Managing the outside in:Higher education providers, managers

and their communities

Prof Sandra Harding

James Cook University

Overview

• Background– historical context

• For Institutions– Why this is important– How it works

• For Individuals – managing careers– Why this is important– How this works

• Conclusion

Background• When looking to source a new enterprise for England: Letter

from King Henry III of England to scholars in the University of Paris, 1229:

Greeting to the Masters and the whole body of scholars at Paris. Humbly sympathising with the exceeding tribulations and distresses which you have suffered at Paris under an unjust law, we wish by our pious aid, with reverence to God and his holy church, to restore your status to its proper condition of liberty. Wherefore we have concluded to make known to your entire body that if it shall be your pleasure to transfer yourselves to our kingdom of England and to remain there to study we will for this purpose assign to you cities, boroughs, towns, whatsoever you may wish to select, and in every fitting way will cause you to rejoice in a state of liberty and tranquility which should please God and fully meet your needs.

(quoted in Patterson 1997, p.71)

More Background• When the cost of student accommodation

increased significantly: King Henry III to the mayor and bailiffs of Cambridge, c.1231:

You are aware that a multitude of scholars from divers parts, as well as from this side of the sea as from overseas, meets at our town of Cambridge for study, which we hold a very gratifying and desirable thing,…..

(quoted from Sylvester, 1970 in Patterson, 1997 p.90)

Yet more background• It is the case, the Universities became more

isolated in the 17th and 18th centuries and that heralded a period of decay:

(At that time)…most universities remained relatively dormant, their roles narrowly circumscribed. Their curricula, emphasising traditional established culture, were transmitted using antiquated methods of teaching to a student body predominately composed of the social elite. Little contribution was made by the universities to the creative and intellectual life of their countries, or to the general advance of ideas.

(Patterson 1997, p.128)

For Institutions

• Now: the outside is critical

• The effect of globalisation

• Predictable organisational responses

– Managing scarcity

– Two key strategies:

• Buffering

• Bridging

For Institutions (cont’d)• Universities as institutions

– Guarding our legitimacy

• Innovation in markets– Requires information flows; connectedness– Promises funding flows

• All managers’ jobs in our sector will be directly or indirectly affected by the context, by the outside.

• This is to be embraced and managed, to be used to advance the University.

For the Individual

• Managing the outside critical to building a successful career

• Theory of social capital – work of Prof Ronald Burt, University of Chicago

• Social networks are a primary competitive advantage for organizations and in markets – and for individuals…

Networks and Structural Holes

Implications

• Opinion and information is more homogeneous within groups

• People like Robert whose networks bridge structural holes between groups have earlier access to diverse information

• They also have experience in translating information across groups

• A vision advantage in detecting and developing good ideas

More implications…• People with a Robert profile do better, get

paid more, are promoted faster and are more innovative

• But also benefits of a James profile – social capital of closure – eg crisis team management – exclude the outside world, buffer against the environment, build strong unified, very focused team.

• Really want both……complementary

Building a reputation • Progressing a career requires a strong and

enduring reputation

• How do you build a reputation?– Do good work– Do good work relevant to important people

• These necessary – but not sufficient

• Solid reputation requires third party endorsement – and that endorsement must live longer than any given relationship

Building a reputation

• Key issue: you don’t own your reputation – it is owned by others who make it last

• Three parties involved in building a reputation:

1. You

2. The other side – the target audience

3. Clients, others – the outside - if they don’t talk about you, your reputation disappears

Conclusions• From medieval universities through to

dontdatehimgirl.com, managing the outside in is an enduring issue

• Managing the outside in – taking it to the street and bringing it back again – is essential to building both:– Successful organisations (especially

organisations like ours) and – Successful careers

• I wish you all the best for both

Key sources

• Patterson, Glenys. 1997. the University: From Ancient Greece to the 20th Century. Palmerston North: The Dunmore Press

• Burt, Ronald S. and Don Ronchi. “Teaching Executives to See Social Capital: Results from a field experiment.” Social Science Research. Nov 2006.

• http://ChicagoGSB.edu/fac/ronald.burt