Peter Woelert
Biographic Data
| ID | 1706909 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Woelert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Woelert |
| SIGNATURE | WOELERT P |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0511-4176 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The rise of a “casualised” workforce
Contingent academic employment has become a salient feature of many higher education systems over recent decades. At the same time, there remains limited understanding of how such employment has come to be institutionalised—that is, framed and accepted as a legitimate feature of the contemporary university within specific national settings. Bringing the conceptual resources of institutional theory to bear on the case of the Australian higher educ…
Fewer restructures, more consultation, better recognition
Strategic Bureaucracy
Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loading state relinquishing direct control over some of universities’ internal operations while at the same time driving bureaucratization at the institutional level. The second narrative focuses on the emergence of an increasingly competitive and uncer…
Administrative burden in higher education institutions
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is growing concern about increasing administrative burden within universities around the world. At the same time, the literature explicitly devoted to the issue of administrative burden within universities remains relatively scant. Drawing on various bodies of literature and reflections on the situation at Australian universities, this paper (a) presents a conceptualisation of what constitutes administrative…
Administrative transformation and managerial growth
One fundamental aspect of organizational transformation in higher education is the change to the profile of universities’ non-academic workforce. Key staffing trends identified in recent studies conducted in a variety of national settings include an increase in the proportion of non-academic staff at universities and a shift toward more highly qualified and remunerated non-academic roles. This paper examines the extent to which these trends have …
Breaking the mould
Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how…
Reactivity and the Dialectics of Performance Measurement
This article adds to the recent literature stressing performance measures’ reactivity by offering a conceptualization of the associated micropolitical dynamics and their implications for performance measurement. Using the example of individual actors’ “gaming” responses to the use of research metrics within Australian universities for illustration, this article argues that such responses reflect both passive self-imposition as well as active subv…
Formally Alive yet Practically Complex
The Multiple Dynamics of Isomorphic Change
Institutional Isomorphism
The concept of institutional isomorphism has made an enduring contribution to sociological theories of organizations, elucidating distinctive ways in which institutional forces such as commonly shared norms and ideas shape organizations. Its core idea is that organizations' concerns for legitimacy constitute a major source of convergence and conformity in organizational forms and practices. Three major drivers of such convergence are identified: …
Husserl on symbolic technologies and meaning-constitution
The ‘logic of escalation’ in performance measurement
This paper makes a conceptual contribution to the understanding of the ‘alternative logics’ (Pollitt) occurring in performance measurement systems in crucial public policy domains. The major focus is on what has been referred to as ‘logic of escalation’ (Pollitt) that manifests itself where performance measurement is strongly geared toward quantified performance indicators. What characterizes this logic is the unfolding of a peculiar dynamics thr…
Governing Knowledge
Too little and too much trust
A striking feature of contemporary Australian higher education governance is the strong emphasis on centralized, template style, metric-based, and consequential forms of performance measurement. Such emphasis is indicative of a low degree of political trust among the central authorities in Australia in the intrinsic capacity of universities and academics to do their work efficiently and effectively. At the same time, it is indicative of a deep-se…
Technology, knowledge, governance
The ‘Economy of Memory’
Kant’s hands, spatial orientation, and the Copernican turn
Administrative burden in higher education institutions
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is growing concern about increasing administrative burden within universities around the world. At the same time, the literature explicitly devoted to the issue of administrative burden within universities remains relatively scant. Drawing on various bodies of literature and reflections on the situation at Australian universities, this paper (a) presents a conceptualisation of what constitutes administrative…
Too little and too much trust
A striking feature of contemporary Australian higher education governance is the strong emphasis on centralized, template style, metric-based, and consequential forms of performance measurement. Such emphasis is indicative of a low degree of political trust among the central authorities in Australia in the intrinsic capacity of universities and academics to do their work efficiently and effectively. At the same time, it is indicative of a deep-se…
Strategic Bureaucracy
Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loading state relinquishing direct control over some of universities’ internal operations while at the same time driving bureaucratization at the institutional level. The second narrative focuses on the emergence of an increasingly competitive and uncer…
Governing Knowledge
The ‘Economy of Memory’
Formally Alive yet Practically Complex
The Multiple Dynamics of Isomorphic Change
Breaking the mould
Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how…
The ‘logic of escalation’ in performance measurement
This paper makes a conceptual contribution to the understanding of the ‘alternative logics’ (Pollitt) occurring in performance measurement systems in crucial public policy domains. The major focus is on what has been referred to as ‘logic of escalation’ (Pollitt) that manifests itself where performance measurement is strongly geared toward quantified performance indicators. What characterizes this logic is the unfolding of a peculiar dynamics thr…
Kant’s hands, spatial orientation, and the Copernican turn
Technology, knowledge, governance
The ‘Economy of Memory’
Too little and too much trust
A striking feature of contemporary Australian higher education governance is the strong emphasis on centralized, template style, metric-based, and consequential forms of performance measurement. Such emphasis is indicative of a low degree of political trust among the central authorities in Australia in the intrinsic capacity of universities and academics to do their work efficiently and effectively. At the same time, it is indicative of a deep-se…
The ‘logic of escalation’ in performance measurement
This paper makes a conceptual contribution to the understanding of the ‘alternative logics’ (Pollitt) occurring in performance measurement systems in crucial public policy domains. The major focus is on what has been referred to as ‘logic of escalation’ (Pollitt) that manifests itself where performance measurement is strongly geared toward quantified performance indicators. What characterizes this logic is the unfolding of a peculiar dynamics thr…
Governing Knowledge
Husserl on symbolic technologies and meaning-constitution
The Multiple Dynamics of Isomorphic Change
Institutional Isomorphism
The concept of institutional isomorphism has made an enduring contribution to sociological theories of organizations, elucidating distinctive ways in which institutional forces such as commonly shared norms and ideas shape organizations. Its core idea is that organizations' concerns for legitimacy constitute a major source of convergence and conformity in organizational forms and practices. Three major drivers of such convergence are identified: …
Formally Alive yet Practically Complex
Reactivity and the Dialectics of Performance Measurement
This article adds to the recent literature stressing performance measures’ reactivity by offering a conceptualization of the associated micropolitical dynamics and their implications for performance measurement. Using the example of individual actors’ “gaming” responses to the use of research metrics within Australian universities for illustration, this article argues that such responses reflect both passive self-imposition as well as active subv…
Administrative transformation and managerial growth
One fundamental aspect of organizational transformation in higher education is the change to the profile of universities’ non-academic workforce. Key staffing trends identified in recent studies conducted in a variety of national settings include an increase in the proportion of non-academic staff at universities and a shift toward more highly qualified and remunerated non-academic roles. This paper examines the extent to which these trends have …
Breaking the mould
Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how…
Administrative burden in higher education institutions
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is growing concern about increasing administrative burden within universities around the world. At the same time, the literature explicitly devoted to the issue of administrative burden within universities remains relatively scant. Drawing on various bodies of literature and reflections on the situation at Australian universities, this paper (a) presents a conceptualisation of what constitutes administrative…
Strategic Bureaucracy
Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loading state relinquishing direct control over some of universities’ internal operations while at the same time driving bureaucratization at the institutional level. The second narrative focuses on the emergence of an increasingly competitive and uncer…
Fewer restructures, more consultation, better recognition
The rise of a “casualised” workforce
Contingent academic employment has become a salient feature of many higher education systems over recent decades. At the same time, there remains limited understanding of how such employment has come to be institutionalised—that is, framed and accepted as a legitimate feature of the contemporary university within specific national settings. Bringing the conceptual resources of institutional theory to bear on the case of the Australian higher educ…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Management (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Higher Education Governance and Development (7 works) · Law (7 works)