Learning to work together: The challenge of collaborative arrangements for strategic projects within HE in Scotland Rosemary Wilson Allford A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Edinburgh Napier University, for the award of Doctor of Business Administration June 2017 Abstract Government policy for economic development across Scotland and the UK is driving an increasing number of strategic alliances in higher education to achieve economies of scale and economies of experience. Higher education institutions have been encouraged through strategic funding to further develop externally facing university-business engagement. Effective collaboration could theoretically produce the advantage of a better student experience and, at the same time, make the market for higher education more competitive. Collaborative structures are complex including the interaction between the people or agents who work within and between them. The challenge is how such collaboration can best be organised to deliver across organisation boundaries. The purpose of the study was to explore and report on a causal story of collaborative practice by examining the insider perspectives of the people engaged in collaborative strategic projects in higher education. Collaboration is defined as a relationship which is mutually beneficial to organisations to achieve common aims, including the structure, roles and relationships within collaborations. The study considered one such strategic project, the Scottish HE Employability Forum,in particular, the lived experience of the members of its project management group and was informed by the evidence based literature. The interpretivist qualitative approach to the study, with semi- structured interviews, represented one specific time interval of the participant voice considering the set-up, implementation and evaluation of the strategic project. The data analysis and findings confirmed a priori themes, for example, the need for trust building, effective leadership and strategic planning. A principle emergent theme was that the notions of agency and reciprocity were not mutually exclusive and impacted on the causal mechanisms and explanation of observed behaviours and relationships of the participant members. A conceptual framework from the current study is presented suggesting themes of collaborative activity being comprised of a broader pattern requiring relational behaviour, expert and champion roles for successful collaboration. A series of recommendations is given for collaborative practice; for project management, effectiveness and sustainability along with key messages of knowledge transfer and learning. 2 List of Abbreviations AGCAS Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service DBA Doctorate in Business Administration HEA Higher Education Academy HEI Higher Education Institution HEP Higher Education Partner HESA Higher Education Statistics Agency LTW Learning to Work (including phases 1 & 21) NUS National Union of Students QAA Quality Assurance Agency (Scotland) SCQF Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework SIE Scottish Institute for Enterprise SFC Scottish Funding Council SHEEF Scottish Higher Education Employability Forum SHEEN Scottish Higher Education Employability Network and Employability Coordinators’ Network US Universities Scotland Note on references: Harvard referencing is used throughout the thesis for citation purposes. In addition, footnotes are included where specific agencies, policy or initiatives are mentioned to provide further context for the reader. 1 LTW2 included student placement projects ( e-Placement Scotland, Making the Most of Masters, Third Sector Internships, Enterprise in Education) 3 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 3 Figures ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Tables ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 9 1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 The Researcher ................................................................................................................ 11 1.3 Socio-political and economic drivers impacting on the shape and scope of HEI activity. ............................................................................................................................................... 13 1.3.1 Enhancement through university-business engagement ............................................. 16 1.3.2 Graduate employability in a Scotland HE context ........................................................ 18 1.3.3 The Scottish Funding Council: Learning to Work ......................................................... 19 1.3.4 Learning to Work 2 (2010-14) ....................................................................................... 20 1.3.5 The Scottish Higher Education Employability Forum (SHEEF) ...................................... 21 1.4 Conclusion: working together .......................................................................................... 22 1.4.1 Structure of the thesis .................................................................................................. 23 Chapter 2: The Literature Review .......................................................................................... 24 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 24 2.1 Work-based and work-related learning within tertiary education .................................. 26 2.2 Section 1 : The role of higher education as a mechanism to deliver on government policy ...................................................................................................................................... 27 2.2.1 A political driver ............................................................................................................ 27 2.2.2 The Scottish context...................................................................................................... 30 2.2.3 Employability, employer engagement and enterprise education in Scotland ............. 32 2.2.4 Employability – towards a definition ............................................................................ 32 2.2.5 Employability, graduate skills and attributes ................................................................ 37 2.3 Section 2 : A consideration of the mechanism/structures required to deliver on Scotland’s employability policy through HE .......................................................................... 40 2.3.1 Strategic projects –delivery mechanisms ..................................................................... 41 2.3.2 Objectives, goals and aims ............................................................................................ 45 2.3.3 Confidence and trust in collaborative practice ............................................................. 49 4 2.4 Section 3: The implementation of strategic projects through collaborative practice ..... 53 2.4.1 Collaboration as a mechanism for delivering organisational objectives ...................... 57 2.5 Research question, aims and objectives .......................................................................... 59 2.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 61 Chapter 3: Research methodology ........................................................................................ 