Per Dahl, the union representative for the academic staff at AU, thinks more decision-making powers should be delegated. Because at the moment there is a bottleneck around the deputy directors and heads of department, and this has a negative impact on staff.

“The core of our present structure is that management powers are not delegated below the level of the deputy directors and heads of department. This has proved to be a problem in connection with salary negotiations because the areas and departments concerned are so large sometimes that the deputy directors and heads of department can’t always manage the negotiating process without help. The same applies when discussing absences due to illness and staff development. The result has been a series of half-hearted solutions under so-called ‘limited staff management’, which means that middle managers are given responsibility for such discussions on behalf of their heads of department. But all the major problems and decisions still have to be approved by the heads of department,” he explains.

According to Per Dahl, the poor standard of communication between top management and ordinary staff is further evidence that more decisions should be delegated.

“All the central decisions go through the heads of department, who have to inform people above and below them of what has been decided in each case. The liaison committees, boards of studies and academic councils provide heads of department with advice from further down the system, and the top management must always be informed. But heads of department also have to make sure that the same bodies are informed of all the decisions taken by the top management. It’s a tough job, and AU needs to help its managers to communicate far better. Otherwise the staff will never feel that there is any genuine interaction between the advice that has been given and the decisions that have been made.”