Institutional motivations for hiring international academics in Poland
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 28 July 2021
Issue publication date: 4 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to uncover the basic motivations of the administrators (referred to also as “managers”) to hire foreign-born employees in the academic system, which is relatively ethnically homogenous and where the proficiency in Polish is still a strong asset. By doing this, the authors make an attempt to theorise the value of internationalisation of higher education in the academic peripheries.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reports the finding of 20 qualitative interviews with the deans and other senior academic officials serving managerial functions at Polish public and private universities.
Findings
The four basic motivations expressed directly by the mangers were (1) the crave for cultural diversity, (2) willingness to “Westernize” the academe, (3) a need for academic achievement and (4) staff shortages. In the discussion, the authors show, however, that the discursive order of these institutional motivations to hire international faculty is incompatible with motivations of international faculty to seek employment in Poland and statistical data regarding their concentration in different academic centres.
Originality/value
The paper tackles crucial issues regarding staffing (including recruitment and retention) and diversity hiring in a country with an “emigration culture”, similar to other East European states, namely a place from which highly skilled workers emigrate. A relocation to Poland is a rather unusual reverse migration, or “stepping down”, to a periphery to use it as a possible stepping stone for career progression.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was generously supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Dialog no. 0142/DLG/2017/10).
Citation
Luczaj, K. and Kurek-Ochmanska, O. (2021), "Institutional motivations for hiring international academics in Poland", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 35 No. 7, pp. 1347-1360. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2020-0487
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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