Striving for Excellence: The Role of Top Management Team Diversity in Universities

Fabian Hattke, Steffen Blaschke

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of top management team diversity on academic excellence in universities. Academic excellence is conceptualized as successfully gaining funds for inter-organizational research collaborations, interdisciplinary graduate schools, and high ranked scientific reputation.
    Design/methodology/approach: -The study applies upper echelon theory to universities. Three hypotheses are developed: 1) (Overall) top management team heterogeneity is positively associated with successful funding of excellence clusters, 2) (Overall) top management team heterogeneity is positively associated with successful funding of graduate schools, and 3) (Overall) top management team heterogeneity is positively associated with academic reputation. The empirical study is based on a cross-sectional dataset with a time lag, covering characteristics of 75 German public universities from 2008-2013. Multiple-regression analysis is applied to test the hypotheses.
    Findings: - Our results indicate that disciplinary and educational diversity of upper echelons has a positive effect on the outcomes. Other top management team characteristics (age, gender, etc.) show no significant effects. Besides top management team composition, we find that a high number of faculties and a broad inclusion of internal status groups (students, tenured faculty, academic and administrative staff) and external stakeholders in decision making processes may enhance academic excellence of universities.
    Research limitations/implications: - First the study contributes to the body of literature concerned with higher education. It is situated at the crossroads of management studies and higher education research, unlocking strategic management theorizing for the public context. Furthermore, the study contributes to the body of literature on strategic leadership in pluralistic organizations. It highlights the importance of heterogeneous governance structures and modular organization designs for achieving academic excellence.
    Practical implications: - The paper may inform practitioners in administrative or leading positions and policy makers concerned with higher education. The more diverse a top management team is in terms of multiple disciplinary backgrounds, the more likely they succeed in driving the university towards academic excellence.
    Originality/value: - The study is among the first to evaluate the influence of top management teams in universities with a quantative research design.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalTeam Performance Management
    Volume21
    Issue number3-4
    Pages (from-to)121-138
    Number of pages18
    ISSN1352-7592
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

    Keywords

    • Collaboration
    • Competition
    • Higher education
    • Reputation
    • Strategy
    • Upper echelon

    Cite this