The President of CBS answers criticism about the new deputy president position
The advisory bodies at CBS criticize that they have not been involved in the decision-making process associated with the appointment of a deputy president, and fear centralization. The President of CBS explains that it has been a “high priority” to discuss the role and responsibilities of a deputy president with the Academic Council and General Consultation Committee.
News | 27. Aug 2020
This autumn, CBS will appoint its new deputy president, who will take over management of the research departments. This decision has been met with incisive criticism from the advisory bodies at CBS – the Academic Council and the General Consultation Committee.
Members of these bodies explain that they have not been involved in the decision-making process and they fear that research interests will take a back seat while the organizational structure will be challenged and centralized with the new deputy president position.
CBS WIRE has presented the President of CBS, Nikolaj Malchow-Møller, with the criticism from the three researchers and members of the advisory bodies. We asked why the members of the advisory bodies were not involved in the decision-making process, and in an email to CBS WIRE, Nikolaj Malchow-Møller writes:
“The decision to recruit a Deputy President is a Board decision based on a recommendation from the President, in accordance with the by-laws of CBS. It is a high priority for the Senior Management to discuss the role and responsibilities of a deputy president with the General Consultation Committee and the Academic Council. We did this in the spring and will continue to do so, and we still believe very much that it will bring significant benefits for CBS to get a Deputy President on board.”
We also asked Nikolaj Malchow-Møller whether the members of the Academic Council and the General Consultation Committee had any reason to fear that research interests and the matrix structure would be downgraded, and whether the appointment of a new deputy president is an act of centralization.
To this, the President of CBS writes in the email:
“This is not a threat to the matrix structure, on the contrary, we believe this will strengthen it. A division of the existing tasks in Senior Management among more hands is, in our opinion, a decentralization step, not more centralization. Also, it is important to remember that the research ambitions at CBS are very high and clearly expressed in our brand-new strategy.”
Nikolaj Malchow-Møller also explains in the email that the new deputy president will “add extra driving force to the Senior Management” and “will allow the Dean of Research to take on more strategic tasks”.
“At present, the Dean of Research actually occupies two roles: a Dean of Research role and a dean of faculty role. Senior Management agrees unanimously that this has been a bottleneck for a long time. In the future, we will let these two roles reside with two people; a Dean of Research and a Deputy President,” he writes.
The Senior Management is currently finalizing the job advertisement, which is going out for consultation with the Academic Council and the General Consultation Committee. It is expected to be online on September 7.
Comments