Analysis of the Rector’s speeches and interview data

My analysis of the text material proceeded in stages. A three-dimensional frame-work of critical discourse analysis is implemented in this case study to explore the management change and trust development process in a transforming university

organisation. First, I analysed the texts as discourse. The choices of words, word-ing and metaphors were indicated. In this micro-level analysis, the speeches were explored as texts.

I began a data analysis of this study by reading the speeches. The primary data consists of 17 speeches including approximately 30,000 words altogether, which means 111 pages (Appendix 1). The speeches are public and they were gathered from the university website. The research material also includes an interview with the rector (Appendix 4).

I read the speeches through several times in order to gain an insight into the content of the speeches during 1998-2014 as a whole. In the second round, I read the speeches through, whilst keeping the perspective of university management in mind. I identified four logics of university management in the speeches on a theoretical basis through content analysis. I summarised the main themes in-volved and categorised (and re-categorised) them into the four previously identi-fied logics of university management. An important part of this analysis was also a reflection on what was kept silent and left unspoken (Appendix 5).

There are references used in the rector’s speeches (see Appendix 3). The ref-erences in the speeches reflect the atmosphere and changes in society and en-vironment outside the university organisation. There are demands in society for the universities to perform in an entrepreneurial manner and produce new knowledge to support economic growth. As the university organisation does not operate in quarters, like business firms, producing knowledge (research) and em-ployees (educate), there is vivid discourse to be found concerning the nature of science and civilization for example in 2003. This also could be noticed by refer-ences in speech 2003.

The state bureaucracy as well as managerialism are noted as references in the speeches. The wild discussion and criticism towards universities in the press are also noted in references in the speeches in 2004 and 2005. The discussion and criti-cism facilitates and leads to the university reform in Finland, which started in 2007.

To gain some insight into the content of the speeches as texts, there are certain words and the frequency of those words has been captured (see Appendices 2 and 5). To look for signs of managerialism in the speeches, the frequency of the word ‘strategy’ is indicated in the texts. The word ‘strategy’ is mentioned in every speech, except for 2009 when the speech circulates more around the history of the University of Joensuu. The word ‘strategy’ exists most frequently in the 2014 speech. The second strategy concerning the years 2015-2020 of the ‘new’ organisa-tion is formulated and the novel era of the united organisaorganisa-tion begins.

In order to identify the hegemonial discourse concerning the strategy of the university, the frequency of the word ‘multidisciplinarity’ is matched with the word ‘strategy’. The word ‘multidisciplinarity’ exists most frequently in 2013 when the formation of the second strategy of the ‘new’ organisation for 2015-2020 is at its’ most hectic stage.

The discourse of multidisciplinarity is essential in the context of the ‘new’

organisation. The strategy of multidicplinarity can direct the future way of the

‘new’ university organisation and guarantee the continuum of the history of its’

previous universities. The multidisciplarity enables the ‘new’ university organi-sation to perform as a research (neo-Humboldtian) university.

The discourse of the diverse demands which face the university organisa-tion become the focus of the speech. There is a dual pull between two means of achieving the goal of how to operate as an international research university, on the one hand, by profiling the university, and on the other hand, through a mul-tidisciplinary approach. This is discussed in Chapter 6 in more detail.

The re-contextualisation of the significance of regional policy and the region in the transforming university organisation is identified by exploring the frequency of the words ‘regional policy’ and ‘region-related’ words (Appendix 5). At the end of the 1990s and at the beginning of the new millennium, the regional policy was discussed frequently in the rector’s speeches. The discourse on regional policy in the context of the university organisation remains silent since 2006, when the university reform begins. Additionally, the themes in the discourse concerning the region and area around the university largely discussed the stakeholders’

support of the university, its partnership with the neighbouring area, as well as entrepreneurship and research areas. These issues are discussed in Chapter 5 in more detail.

On the basis of my analysis concerning the way the university management was discussed and talked about in the speeches, I identified four discourses. The themes concerning each management discourse were iterated and categorised into corresponding discourse. Thus, there was text (sentences and expressions from the speeches) within the discourse of bureaucracy, professionalism, democ-racy and managerialism.

These management discourses provide four distinctive discursive frameworks within which the university management is constructed and specific themes are brought up, as I present in Chapter 5. In the speeches, these discourses are often overlapping and interconnected. The managerialism discourse is the dominant discourse and traces of managerialism discourses are the most frequent occur-rences in the research material. The managerialism discourse is reflected in the Chapter 6 when I discuss the trust development process in a transforming uni-versity organisation.

