Supervisory Models of Administrative Organization and their Transitions at Japanese National Universities

The incorporation in 2004 equipped Japanese national universities with autonomy over organization of their administrative units. Prior to the incorporation, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) would assign its officers and Ido Kanshoku, transfer bureaucrats who would move between national universities and MEXT posts, to fill the role of secretary general and most of the middle management positions. The new autonomy after the incorporation led many universities to abolish the secretary general position, who would supervise the entire administrative organization, and installed another model in which executive directors would directly oversee their designated administrative divisions. Some universities, however, have brought back the former model since then. This research explored the ways in which the supervisory models have changed and reasons why. The researchers conducted thorough documentary research of MEXT senior staff directories and official publications. The researchers also conducted qualitative interviews with eight former and current MEXT assignees. It is suggested that a particular supervisory model may be selected based on a combination of various factors, including MEXT policies to restrain assigning of its personnel. Sizes and complexities of organizational structures were also significant. The secretary general model benefits from unified information flow and centralized management. It is often considered to help the organization to be more functional and to enable optimized human resource management. Effectiveness of the model however inevitably depends on the quality of an assignee and was met with various criticisms. The executive directors model has its own issues, such as creating organizational silos and possibly hindering coherent human resource policies. MEXT assignees are symbolic of an “ambivalent” relationship between MEXT and national universities. They are expected to gather and interpret government information and bring in outside perspectives. However, current practices and the state of autonomy are expected to change as competencies of regular administrative staff and presidents as managers develop.本稿は，科学研究費補助金挑戦的研究（萌芽）「大学の事務組織の業務改革に関する実証的研究」（課題番号20K20815）による研究成果の一部である