Open Access

Sarah A. E. Stockinger

• What are the path dependencies of universities that shape our modern understanding? How can the performance of universities be influenced beneficially from an external governance and internal management perspective? In particular, how are policy and university structures affecting university performance? The underlying concepts of those questions are the interplay of management and governance, which are key elements of a Corporate Governance. In particular, governance can be seen as the construction of a proper institutional framework, which is dependent on external measures like policy initiatives as well as the design of institutions and their power (may this be boards, management, etc.) in terms of incentives and control. Management is, on the one side the “technical” design of a position comprising a complex of tasks and on the other side dependent on the staffing of this position with a proper person that is able and motivated to fulfill those tasks. A Corporate GovernanceWhat are the path dependencies of universities that shape our modern understanding? How can the performance of universities be influenced beneficially from an external governance and internal management perspective? In particular, how are policy and university structures affecting university performance? The underlying concepts of those questions are the interplay of management and governance, which are key elements of a Corporate Governance. In particular, governance can be seen as the construction of a proper institutional framework, which is dependent on external measures like policy initiatives as well as the design of institutions and their power (may this be boards, management, etc.) in terms of incentives and control. Management is, on the one side the “technical” design of a position comprising a complex of tasks and on the other side dependent on the staffing of this position with a proper person that is able and motivated to fulfill those tasks. A Corporate Governance frame is the interaction of both that are ideally coordinated prudently to ensure the desired conduct of the distinct purposes of universities: research and teaching by a set of selection, control and incentive mechanisms. This dissertation wants to answer the outlined questions by first tracing the roots and path dependencies of German universities in chapter two. The third chapter helps to understand determinants and theoretical underpinnings of governance and management, in general and in particular, in the German higher education system, comprising policy interventions, institutional mechanisms and individual leadership elements. In the fourth chapter, a sketching systematization of the German higher education system and the dataset is presented to show the current state and result of the dynamics that were outlined historically and theoretically in chapters two and three. This is followed by three empirical research projects: First, the German Excellence Initiative – being a political governance instrument – gets evaluated. The analysis is tackling two questions: First, what was the impact of the Excellence Initiative on Excellence Universities as well as on the whole university system? Second, does a differentiation exist in terms of research quantity and research quality? The findings show that the Initiative was a role model in terms of research quantity – raising the quantitative output for the whole system and in particular for the winners – while it created a loosing winners effect in terms of research quality – raising the qualitative output for the system but decreasing it for the winners. Second, German university boards – being a control and power diffusion mechanism – are questioned in terms of whether and how they differ according to specific frameworks and competences. The testing of the difference hypotheses shows that the participation in deciding who is in the board as well as a president coming from outside or inside the university are related to the representation of societal, scientific or business members. Third, German university presidents – as personalities entering a management task – are researched. In particular, the research questions of (i) which personality traits influence to be perceived as leader (leadership emergence) and (ii) how leadership behavior contributes to be perceived as good leader (leadership effectiveness) are assessed. The results indicate that based on the Big 5 personality traits the only robust trait, which influences to be considered as a leader, is emotional stability. While considerable leadership behavior does not seem to influence leadership effectiveness, very low and very strong structure-giving behaviors are influencing it positively.…