This work package will pinpoint and intervene the reproduction of sameness and marginalization through the middle management of academic research staff. With middle management, we mean to address not only the direct supervision and evaluation of academic research staff’s day-to-day and long-term performance, but also the gatekeeping in staffing and a team’s work culture. Thus, we will study and disrupt norms and values of sameness reified through not only middle managers (chair holders and supervisors) but also hiring and selection committees and human resources (HR) personnel whose work is highly entwined with that of the middle managers.
People with migration backgrounds from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Central and South America, and Turkey are underrepresented in Dutch higher education– most strikingly at senior and management positions. What is more, despite that some senior staff and managers from the norm group (white, male, mostly Dutch) are keen to work on EDI issues, national reports suggest that there are significant resource and power imbalances between the norm group and the few staff members from minoritized identity groups (e.g., people of color, including women of color). These suggest both an opportunity and the urgent need for disrupting sameness.
The reason why we target the middle management is because this will allow us to experiment with ‘What works?’ in removing the two major bottlenecks, as suggested by scholars, experts and stakeholders in disrupting sameness in the Dutch academia. First, the hierarchically organized and pressurized academic work environment intensifies meritocratic struggles for productivity and resources. This makes it difficult for those in the norm group to reflect on their status of belonging, privilege and sense of entitlement. Second, implicit but prevalent value attachments to cultural uniformity forestalls understandings of marginalization and intersectionality.
Middle management holds both gatekeeper and leadership roles in shaping work environment and culture, mediating between sameness at the individual and interpersonal levels (among staff and managers; between managers and staff) and at the structural level (university policy and the use of technological infrastructure for monitoring work environment and culture). In disrupting sameness through middle management, we will contribute to the desired outcomes of disrupting sameness at an individual, interpersonal, and structural level. We will ensure more receptivity, skills, and responsibility in the middle management to intervene in the reproduction of sameness and help increase the well-being and representation of minoritized groups among academic staff.