TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Reith, Florian T1 - Mixed methods for research into higher education BT - Solving the problem of institutionalized introspection? JF - Theory and method in higher education research N2 - Mixed methods approaches have become increasingly relevant in social sciences research over the last few decades. Nevertheless, we show that these approaches have rarely been explicitly applied in higher education research. This is somewhat surprising because mixed methods and empirical research into higher education seem to be a perfect match for several reasons: (1) the role of the researcher, which is associated with strong intersections between the research subject and the research object; (2) the research process, which relies on concepts and theories that are borrowed from other research fields; and (3) the research object, which exhibits unclear techniques in teaching and learning, making it difficult to grasp causalities between input and results. Mixed methods approaches provide a suitable methodology to research such topics. Beyond this, potential future developments underlining the particular relevance of mixed methods approaches in higher education are discussed. KW - Mixed methods KW - methodology KW - empirical research KW - higher education KW - qualitative research KW - quantitative research Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-1-83867-841-8 SN - 978-1-83867-842-5 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2056-375220190000005008 SN - 2056-3752 VL - 5 SP - 111 EP - 127 PB - Emerald Publishing Limited CY - Bingley ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Challenges, Triggers and Initiatorsof Climate Policies and Implications for Policy Formulation JF - Leidenschaft und Augenmaß : sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Entwicklung, Verwaltung, Umwelt und Klima : Festschrift für Harald Fuhr Y1 - 2020 SN - 978-3-8487-5249-2 SP - 169 EP - 179 PB - Nomos CY - Baden-Baden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Undisclosed desires BT - quality managers’ normative notions regarding the implementation of quality management JF - Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education N2 - Following decades of quality management featuring in higher education settings, questions regarding its implementation, impact and outcomes remain. Indeed, leaving aside anecdotal case studies and value-laden documentaries of best practice, current research still knows very little about the implementation of quality management in teaching and learning within higher education institutions. Referring to data collected from German higher education institutions in which a quality management department or functional equivalent was present, this article theorises and provides evidence for the supposition that the implementation of quality management follows two implicit logics. Specifically, it tends either towards the logic of appropriateness or, contrastingly, towards the logic of consequentialism. This study’s results also suggest that quality managers’ socialisation is related to these logics and that it influences their views on quality management in teaching and learning. KW - Higher education KW - quality manager KW - teaching and learning KW - appropriateness Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1573970 SN - 0260-2938 SN - 1469-297X VL - 44 IS - 7 SP - 1106 EP - 1119 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Ansmann, Moritz A1 - Pohlenz, Philipp T1 - Institutional isomorphism, entrepreneurship and effectiveness BT - the adoption and implementation of quality management in teaching and learning in Germany JF - Tertiary Education and Management N2 - This paper presents empirical evidence on the adoption, implementation and the perceived effectiveness of quality management in teaching and learning in German higher education institutions. Theoretically, the article combines two new institutionalist approaches: institutional isomorphism and institutional entrepreneurship. Empirically, the study refers to qualitative interview data and quantitative survey data. The analysis reveals that isomorphism is a leading driver behind the adoption of quality management in German higher education institutions, whereas institutional entrepreneurship plays an important role in quality management implementation. While isomorphism can be regarded as a conclusive reason behind the absence of a perception of quality management’s effectiveness, institutional entrepreneurship may function as a corrective towards the overall negative impact of isomorphic conformity by institutionalizing quality management in a sustainable manner. KW - Higher education KW - Quality management KW - Quality assurance KW - New institutionalism KW - Isomorphism KW - Institutional entrepreneurship Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11233-019-09022-3 SN - 1358-3883 SN - 1573-1936 VL - 25 IS - 2 SP - 115 EP - 129 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Ansmann, Moritz T1 - Unfreezing higher education institutions? BT - understanding the introduction of quality management in teaching and learning in Germany JF - Higher Education N2 - Quality management (QM) in teaching and learning has strongly “infected” the higher education sector and spread around the world. It has almost everywhere become an integral part of higher education reforms. While existing research on QM mainly focuses on the national level from a macro-perspective, its introduction at the institutional level is only rarely analyzed. The present article addresses this research gap. Coming from the perspective of organization studies, it examines the factors that were crucial for the introduction of QM at higher education institutions in Germany. As the introduction of QM can be considered to be a process of organizational change, the article refers to Kurt Lewin’s seminal concept of “unfreezing” organizations as a theoretical starting point. Methodologically, a mixed methods approach is applied by combining qualitative data derived from interviews with institutional quality managers and quantitative data gathered from a nationwide survey. The results