Professorial Work is Becoming Increasingly Scattered
The work of professors is interrupted
more often and for longer periods of
time than the work of other specialists.
Continuous organizational changes are
a menace in universities as well as other
research institutes.
Last spring, the Finnish Union of University Professors
and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health conducted
a joint member enquiry, which concentrated
on the working conditions of professors, resourcing
of the work and general wellfare. The percentage of
those who answered was 48%, which is higher than
the average percentage of answers in these kinds of
enquires. The amount of those who answered was
slightly higher than in the corresponding member
enquiry from the year 2012.
You can influence your own work, but you have
less influence on the organization as a whole
The functionality of the closest work community has
increased slightly in two years. Could it be that the turmoil caused by the University reform is calming
down? Especially the flow of information within the
work commmunity shows signs of positive development.
There is also ever so slightly positive change
of direction concerning the compiling of the common
rules of the game and the encouraging working
athmosphere.

71% of the professors who answered the enquiry
have managerial duties or are otherwise in the position
of leadership. Professors have superiors, too.
Assessments concerning the undertakings of the immediate
superior have not changed in two years. The
popularity of performance appraisals has gone down
after the corresponding enquiry of the year 2012.
The possibilities of influencing personal work
were considered to be significantly better than the
possibilities of influencing the functioning of the
organization as a whole. There has been positive development,
however: the estimates of the professors
on the possibilities of having influence on their organizations
were better than two years ago. Those respondents
who reported that they belong to the board
of their university naturally had better estimates of
their possibilities to influence. Membership in the
governing bodies was, however, not always a quarantee
for better chances to influence: the members of
the University Collegiate Council, Academic Council
or Department Council did not feel that they had in
any way better chances to influence than those who
do not belong to these bodies.
In light of the results from the enquiry, top management
is still relatively unconcerned about the
opinions of professors. The assertion ”I receive information
on the activities of the top management
in time” did not get high numbers (on a scale of 1—5,
the average was 2,8). Two years ago the corresponding
number was 2,6, so there evidently has been some
betterment in the flow of information.
Assisting personnel has vanished
The shortage of assisting personnel is as alarming as
it was two years ago. This was emphasized especially
in the open answers, of which there were plenty — over 400. Assisting personnel in universities has been
cut down and the remaining personnel has moved to
a distance from the departmental community. The
chair of the Finnish Union of University Professors,
Maarit Valo, approaches this problem in her text in
Professoriblogi, ”Professors as Office Clerks” (Professorit
toimistoapulaisina), and the dissemination
of the blog in social media has brought this problem
more into public awareness and discussion.
One professor from the University of Turku had
the following comment on the situation, delivered in
an open answer:
”Office secretaries, for instance, have been moved
from the operational units into administrative service
units. Simultaneously, for example duties concerning financial
administration have multiplied in the units, which
has led to a situation, in which teachers/reseachers/technical
personnel performs the duties of office secretaries
alongside their own duties. I am the chair of our unit, but
despite this I perform daily the duties that office secretaries
used to do. University reform has resulted in a situation,
where the productive personnel serves the administration,
and not vice versa.”
Although the profit responsibility of units is on
the increase, professors with management duties still
do not receive the necessary amount of information
concerning finances. The attitude towards the claim
that ”I have at my disposal the necessary information
for the following of financial matters in my position as
director/head of my unit” shows a slightly favourable
turn during the past two years, but there is still need
for improvement.
— The means for management have improved
slightly. There is still room for improvement, however,
when only slightly under 40% of those working in
managerial duties report that they have the information
on economic monitoring at their disposal, Jenni
Ervasti, the senior researcher of the Finnish Institute
of Occupational Health, points out.
The work is more and more
frequently interrupted

The professors estimate that their weekly working
hours add up to 51 on average. This is almost ten hours
more than with people doing knowledge-related
work on average.
The professors report a large amount of interruptions that disturb their work (80%). This is
more than in the previous enquiry. Especially large
amount of interruptions was reported by women,
young academics and those who are in a managerial
position. Among factors influencing working conditions,
the opacity of data systems, programs and the
equipment manuals, as well as trying to perform too
many things at the same time and moving between
different tasks, were among the reasons for continuous
interruptions.
It also seems that there are more interruptions
than with experts on average. In the data from the
Better Working Community (Parempi Työyhteisö)
enquiry of the Finnish Institute of Occupational
Health, 60% of the respondents working as specialists
claim that interruptions occur relatively often or
very often.
Continuous extensive
organizational changes
In universities and research institutes, recent years
have involved frequent change. As much as 79 % of
the respondents had been involved in changes having
to do with either the structure or the functioning of
the organization during the past 1—2 years.
The enquiry also contained a question on how
the significance of the changes is felt. 62% of the respondents
felt that the changes were at least relatively
great and significant.
One professor from the University of Helsinki
comments on the changes as follows:
”During the recent years there have been frequent
changes that are still reflected in the daily work (e.g. University
reform, fusion of departments, centralizing financial
issues into service center etc.). At the moment e.g. the
degree reform (extensive BAs) and the Doctoral training
reform are under way. There is quite simply too much development
work going on all the time – there is never time
to concentrate on the basic duties and you live with the
feeling of inadequacy as there is no time to focus on anything
properly.”
A professor from a research institute:
”The organization has changed significantly. Superiors
have changed, new fields of know-how have been established
and emphasized, team sizes have been expanded,
business mentality has been underlined even more
than before, Research has to yield business transactions and added value to them is required at a shorter term than
before – my own work has been part of this change and my
duties have turned more towards the production of vendible
solutions than scientific research results.”
More enthusiasm towards
work nonetheless
Despite the pressure caused by work and the rapid
change, professors feel joy while doing their work:
the feelings of satisfaction at work, enthusiasm and
attraction scored relatively high in the enquiry (on a
scale of 1—5, the average was 4,1).
In specialist organizations, the scale measuring
joy experienced at work (satisfaction at work, enthusiastic
attitude and the level of absorption) scores 3,8
(on a scale of 1—5). This would seem to indicate that
the professors experience these positive feelings more
often than other specialists.
Professors who were over 64 year old and had
thereby already passed the retirement age proved
to be an especially 'work happy' group (average was
4,5). There were also minor differences according to
the branch of science: in medicine and health sciences
(average 4,2) and agriculture and forestry (average
4,3), the joy of work was experienced more often than
in the fields of technique or natural sciences (average
4,0)
The questionaire also inquired about matters concerning
retirement age. The chair of the Finnish Union
of University Professors, Maarit Valo, approached
this issue in the editorial of the previous Acatiimi.
Professors in numbers
The profile of the respondents to the Professor's work -enquiry:
- Men 66 %, Women 34 %
- Within the age group of 60–64, 28 %,
within 55–59, 23 %,
within 50–54, 20 %
- 42 % have acted as professor for 11-20 years,
30 % for 5-10 years
- Finnish as native language, 89 %
- permanent contracts, 89 %
- managerial duties, 71 %
- Head of department, 28 %,
research group/project leader, 23 %,
Head of a school or corresponding unit, 19 %,
Director of a research unit or center, 9 %,
Dean or equivalent, 6 %,
- 55 % had 1–10 subordinates,
24 % had 11- 20 subordinates
- 36 % have acted in managerial duties for 5 - 10 years,
32 % for 11 - 20 years
- 58 % have obtained managerial training
- 79 % have had organizational changes in their work
place during the past 1-2 years, or such changes are in
process at the moment
- The amount of weekly working hours with professors
is 51 hours on average
Text Kirsti Sintonen
- Painetussa lehdessä sivu 12
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