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Effective subunits in ineffective systems: Simultaneous tight and loose coupling in higher education data use

Effective subunits in ineffective systems: Simultaneous tight and loose coupling in higher... Higher education institutions are pressured to use data for university rankings, accreditation, decision making, and technical support of students and faculty. However, these organizations also experience barriers and resistance to such data-driven aspirations. Rather than simply focusing on the whole organization, this research attends to variations in organizational subunits and asks what processes help and hinder data use. It pays attention to the puzzle of how data use variation can lead to effective subunits just as data fragmentation contributes to ineffective systems. Although universities may create centralized coordinating bodies, the structural and cultural bases of loosely coupled university subunits may upset these efforts. Using the case of a university attempting to centralize its data systems, we employ in-depth interviews of senior and mid-level administrators to understand why technical changes happen within specific subunits even as only ceremonial changes happen for the larger organization. This suggests new insights for interrogating how loose and tight coupling can co-exist in the same organization. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Acta Sociologica SAGE

Effective subunits in ineffective systems: Simultaneous tight and loose coupling in higher education data use

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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023
ISSN
0001-6993
eISSN
1502-3869
DOI
10.1177/00016993221145369
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Higher education institutions are pressured to use data for university rankings, accreditation, decision making, and technical support of students and faculty. However, these organizations also experience barriers and resistance to such data-driven aspirations. Rather than simply focusing on the whole organization, this research attends to variations in organizational subunits and asks what processes help and hinder data use. It pays attention to the puzzle of how data use variation can lead to effective subunits just as data fragmentation contributes to ineffective systems. Although universities may create centralized coordinating bodies, the structural and cultural bases of loosely coupled university subunits may upset these efforts. Using the case of a university attempting to centralize its data systems, we employ in-depth interviews of senior and mid-level administrators to understand why technical changes happen within specific subunits even as only ceremonial changes happen for the larger organization. This suggests new insights for interrogating how loose and tight coupling can co-exist in the same organization.

Journal

Acta Sociologica – SAGE

Published: Jan 1, 2023

Keywords: Data-driven decision making; quantification; new institutionalism; organizational sociology; higher education

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