Strategy also takes shape in the administration

By Torben Durck Johansen, Faculty Director and Head of the Administration Centre

When we talk about strategy at a university, we naturally tend to think first of the leadership. I probably do the same myself, and perhaps many others do too. The Rector, the Dean, the Heads of Department, and the Board. Leadership initiates the strategic process and brings the organisation on board so that the strategy is translated into practice and becomes part of everyday work. That is probably the short version of how we typically think about strategy.

And then there is the administration. What is our role?

Traditionally, administration is primarily associated with ensuring the smooth running of the organisation. We are responsible for ensuring that processes function effectively, that tasks are carried out to a high standard, and that the organisation can rely on us. And yes, operational excellence is the foundation of any university administration. It is a task we undertake with great professional pride every day, and it is also a central part of our mission in Administration Centre SBS/Social Sciences (ABSS).

However, a modern university administration is much more than that. This became particularly clear when we were developing the partnership agreement between SBS and Social Sciences regarding our new shared administrative centre, ABSS.

As we started looking more closely at what the partnership agreement should include, something interesting emerged: the extent of the professional and strategic role that our ABSS colleagues play in the many administrative forums across the university. And there are actually quite a lot of them.

So, what do they do there?

They help discuss, interpret, and translate the university’s strategic ambitions into concrete administrative practice. How should a new initiative work in practice? What considerations need to be taken into account? How should it be implemented? And not least, how do we ensure that it also makes sense within the Faculty of Social Sciences? This applies to a wide range of topics, including budget models, branding strategies, funding, educational quality, study administration, HR-related matters, and IT security.

A university is a complex organisation, and what makes perfect sense in one part of the university does not necessarily work as well across the institution. Professional fields have different traditions, ways of working, perspectives, and needs. That is why these cross-university discussions are so important.

Our work on the partnership agreement highlighted something that I believe we often overlook: Administrative staff are not merely recipients of the university’s strategic discourse. We are also active participants in it, bringing the social science perspective into conversation.

Administrative colleagues have a seat at the table where broad ambitions encounter practical opportunities and challenges. They ask questions. They point out consequences. They translate between the university’s shared agenda and the local reality at the faculty. In doing so, they contribute to what the strategy will actually mean in practice.

When a shared decision is to become reality at the faculty, administrative staff also play a key role in translating it into concrete processes and actions. In addition to bringing the social science perspectives into the university’s shared administrative discussions, they also bring the university’s ambitions back to the faculty and help turn them into reality. In other words, they serve as an important link between SDU and the faculty.

In this way, your administrative colleague becomes an important contributor to the university’s strategic work. That is why I am pleased that “the strategically engaged administration” is a priority area in the ABSS strategy. It provides us with a strong foundation for carrying out our tasks professionally and efficiently while also contributing to the university’s continued development. We are already doing this in many places today.

Disclaimer: While this column was written for the Faculty of Social Sciences’ newsletter, it could just as easily have been written for SBS, which is also served by ABSS.