Emergent Strategies and Tensions between Decoupled University Structures and Management Initiatives

Abstract

This chapter investigates the ways in which a Norwegian university located in a region facing a series of socio-economic challenges devised and implemented a new strategy. More specifically, we examine the dilemmas and tensions faced by university actors in articulating a shared strategic platform bridging internal (university) aspirations with external (regional actors and ministry) demands and expectations. The chapter adopts a historical institutionalist perspective using institutional logics as the conceptual lens against which the case data are interpreted. The findings provide fresh evidence of the complexity associated with strategic processes within highly institutionalized organizations like universities. Strategic orientations were found to adopt emergent rather than deliberative patterns. Challenges associated with the institutionalization of the co-creation of knowledge vision at the University of Agder resulted from the clashes between the different logics and behavioural postures associated with the main actors involved in the strategy process.