Unclear management, say staff

“Some of our colleagues in the Teaching and Examination unit at BSS accumulated several hundred hours of overtime when Syllabus was introduced as a pilot project at BSS in the autumn. And as the workplace assessment has shown, staff in some of the administrative units at BSS are suffering badly from stress. So we’re surprised that the dean has made a decision involving our administrative staff, who normally refer to deputy director Maria Volf Lindhardt,” says Søren Dam, the union representative for the secretarial staff in the Studies Administration department. He has now contacted university director Jørgen Jørgensen on behalf of the staff members of the liaison committee in question.

“We expressed our concerns on behalf of our colleagues, and we also asked Jørgensen whether a dean can actually make decisions involving staff at the Studies Administration department. We think this case proves that the management structure at AU is unclear – something which was also underlined during the workplace assessment process,” he explains.

The staff at the Teaching and Examination unit have also expressed their concerns to deputy director Maria Volf Lindhardt and dean Svend Hylleberg.

No lack of clarity

Dean Svend Hylleberg reacted rapidly, and so did university director Jørgen Jørgensen. Independently of each other, they suggested that the dean and deputy director should meet the staff concerned to talk things over.

Jørgen Jørgensen explains:

“I reacted by recommending a meeting involving both myself and the dean so the staff could get an answer straight from the people responsible. Because when the staff say they think the management is unclear, it’s important that we respect the fact that that’s how they feel,” says Jørgensen.

But he also underlines that he definitely does not feel that the case reveals any lack of clarity in the management:

“The university management has decided to introduce Blackboard as a pilot project at BSS, so that’s a clear enough decision which in purely technical terms actually required an adjustment of our list of twelve top priorities for the university. And the decision has only been made providing that the pilot project is not an extra burden on the Studies Administration staff. The management of the administrative department and the management of BSS are both aware of this proviso,” he says.

Dean Svend Hylleberg also rejects the idea that the case reveals unclear management.

“Of course the top management of the university (which means the rector, university director and four deans) can decide that some things are more important than others and need to be put into operation. The job of our deputy directors and administrative staff is to work hard to make things happen. So there’s no lack of clarity in the management structure,” he explains.

Deputy director Maria Volf Lindhardt comments that:

“Before the university management made the decision, I had the opportunity to point out what they needed to be aware of in this connection. For instance, I said that the staff were genuinely concerned. They’ve been under considerable pressure and are worried about the implementation of a new system in a situation where other IT systems which are needed to support the new system are not working as they should be.”

Lindhardt continues:
“But I agree that the case is not an example of unclear management. The university management has made a decision, and of course we shall do what we can to carry it out in practice.”

Results of meeting

At the meeting the staff at the Teaching and Examination unit were given information by dean Svend Hylleberg and the project group whose job it is to implement Blackboard at BSS. 

“I told them that they won’t be affected at all until we change the examination system sometime next year. And as far as support is concerned, the teachers will be trained to use the system by September. The students will also be ready to use it by the start of the autumn semester,” reports Hylleberg.

The dean also underlined that when teachers or students needed support, they should ask the student staff from IT Support at BSS. Or the suppliers of Blackboard.

“I could almost hear them breathing a sigh of relief when they head that at the meeting,” says Hylleberg.

Union representative Søren Dam does not fully agree:

“We were very pleased about the meeting, but I have to say that what we were told hasn’t allayed our fears. The staff know from experience that they are always inundated with calls from both teachers and students whenever a new IT system is introduced. And even though they know they can refer callers to another support group, their considerable workload will be made even more burdensome by all the interruptions they will have to cope with,” says Søren Dam.

The project group responsible for implementing the Blackboard system at BSS will only be doing so if they feel absolutely certain during the month of June that the system will be ready to use in the autumn. If not, the project will be postponed until the start of the spring 2014 semester.

FACTS

What is Blackboard?
Blackboard is a learning management system (LMS) which the university management has decided should be introduced throughout Aarhus University. The implementation of the system should be seen as part of the Educational IT project, which was launched by the university management on 9 March 2011.