What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis

The paper explores the dynamics of competition in higher education. National competition and global competition are distinct, but feed into each other. Higher education produces ‘positional goods’ (Hirsch 1976) that provide access to social prestige and income-earning. Research universities aim to maximise their status as producers of positional goods. This status is a function of student selectivity plus research performance. At system-level competition bifurcates between exclusivist elite institutions that produce highly value positional goods, where demand always exceeds supply and expansion is constrained to maximise status; and mass institutions (profit and non-profit) characterised by place-filling and expansion. Intermediate universities are differentiated between these poles. In global competition, the networked open information environment has facilitated (1) the emergence of a world-wide positional market of elite US/UK universities; and (2) the rapid development of a commercial mass market led by UK and Australian universities. Global competition is vectored by research capacity. This is dominated by English language, especially US universities, contributing to the pattern of asymmetrical resources and one-way global flows. The paper uses Australia as its example of system segmentation and global/national interface. It closes by reflecting on a more balanced global distribution of capacity.

Dynamics of National and Global Competition in Higher Education

This paper offers an overarching analytical heuristic that takes us beyond current research, anchored in conceptions of national states, markets, and systems of higher education institutions. We seek to shape comparative higher education research with regard to globaliza- tion in much the same way that Clark's (1983) "triangle" heuristic has framed comparative higher education research in the study of national policies and higher education systems. Our "glonacal agency heuristic" points to three intersecting planes of existence, emphasizing the simultaneous significance of global, national, and local dimensions and forces. It com- bines the meaning of "agency" as an established organization with its meaning as individual or collective action. Our paper critiques the prevailing framework in cross-national higher education research, addressing the liberal theory that underpins this framework, the ways scholars address the rise of neo-liberal policies internationally, conceptual shortcomings of this work, and emergent discourse about "academic capitalism". We then discuss globalization and our heuristic. Finally, we provide examples of how states, markets, and institutions can be reconceptualized in terms of global, national, regional, and local agencies and agency.

Beyond national states, markets, and systems of higher education: A glonacal agency heuristic

Social Stratification in Science

Introduction. On diversity, differentiation and convergence (L. Goedegebuure et al.). Theoretical Perspectives. Diversification of higher education: viability and change (B.R. Clark). Homogenization, integration and convergence: the cheshire cats of higher education analysis (G. Neave). Isomorphism in higher education? Towards a theory of differentiation and diversity in higher education systems (F. van Vught). Country Experiences. Diversity and differentiation in the Australian unified national system of higher education (V.L. Meek, A. O'Neill). Diversity within a decentralized higher education system: the case of Canada (G. Jones). The problem of diversification in higher education: countertendencies between divergence and convergence in the Finnish higher education system since the 1950s (O. Kivinen, R. Rinne). Diversity in higher education in Germany: the two-type-structure (U. Teichler). Diversity in the Netherlands (J. Huisman). From equality through equivalence to quality through diversification: changes in the Swedish higher education policy in the 1990s (M. Bauer). Differentiation and diversity in a newly unitary system: the case of the United Kingdom (O. Fulton). Diversification in American higher education: historical patterns and current trends (R.L. Geiger). Conclusion (V.L. Meek et al.).

The mockers and mocked: comparative perspectives on differentiation, convergence and diversity in higher education

Higher education policy in international perspective: an overview (L. Goedegebuure, F. Kaiser, P. Maassen, E. de Weert). Higher education policy in Australia (L. Meek). Higher education policy in Califomia (W. Fox). Higher education policy in Denmark (P. Bache, P. Maassen). Higher education policy in France (F. Kaiser, G. Neave). Higher education policy in Germany (E. Frackman, E. de Weert). Higher education policy in Japan (A. Arimoto, E. de Weert). Higher education policy in the Netherlands (L. Goedegebuure, F. Kaiser, P. Maassen, E. de Weert). Higher educational policy in Ontario (G. Jones). Higher education policy in Sweden (G. Svanfeldt). Higher education policy in Switzerland (K. Weber). Higher education policy in the United Kingdom (J. Brennan, T. Shah). International perspectives on trends and issues in higher education policy (L. Goedegebuurre, F. Kaiser, P. Maassen, L. Meek, F. Van Vught, E. de Weert).

Higher Education Policy: An International Comparative Perspective

This is a pre-print of the report The attractiveness of the Australian academic profession: a comparative analysis [2009] published by LH Martin Institute, University of Melbourne & Australian Council for Educational Research & Educational Policy Institute.

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The attractiveness of the Australian academic profession : a comparative analysis

This article analyses academic work and the academic workforce in the context of current dynamics and likely futures. It discusses the significance of academic work, reviews workforce characteristics, and analyses tensions and pressures. Prevailing conceptualisations, it is argued, do not reflect the current situation in which the profession finds itself, and would provide a very shaky foundation on which to build the future workforce. There is an overarching need for a fresh conceptualisation of academic work that is authentic and feasible and suggestions are offered of what this might look like. A number of strategies are proposed how such a recasting might be implemented. The paper works from Australian research, and make suggestions for other systems.

Recasting the Academic Workforce: Why the Attractiveness of the Academic Profession Needs to Be Increased and Eight Possible Strategies for How to Go about This from an Australian Perspective.

The university as an organization is changing, incorporating elements of private sector management in an academic setting. In these transforming universities middle management has changed as well. In this contribution changes in the role and position of the academic deanship are analysed in more detail. On the basis of a literature review, a description of the deanship is provided, including the main challenges this position entails. It is argued that the deanship has become more demanding, more senior, more strategic, more complex and more managerial in nature, though within the overall context of academe. We illustrate both the complexity and changing nature of the deanship by drawing on two empirical studies. Since research on middle management in universities is still rather thin, more research is welcome. Therefore we conclude with some suggestions for further research to enhance our understanding of what we see as a key management position within today's universities.

Leo Goedegebuure

Papers

The mockers and mocked: comparative perspectives on differentiation, convergence and diversity in higher education

Higher Education Policy: An International Comparative Perspective

The attractiveness of the Australian academic profession : a comparative analysis

Recasting the Academic Workforce: Why the Attractiveness of the Academic Profession Needs to Be Increased and Eight Possible Strategies for How to Go about This from an Australian Perspective.

The Changing Nature of the Academic Deanship