Germany: The Value of Administrative Staff for Internationalization

Abstract

at analyzing the level of internationality of nonacademic staff and its effects on internationalization activities in Ger-man Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The goal is to develop recommendations for the effective management of internationalization, with a focus on staff recruitment, structures, and development. Tentative findings from the first two rounds of data collection and analysis indicate that this group forms an important information resource for an HEI, as well as its cultural basis, not the least because of its usually much longer affiliation at the institution than academics. More than 40 percent of the respondents were employed for more than 20 years, and three out of four were permanently employed. The results also show that the day-today work of administrative staff at HEIs has become increasingly international over the last decade: one third has monthly contact with international academics or students. However, it looks as if most staff are still inadequately equipped for such experiences: only one third spent at least three months at a time abroad. The work environment, therefore, seems to develop quicker than staff development and selection processes. The Untapped Potential of Sensibilizing Administrative Staff to Internationalization Not only does the majority of administrators at HEIs have no prior international experience, they also do not have much opportunities to improve this deficit during employment. 89 percent never participated in staff exchange, 87 percent never benefited from intercultural trainings, and 60 percent never even took a language course while working at the university. It is wrong to assume that administrators are not interested in such activities: two thirds would be interested in participating in an intercultural training or in staff mobility, and four out of five would be willing to take a language course. There are of course reasons for not engaging in these activities, in particular lack of time and an unclear perception of their direct benefit on the work to be performed. Administrators also very often lack information on how to participate in internationalization activities, especially staff mobility and intercultural trainings. The study also shows that such activities are not futile, but quite on the contrary have substantial effects. First Insights on the Effects of Internationalization on Administrative Staff We conceptually assumed that experiences made in the context of internationalization activities influence the inter-nationality of nonacademic staff on three levels: personality traits; attitudes and competences; and work environment. Firstly, we expect changes in personality traits that are relevant for coping with typical international and intercultural experiences in the workplace. Secondly, we assume that participation in internationalization activities influences individual attitudes, with an impact on the level of inter-nationalization in the HEI. Thirdly, we aim to reveal under which conditions effects in the first two dimensions (traits and attitudes) alter work-related practices of nonacademic staff. Our model of three levels (personality traits; attitudes and competences; work environment) seems to work. We find intercorrelations between all three levels, and the data seems to confirm that personality, in the end, strongly defines all results on the other two levels. Internationalization of Administrative Staff through Recruitment and Staff Development From the data, we can infer that, in general, recruiting staff with prior international experience has a stronger impact on internationality than developing the capacities of staff through internationalization activities (such as mobility or intercultural trainings). Recruiting is more relevant when seeking to increase the level of internationality of higher rank positions, and of staff at the international offices, while staff development is especially effective for lower rank positions , and for higher rank staff not focused primarily on in-ternationalization. Staff recruitment is nevertheless pivotal for setting a framework for internationalization in any HEI. You need to use the right criteria to find the right people. Further, internationalization activities can have a strong impact on mindsets, but they do not have the same effect on everybody. They seem especially advisable for those without previous experience and on lower responsibility levels. In essence, both measures are necessary and quite complementary. We need to improve targeting instruments and procedures for recruitment of internationally oriented nonacademic staff. On the staff development side, firstly, far more people want to participate in internationalization activities but lack information on how to proceed: thus more information is crucial. Also, many respondents state that they lack time. Internationalization must not "come on top on everything We tackle this question and aim at analyzing the level of internationality of nonacademic staff and its effects on in-ternationalization activities in German Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).