The Future of Education

Due to the reforms according to the New Public Management (NPM) faculties are obliged to compete and to budget scarce resources. This leads to more management tasks and turning their organization towards more efficiency and effectiveness. For this reason, positons for vice-deans, deans of research or study and new professionals are established, which results in new organizational structures. This paper aims to show effective organizational solutions in dependence of different situational requirements.

Types of different organizational configurations are built and related to the criteria of effectiveness. They show that positions for new professionals provide flexibility and environmental orientation, but require more coordination and may nurture conflict potential. A full-time dean has a high degree of centralization, requirements for a good decision quality, less conflicts and less coordination effort than a part-time dean with support from further deans or new professionals.

Connected to the variables of situation, an ideal minimum and maximum type is deduced which shows an ideal solution in terms of the idea of fit within the contingency approach.

Keywords: academic reforms; new public management; organizational design; effectiveness.