show that the introduction of QM is initiated by either internal or external processes. Furthermore, some institutions follow a rather voluntary approach of unfreezing, while others show modes of forced unfreezing. Consequently, the way how QM was introduced has important implications for its implementation. KW - Quality management KW - Organizational change KW - Higher education KW - Mixed methods Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0185-2 SN - 0018-1560 SN - 1573-174X VL - 75 IS - 6 SP - 1061 EP - 1076 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Inside the EU Commission BT - Evidence on the Perceived Relevance of the Secretariat General in Climate Policy-Making JF - JCMS - Journal of common market studies N2 - This article studies the perception of the EU Commission's Secretariat General in policy-making. Recently, research on EU institutions devotes increasing attention to analyzing structures and procedures of decision-making in EU institutions, most notably the EU Commission. Conventionally, the EU Commission is portrayed as a fragmented organization, divided along the lines of staff nationality, sectoral responsibilities and cabinets and General Directorates (DGs). The Secretariat General has long been viewed a weak actor that is hardly able or motivated to steer internal decision-making. However, recent research indicates a changing role of the Secretariat General as a pro-active broker and last arbiter. This article studies how the Secretariat General is perceived by the DGs in policy coordination and argues that this perception depends on the pattern of political authority, bureaucratic roles and the relevance and the alternatives prevailing in the policy field. The article is based on data from a survey among Commission officials. KW - EU Commission KW - Secretariat General KW - co-ordination KW - centralization KW - climate policies Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12605 SN - 0021-9886 SN - 1468-5965 VL - 56 IS - 2 SP - 368 EP - 384 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - GEN A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Undisclosed desires BT - quality managers’ normative notions regarding the implementation of quality management T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Following decades of quality management featuring in higher education settings, questions regarding its implementation, impact and outcomes remain. Indeed, leaving aside anecdotal case studies and value-laden documentaries of best practice, current research still knows very little about the implementation of quality management in teaching and learning within higher education institutions. Referring to data collected from German higher education institutions in which a quality management department or functional equivalent was present, this article theorises and provides evidence for the supposition that the implementation of quality management follows two implicit logics. Specifically, it tends either towards the logic of appropriateness or, contrastingly, towards the logic of consequentialism. This study’s results also suggest that quality managers’ socialisation is related to these logics and that it influences their views on quality management in teaching and learning. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe - 109 KW - higher education KW - quality manager KW - teaching and learning KW - appropriatenes Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-433040 SN - 1867-5808 IS - 109 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Reith, Florian T1 - The seven deadly sins of quality management: trade-offs and implications for further research JF - Quality in higher education N2 - Quality management in higher education is generally discussed with reference to commendable outcomes such as success, best practice, improvement or control. This paper, though, focuses on the problems of organising quality management. It follows the narrative of the seven deadly sins, with each ‘sin’ illustrating an inherent trade-off or paradox in the implementation of internal quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Identifying the trade-offs behind these sins is essential for a better understanding of quality management as an organisational problem. KW - Quality management KW - higher education KW - governance KW - trade-offs KW - teaching KW - research Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2019.1683943 SN - 1353-8322 SN - 1470-1081 VL - 25 IS - 3 SP - 289 EP - 303 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reith, Florian A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Balancing the Moods BT - Quality Managers’ Perceptions and Actions Against Resistance JF - Higher education policy N2 - Quality management (QM) has spread around the world and reached higher education in Europe in the early 1990s (Mendel, 2006, 137; Kernegger and Vettori, 2013, 1). However, researchers were rather more interested in national quality assurance policies (macro-level) and accreditation systems (meso-level) than in intra-organizational perspectives about the day-to-day implementation of quality assurance policies by various actors (micro-level). Undoubtedly, organizational change is a challenging endeavor for all kinds of groups. On the one hand, it provides the opportunity of further development and innovation, but on the other hand, it exposes organizations and actors to the risk of losing established structures and accepted routines. Like in many other organizations, actors may not necessarily perceive change as a promoter of innovation and development. Instead, they may consider change as a threat to the existing status quo or, as March points out, as an “interplay between rationality and foolishness” (March, 1981, 563). Consequently, change provokes either affective or behavioral actions (Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999, 308–310), such as, for example, resistance. Anderson (2006, 2008) and Lucas (2014) have shown, for example, that academic resistance is an important issue. However, Piderit characterizes resistance as a multidimensional construct (Piderit, 2000, 786–787) subject to a wide variety of