Abstract
The contribution at hand sheds light on dramatically mounting tensions that academic tourism education in Germany is facing within the context of applied science universities. Drawing on the concept of organizational hybridity, we distil two dilemmas resulting from respectively incongruent expectation sets. Firstly, a spatial hybridity dilemma results from opposing missions of regional development and embeddedness versus internationalization prescriptions and efforts. Secondly, there is an ideational hybridity dilemma resulting from imperatives to serve employment markets versus academic purposes of serving social and scientific ideals. Based on a tourism program case from Northern Germany we highlight how a mélange of diverse, partly obscure and increasingly conflicting missions as well as largely inflated and for the most part incongruent stakeholder expectations threaten to tear the institution apart and to lead tourism education onto pathways where it could lose its bearings. We summarize our three major concerns of academics drifting off the course of integrity out of desperation resulting from overwhelming pressures, impoverished learning experience for our student constituencies and impoverishment of research in an era where we need meaningful research more than ever in tourism and beyond. We thus contribute to the debate about the future of tourism education in academia.
References
Akdag, E. G., & Swanson, D. M. 2018. Ethics, power, internationalisation and the postcolonial: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of policy documents in two Scottish universities. European Journal of Higher Education, 8(1).10.1080/21568235.2017.1388188Search in Google Scholar
Ayikoru, M., Tribe, J., & Airey, D. 2009. Reading tourism education: neoliberalism unveiled. Annals of Tourism Research, 36(2), 191–221.10.1016/j.annals.2008.11.001Search in Google Scholar
Bennett, R., & Kottasz, R. 2006. Widening participation and student expectations of higher education. The International Journal of Management Education, 5(2), 47–65.10.3794/ijme.52.150Search in Google Scholar
Bleiklie, I., Enders, J., & Lepori, B. 2013. Introduction: transformation of universities in Europe. Higher Education, 65, 1–4.10.1007/s10734-012-9577-5Search in Google Scholar
Boden, R., & Nedeva, M. 2010. Employing discourse: universities and graduate ‘employability’. Journal of Education Policy, 25(1), 37–54.10.1080/02680930903349489Search in Google Scholar
Brisman, A., & South, N. 2018. Environment, conflict and profit. In: T. Spapens, R. White, D. van Uhm, & W. Huisman (Eds.), Green Crimes and Dirty Money, 19–40. Abingdon: Routledge.10.4324/9781351245746-3Search in Google Scholar
Bronstein, J., & Reihlen, M. 2014. Entrepreneurial university archetypes: A meta-synthesis of case study literature. Industry and Higher Education, 28(4), 245–262.10.5367/ihe.2014.0210Search in Google Scholar
Dann, G., & Cohen, E. 1991. Sociology and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 18(1), 155–169.10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_183-1Search in Google Scholar
de Wit, H. 2011. Internationalization of higher education: nine misconceptions. International Higher Education, 64, 6–7.Search in Google Scholar
Decramer, A., Smolders, C., Vanderstraeten, A., & Christiaens, J. 2012. The impact of institutional pressures on employee performance management systems in higher education in the low countries. British Journal of Management, 23(51), 1–16.10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00820.xSearch in Google Scholar
Denis, J.-L., Ferlie, E., & Van Gestel, N. 2015. Understanding hybridity in public organizations. Public Administration, 93(2), 273–289.10.1111/padm.12175Search in Google Scholar
Dobbins, M., & Knill, C. 2017. Higher education governance in France, Germany, and Italy: change and variation in the impact of transnational soft governance. Policy and Society, 36(1), 67–88.10.1080/14494035.2017.1278868Search in Google Scholar
Echtner, C. M., & Jamal, T. B. 1997. The Disciplinary Dilemma of Tourism Studies. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(4), 868–883.10.1016/S0160-7383(97)00060-1Search in Google Scholar
Enders, J. 2010. Hochschulen und Fachhochschulen. In: D. Simon, A. Knie, & S. Hornbostel (Eds.), Handbuch Wissenschaftspolitik, 443–455. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.10.1007/978-3-531-91993-5_30Search in Google Scholar
