Recruitment of academic staff: An institutional logics perspective

Abstract

Recently, a number of inbreeding cases have surfaced that have fuelled public criticism of recruitment practices and the lack of mobility in the Swedish higher education sector. This study focuses on recruitment practices at Swedish universities, particularly the divergence between what seems to be a practice of hiring internal candidates and a policy aiming at increasing mobility. The empirical material comprises 14 interviews with heads of departments at a selection of Swedish universities. Institutional logics are used as an analytical framework. It is found that academic recruitment is situated in a tangle of different practices and ideals comprising six logics: state, academic, managerial, market, community and family. Heads of departments show that recruitment practices are the result of several considerations where, for example, meritocracy, bureaucracy and loyalty do not always pull in the same direction.