Free agents on underdog teams: international branch campus lecturers constructing the organizational integration of their individual and campus identities
Creators: name: Swenddal, Heather
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350710
subject: Organisational behaviour

description: In recent decades, many entrepreneurial universities have bolstered their student enrollments through transnational higher education, transporting educational products overseas to students in their home countries. International branch campuses (IBCs) are a prominent mode for delivering education offshore: These satellites of global universities provide mirrored parent-campus educational experiences to students in remote locations. More than 250 IBCs now exist worldwide, with high concentrations in Asia (C-BERT, 2019). <br><br>Like multinational enterprise subsidiaries, the value proposition of IBCs is their products' global resonance, achieved in part through the efforts of IBC staff. Historically IBCs have relied on traveling parent-campus lecturers to reinforce their campuses' global ethos, however for financial and logistical reasons many IBCs are transitioning to local hiring of host- and third-country lecturers. Recent IBC literature frames this trend as one of risk, suggesting that non-parent-campus lecturers may lack the loyalty and capacity to effectively represent their global institutions. As the sector continues to localize IBC academic hiring, the organizational integration of IBCs and their lecturers is a key management concern.<br><br>Existing literature on IBC contexts is limited, with a dearth of insights about locally-hired IBC lecturers' perspectives. In particular, the field lacks clarity on how IBC lecturers who are not nationals of the parent-campus country identify themselves and their campuses as part of their global universities. My research addresses this gap. Through a constructivist grounded theory study involving interviews with 36 lecturers and leaders across four IBCs in Southeast Asia, I examine the organizational integration of locally-hired IBC lecturers' constructed identities and explore the barriers to IBCs' global integration which could be addressed through management intervention. <br><br>In exploring the perspectives of IBC lecturers regarding their roles and campuses I draw on emic metaphors analogizing lecturers to members of sports teams. I theorize that locally-hired IBC lecturers see themselves as occupation-focused "free agents" and their IBCs as disadvantaged university "underdogs"--constructions which impede IBC lecturers' global-university integration. Contributing to these constructions are contextual challenges as well as perceived disrespect from parent-campus coordinators--the "coaches" charged with guiding them. Connecting these theories I outline an overarching process of IBC self-distancing performed by locally-hired IBC lecturers: an "IBC Othering Loop" of perpetuated disadvantage and campus isolation. <br><br>These theories present a compelling case for more proactive parent-campus engagement of IBC lecturers. My findings challenge previous literature assumptions that non-parent-campus IBC lecturers are inherently institutionally disloyal; instead, my research exposes the many factors contributing to IBC organizational separation, identifying multiple points of potential management intervention. I suggest that more supportive engagement from parent-campus course coordinators in particular would likely decrease locally-hired IBC lecturers' sense of global isolation. This engagement would help to improve the global-university integration of IBCs and their lecturers, aiding delivery on the IBC value proposition of globally-mirrored educational experiences.