Enders, J. 2014. The academic arms race: international rankings and global competition for world-class universities. In A. M. Pettigrew, E. Cornuel, & U. Hommel (Eds.), The institutional development of business schools, 155–175. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198713364.003.0007Search in Google Scholar
Enders, J., & de Boer, H. 2009. The mission impossible of the European university: institutional confusion and institutional diversity. In: A. Amaral, G. Neave, C. Musselin, & P. Maassen (Eds.), European integration and the governance of higher education and research, 159–178. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-1-4020-9505-4_7Search in Google Scholar
Engwall, L. 2007. The anatomy of management education. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 23(1), 4–35.10.1016/j.scaman.2006.12.003Search in Google Scholar
Field, J. 2000. Lifelong learning and the new educational order. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham.Search in Google Scholar
Fletcher, R. 2011. Sustaining tourism, sustaining capitalism? The tourism industry’s role in global capitalist expansion. Tourism Geographies, 13(3), 443–461.10.1080/14616688.2011.570372Search in Google Scholar
Friedl, H. A. 2016. Braucht der Tourismus von morgen “bessere” Curricula oder “bessere” Lehre? Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, 8(1), 111–122.10.1515/tw-2016-0008Search in Google Scholar
Friedland, R., & Alford, R. R. 1991. Bringing society back in: symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In: W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, 232–263. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Fritsch, M. 2009. Was können Hochschulen zur regionalen Entwicklung beitragen? Die Hochschule, 1/2009, 39–52.Search in Google Scholar
Gioia, D. A., & Corley, K. G. 2002. Being good versus looking good: business school rankings and the circean transformation from substance to image. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1(1):107–120.10.5465/amle.2002.7373729Search in Google Scholar
Gruening, G. 2001. Origin and theoretical basis of New Public Management. International Public Management Journal, 4, 1–25.10.1016/S1096-7494(01)00041-1Search in Google Scholar
Hall, C. M., Williams, A. M., & Lew, A. A. 2014. Tourism: conceptualisations, disciplinarity, institutions and issues. In A. A. Lew, C. M. Hall, & A. M. Williams (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Tourism, 3–23. Chichester: John Wiley.10.1002/9781118474648.ch1Search in Google Scholar
Hasse, R., & Krücken, G. 2014. Coupling and decoupling in education. In: B. Holzer, F. Kastner, & T. Werron (Eds.), From globalization to world society, 197–214. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Hendry, J. 2006. Educating managers for post-bureaucracy: the role of the humanities. Management Learning, 37(3), 267–281.10.1177/1350507606067160Search in Google Scholar
Hsu, C. H. C., 2018. Tourism education on and beyond the horizon. Tourism Management Perspectives, 25, 181–183.10.1016/j.tmp.2017.11.022Search in Google Scholar
Hüther, O., & Krücken, G. 2018. Higher education in Germany – recent developments in an international perspective. Cham: Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-61479-3Search in Google Scholar
Huisman, J., & van der Wende, M. 2004. The EU and Bologna: are supra- and international initiatives threatening domestic agendas? European Journal of Education, 39(3), 349–357.10.1111/j.1465-3435.2004.00188.xSearch in Google Scholar
Immer, D. 2013. Rechtsprobleme der Akkreditierung von Studiengängen. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen.10.17875/gup2013-153Search in Google Scholar
Jessop, B. 2008. A cultural political economy of competitiveness and its implications for higher education. In B. Jessop, N. Fairclough, & R. Wodak (Eds.), Education and the knowledge-based economy in Europe, 13–39. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.10.1163/9789087906245_003Search in Google Scholar
Kaján, E., & Saarinen, J. 2013. Tourism, climate change and adaptation: a review. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(2), 167–195.10.1080/13683500.2013.774323Search in Google Scholar