62 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 62 3.1 Section 1: The research design ........................................................................................ 64 3.2 A consideration of alternative research philosophies and views of knowledge and reality ............................................................................................................................................... 65 3.2.1 A critical realist epistemology ....................................................................................... 65 3.2.2 Ontology ........................................................................................................................ 67 3.2.3 Ontological perspective and data collection methods ................................................. 67 3.2.4 Phenomenology ............................................................................................................ 71 3.3 The process of conducting the study ............................................................................... 73 3.3.1 Data collection and analysis process ............................................................................ 74 3.4 Section 2: The data collection process ............................................................................. 79 Table 1 Participant Sample .................................................................................................... 81 3.5 Ethical considerations ...................................................................................................... 82 3.6 Conducting the research interviews ................................................................................ 85 3.6.1 Interview questions ...................................................................................................... 86 3.7 Carrying out the workshop .............................................................................................. 88 3.8 Section 3: Analysing the data ........................................................................................... 91 Table 2 Stages and process of data analysis .......................................................................... 92 3.9 Processing, coding and analysis of the data .................................................................... 93 3.9.1 Transcribing the Interviews .......................................................................................... 94 3.10 Thematic analysis of text ............................................................................................... 95 3.10.1 Emergent themes ........................................................................................................ 98 3.11 Conclusion: ..................................................................................................................... 99 Table 4 Designing the Research ........................................................................................... 100 Chapter 4: Research findings ............................................................................................... 101 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 101 4.1 An introduction to the participant group: ..................................................................... 101 4.2 Level 1 themes for setting up the project ...................................................................... 103 5 4.2.1 Employability............................................................................................................... 105 4.2.2 Aims and objectives .................................................................................................... 107 4.3 Implementation ............................................................................................................. 111 4.3.1 Leadership .................................................................................................................. 111 4.3.2 Voice/agency ............................................................................................................... 114 4.3.3 Reciprocity .................................................................................................................. 115 4.3.4 Trust ............................................................................................................................ 116 4.4 Structure for collaboration ............................................................................................ 117 4.4.1 The nature of collaboration ........................................................................................ 118 4.5 Transformational change ............................................................................................... 120 4.6 Conclusion: ..................................................................................................................... 123 Chapter 5: Discussion ........................................................................................................... 124 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 124 5.1 Section 1: The nature of collaborative projects ............................................................. 125 5.2 Role of power and structure within organisations ........................................................ 126 5.3 Setting up the project .................................................................................................... 130 5.3.1 Strategic planning and structure................................................................................. 130 5.4 Implementation ............................................................................................................. 134 Leadership roles in the strategic project ............................................................................. 135 5.4.1 Interrelationships ........................................................................................................ 138 Generating knowledge through collaboration .................................................................... 140 5.5 Evaluation ...................................................................................................................... 144 5.6 Section 2: ........................................................................................................................ 144 A conceptual framework for collaborative arrangements of strategic projects ................. 144 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 144 5.6.1 Key factors: a joint objectives core ............................................................................. 148 5.6.2 ‘How’ is the project structured? ................................................................................. 149 5.7 Causal powers ................................................................................................................ 150 5.8 Managing for the success of the project ....................................................................... 151 5.9 The external context ...................................................................................................... 152 5.10 Revisiting the research question .................................................................................. 154 Research Aim: .................................................................................................................. 154 5.10.1 Towards meeting research objective 1 ..................................................................... 