issues related to quality and QM. Although QM has been described as a “fashion” (Stensaker, 2007, 101) in the higher education sector that provokes many different reactions, its implementation in higher education institutions (HEIs) is still a rather unexplored field. Thus, the evidence provided by Anderson (2006, 2008) and others (Newton, 2000, 2002; McInnis et al., 1995; Fredman and Doughney, 2012; Lucas, 2014; etc.) needs to be expanded, because they only consider the perspective of academia. In particular, the view of other actors during the implementation of quality assurance policies is a missing piece in this empirical puzzle. Nearly nothing is known about how quality managers deal with reactions to organizational change like resistance and obstruction. Until now, only a few studies have focused on intra-organizational dynamics (see, for example: Csizmadia et al., 2008; Lipnicka, 2016). Besides the lack of research on the implementation of quality assurance policies in HEIs, quality managers seem to be an interesting subject for further investigations because they are “endogenous” to institutional processes. On the one hand, quality managers are the result of quality assurance policies, and on the other hand, they influence the implementation of quality assurance policies, which affect other actors (like academics, administrative staff, etc.). Here, quality managers, as members of an emerging higher education profession, are involved in various conflict lines between QM, HEI management and departments, which need further research (Seyfried and Pohlenz, 2018, 9). Therefore, the aim of our paper is twofold: firstly, to answer the question of how quality managers perceive resistance, and secondly, which measures they take in situations of perceived resistance. We offer a new research perspective and argue that resistance is not merely provoked by organizational change; it also provokes counter-reactions by actors who are confronted with resistance. Thus, resistance seems to be rather endogenous. To theorize our argument, we apply parts of the work of Christine Oliver (1991), which provides theoretical insights into strategic responses to institutional processes, ranging from acquiescence to manipulation (Oliver, 1991, 152). We, therefore, investigate the introduction of QM in teaching and learning, and the emergence of quality managers as higher education professionals as one of the results of quality assurance policies. Consequently, the introduction of QM may be considered as an institutional process provoking reactions and counter-reactions of various organizational units within HEIs. These circumstances are constitutive for how quality managers deal with resistance and other reactions toward organizational change. We use this theoretical framework to analyze the German higher education sector, because this particular case can be considered as a latecomer in New Public Management reforms (Schimank, 2005, 369) and Germany is a country where academic self-governance plays a very important role, and strongly influences academics’ behavior when it comes to organizational change (Wolter, 2004). Our empirical results are based on a mixed-methods research design and integrate half-structured interviews and a nationwide survey at the central level in German HEIs, which excludes faculty members of QM (decentral level). They reveal that quality managers take different types of action when resistance occurs during the implementation of quality assurance policies. Furthermore, quality managers mainly react with different tactics. These tactics seem to be relevant for convincing academics and for the enhancement of their commitment to improve the quality of teaching and learning, instead of provoking further resistance or avoidance practices. This article proceeds as follows: the next sections describe the context and explain our main theoretical concepts referring to the work of Oliver (1991) and others. After that, we present our case selection and the methodological framework, including the data sources and the operationalization of selected variables. Finally, we provide our empirical results about quality managers’ perceptions on resistance and we draw conclusions. KW - higher education KW - quality management KW - institutional processes KW - resistance KW - balancing Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0124-6 SN - 0952-8733 SN - 1740-3863 VL - 32 IS - 1 SP - 71 EP - 91 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Basingstoke ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fleischer, Julia A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Drawing from the bargaining pool: Determinants of ministerial selection in Germany JF - Party politics : an international journal for the study of political parties and political organizations N2 - This article expands our current knowledge about ministerial selection in coalition governments and analyses why ministerial candidates succeed in acquiring a cabinet position after general elections. It argues that political parties bargain over potential office-holders during government-formation processes, selecting future cabinet ministers from an emerging bargaining pool'. The article draws upon a new dataset comprising all ministrable candidates discussed by political parties during eight government-formation processes in Germany between 1983 and 2009. The conditional logit regression analysis reveals that temporal dynamics, such as the day she enters the pool, have a significant effect on her success in achieving a cabinet position. Other determinants of ministerial selection discussed in the existing literature, such as party and parliamentary expertise, are less relevant for achieving ministerial office. The article concludes that scholarship on ministerial selection requires a stronger emphasis for its endogenous nature in government-formation as well as the relevance of temporal dynamics in such processes. KW - Candidates KW - Germany KW - government-formation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068813487108 SN - 1354-0688 SN - 1460-3683 VL - 21 IS - 4 SP - 503 EP - 514 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER -