How universities influence societal impact practices: Academics’ sense-making of organizational impact strategies

Between Relevance and Excellence? Research Impact Agenda and the Production of Policy Knowledge

Stefan P L de Jong and Corina Balaban

Science and Public Policy, 2022, vol. 49, issue 4, 609-620

Abstract: Societal impact of academic research has become a central concern of contemporary science policies. As key players in the higher education sector, universities play a crucial role in translating policy into organizational strategies, which then have the potential to shape academics’ practices. This article investigates the influence that universities may have on academics’ impact practices. We employ an analytical framework that combines a novel method for studying university impact strategies, sense-making theory, and insights from literature on impact. Our data consist of interviews with sixteen philosophers and anthropologists working across four universities in the Netherlands and the UK. We find that, in response to organizational goals and Human Resource Management policies, academics report changing their impact practices. We call for universities to use their influence responsibly in order to enable a broad range of impact practices.

Keywords: impact practices; sense-making theory; societal impact; social sciences and humanities; organizational strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:scippl:v:49:y:2022:i:4:p:609-620.

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