Kerr, C. 2001. The uses of the university.5th ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Kleimann, B. 2019. (German) Universities as multiple hybrid organizations. Higher Education, 77, 1085–1102.10.1007/s10734-018-0321-7Search in Google Scholar
Knight, J. 2012. Concepts, rationales, and interpretive frameworks in the internationalization of higher education. In D. K. Deardorff, H. de Wit, J. Heyl, & T. Adams (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of International Higher Education, 27–42. Thousand Oaks: Sage.10.4135/9781452218397.n2Search in Google Scholar
Krücken, G. 2013. Die Universität – ein rationaler Mythos? Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung, 35(4), 82–101.Search in Google Scholar
Laredo, P. 2007. Revisiting the third mission of universities: toward a renewed categorization of university activities? Higher Education Policy, 20, 441–456.10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300169Search in Google Scholar
Lehmann, W. 2009. University as vocational education: working‐class students’ expectations for university. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(2), 137–149.10.1080/01425690802700164Search in Google Scholar
Lane, J. E. 2000. New public management. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203467329Search in Google Scholar
Lenzen, D. 2014. Bildung statt Bologna. Berlin: Ullstein.Search in Google Scholar
Lepori, B., & Kyvik, S. 2010. The research mission of uiniversities of applied sciences and the future configuration of higher education systems in Europe. Higher Education Policy, 23, 295–316.10.1057/hep.2010.11Search in Google Scholar
Lindberg, M. 2014. Implications of the Bologna process for throughput in the higher education sector: an empirical illustration based on Finnish-British comparison. European Journal of Education, 49(2), 259–271.10.1111/ejed.12075Search in Google Scholar
Maas, C. 2020. Der Fachaufsatz ist uns nicht genug. Die Neue Hochschule, 01, 3.Search in Google Scholar
McSweeney, B. 2008. Maximizing shareholder-value: A panacea for economic growth or a recipe for economic and social disintegration? Critical Perspectives on International Business, 4(1), 55–74.10.1108/17422040810849767Search in Google Scholar
Metschl, U. 2016. Vom Wert der Wissenschaft und vom Nutzen der Forschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.10.1007/978-3-658-10980-6Search in Google Scholar
Milano, C., Novelli, M., & Cheer, J. M. 2019. Overtourism and tourismphobia: a journey through four decades of tourism development, planning and local concerns. Tourism Planning & Development, 16(4), 353–357.10.4324/9781003140610-1Search in Google Scholar
Moreau, M. P., & Leathwood, C. 2006. Graduates’ employment and the discourse of employability: a critical analysis. Journal of Education and Work, 19(4), 305–324.10.1080/13639080600867083Search in Google Scholar
Morgan, M. 2004. From production line to drama school: higher education for the future of tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(2), 91–99.10.1108/09596110410519973Search in Google Scholar
Naidoo, R. 2016. The competition fetish in higher education: varieties, animators and consequences. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(1), 1–10.10.1080/01425692.2015.1116209Search in Google Scholar
Natale, S. M., Sora, S. A., & Drumheller, M. 2012. The importance of the university in the 21st century: ethical conflicts and moral choice. Journal of Academic Ethics, 10, 1–8.10.1007/s10805-012-9152-9Search in Google Scholar
Niederdrenk, K. 2013. Zur Rolle der Fachhochschulen im deutschen Hochschulsystem. In: Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (Ed.), Gleichartig – aber anderswertig? Zur künftigen Rolle der (Fach-) Hochschulen im deutschen Hochschulsystem, 11–31. Bielefeld: Bertelsmann.Search in Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. 2010. Not for profit: why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400883509Search in Google Scholar
Okumus, F., van Niekerk, M., Koseoglu, M. A., & Bilgihan, A. 2018. Interdisciplinary research in tourism. Tourism Management, 69, 540–549.10.1016/j.tourman.2018.05.016Search in Google Scholar
Pringle, J., & Naidoo, R. 2014. Branding business schools: academic struggles with the management of reputation. In: A. M. Pettigrew, E. Cornuel, & U. Hommel (Eds.), The institutional development of business schools, 176–195. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198713364.003.0008Search in Google Scholar
