In a recently published article, members of the Re-structure project examine the extent to which research performance can be associated with specific organizational characteristics at the department level, such as elected or appointed leadership, single or multi-campus organization and departmental size.
The key findings indicate that the relationship between research performance and the departmental characteristics is rather weak, although departmental size does have some impact. Larger departments tend to be slightly more productive than smaller ones.
The study also finds that the leadership model – whether the department head is elected or appointed – does not have a clear and straightforward connection with research performance. However, the study finds that highly productive individuals do matter. The latter findings thus suggest that individual working conditions may be an interesting factor to pursue in further research.
The article by Dag Aksnes, Siri Brorstad Borlaug, Thea Eide and Bjørn Stensaker was published in Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education June 2023. Read the whole article here.