Exploring complex identities in accounts of success and negotiating management roles among mid-career, senior academics

Paper’s Importance

This paper will reflect on phase 2 of a practitioner-led study, initially reported at URHRD 2022 raising questions about professional identities including negotiating multiple lines of accountability, the changing nature of leadership and increasingly diverse paths to career progression in UK Universities.

Theoretical Base

Previous work on academic identity (e.g. Beaton, 2022) demonstrates that academy identities can be fluid and multifaceted creating challenges for those responsible for academic staff development. Social identity theory explains social behaviour in terms of group belonging (Reicher et al., 2010) and applies this by reflecting key elements of core identities in organisational change to promote resilience (Beech, 2017). Criticisms have suggested that this model does not provide sufficient differentiation to enable the development of effective initiatives (Alvesson & Gjerde, 2020) and there is an increasing need to respond to the challenges of intersectionality (##) . Our study however has begun to describe how multiple identifications relate in accounts of professional success and negotiating accountabilities.

Research Purpose

Phase 1 was initiated at a medium-sized, research-intensive University in a rural location which has been focused on portfolio developments and systems integration to promote effective student recruitment. Phase 2 extends the study into a similar sized post-1992 university with a focus on teaching.

During Phase 1, semi-structured interviews with senior and mid-level University managers and academics (N = 10) focused on the participants’ role in developing new programmes. In Phase 2 questions are focused on career trajectories, current managerial roles and responsibilities as well as exploring how participants participate and value teaching and research. At the time of writing 6 interviews are planned with an expectation that at least 10 will be undertaken by June.

Research Question (S)

By focusing on the following research objectives, we aim to examine senior academic identities and contribute to the discourse on identities at work to inform organisational practice:

To understand experiences of multiple role and accountabilities among senior academics

To understand academic trajectories to senior level (for example in relation to gender and background).

To understand the meaning of everyday academic practices such as the organisation of teaching, leadership of research and impact, the management of strategic projects and relationships with staff alongside responsibilities for portfolio growth.

Conclusions and Implications for HRD Practice

Phase 1 revealed that Heads of School described tensions between ideas of creativity and management and individual and group success. Data obtained since then sheds more light on multiple accountabilities among senior academics. We will use it to illustrate a range of motivations for management work including societal concerns around sustainability and equity. It has also begun to demonstrate how identifications around class, motherhood and minority status structure accounts of trajectories to mid-career success. Recent accounts provide more depth to our discussion of relating to models of leadership.

Through our ongoing data collection in a teaching led institution, we aim to compare and extend these themes and inform future discussions of how HRD policy and practice can be developed to support academic career development.