Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police reform. Design/methodology/approach: The authors studied how the position of police contact, a cornerstone of the recent Norwegian police reform, was…

Academic staff hold multiple identities by relating to the organization and to their profession. Merging higher education institutions involves organizational changes which may impact identities of academic staff. This paper studies potential impacts on staff perceptions of their organizational and academic identities through a 2-year in-depth…

Mergers in higher education are large-scale, complex organisational change processes seeking to integrate former independent institutions into a new organisational entity. Mergers are often justified by reference to broad overarching goals such as quality, relevance, and efficiency. In practice, mergers entail attempts at organisational…

Institutional change is being called for to renew higher music education (HME). But what institutional pressures, specifically, are driving these calls, and how are HME organisations responding to pressures to change? By turning to institutional theory, we lean on the concept of institutional isomorphism to shed light on how HME organisations may…

Research on academic staff experiences with mergers in higher education points out that they often struggle with the change process. Reform appears to go hand in hand with uneasiness and even anxiety, but studies also report mixed results: part of those involved share concerns, others report positive experiences. This study on mergers in Norwegian…

In recent decades, many higher education systems around the world have been exposed to institutional mergers. While the rationale for mergers has often been related to issues of improved quality, effectiveness and/or efficiency at the institutional level, fewer studies have analysed how mergers may affect institutional diversity within the higher…

This study explores change processes in higher music education by following the development of the Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) over the period 2014-2023. The following research question is addressed: How has institutional change been enabled in a higher music education…

At a time when higher education institutions are increasingly expected to demonstrate societal relevance, it is pertinent to examine why specific structural configurations are chosen to carry out that task. Based on a comparative case study of three merged higher education institutions in Norway, this article examines the three new HEIs'…

The Leadership and Organizational Change for Implementation (LOCI) strategy is a multifaceted implementation strategy that aims to support successful evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation by fostering effective general leadership, implementation leadership, and implementation climate. How implementation strategies are experienced by…

This paper examines the evolution of Norwegian higher education with a particular focus on the role and transformation of colleges. Historically, these colleges have been instrumental in providing geographically accessible, higher (vocational) education tailored to local and regional needs, significantly contributing to Norway's workforce and…

Educational leaders are responsible for educational change, and many scholars have argued that academic developers (ADs) have expertise with the potential to influence educational change. We argue, however, that ADs' influence depends on how educational leaders perceive educational change and position ADs' roles and responsibilities in relation to…

The study explores an ultimately unsuccessful merger of three Norwegian public university colleges. It shows how social practices of support for and opposition to the merger were the effects of the intersection(s) between "why" the merger was necessary and "how" the proposed merger process was enacted. Support and opposition…

Purpose: This paper aims to present the results from a case study that investigated interorganizational learning in a buyer and seller relationship in the context of the maritime industry. This examination emphasized unraveling how the buyer and seller in the case study interacted and transferred knowledge when using a new business model that…

In this paper, we explore possibilities and challenges for deliberative academic development. Deliberative academic development refers to a practice that engages members of the university in dialogue about its purposes, ways of organizing and leading higher education, as well as teaching and learning. The paper critically analyses data from focus…

This article examines organizational change in national ministries responsible for higher education in light of public sector reforms. The article suggests an analytical framework based on authority/autonomy and capacity developments, paying special attention to the creation of agencies. Empirically, this is exemplified by two cases: the Austrian…