The Impact of Culture when Performing an Administrative Reorganisation –A Case Study of the Norwegian School of Economics

Abstract

Background and problem: Academic institutions have a history of being structured with collegium culture. There is now a present discussion about the reallocation of power at these kinds of organisations turning to take on a management style similar to the one operating at corporations. The thesis will look at the impact of management control as a dependent factor of the resignation of the administrative director at the Norwegian School of Economics. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to get an understanding of how the historical management control affected the acceptance of the management of the new administrative director at the Norwegian School of Economics between 2010 and 2013. It also aims to investigate the influence of internal culture at the institution of this case. Thesis limitations: This thesis is limited to only look at the effects of the administrative reorganisation at Norwegian School of Economics between the years 2010 to 2013. It is produced to look at the power relations between the scholars and the management of the academic institution and do not consider possible effects on the administrative department or students at the institution. Method: It is a qualitative study based upon five semi-structured interviews made with scholars at NHH. The respondents were more or less involved in the critique that was arisen at the academic institution during the case. The empirical data has been analysed in relation to a theoretical framework about the importance to view management control as a package by taking into account the administrative control, cultural control and communication. Results and conclusions: The ignorance of former culture and its relationship with the present governance structure and the changes of the organisational design indicates to be the main explanation of the unwanted result of the management of the administrative director in this thesis. It caused a lack of balance in the power relations at the institution which made the scholars react on the situation. Suggestions for future research: It would be interesting to take part of a larger study with the purpose to identify the majority of universities on the basis of internal culture and power perspective. Another suggestion is to study the relationship between administrative control and internal culture in a broader perspective to see if there is a tendency of which possessing the most influence at an academic institution.