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Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

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Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#31

Post by randcraw »

johan_larson wrote: post #12
bcrack wrote: post #7

>"could it possibly be … that the best way to get good research and publications out of scholars is to hire good people, pay them the going rate and tell them to do the job to the best of their ability?" Sounds very reasonable. Does anybody have good examples of this approach? I have the impression that this is similar to the environment of Bell Labs during the "golden years".

You're going to need some sort of controls, if only to kick out the folks who retire in place.

Have the teachers rate each other anonymously. The cream and dross will emerge, as will hard workers and shirkers.

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#32

Post by wycx »

pmilot wrote: post #28

My wife works as a teacher at one of the largest schoolboards in Québec, and she can tell you that the solution "hire good people, pay them the going rate and tell them to do the job to the best of their ability" doesn't work in a unionized system. Complacency a systemic problem. When your union protects your job, you don't need to actually put effort into doing the job. Of course, that doesn't mean ALL teachers are…

An infernal situation. There is no solidarity in a meritocracy, and no reward for merit with solidarity.

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#33

Post by madez »

dagw wrote: post #24
worldsayshi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naive response: Throw out the bureaucrats. Leave those with subject knowledge. Tell them to do their work to the best of their ability? Stop measuring things. Talk to them once in a while.

Throw out the bureaucrats. Leave those with subject knowledge. My wife works in academia and all the 'managers' in her research department are experienced researchers that often split their time between management and research. And it just does not work according to her. They don't understand the job of a manager, deem it less important than their research duties and basically see dealing with 'minor' personnel issue…

Maybe the personnel issues are sometimes indeed minor and a waste of time.

What are the symptoms your wife is observing?

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#34

Post by kev009 »

I think this is somewhat well understood in things like Sports Psychology. You don't tell a receiver to catch X number of throws per game, you just encourage them perform. Likewise, training that more accurately simulates performance is more effective than working toward some metric.

I learned it from Pat McNamara who has a special way with words and delivery: "When we are consumed by the outcome it will sabotage our ability to perform." - http://soldiersystems.net/2012/09/15/gunfighter-moment-pat-m...

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#35

Post by pdimitar »

dasmoth wrote: post #22

“If you pay a man a salary for doing research, he and you will want to have something to point to at the end of the year to show that the money has not been wasted. In promising work of the highest class, however, results do not come in this regular fashion, in fact years may pass without any tangible result being obtained, and the position of the paid worker would be very embarrassing and he would naturally take to…

I don't know where the quote is from but it represents my only hope for the future of research.

Of course, the hardcore bean-counters would not let that middle ground happen either; they are people in power who absolutely positively won't give you almost any leisure.

It's still a good idea however. And some managers would embrace it since the notion of "paying somebody for possible benefits 5-10 years in the future" is something which our current form of capitalism hates. But some of them are reasonable people and would accept a middle ground.

Another thing I was thinking about in the past is rotational work: given a team of 6 people, have 1 person always working on a research for at least a month with zero responsibility about the money-making activities. After that month -- or two, or six -- expire, return the person back to the capitalistic loop and put somebody else on the research duty. This however is rather clunky because people will have to be constantly caught up with where are the things currently in the money-making job and the research job.

Perhaps there are other ideas as well, but I am not aware of them.

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#36

Post by marcelluspye »

baldfat wrote: post #21

I have a different take its the lack of pay for professors and the lack of respect for public education (On average a college professor makes less then a public school teacher, in my discipline I would have averaged about $20k less IF I got tenure) As a former academic professional (Librarian at a college) The high cost of college is based on the demands of students. 30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar…

>30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar equipped fitness rooms, no pretty dorms and everything upscale.

How certain are you that these are the reasons school has gotten more expensive?

I'm a student at a school with a decent amount of cushy stuff and a high tuition, and I can't say it looks like that's where the money's going (or even being sunk). Housing got cushy once university policy stopped forcing us to live on campus, at which point it had to compete with surrounding options (before that we were charged through the nose for pretty tight quarters). The school-provided food options are, ... well, the university's definitely making money on those, and if they're not the company they contract out to is. I gotta say, I don't think paying for gym equipment has significantly held up salary increases on the academic side of things.

You might know better than I (and we're probably in different places), but looking around campus the things that seem to be sucking money away from paying the professors more is a) the ever-expanding number of administrative offices and b) the constant renovation/replacement/addition of buildings. I'll be the first to tell you my campus is an eyesore, but it feels more and more every year like they did that on purpose in the 70s so they wouldn't face much resistance in sinking a ton of money to replace it with a shinier one now.

I'm also not totally unwilling to believe the standard economic argument that gets thrown out all the time: with so many more people leaving school with advanced degrees, finding people to fill teaching positions is a lot easier.

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#37

Post by pjmorris »

If the blog post seems anecdotal, there's a great, underused book, 'Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations' by Robert Austin that covers his CMU PhD work, which came to the same conclusion as the quote attributed to Harford: "If a job is complex, multifaceted and involves subtle trade-offs, the best approach is to hire good people, pay them the going rate and tell them to do the job to the best of their ability." It doesn't hurt to make sure they don't have to worry about where to get, e.g., paper clips, lunch, or health care, so some level of administration is helpful.

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#38

Post by pdimitar »

dagw wrote: post #24
worldsayshi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naive response: Throw out the bureaucrats. Leave those with subject knowledge. Tell them to do their work to the best of their ability? Stop measuring things. Talk to them once in a while.

Throw out the bureaucrats. Leave those with subject knowledge. My wife works in academia and all the 'managers' in her research department are experienced researchers that often split their time between management and research. And it just does not work according to her. They don't understand the job of a manager, deem it less important than their research duties and basically see dealing with 'minor' personnel issue…

Really though, what is there in an university that justifies a dedicated team of managers? One person in power (say, the dean) is enough to make sure grants are coming on time, and negotiate those beforehand. They need one accountant to make sure salaries, taxes etc. are in the legal bounds and people receive what they were promised. Honest question: what else is needed?

Most of the managerial work I've witnessed in an university is easily doable by several slightly complex Excel spreadsheets. It just requires people to be diligent and not overlook the unquestionable need for accountability and visibility.

As an additional question -- what exactly is there to "run" in an university?

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#39

Post by adrianN »

randcraw wrote: post #31
johan_larson wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to need some sort of controls, if only to kick out the folks who retire in place.

Have the teachers rate each other anonymously. The cream and dross will emerge, as will hard workers and shirkers.

If you define "the cream" as those who play the politics game best, then yes.

Re: Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse

#40

Post by adrianN »

bcrack wrote: post #7

>"could it possibly be … that the best way to get good research and publications out of scholars is to hire good people, pay them the going rate and tell them to do the job to the best of their ability?" Sounds very reasonable. Does anybody have good examples of this approach? I have the impression that this is similar to the environment of Bell Labs during the "golden years".

How do you know whether someone is "good"?
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