and academic work.