1. AUA Conference and Exhibition 2012
University of Manchester
Monday 2nd April 2012, 3.00-4.30pm
Creating opportunities for staff
development and progression
within administrative departments
Tony Turjansky & Laura Chambers
Academic Quality & Development Unit
Edge Hill University

2. Aims of the session
Through the medium of group discussion this session will:
• Consider the value of ‘devolution’ as a means of
empowering and developing staff;
• Identify some of the potential systemic and human
obstacles to managing and achieving departmental
change, and how these may be addressed;
• Formulate ideas on how re-structuring and the re-
definition of job roles may facilitate staff development
and progression in delegates' own workplaces.

3. Edge Hill University
• Founded in 1885 in Liverpool as the first non-
denominational teacher training college for women
• Main campus in Ormskirk, west Lancashire
• Accredited to deliver Lancaster University degrees since
the 1980s
• Granted University status and title in 2006
• 3 Faculties: Arts & Sciences, Education and Health &
Social Care
• 24,000 students of whom 8,000 are full-time
• Shortlisted for Times Higher Education ‘University of
the Year’ Award in 2007, 2010 & 2011

4. Edge Hill University
• 3,000 staff FTE (academic and administrative)
• Rated a 'good/excellent' employer by 90% of staff
• Ranked No. 20 in Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Work
in the Public Sector’ (2010)
• Investors in People (IiP) Gold Award for Leadership
and Management (2011)
• EHU has adopted the Organisation Development
(OD) management science approach to managing its
staff

5. Organisation Development (OD)
• “A long-term, holistic and multi-faceted approach to
achieving systemic change by developing the
potential, capacity and capability of an organisation, its
culture, its systems and the people within it”
(Stevens, R., 2008)
• Key characteristics of OD:
‘empowerment’, ‘inclusion’, ‘participation’, ‘collaboratio
n’
• OD is linked closely with the concept of the Learning
Company (Pedler et al, 1996) – a learning organisation
is “one that is able to continuously transform itself
through the connected learning of its people”

6. • A central service
department which
delivers EHU’s quality
management strategy
• Provides support for
academic departments
and Faculties in
academic planning and
preparing for
programme approval
(validation)
• Manages the University’s annual monitoring and periodic review
processes and co-manages (with the Academic Registry) its
external examiner system
• Leads the University’s preparations for external QAA audit
(Institutional review)

7. Academic Quality Unit (2007)
• Head of Academic Quality Unit (head of
department)
• Line-managed 5 staff:
– Academic Quality Officers x 4
– Academic Quality Administrator

8. ACADEMIC QUALITY UNIT
ORGANISATIONAL CHART Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
(2007)
Dean of Quality
Enhancement
Head of
Academic Quality Unit
Academic Academic Academic Academic
Quality Officer Quality Officer Quality Officer Quality Officer
Grade 8 Grade 8 Grade 8 Grade 8
Academic Quality
Administrator
Grade 4

9. BREAKOUT (1) (10 mins)
• How does this kind of organisational structure
affect management and communication? What
are the ‘pros and cons’?
• How might such a structure impact individuals’
roles, development and progression?

10. Academic Quality Unit (2007)
• ‘Flat’ organisational structure – 4 of 5 staff at the
same grade and with the same job description
• Management responsibility located with HoD only
• Limited internal progression opportunities
• Does not facilitate ‘succession planning’

11. The Manager’s vision (2007)
• Department needs to grow to manage an increasing
workload (larger schedule of programme approvals
including expanded collaborative provision)
• Growth can be used as an opportunity to re-
structure, in order to:
– Devolve management responsibilities (without
delegating HoD’s accountability)
– Create a structure that facilitates progression and
contributes to staff’s personal and professional
development by creating new roles that build
expertise (rather than simply dividing up the work)
• But this has to be achieved with no additional
institutional funding

12. The Manager’s challenge
To identify and secure new sources of (external)
funding through:
Activity Skills
Networking and – Entrepreneurship, e
opportunity nvironmental
spotting scanning
Enlisting the – Influencing and
persuasion, ‘intrapr
support of eneurship’ (Pinchot, G
University & Pinchot, E., 1978)
managers

13. The Manager’s challenge (contd)
To identify and secure new sources of (external)
funding through:
Activity Skills
Writing bids and – Financial planning
business cases and project
management
Competing with – Business
rival bidders and communication
‘pitching’ to skills
external clients

14. BREAKOUT (2) (20 mins)
• Businesses must change in order to survive and
grow (the alternative is stagnation)
• But it is also destabilising for individuals/teams
and leads to fear and insecurity
• In groups of 3-4, consider the following:
― What are the benefits of change?
― Where are the hazards?
― Identify examples from your own experience of
where change has been managed successfully
and/or unsuccessfully

15. Introducing change
• Businesses must change in order to survive and grow
• But it also creates disequilibrium for individuals and
within teams
• Change needs to be managed to counter resistance
and ‘unfreeze’ previous behaviours (Schein, E.H., 1978)
• Change can be a potential source of
interpersonal/intra-organisational conflict if not
managed fairly and equitably
• Change can also be motivating when presented as an
opportunity for individuals to develop and grow
• Change requires leadership - but are managers
always good leaders? (Steers, R.M. & Black, J.S., 1994)

16. Motivation
• Individuals perform best when the expected
reward is of high value (Vroom, V.H., 1964)
• Extrinsic motivators are important, e.g. we all
need food, shelter and security
(Maslow, A.H., ‘Hierarchy of Needs’, 1943 & 1954)
• But higher-level needs for self-esteem and self-
actualisation are powerful intrinsic motivators
• Task accomplishment, job satisfaction and
personal growth are also the recipe for
successful group behaviour (Homans, G.C., 1950)

17. Academic Quality & Development Unit
(2012)

18. Challenges
• Managing the
downstream effects of
internal promotions
within an existing team
(conflict resolution and
mediation)
• Identifying appropriate
staff development for
individuals in new
(managerial) roles
• Using secondments to fill promotions – what happens later
and at what stage is there a moral imperative to secure
individuals’ jobs and grades?

19. Group discussion (20 mins)
• Where are the (non inter-personal) issues in our own
teams – are they related to:
– Capacity (team size and numbers, ‘critical mass’)
– Structure and roles (e.g. may require adjusting to
address changed business imperatives)
– Skills (skills deficit, imbalance or lack of alignment
with the organisation’s business and mission, etc.)
• How do we propose to address these, e.g.
through re-organisation and/or staff
development (for managers, as well as staff)
• Where do we perceive the main obstacles and
enablers to introducing change – can ‘resisters’
be turned into ‘advocates’? (Waddell, D. & Sohal, A.S., 1998)

20. References
Homans, G.C. (1950) The Human Steers, R.M. & Black, J.S. (1994)
Group Organisational behaviour
Maslow, A.H. (1943) Theory of Stevens, R. (2008) Organisation
Human Development People Alchemy
Motivation, Psychological Ltd.
Review Varney, S (2008) Learning
Maslow, A.H. (1954) Motivation Organisations People Alchemy
and Personality Ltd.
Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J. & Vroom, V.H. (1964) Work and
Boydell, T. (1996) The Learning
Company: A Strategy for Motivation
Sustainable Development Waddell, D., & Sohal, A.S.
Pinchot, G. & Pinchot, E. (1978) (1998) Resistance: a
Intra-corporate constructive tool for change
Entrepreneurship management in Management
Decision Vol. 36
Schein, E. H. (1978) Career
dynamics: Matching individual
and organisational needs