Towards a Shared Mission
Notat om det værdiskabende universitet skrevet af formand for ATV Helios Carsten Orth Gaarn-Larsen og næstformand Jørgen Staunstrup. I artiklen analyseres værdistrømme og universiteternes rolle som værdiskabere i samfundet.
A mission shared by stakeholders, management and employees is a prerequisite for an engaging dialog about the many and substantial changes and challenges currently facing universities. Too often this essential dialog reveals mistrust and misunderstandings about the role and outcome of the universities. The result is that the dialog about university development, resources, leadership, governance etc. too often ends up in rather fruitless discussions and sometimes even mutual suspicion.
This paper argues for having a dialog involving both internal and external stakeholders agreeing on a shared mission aiming at value creation (in the broadest interpretation). A shared mission is an essential part of leading and managing a university. It is the foundation of the agreement with external stakeholders about the overall purpose and direction of the university. It is also the platform for all internal communication and the ultimate yardstick for key strategic decisions.
The value of a university is an integrated whole where a number of individual contributions stimulate and develop each other. In the big picture there are three value chains: education, research and knowledge exchange. Each of these may exist separately and there are many examples of excellent research or education done outside universities, however, the unique aspect of a university is that integrates the three and all their subparts into a whole.
Dialog and addressing challenges are key aspects of the value creation of universities. Dialog is necessary for transforming insight into value and for addressing challenges; whether it is the universities that challenge society with new insight or society that challenge universities to get involved in meeting challenges.
These years, some of these challenges are global and important to all universities e.g. challenges related to energy, health, water, and aging. One of the results of such a dialog should be agreement on a shared mission. The most important aspect of finding a mission shared by external stakeholders and internally is to enable management and leadership i.e. to ensure value creation beyond what can be achieved by an unorganized group of individuals.
