University department as a subject of study for social psychology of higher education: a review

University department is represented as a subject of study for social psychology of higher education, as the smallest group of specialists that carries the most important socio-psychological characteristics of the teaching and researching faculty at the higher education institution. A significant part of the article, in accordance with the traditions of social psychology, concentrates around the personality of the head of the department, his management style and relations with the dean and the administration of the university, fellow subordinates, students, their parents, and alumni. We discuss the shift from teaching and research to administrative tasks, roles, self-perception, styles, and personal characteristics of the head of the department (Gmelch, Miskin, 2004). After reviewing the relationships between the head of the department and his subordinates, the dean and other university leaders (Nellis, Harrington, 2007), the rest of the article we devote to the analysis of intradepartmental horizontal relations. We demonstrate that it is expedient to study the university department within the framework of the social networks theory (sets of participants and interpersonal relations that connect them with each other), which provides a more adequate language of description than the language of sympathies and antipathies of Moreno's sociometry. In particular, he admits the evaluation of the impact of personal and institutional factors on network choices and their limitations, participants' strategies, the structures of personal networks and benefits, resources allocated in the department according to the Ibarra's model (Pifer, 2010). Departments' networks can provide the faculty with access to information and other resources necessary for daily work and academic careers or restrict and block the access to them. Access to resources is distributed unevenly and can generate discrimination. Mutual trust is critical for obtaining access to network resources, and its absence is a limitation or barrier to them. The most important mechanism for establishing interpersonal relations by faculty members of the university department is homophily (assortativity). Homophily (assortativity) is the trend to interact and share opinion and behavior with ones similar in terms of professional and/or personal characteristics, measured, as a rule, by the correlation coefficient (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001). Future research on university department is discussed. It is argued that socio-economic, technological and political processes of a planetary scale will force universities to achieve a new equilibrium point, to conclude a new mutually beneficial social contract with society and government, which will ensure the existence of the university department.

Keywords

Authors

References