The aim of this study is to identify the expressions of legitimacy work available to professional support staff at contemporary higher education institutions (HEIs) and how these expressions can be understood as strategies in their work. Academics are the given audience for this legitimacy work. Professional support staff are commonly described as having blurred boundaries in relation to academics and as actors in a third space. The empirical data comprise 19 interviews with three categories of professional support staff at three HEIs of a technical orientation in Sweden. A finding, in relation to the educational and work experience of these support staff, is that techniques and procedures are at their fingertips in legitimacy work. This also touches upon the more intangible aspects of the categories and structures of the support staff that resemble those of academics. However, one of the main conclusions of this study concerns the strength of the expressions of professional and personal legitimacy in their legitimacy work. This conclusion coincides with the view that they are strong actors in a third space, who use their freedom to form their own roles and the pick and choose among alternative means in their strategies to gain and maintain legitimacy.

Centralisation is a recurrent theme when the organisational structure of contemporaryhigher education institutions is on the agenda. This may be in large part because of theunsolicited effects of decentralised organisational structures. The aim of this study is toexplore how professional support staff at higher education institutions perceive theorganisational structure of support and the rationales for this organising. An analyticalframework based on the dichotomy of centralisation/decentralisation was applied in 18interviews with professional support staff at one Dutch university and one Norwegianuniversity. A common theme in the findings was the consciousness among the professional support staff that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the organising of efficientand effective support. The issue of centralisation and standardisation was clearly on theagenda, but their focus was on the elements of a well-functioning support structure, notthe specific organisational solution. The study also highlights the objection to the trendtowards centralisation, and that some organisational changes may be too short sighted tobe sustainable. From the perspective of the professional support staff, it can be concludedthat organisational structure is a continuous balancing act based on dialogue between theacademic and support staff.

This thesis focuses on how professional support staff within the support services at higher education institutions (HEIs) perceive their roles. A combination of the broader expectations on HEIs from the surrounding society, changed ideals for governance and research indicating changed profiles for the roles of these support staff has motivated this research. Staff at HEIs have commonly been described by dividing them into those with academic positions and those with positions designated non-academic in much of the literature. This thesis focuses on a category of support staff who do not describe themselves as administrators, but who do not have academic positions either. Embedded in the roles of this category of staff are tensions in relation to academics. What do these professional support staff do, how are they organised and what does the division of labour in the HEIs look like? The overarching aim of this thesis is to explore how the professional support staff understand their roles with a particular emphasis on their working relationship with academics. The opening chapter provides an overview of the discussion of the roles of professional support staff in previous research. This includes an outline of structural and national features, as well as discursive aspects related to their roles. In addition, the implications of the changing roles of the professional support in relation to academics are discussed. Related to these changes is an inherent increase in their level of expertise in which a high level of discretion is a central feature. This is discussed under the umbrella of theories about professionalism. A complementary theoretical approach is the concept of a third space, which is developed as a tool to explore and understand the roles of both professional support staff and academics, as well as their working relationship. The thesis includes four papers based on interviews with three different professional support staff categories at Swedish HEIs. Their perceptions of their roles have been mapped and analysed from different perspectives. These three categories represent professional support staff with roles related to strategic work at their HEIs. A fifth paper is based on interviews conducted in Norway and the Netherlands, with a focus on professional support staff with management roles and their perceptions of how well-functioning support should be organised. One finding that runs through all five papers is that these professional support staff perceive themselves as back office support staff. They are clear    2  about having support roles and not being decision makers. Another finding is that they describe themselves as having great discretion both in the design of their roles and in the way they organise their work. On the one hand, this discretion is described as a central precondition for the attractiveness of the role. On the other hand, it may also imply some vulnerability concerning their competences. The combination of their closeness to the university leadership team, the tasks related to the HEIs’ strategic work and the fact that they themselves have designed their roles implies that these roles could be described as examples of hybrid forms of professionalism. This is an expression of the coming together of different and potentially contradictory sets of principles, values and logics in the structuring of work in one role. These professional support staff have to navigate between the logics of the governance ideals of the university leadership team and their own claims to expertise. This navigation is played out in a field dominated by the norms and values of academics.  

I denna avhandling studeras hur personal inom högskolans interna verksamhetsstöd upplever sina roller. Kombinationen av bredare förväntningar på högskolan från det omgivande samhället, ändrade styrningsideal, och att forskningen pekar på förändrade profiler för viss stödpersonal, motiverar studier av denna personalkategori.  Personal vid lärosäten har ofta beskrivits i termer av en uppdelning mellan å ena sidan personer med akademiska tjänster och å andra sidan personal som inte har sådana tjänster. Denna avhandling studerar särskilt en kategori personal inom verksamhetsstödet som inte självklart beskriver sig som administratörer, men inte heller är anställda som lärare/ forskare. I detta ligger en inbyggd spänning. Vad arbetar de med, hur organiseras deras arbete och hur ser arbetsdelningen mellan denna personal i verksamhetsstödet och akademisk personal i högskolan ut? Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka hur utvalda kategorier personal inom högskolans verksamhetsstöd förstår sina roller med särskilt fokus på hur arbetsrelationen med högskolans lärare/ forskare ser ut. I ett inledande kapitel ges en överblick hur personal inom verksamhetsstödet i högskolan diskuterats i tidigare forskning. Här ingår såväl strukturella och nationella skillnader, som diskursiva aspekter kopplat till deras roller. Därtill diskuteras också hur deras förändrade roller kan påverka relationen till akademiker.  Kopplat till identitetsbyggandet i deras roller finns en ökad grad av expertis där det också ingår en hög grad av självständighet i rollen. Detta diskuteras inom ramen för teorier om professionalisering. Ett kompletterande ramverk består av konceptet ’third space’ som är utvecklat för att undersöka och förstå rollerna inom såväl verksamhetsstödet som för lärare/forskare, och deras inbördes relation i högskolan. I avhandlingen presenteras fyra artiklar baserade på intervjuer vid svenska lärosäten med tre olika personalkategorier inom verksamhetsstödet. Deras upplevelser av rollen har kartlagts och analyserats från olika perspektiv. Dessa tre kategorier representerar verksamhetsstödjande personal med roller nära kopplade till högskolans strategiska arbete. Därtill ingår i avhandlingen också en studie baserad på intervjudata från lärosäten i Norge och Nederländerna, om hur verksamhetsstödspersoner med ledningsuppdrag ser på frågor om organiseringen av ett välfungerande stöd.

