Management between the shop floor and the corporate level

The article focuses on problems that arise from "external and internal changes in the university's work processes, financing system, networking, management and leadership and complex goal structure." It uses "empirical data from universities in countries that have changed their management system from collegial leadership to a more management-like steering structure. ... After studying some of the implications for the prefects/heads of departments who are responsible for organisational structures and processes at the decentralised level in university systems which have gone through a major transformation of their laws on governance very recently ... we analyse what is happening to some of the old principles of internal collective management. Processes of external and internal change and what lies behind them are also discussed. Finally, the possibilities of developing a new leadership style through a merger between the old values of cooperation, new external and internal demands, and some new principles of leadership are examined. These issues are discussed on the basis of empirical data" collected in a Dutch university and two departments of a Swedish university "where these new managerial governance structures are in operation." (DIPF/ orig.)