Transcript University of Salerno (Italy)

RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVES
ON THE ITALIAN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM:
A RELEVANT COMMUNICATION APPROACH TO
THE “REFORMED” UNIVERSITY.
TOWARDS NETWORKS FOR A SHARED
DEVELOPMENT?
Stefania Leone
Communication Science Department
Area Ph.D: “Communication Science”
University of Salerno (Italy)
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
AREA
This Ph.D research project is characterized by a
communication perspective
AIMS
individuation of both a theoretical frame of reference
and some key factors within communication
with respect to
some kind of interlocutors that are to be considered
particularly important for the growth of the
academic system and, as a consequence,
for the community development
=> relationship management approach
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Presuppositions:
•
•
University has a central role for local and global sceneries at
different levels but it can not be said that a strong attention is
generally paid to communication and relationship strategies
and modalities within this system
“Reformed” university:
- the current perspective of university autonomy
- new models of governance
- cooperation and competition dynamics determined by inter and
intra systemic interaction
===>
Today, we are facing an important phase for the development of
“tertiary” education where a big variety of subjects have
interests in these processes
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
ALL THAT HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE
OF THE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
FOR UNIVERSITY AND SHARED DEVELOPMENT
THE NECESSITY OF A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
FOR PLANNING
SOLID RELATIONAL POLITICS AND STRATEGIES
(with respect to INTERLOCUTORS, MODELS and RELATIONAL DYNAMICS)
IN THE MEDIUM AND LONG TERM
USE OF THE RELATIONAL APPROACH
AS A PERSPECTIVE OF STUDY AND AS A MANAGEMENT ORIENTATION
FOR ITALIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
EVOLUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ITALY:
BEFORE the 90s
• An organization traditionally administrated on the basis of a
centralized bureaucratic model
• Auto-referential logic
• Long and slow process full of useless reformation attempts and
partial legislative interventions
FROM the 90s TO today
The fundamental immobility of Italian university is changing
by a lot of factors:
• reduction of subscriptions
• the brain drain that started in the 80s
• the media attention to some particularly negative case
• the dissatisfaction of many voices, both internal and external to the university
• the renovation of management criteria and models in public management
during the 90s
• the reduction of public resources
• the necessity of taking part to the European context
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
EVOLUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ITALY:
FROM the 90s TO today
The “reformed” university system, even if still in an implementation
phase from many points of view, is by now disciplined through the
new principles of
statutory, financial, didactic and organizational autonomy.
The aim of independence from centralized decisions provides
universities with new instances with respect to:
• the resources retrieval
• the long term programming
• the definition of quality objectives, efficiency and efficacy and
the optimisation of evaluation systems
• the promotion and participation to cultural, social and
economic development programming, at a local and global level
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
We intend to observe the Italian public university system
focusing on the relational paradigm and adopting the
organization communication theory as general theoretical
field, paying special attention to the peculiarities of
communication strategies in public institutions
1. RELATIONAL PARADIGM: trends, criteria and scope
Theoretical presupposition:
• Communication evolution in Public and Business Systems: from
operative marketing to a broader management dimension
- firms exploit the great potentialities of communication about the value
production and acquiring an advantageous position in increasingly complex
and competitive worlds
- these processes have also reached public and semi-public institutions
(from the 90s, together with general reformation in Public Administration)
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
1. RELATIONAL PARADIGM: trends, criteria and scope
The relevance of relational paradigm is most evident if we consider some
characteristics of new complex situation :
• competitive dynamics
• the globalisation and peculiar needs coming from international socio-economic
challenges
• the need of increasingly complex knowledge resources
• the radical changes in communication modalities (information technologies
and, particularly, new applications in telematics; digital markets and
environments, ..)
• the central and active role of user (prosumer)
• the relational capital as intangible asset and firm specific factor (firms as lean,
immaterial systems) because of inimitable character of relational
competences and capabilities
===>
different organizations have increased their interdependence
and long lasting interaction dynamics with a lot of interlocutors
FROM TRANSACTIONAL LOGIC TO RELATIONAL PARADIGM
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
1. RELATIONAL PARADIGM: trends, criteria and scope
• The relational perspective can be represented as a conceptual and structural
system
• It has a strong impact on marketing management process on the whole: on a
strategic level, from the research and analysis phases to the evaluation and
decision concerning targeting and positioning strategies; on an operative level,
about tactics and modalities differentiated to comunicate with different interlocutors
ORIENTATION TO FOCUS ON THE ACTORS OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF
REFERENCE, TOGETHER WITH A BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY AND
CULTURE BASED ON RELATIONAL VALUES
This organizational culture implies that every system component will learn
particular patterns of thinking and models of behaviour depending on
relational finalities of each interlocutor.
===>
It follows a broader change of mind in the way of conceiving the system, the
organizational flows, the functions and roles and the creation of value
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SPHERES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF
RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVES FOR THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
The creation of value through the development of relationships is a
strategic perspective that is still not very frequently considered by
universities
because:
• old centralized bureaucratic model was used to have
unquestionable warranties on both an institutional and financial level,
and that has been historically governed by a power concentrated in the
academic component (oligarchy);
• new university autonomy, because of a reaction to previous model,
has characterised the trend of some universities towards an endogen
direction, a concentration towards themselves for the decisional
power management on a local dimension, with scarce attention and
sensibility for the scenery of reference on the whole.
BUT
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
The relational abilities are important resources for a university that must therefore
learn to obtain legitimacy and to grow in a competitive, as well as collaborative
environment, where the stakeholders have multiplied their efforts
The university system interlocutors are very articulated and heterogeneous;
but we can consider 5 main spheres:
Relational
paradigm
. .
.
.
CRM
Customer
Relationship
Management
.
..
.
.
RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
Partner
Relationship
Management
.
ERM
Employee
Relationship
Management
.
.
. . PRM
.
.
PAM
Public Affairs
Management
.
.
.
.
. . IRM .
Investor
Relationship
. Management
.
Fig.1 – Relational perspectives: spheres and kinds of interlocutors
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
ALL THESE SPHERES ARE BASED ON STABILITY, DURATION AND
SIGNIFICANCE OF RELATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM.
PARTICULARLY, WE CAN IDENTIFY:
• The internal relationship area (Employee Relationship Management - ERM)
regards: the relations with constitutive component of the university system,
the staff and collective body (on both a local level referring to universities and a
national level in order to relations between the MIUR and all the different referents
in the accademic system)
• The sphere of relations with customers (Customer Relationship Management
- CRM) regards: the relationships towards the customers-users (i.e. with
respect to the didactic offer: the students intended as users and their families as
the ones to decide, the opinion leaders as the ones that influence, etc.; about
research: firms, institutional purchasers, etc.)
Because of the already expressed reasons about utility and necessity of creating
the value through synergies with other subjects and systems, for the development
of university and social system, we intend to observe more closely the most
relevant relational spheres for this context:
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
Focusing on some key actors for the university system:
Partners, Investors and Public Affairs Management
PARTNER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (PRM) regards the interactions
between the university and a varied set of subjects and/or systems involved
in cooperation and co-evolution processes
Key partners, co-makers, financer and/or supporter, whether private or
public: these actors bring critical resources (that is, financial, planning,
knowledge resources, etc.) and are crucial for the system growth
===> the university must pay a constant and continuous attention to them
The subjects who this sphere can involve are: firms, professional subjects
(associations, consultants, etc.) and other institutions, such as public and
private universities and research centres, education centres, and all the
other possible interlocutors of some relevance for the organization
Strategies:
• the adoption of a proactive approach in relation to the environment;
• an attentive management of institution reputation to gain attention and
consensus
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
Focusing on some key actors for the university system:
Partners, Investors and Public Affairs Management
INVESTOR RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT regards the economic
relational dynamics of the system with public or private investors,
financers or supporter the investors who require specific relational
dynamics, aiming at gaining funds
Relational strategy planning has became crucial both with firms and public
actors:
• Private  firms, banks, semi-public organizations, etc.
• Public  a part from the relevant ministry (Miur), all the other ministries, institutions
and local administration and, particularly, the European Community
Strategies: to improve the trust into the institution with divulgation activities and
image exploitation through a policy of transparency.
A solid and believable reputation, an efficacious communication and a good
interaction with public institutions create a good opinion in subjects connected with
the financial market, which is essential in order to gain the preference of financers
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
Focusing on some key actors for the university system:
Partners, Investors and Public Affairs Management
PUBLIC AFFAIRS MANAGEMENT includes strategies and activities aiming
at creating and keeping relationships between the university system and
public institutions, in order to obtain an acknowledgement of university
interests through information flows and interactions with the public
decision-makers
This sphere is finalized to inform the institutions of reference about the themes,
the expectations and the perspectives of the organization, in a circular and
continuous communicative circuit about the themes of interest for universities;
generating stable relationships it is possible to create conditions to catch attention
as well as the consensus and acknowledgment of public institutions about
the represented interests
Perticularly here we have:
• lobbying relationships
• press relations
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
CONCLUSIONS AND POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT
This paper wants to show the need of a planning and management
criteria of the university relationships.
We think It is important because, notwithstanding the enormous
steps forward made in the past fifteen years as regards the activities,
structures and professionalization of the university communication,
we are still rather far from relationship prospects and methodologies
with all the interlocutors of a university.
On a closer examination the remarks on the necessity of an increased
relationship culture and a planning of the relationship aims and ways
with the (competitive and/or co-operative) environment might consist of
a study specifically oriented toward the links, sinergies and possible
networks.
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)
THE MAJOR OBSTACLES I HAVE FOUND
WHILE DOING MY PH.D.
• to develop the study using theoretical perspectives and
methodological analysis that go behind
communication in public sector and public politics for
university, using approaches and instruments coming from
very different fields of studies, particularly from the
business world, the sociology, political sciences
• to retrieve literature about the relational perspectives on
the University system, specially about the Italian case
Stefania Leone – [email protected]
Communication Science Department - University of Salerno (Italy)