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Academic Cultures

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The 'invisible tapestry' that weaves together parts of an organization ... Credentialism and careerism 'What's in it for me'? NetGen/Millenials' priorities ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Academic Cultures


1
Academic Cultures
Perceptions
  • Taking Your Liaison Program to the Next Level

    Strategies for Outreach and Integration
  • ACRL National Conference
  • Baltimore, Maryland
  • March 29, 2007
  • Craig Gibson

2
What is Culture?
  • (Think-Pair-Share)

3
Culture Definitions
  • Social or normative glue that holds an
    organization together (Smirchich)
  • The invisible tapestry that weaves together
    parts of an organization (Kuh and Whitt)

Smirchich, L. 1983. Concepts of Culture and
Organizational Analysis. Administrative Science
Quarterly 28 339-58.
Kuh, George, and Elizabeth Whitt. 1988. The
Invisible Tapestry Culture in American Colleges
and Universities. ASHE-ERIC Report no. 1.
Washington, D.C. ASHE.
4
Culture Features
  • Distinctive beliefs, ways of interacting and
    behaving
  • Unspoken assumptions, tacit knowledge
  • The predominant paradigm that helps those within
    it make meaning and understand the environment

5
Culture Hows it Manifested?
  • Its the unconscious infrastructure (Kuh and
    Whitt)
  • stories, myths, organizational sagas
  • rituals, ceremonies
  • specialized terminology
  • systemic behavior patterns by those within an
    organization, over time

6
Layers of CultureExplicit and Tacit Knowledge
  • Tacit knowledge
  • Attitudes, beliefs, skills below the level of
    awareness
  • Subjective insights, hunches, intuitions
  • Explicit knowledge
  • Words, numbers written down
  • Reports, manuals, products

7
Academic Cultures
Institutional Culture
Student Culture
Faculty Culture
Library Culture
Administrative Culture
8
Academic Cultures
9
Faculty Culture
  • Identify a recent experience with a faculty
    member that shows a systemic aspect of faculty
    culture. What words would you use to characterize
    that culture?

10
Relevant Cultural Aspects
of Faculty Culture
  • Emphasis of most academic disciplines on
    research, content, and specialization
  • Deemphasis on teaching, process,and undergraduates

11
The Five Core Academic Values
(of Faculty)
  • Collegiality participation, consensus, the
    collegium the company of equals
  • Autonomy individual faculty members ability to
    make decisions without coercion or outside
    intervention
  • Academic freedom substantive intellectual work
    requires freedom to choose and profess in ones
    discipline

12
Five Core Academic Values (contd)
  • Specialized expertise basis for authority,
    credibility, prestige, recognition, and rewards
    within the academy
  • Reason/scientific method the basis for
    developing knowledge and expertise
  • Barbara Walvoord, Academic Departments
    How They Work, How They Change. ASHE-ERIC Higher
    Education Report, v. 27, no. 8. San Francisco
    Jossey Bass, 2000, pp. 15-17.

13
How do faculty view librarians?
  • Process, procedure-oriented
  • Rule-bound
  • Service role rather than educational one
  • Not seen as equals
  • Not aware of instruction that librarians already
    do

14
Student Culture Values
  • Collaborative, peer influences
  • Credentialism and careerism
  • Whats in it for me?
  • NetGen/Millenials priorities

15
Library Culture
  • Order, predictability
  • Standards, expertise
  • Mature organizations barrier to innovation
    (Deiss)
  • Replicability of experience more important than
    risk and uncertainty (Deiss)

Kathryn Deiss, Innovation and Strategy Risk and
Choice in Shaping User-Centered Libraries,
Library Trends, vol. 53, no. 1, summer 2004, pp.
17-32.
16
Administrative Culture
  • Strategic planning
  • Educational outcomes
  • Efficiency in resource use
  • Sensitivity to external pressures governing
    boards, employers, the public, alumni
  • Rationalized myths (subjective interpretations
    and analyses given logical veneer)
  • Symbolic action, ceremony

17
Coexisting and overlapping
institutional cultures (chronological order)
  • Collegial epitomizes the five core academic
    values the core culture of the academy
  • Managerial administrative demands for
    efficiency, outcomes, accountability an emergent
    value system
  • Negotiating relationship, sometimes adversarial,
    between faculty and administration
  • Developmental professional growth, student
    development and services
  • Bergquist, W.H. (1992). The Four Cultures of
    the Academy. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.

