ABSTRACT

Torgny Roxå and Katarina Mårtensson note that the achievement of teaching excellence is intrinsically linked with organizational structures that recognize and reward excellence. They suggest that understanding organizational structures is important in the extent to which they have the potential to either promote or jeopardize excellence. Using the three principles for governance – collegial, managerial and bureaucratic – and based on their own previous research into microcultures that have been defined as excellent both within and outside their own institution, they caution against models that primarily promote managerial and bureaucratic governance. Whilst these types of governance will always be found in any academic microculture, collegiality is the key to producing sustainable excellent teaching practices and outcomes, and the need for organizational structures to provide space for critical conversations to take place is paramount.