Reay, T., & Hinings, C. R. 2009. Managing the rivalry of competing institutional logics. Organization Studies, 30(6), 629–652.10.1177/0170840609104803Search in Google Scholar
Reed, G. 2007. ‘Glocalizing’ education: focusing in and focusing out. Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, 7(1), 16–25.10.2304/csee.2007.7.1.16Search in Google Scholar
Ruckert, A., Labonté, R., & Parker, R. H. 2015. Global healthcare policy and the austerity agenda. In: E. Kuhlmann, R. H. Blank, I. L. Bourgeault, & C. Wendt (Eds.), The Palgrave International Handbook of Healthcare Policy and Governance, 37–53. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137384935_3Search in Google Scholar
Rundshagen, V., Raueiser, M., & Albers, S. 2017. Business schools dealing with conflicting logics: a configurational approach. Academy of Management Proceedings, 11600.10.5465/AMBPP.2017.11600abstractSearch in Google Scholar
Sandy, M. 2013. Tracing the liberal arts traditions in support of service-learning and public-engaged scholarship in the humanities. Humanity & Society, 37(4), 306–326.10.1177/0160597613510704Search in Google Scholar
Schofer, E., & Meyer, J. W. 2005. The worldwide expansion of higher education in the twentieth century. American Sociological Review, 70, 898–920.10.1177/000312240507000602Search in Google Scholar
Sengupta, A., & Ray, A. S. 2017. University research and knowledge transfer: A dynamic view of ambidexterity in British universities. Research Policy, 46 (5), 881–897.10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.008Search in Google Scholar
Skelcher, C. & Smith, S. R. 2015. Theorizing hybridity: institutional logics, complex organizations, and actor identities: the case of nonprofits. Public Administration, 93(2), 433–448.10.1111/padm.12105Search in Google Scholar
Smith, W. K., & Besharov, M. L. 2019. Bowing before dual Gods: how structured flexibility sustains organizational hybridity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(1), 1–44.10.1177/0001839217750826Search in Google Scholar
Sorkin, D. 1983. Wilhelm Von Humboldt: The Theory and Practice of Self-Formation (Bildung), 1791–1810. Journal of the History of Ideas, 44(1), 55–73.10.2307/2709304Search in Google Scholar
Spapens, T. 2018. The Dieselgate scandal. In: T. Spapens, R. White, D. van Uhm, & W. Huisman (Eds.), Green crimes and dirty money, Chapter 5. Abingdon: Routledge.10.4324/9781351245746-6Search in Google Scholar
Teichler, U., Höhle, E. A., & Jacob, A. K. 2017. The academic profession in Germany. In: M. Machado-Taylor M., V. Soares, & U. Teichler U. (Eds.), Challenges and options: the academic profession in Europe, 167–191. Cham: Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-45844-1_7Search in Google Scholar
Teuscher, M. 2019. Universities of applied sciences in Germany: the winners of “Bologna”? Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 32(4), 516–525.10.1080/13511610.2019.1611420Search in Google Scholar
Tolofari, S. 2005. New public management and education. Policy Futures in Education, 3(1), 75–89.10.2304/pfie.2005.3.1.11Search in Google Scholar
Tomlinson, M. 2016. The impact of market-driven higher education on student-university relations: investing, consuming and competing. Higher Education Policy, 29, 149–166.10.1057/hep.2015.17Search in Google Scholar
Turner, G. 2019. How the Bologna process has affected the German university system. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 32(4), 513–515.10.1080/13511610.2019.1611419Search in Google Scholar
Williams, I. 2010. Plato and education. In R. Bailey, R. Barrow, D. Carr, & C. McCarthy (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Philosophy of Education, 69–83. London: Sage.10.4135/9781446200872.n5Search in Google Scholar
Witte, J., van der Wende, M., & Huisman, J. 2008. Blurring boundaries: how the Bologna process changes the relationship between university and non-university higher education in Germany, the Netherlands and France. Studies in Higher Education, 33(3), 217–231.10.1080/03075070802049129Search in Google Scholar
Zehrer, A., & Schuckert, M. 2016. Online learning formats in tourism and hospitality higher education. Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, 8(1), 85–94.10.1515/tw-2016-0006Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston