Tim Winkler reports on new ideas to keep HR ticking-over 

Should professional staff have a lower status in universities? And why is so little known about how to best describe and support the roles of professional staff during periods of change?

A new UK research paper looks at the role of professional staff working alongside academic leaders in implementing yet more layers of government-mandated regulation.

While disparagingly described as “minions of management” and “docile clerks” in the past, the paper found that professional staff are increasingly occupying a third space – taking on roles that require specialist expertise and activity, positioned somewhere in between the traditional professional /academic dichotomy.

While the detail of the paper focuses on the challenges of enacting change in UK universities, the range of issues and thoughtful discussion of the complexity of relationships and interdependencies of roles within HE make for interesting reading for anyone who has been involved in HE change management.

Mackay and Robson, “ ‘Structured agency,’ normalising power and third space workers” Journal of Higher and Further Education is  HERE.

Winkler on the HR works runs regularly at the new HEJobs  recruitment site