Ett resultat som sammanbinder de fem artiklarna är att de studerade betraktar sig som ’back office’ personal. De är tydliga med att de utgör ett stöd och inte agerar som beslutsfattare. Ett annat tydligt resultat är att de beskriver sig som att de har haft stor handlingsfrihet i hur deras roller utformats och i hur de organiserar arbetet. Å ena sidan är denna handlingsfrihet en viktig drivkraft för dem i deras arbete, å andra sidan kan den också innebära en viss sårbarhet när det gäller deras kompetenser.  Kombinationen av deras närhet till högskolans ledning, arbetsuppgifter som kan kopplas till lärosätets strategiska arbete och att de själva i hög grad äger utformningen av sina roller, gör att dessa grupper inom verksamhetsstödet kan beskrivas som exempel på en hybrid form av professionalisering. Detta är ett uttryck för att flera potentiellt motsägelsefulla principer, värden och logiker möts i den professionella rollen. Dessa verksamhetsstödspersoner navigerar mellan logiker som speglar värden i hur lärosätets ledning organiserar arbetet och logiker kopplat till den expertroll som de anställts för. Denna navigering sker i en miljö dominerad av akademiska värderingar och normer.

The aim of this study is to explore the functions that professional networks could have as sense givers during the process in which professional support staff at higher education institutions make sense of their roles. The empirical data comprise interviews with three categories of support staff at three technical universities in Sweden and a review of home pages and other written sources from ten, both Swedish and international, professional networks. One conclusion is that the networks can serve as sense givers for the professional support staff related either to the professional task or to the relational characteristics. However, these functions are not straightforward. The support staff in focus comprise a new category, with no ready-made scripts for their roles. Given that membership in these networks is voluntary, the networks may face challenges in their functions as sense givers. The networks thus opt for other ways of attracting members. This voluntariness in combination with a plasticity in the roles of the support staff suggests that the functions of professional networks not only will vary, but might also be limited as sense givers in the sense making process of professional support staff at higher education institutions (HEIs).

This paper aims to analyse and discuss the professional support staff at higher education institutions in Sweden in terms of how they view their roles and what the success factors for them are. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with support staff from the fields of business liaison, internationalisation and strategic research support. The results show that the participants have shaped their own roles and see themselves as back-office staff. This can make it challenging for them to prove their contribution to the academic activities of education and research. Because they neither identify themselves as administrators nor hold academic positions, their ability to build credibility on a personal basis is a central success factor. Aware of being actors in a culture dominated by academic values and norms, they see a more transparent discussion of their roles as a desirable development in the sector.

The group of administrators working in the Swedish higher education sector is undergoing considerable change. National statistics show that the average educational level is increasing and that more staff are being recruited from the private sector. This article discusses the implications of such changes on life and work in academia. In particular, it points to a link between new administrative roles and new demands placed on universities to become more coherent, goal-oriented organisations – so-called strategic actors. The article builds on national statistics and an in-depth interview study of administrative professionals from the areas of internationalisation, business liaison and research funding support, at three technical universities in Sweden. The study indicates that administrative professionals can have considerable impact on the management of a university. Lacking formal decision-making power, their influence tends to be indirect. Nevertheless, they can fulfil important roles as guardians of a holistic perspective, reminding internal stakeholders of the organisational aims of the university. Their role requires a set of competences and experiences that includes academic background as well as an attitude of self-reflection, sensitivity and judgement. In conclusion, it is argued that administrative professionals can play a crucial part in transforming universities into strategic actors. Their function merits more attention as it touches upon important issues of power and strategic direction in contemporary higher education.

Centralisation is a recurrent theme when the organisational structure of contemporary higher education institutions is on the agenda. This may be in large part because of the unsolicited effects of decentralised organisational structures. The aim of this study is to explore how professional support staff at higher education institutions perceive the organisational structure of support and the rationales for this organising. An analytical framework based on the dichotomy of centralisation/decentralisation was applied in 18 interviews with professional support staff at one Dutch university and one Norwegian university. A common theme in the findings was the consciousness among the professional support staff that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the organising of efficient and effective support. The pursuit of centralisation and standardisation was clearly on their agenda, but their focus was on the elements of a well-functioning support structure, not the specific spatial solution. The study also highlights the objection to the trend towards centralisation that some organisational changes may be too short sighted to be sustainable. From the perspective of the professional support staff, it can be said that organisational structure is a continuous balancing act based on dialogue between the academic and support staff.