Reinventing the university after 1989--managing a "double-loop" change process

1. Reinventing the university after 1989--managing a "double-loop" change process Zoltán Abádi-Nagy Vice Rector University of Debrecen HUNGARY

2. Acknowledgement • Dr. György Nádas, Director, Department of Human Politics, provided valuable assistance • Dr. Edit Varga, Consultant, Quality Assurance Program and Krisztina Molnár, Head of Center for International Relations and University Advancement, lent conceptual and technical help • Dr. Agócsné Vilma Ádám, Head, Rector’s Office, Academic Affairs and Mrs. Ferencné Kiss, Head, Payroll Office, provided the statistical data. Mr. Tibor Tóth put his doctoral statistics tables at my disposal.

3. Introduction • Submitted case study • University perspective • Multiple change process • HRM: external/internal factors • Approach: mainly descriptive • Now: INSIDE the HRM program (some aspects) • Approach: analysis, evaluation and synthesis, with lessons and tasks

4. Topics of Discussion • I. HRM implementation--tools, processes • II. HRM and social change--economy and legal environment • III. HRM and integration • IV. HRM and EU accession • V. The “double loop” aspect • VI. Lessons and tasks

5. I.1. Goal-setting • Accreditation • Coordination • Internal regulations • Gifted education

6. I.2. Performance evaluation • Academic staff (contract track, tenure track) • Academic development • Balancing teaching • Evaluation procedures • Others: e.g., UD Medical and Health Sciences Center • Student teacher evaluation

7. Promotion and administrative appointment • University-level: compact system • Quality assurance and accreditation • The Social Council • On-sight Rector’s Council sessions

8. I.3. Institutional performance • Funding system • Research funding, indicators • UD ranks first in Hungary in 2004

9. HR for R + D

10. Doctoral programs 1

11. Doctoral programs 2

12. I.4. Staff satisfaction • Indicator 1: staff numbers after integration • Indicator 2: staff fluctuation • Monitoring staff satisfaction

13. Staff numbers of UD predecessor institutions before integration

14. UD staff numbers after integration

16. FLUCTUATION

17. I.5. HRM--Implementation • Partial • Reasons: economy, legal environment, institutional integration, EU accession • Implementation overflow • Reasons: “double-loop” contradictions

18. II. 1. HRM and social change--the economy • The post-1989 double trap: syphoning off vs recruitment • Staff cuts: needs of the economy, no task-orientednesscold-meet HRM • Recruiting Faculty from outside • HE and research institutes of the Academy • Further staff reduction--a budgetary pressure

19. Tension between funding-driven student growth and HRM • Flying professors and affiliated departments • Compulsory retirement (62, 65, 70) (church institutions excepted)

20. II.2. HRM and social change--legal environment • Some things are historically tainted • From “personnel” to human resource • Balancing gains and losses • The HE Act (even EUA Graz Declaration)

21. III. HRM and institutional integration • Existential threat • Allegiance conflicts and the distrust factor • Complex-pressure • Regression price paid for progress • UD examples: habilitation, HE management training center

22. Institutional management structure • Centralization and decentralization • Human resource redistribution (institutional, national)

23. IV. HRM and EU accession • Massification of HE • Open up job applications • Bologna

24. V. 1. The “double-loop” aspect--inherited “single-loop” reflexes • Can we change underlying culture? • Examples: democracy as demagoguery; autonomy as demagoguery; chancellor or commissary?

25. Is it really “double-loop” or reprogrammed “single-loop”? • Example: Ph.D. and Dr. Univ. • Formerly repressed, currently drained majors

26. V.2. The “double-loop” aspect--its space • The totality of (inter)national HE strategy • Clashing value systems • Danger: half-informed as “double-loop”

27. Institutional space: university-level initiatives to initiate and accomplish change • cultural change concerning HRM • UD examples: politics dispelled from campus; rector’s mandate (tool for facilitating integration); HRM and internationalization

28. VI. Lessons and tasks • Reform funding system • “Double-loop” approach to change-furor • Enforce existing internal regulations

29. HRM strategy for the staff cuts vs accreditation dilemma • HRM strategy for the Bologna process • “Culture of risk”