154 6 5.10.2 Towards meeting research objective 2 ..................................................................... 155 5.10.3 Towards meeting research objective 3 ..................................................................... 156 5.11 Section 3: Research contribution to knowledge .......................................................... 158 5.12 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 159 Chapter 6: Practice outcomes .............................................................................................. 160 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 160 6.1 Summary of research project ......................................................................................... 160 6.1.1 Methods ...................................................................................................................... 161 6.1.2 Results ......................................................................................................................... 161 6.2 Limitations of the study ................................................................................................. 163 6.3 Recommendations for future research directions ......................................................... 164 6.4 Recommendations for practice ...................................................................................... 166 6.4.1 Substantive recommendations ................................................................................... 166 6.4.2 Reflective recommendations ...................................................................................... 168 6.5 Researcher contribution to practice .............................................................................. 169 6.6 Key message .................................................................................................................. 171 Appendices ........................................................................................................................... 173 Appendix A: Scottish Higher Education Employability Forum: a Context for Collaborative Management (after Huxham and Vengen, 2005) .................................. 173 Appendix B: a summary of the aims categories relating to the aims framework ....... 174 Appendix C :Interview Schedule .................................................................................. 175 Appendix D: Edinburgh Napier University Research Consent Form ........................... 177 Appendix E: Example of transcription and coding of the research data ..................... 178 Appendix F: Collecting the data outputs from the workshop...................................... 179 Appendix G: Thematic Template showing hierarchical detail of coding and analysis . 180 References ........................................................................................................................... 183 7 Figures Figure 1 Details the process flow for the approach to study ................................................. 63 Figure 2 Data display of the First Order coding .................................................................... 96 Figure 3 First Emergent Themes ............................................................................................ 98 Figure 4 Explanations in a collaborative project open system ............................................ 129 Figure 5 A Thematic Model for Interrelationships .............................................................. 140 Figure 6 A Conceptual Framework for Collaborative Arrangements of Strategic Projects 147 Figure 7 Consideration of causal mechanisms ..................................................................... 153 Tables Table 1 Participant Sample .................................................................................................... 81 Table 2 Stages and process of data analysis .......................................................................... 92 Table 3 resultant first order data codes................................................................................. 97 Table 4 Designing the Research ........................................................................................... 100 8 Chapter 1: Introduction and Background _____________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 1 Introduction The aim of this introductory chapter is to identify, explore and evaluate the context in which higher education institutions (HEIs) operate and examine the key issues that underpin and influence core business activity. The chapter begins with setting the scene for the research activity by exploring the context of HEIs and the drivers which influence the strategic environment. The study of the Scottish Higher Education Employability Forum (SHEEF) is then introduced and the concept of collaborative practice and, in particular, where such practice is taking place. This chapter sets the scene for the study and considers the shape and scope of higher education in Scotland. Higher education (HE) in the UK is an optional tertiary stage of education following on from a core secondary school curriculum. It can be delivered through a variety of means, such as colleges, universities and independent agencies. However, the term higher education institutions (HEIs) tends to refer to HE delivered in universities or colleges. HE provision in Scotland comprises 19 universities and 25 colleges 2 offering HE provision. Scotland’s Colleges, offer a range of programmes at Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels 7-12, including Higher National Qualifications and professional development programmes. All are funded by the Scottish Government via the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), 2 http://www.sfc.ac.uk/funding/funding.aspx, Scotland’s Rural College and the University of the Highlands and Islands are tertiary institutions 9 Chapter 1: Introduction and Background _____________________________________________________________________________ which is responsible for distributing funding to individual institutions for teaching and learning activity, research and associated activities. In addition, the SFC also provides funding to support discrete strategic initiatives including the Scottish HE Employability Forum (SHEEF). Those institutions (HEIs) function in an increasingly complex operating environment, in part due to the number of stakeholders involved in the actual design and delivery of the curriculum to reflect government policy. There has been increasing importance placed on graduate employability over the past 10 years, reflecting government policy, and a drive to achieve institutional targets around developing the graduate role in the workplace and hence contribution to the national economy. The operating climate, post the 2008 economic recession, of continued reduction in core funding for HEIs has necessitated innovation and partnership working to achieve both economies of scale and economies of experience. The challenge is how such collaboration is organised to deliver across the individual boundaries of the HEIs in Scotland. This study aims to consider the structure of one such collaboration. Whereas the setting and arrangements for strategic projects is one structural response to policies of employer engagement, it does not necessarily make explicit the concomitant roles of people and relationships in business- university collaboration. 10