Organizational governance and academic quality production. Lessons from a field study of two world-class US research universities

Academic quality production delivered by research universities is to a large extent an outcome of the way these institutions are functioning as organi­zations. Current literature basically focuses on an input-output model: the more resources are invested, the higher the quality. This paper tests another hypothesis that is of some importance, since top uni­versities are emerging around the world and especially in Far East Asia. The research is based on an intensive field study of two research universities that are consistently ranked among the Top Ten: the University of California at Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge. This research raises a broader question: will research universities that are built on a uniqueness profile - MIT, UCB and a few others - be able to sus­tain their model of or­ganizational governance?

Jean-Claude Thoenigis a directeur de recherche(Em.) at Dauphine Re­cher­che en Management (DMSP), University of Paris-Dauphine and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. His contributions to social and management sciences are in the areas of sociology of organizations, of political sociology, of policy analysis, and public administration. His cur­rent projects cover higher education and research organization issues such as the steering of national research policies and higher education institutions in EU countries, and the fabrication of academic quality by universities and their subunits (departments, schools).

Organized by the WZB Project Group “Modes of Economic Governance” in cooperation with the FU-Pfadkolleg.