Shifting Roles and Blurring Boundaries: Reconstructing Professional Identities in Higher Education

1. Shifting Roles and Blurring Boundaries: Reconstructing Professional Identities in Higher Education Dr Celia Whitchurch Lecturer in Higher Education Institute of Education, University of London c.whitchurch@ioe.ac.uk Centre for Higher Education Studies

2. Contexts I • Study for LFHE on changing roles and identities of professional staff (www.lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research) • Literature on academic identity • Limited understandings about professional staff identities… • Focus on professional managers (as opposed to academic managers)

3. Contexts II • Practitioner literature highlighted: • ‘Professionalisation’ eg accreditation; CPD; code of standards • Increased specialisation to deal with eg legislative, audit and market requirements • Neglect of: • Diversity and mobility of professional staff • Blurring of organisational/functional/professional boundaries • Emergence of partnership working • ‘Professionalisation’ process and greater fluidity happening simultaneously

4. Conceptual framework(identity) • Conceptual framework of identity: • A reflexive process or project requiring the active participation of the individual • The way that individuals position themselves in relation to eg organisation charts/structures • Interpretation of positioning in relation to others • Therefore, an ongoing, open-ended process (rather than fixed core/belonging), plus • Possibility of multiple aspects or dimensions

5. The study • 29 interviews in UK • Three institutions (multi-faculty, green-field campus, post-1992) • Middle and senior career professionals: • Generalists eg registry staff, departmental managers • Specialists eg finance, human resources • ‘Niche’ managers eg quality, widening participation, research management • Further interviews in Australia (one sandstone, one post-merger institution: 10 interviews) and US (two public institutions: 15 interviews)

6. Key findings I • Professional identities more complex than implied by eg job descriptions/organisation charts • People distinguish themselves by the way that they operate around organisational boundaries

7. Identity ‘Dispositions’

8. Typology of identities

9. Key findings II • Also found evidence that: • The boundary between professional and academic domains is becoming increasingly blurred • A ‘third space’ is emerging between the two

10. The Emergence of ‘Third Space’ ‘Perimeter’ roles eg ‘Perimeter’ roles eg Academic Staff Professional Staff Examples of Institutional Projects Outreach/study skills Access/equity/ disability Community/ regional partnership The Student Transitions Project eg Life and welfare Widening participation Employability and careers The Partnership Project eg Regional/community development Regeneration Business/technology incubation The Professional Development Project eg Academic practice Professional practice Project management Leadership/management development Generalist functions (eg registry, department/ school management) Specialist functions (eg finance, human resources) ‘Niche’ functions (eg quality, research management Pastoral support Teaching/ curriculum development for non-traditional students Links with local education providers Teaching Research ‘Third leg’ eg public service, enterprise Multi-functional teams “The Higher Education Professional”

11. Implications of Third Space I • Team working between: • people of different levels of seniority • different specialist and professional backgrounds • Authority built on personal basis, rather than solely via position in hierarchy or specialist knowledge: • “There’s no authority that you come with” • “It’s what you are, not what you represent” • “If you solve a problem for us, we’ll come back and work with you again”

12. Implications of Third Space II • Ambiguous working conditions • “Sometimes an academic unit, sometimes an office” • Using this to advantage • Developing appropriate language • Assisted by eg: • Availability of ‘safe space’ in which to experiment • Support of senior figure or mentor (HOA, PVC) • Acquisition of academic credentials (master’s, doctorates)

13. Implications of Third Space III • Diffusion of ‘management’ and ‘leadership’ • No longer ‘done’ by one sub-set of people to majority • Likely to involve: • Management/leadership skills at earlier stage of people’s careers • Bringing together local practice and formal frameworks • Being creative with existing mechanisms

14. Challenges of Third Space • For individuals: • Status of boundary work? • How to gain credit for third space activity in appraisal/promotion processes? • Risks in getting out of ‘mainstream’? • Inappropriate reporting lines… • Networking vs formal relationships eg committee membership

15. Challenges of Third Space • For institutions: • Sources of leverage can be diffuse • How to prevent eg projects developing a life of their own; or being too dependent on one individual • Encouraging creativity/innovation while maintaining oversight… • Lines of communication… • Appropriate mix/balance of identities

16. The future? • Changing concepts of ‘professionalism’…? • ‘Millennial' generation expect: • Flexibility, creativity, lifestyles, locations • Less elitism • New locales for activity eg outreach • Portfolio careers • Networking • Sharing of good practice… • A genuine ‘community of professionals’? (See Richard Florida – The Rise of the Creative Class, 2002)