18
Academic Cultures Positioning
Liaison and Outreach
19
Perceptions
20
Perceptions
  • Asymmetrical disconnection
    between
    librarians and faculty

Lars Christensen, Mindy Stombler, and Lyn
Thaxton, A Report on Librarian-Faculty Relations
from a Sociological Perspective, Journal of
Academic Librarianship, 30/2 (March 2004)
116-121.
21
Perceptions
  • Librarians value contact with faculty and attempt
    to increase it
  • Faculty often dont understand the work of
    librarians
  • Librarians see lack of communication with faculty
    as problematic, a challenge to be overcome
  • Faculty are often so preoccupied that they dont
    identify lack of communication with librarians as
    a problem

Lars Christensen, Mindy Stombler, and Lyn
Thaxton, A Report on Librarian-Faculty Relations
from a Sociological Perspective, Journal of
Academic Librarianship, 30/2 (March 2004)
116-121.
22
Realities
  • Faculty are affiliated with their discipline
    and/or academic department
  • Librarians are affiliated with an agency that
    serves information/research needs of everyone
  • Faculty have more flexible schedules
  • Librarians work more standard (40 hours per
    week) schedules

Lars Christensen, Mindy Stombler, and Lyn
Thaxton, A Report on Librarian-Faculty Relations
from a Sociological Perspective, Journal of
Academic Librarianship, 30/2 (March 2004)
116-121.
23
Cultural gaps and perceptions
  • Librarians are attuned to collaboration,
    cooperation, sharing
  • Faculty culture is often more individualistic,
    isolated, and proprietary
  • Librarians are not seen as true subject experts
    by faculty even if librarians have academic
    preparation and/or degrees
  • Faculty are not seen by librarians as truly
    competent/conversant with I.T., searching, or
    teaching (in some cases)

Lars Christensen, Mindy Stombler, and Lyn
Thaxton, A Report on Librarian-Faculty Relations
from a Sociological Perspective, Journal of
Academic Librarianship, 30/2 (March 2004)
116-121.
24
Culture, Belief, and Change
  • Change doesnt come from following a procedural
    plan or a cookbook approach
  • Change comes from deepening the beliefs or
    internal commitments of people
  • Change comes from a collaborative learning
    process (shared expertise)
  • The role of the leader is to increase
    organizational capacity

25
Core Change Strategies within the
Academy
  • Senior Administrative Support
  • Collaborative Leadership
  • Robust Design
  • Staff Development
  • Visible Actions

Adrianna Kezar and Peter Eckel, The Effect of
Culture on Change Strategies in Higher
Education, The Journal of Higher Education, vol.
73, no. 4 (July/August 2002), pp. 435-460.
26
Transformational Change
Visible Actions
Robust Design
27
Robust Design
Resources
Flexible Picture of the Future
Change Strategies compatible with the culture
Strategic Directions and Positioning
28
Other Change Strategies . . .
  • Persuasive communication
  • Incentives, rewards
  • Long-term orientation
  • Connections and synergy
  • Working within the organizational culture
  • Bringing in outside perspectives
  • Using external factors
  • Capitalizing on unforeseen opportunities

29
Other Change Strategies . . .
  • Moderating momentum
  • Establishing new expectations
  • Using changes in administrative processes
  • Resocializing groups
  • Placing local change in broader context

Adrianna Kezar and Peter Eckel, Examining the
Institutional Transformation Process, Research
in Higher Education, vol. 43, no. 3, June 2002,
pp. 295-328.
30
Whats Your (Librarys Prevailing) Culture?
  • (Cultural Audit exercise)
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