Additionally, I gathered the expressions concerning the rector as a manager from the speeches and the interview. These expressions, as well as expressions concerning trust, were found in the texts within all the management discourses and the interview as a whole. The expressions and themes concerning trust were iterated on a theoretical basis. As Vaara et al. (2006, 796) notes, critical discourse analysis is abductive by its nature. Therefore, the constant movement back and forth between theory and empirical data directed my analysis process.

The discourse-as-discursive-practice is the second dimension of critical dis-course analysis. I identified the text production in the interview with the rec-tor. According to the interview (19.11.2014), the rector states that he prepared the speeches as a researcher. The rector gathered the ideas and thoughts during the

year and formulated a schema for the speech. There are some references used in the speeches (see in Appendix 3). The speeches are not edited for publishing purposes, even though the speeches are public.

The speeches were given at the university opening ceremony which I inter-preted as text distribution in line with critical discourse analysis. The speech of the rector may be cited in the local and national newspapers and publications.

The texts were consumed in the university community and by the stakeholders who attended the ceremony.

On the basis of the interview, the rector stated that he directed his message to the professors and stakeholders, and, of course, to the staff of the university when preparing and giving the speech. On the basis of the interview with the rector, the text consumption was evaluated by the rector. A minority of students attend the opening ceremony. The students are represented in the ceremony by the Student Union where the head of the Student Union gives a speech. The teaching staff (teachers, non-professors) receive more focus in the opening ceremony. There is a nomination of the teacher of the year at the opening ceremony and the nominated teacher also gives a speech at the ceremony.

On the basis of the interview with the rector, the text consumption by the press was not very eager. The press quoted the speeches occasionally. There was more public interest in the university opening ceremony speeches when there was a new rector giving his or her first speech. The academic trade union magazines were more interested in quoting the speeches.

The rector is seen as a manager in this study. On the basis of the interview, the rector sees that the opening ceremony speeches are consumed by those who are interested in higher education policy. In the rector’s opinion, the content of the speeches needs to include current issues in higher education policy. The other op-tion, as the rector notes in the interview, would be to focus on more invigorating issues with less information, concerning, for example, higher education policy.

I interpret this feature as indicating that the rector was more focused on man-agement rather than leadership in this study. However, the rector saw that it may have be necessary to shift the focus after the merger. From after the interview (19.11.2014), the focus of the content of the speech at the opening ceremony might lean towards a more supportive kind of talk. The leadership and human resource management aspects were seen to be gaining a more important role in the con-temporary university organisation.

The consumption of the texts takes into account the international members of the university community. Internationalisation is emphasised in the trans-forming university organisation. Therefore, part of the speech has been given in English since 2009, because there are plenty of international members in the contemporary university community.

The discourse acts as a mediator between text and social practice by pro-ducing, distributing and consuming text. (Fairclough 1992, 73) The management change is reflected and analysed within the management discourses. The three dimensional conception of discourse combines a micro-level analysis (text) and

macro-level analysis (social practice) of the discourse. The analysis of the texts is the ‘description’ and the analysis of discourse practice and the analysis of the so-cial practice of which the discourse is a part is ‘interpretation’. Micro- and macro analysis are interrelated. (Fairclough 1992, 73, 86) The discursive practice in this three-dimensional framework mediates the relationship between the dimensions of social practice and the texts, as illustrated in Table 2.

Table 2: Concepts of CDA and the process view applied in the case study

CdA Case Study

Micro-level Annual university opening ceremony speeches of the rector during 1998-2014 and an interview with the rector in November 2014 Social event Opening ceremony

Meso-level University organisation Discourse

(as mediator) Management discourses:

x Managerialism discourse

x Bureaucracy discourse

Democracy discourse x Professionalism discourse

Macro-level Environment: stakeholders at local, national and global level Social context Merger of two University Organisations

Process view The management change and trust development process in a transforming university organisation

5 Analysis of management change discourses in a

transforming university organisation

In this chapter, I discuss the management change in the case university. The themes reflecting management change are investigated within the university management discourses. The university management discourses presented in this study are: bureaucracy, professionalism, democracy and managerialism and were discussed theoretically earlier in Chapter 2.

There are interpretations made within each management discourse to identify events, elements and factors for trust to develop.