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The institution and the network
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Power, Megan Elizabeth (2022) The institution and the network. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3821668
Abstract
This research explores how National Research Centres in Higher Education systems can offer dynamic views of ways network-like organisations emerge and self-organise in institutional environments. My thesis considers the interplay between institutional and more network-like forms of organising by exploring the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Centres of Excellence (CoE) Programme as a complex system of science.
I provide a foundational review of the changing relationship between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Research Centres to highlight the perception that today’s science endeavours form part of a larger global research ecosystem. The thesis applies these perspectives to propose that CoEs can be conceptually viewed as a ‘Janus object’ in this complex space - that is, that CoEs occupy and can take views across both institutional and network-like environments.
The research integrates three studies to provide this more detailed ‘view from the CoE.’ The first study mobilises two bodies of literature to provide a foundation for the research approach. The first, from neo-institutional theory, considers how the CoE, as an informal organisation, might relate to the HEI through a form of ‘collective rationality.’ The second, from the field of network science, explores how network-like organisations can emerge with different properties of robustness and information exchange. I also respond to calls from empirical studies of research systems to consider how the ‘self-organisation’ of science might offer wider value to inform an understanding of complex systems of organising.
The second study explored how research professionals engaged in Research Centres interact within the HEI environment. This informed the third study which details a qualitative, exploratory study of the Australian CoE Programme. Contributions from 22 Research and Professional Leads, which covered three cohorts of the Programme funded in 2011, 2014 and 2017 also represented an overview of ‘life spans’ of the CoE.
CoE participants identified characteristics of emergence consistent with organisation in complex systems. Firstly, shared narratives from a high proportion of participants note a paradoxical environment of ‘odd encounters’, rather than formal interactions, with the HEI. Narratives also revealed highly effective forms of co-leadership roles between Research and Professional Leads which align closely with descriptions of ‘authority’ in network science. This suggests effective CoE leadership is via people acting as shared information exchange hubs.
The contributions also allow a view of the CoEs through their lifespan in relation to the HEI. From these I develop a set of ‘network narratives’ which demonstrate the pluriform nature of CoEs as an example of emergence. The narratives also reveal CoEs have potential to become highly autonomous, but return value as an important intermediary between the ‘highly localised’ institutional research environment and the global research system.
A strong volunteered narrative on gender and diversity policy also demonstrates an unexpected case of network-like ‘percolation.’ This paradoxical finding suggests policy formed within the CoE may be adopted by the institution which may in turn allow the institution to co-evolve. This suggests a potential for true, if less tangible, ecosystem effects as a result of the CoE Programme.
In integrating findings across the three studies I contribute to theory by proposing a new open architecture for institutional theory in response to long standing work by Scott (2004; 2008). This aims to realign network considerations inherent within neo-institutional theory with more recent phenomenological findings in network science. In illustrating examples through network narratives, I also extend the work by Watts (2004) to close the gap in the vocabulary between network science and institutional theory in ways that can support studies which explore institutional perspectives of network-like forms in complex systems.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education L Education > LC Special aspects of education |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Research institutes -- Australia, Education, Higher -- Australia, Education, Higher -- Research -- Australia | ||||
Official Date: | 10 April 2022 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Linger, Henry ; Nicolini, Davide ; Algeo, Chivonne | ||||
Sponsors: | Australian Government Research Training Program ; Monash Warwick Alliance | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xii, 332 leaves : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
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