Työn merkityksellisyyden rakentaminen osana tutkija-opettajien ammatillista kasvua muuttuvassa yliopistossa

This article-based dissertation analyses the construction of meaningfulness of work
in the transforming university. The construction of work meaningfulness is seen as
a part of academics’ professional growth in which they adapt to the changes in academic work based on their own starting points, that is, guided by their own moral
frame. This dissertation strives to find out how and of which ingredients the academics construct the meaningfulness of their work guided by their moral frame and related academic ethos in the entrepreneurial university. The dissertation consists of articles based on each of the three empirical studies and a summary report.
The research data consists of responses to a work welfare survey (n=116) of academics representing education and texts written by academics in the fields of education, medicine, biosciences and linguistics collected by using the thematic writing methodology (n=117). The data was analyzed by applying the narrative-discursive approach and content analysis. As the result of the study, a model of constructing the meaningfulness of academic work is presented. The dimensions of this model are the elements of professional growth: becoming self, belonging and serving others. ‘Becoming self’ appeared in the study as being guided by one’s own individual moral frame, individual positionings towards the entrepreneurial university and meanings given to one’s own work. The results of the study showed that the entrepreneurial university favors individual ways to construct the meaningfulness of work. In case the academics possessed adequately resources and sufficiently secured position in their work, they might be able to act according to their own moral frame evenwhen it conflicted with the expectations of the entrepreneurial university. On the
other hand, the possibilities of many academics to construct the meaningfulness of
their work has weakened in the entrepreneurial university due to an experienced
conflict of values, lack of resources, decreased valuation and increased control.
’Belonging’ comprised academic ethos, discipline-based positionings towards the
entrepreneurial university and communality. The results of the study showed that
the traditional academic ethos shared by the disciplines guides the construction of
the work meaningfulness of the academics committed to it in the entrepreneurial
university, even when it is contradictory to the expectations of the university towards
the academics. The results suggest that the discipline is to some extent related to the
commitment to the academic ethos. This commitment was strongest among the academics representing education who thought that their discipline had become less
valued due to the entrepreneurial university and weakest among the representatives
of medicine whose position has remained strong in the entrepreneurial university.
However, individual experiences on being valued seemed to have a stronger impact
on the construction of work meaningfulness than the discipline the academic represented. Communality appeared as one of the ingredients of meaningful work shared by the disciplines, which was not contradictory to the goals of the entrepreneurial university. ’Serving others’ included serving students, the science and the society, which appeared as ingredients of meaningful work for the academics. Serving students manifested itself by educating, edifying and teaching students, which were highlighted especially in linguistics and education. Serving the science emerged as a cross-disciplinary intrinsic goal which the academics strove for. In medicine it appeared as advancing the research on one’s own special field of study, in education as mediating the scientific knowledge and in linguistics as developing one’s own discipline and strengthening its position in the entrepreneurial university. Serving the society was regarded in medicine as producing tangible benefits and in education and linguistics as promoting intangible values and developing the society based on them.
According to the results, the academics suffering from lack of valuation in the
entrepreneurial university might focus on the nearby students as well as intangible
societal impact and construct the work meaningfulness based on them instead of
meeting the expectations of the entrepreneurial university. The results suggest that the possibilities to experience and construct meaningfulness in academic work are unevenly distributed both between and within the disciplines. The less valuation and recognition the academics get in their work the more difficult it is for them to construct the work meaningfulness in the entrepreneurial university. Simultaneously, the gap between the expectations of the university employer towards the employees and the employees’ own aspirations gets wider. The differences between the goals and views of the university employer and those of the academics make it more difficult to meet the expectations faced by the university institution as a whole. In conclusion, the university’s expectations contradictory to the academic ethos and unequal possibilities for academics to construct the meaningfulness of work sustain the confrontation between the university employer and the academics in the academic community. This confrontation and tensions related to it consume the resources of the academics reserved for their basic work, that is, research, teaching and societal impact. Therefore, these tensions should be actively dismantled in order to allow the university to meet the expectations it is facing, such as producing innovations and high-quality research and teaching activity, even when the financial resources
are becoming more scarce. Based on the study it is suggested that to promote the construction of meaningfulness of work the university employer should create constructs supporting communality and offer academics sufficient resources to work for the students’ benefit. The contribution of individual academics should be recognized more equally regardless their position, work duties or the discipline they represent. Furthermore, the allocation of resources in university should be based not only on quantitative but also on more intangible and qualitative outputs of academic work.