Unexpressed expectations
AGRO’s management team has just completed a competence development course stretching over 9 months; this has comprised three intensive residential meetings and several take-home assignments. The course was expertly led by AU HR – Organisational Development & Work Environment. One of the topics discussed at the last residential meeting on 24-25 May was the expectations of the department’s senior academic staff as regards their involvement in management processes, especially the tasks that do not appear from or are directly described in any job description.
As a management team we are highly dependent on experienced employees involving themselves in all the foreseen as well as the unforeseen but nevertheless important tasks that are continuously emerging. One of the major ones has been the development of our new degree programme in Foulum. A number of employees have prioritised this work, put other tasks aside and made a huge effort. This involvement has brought us a giant leap towards a new, exciting future with students at Campus AU Viborg. Such efforts are often driven by employees’ interest in and passion for specific topics and are absolutely necessary in our daily lives. In fact, it is often the case that employees have skills and competences within different fields, and we achieve optimum results when we draw on different people for different tasks.
A particularly important area is the supervision of our young employees. This task affects virtually all senior academic staff. Our latest workplace assessment and staff development dialogues as well as enquiries from junior academic staff show that there is a great deal of uncertainty about what you as a young employee can expect from the seniors you are affiliated with. This leads to uncertainty, stress and reduced well-being, which could often be avoided if there was a better communication and a thorough and ongoing alignment of expectations as well as involvement. We need to take this up more systematically in the department.
Actually, it is not strange that there is uncertainty concerning the division of roles and obligations in a time when the department expands faster than ever before as regards staff, and when more than 50 nationalities are represented. We cannot expect everyone to have the same understanding of or agree on which tasks are important to perform and how they should be handled, in addition to always having latitude for different handling. We need a dialogue and debate in and between staff groups about our expectations of each other. This is first and foremost to improve our workplace environment and well-being but also with a view to expressing some of the unexpressed expectations and having the most important ones written down and incorporated into the functional descriptions. We have a super-inspiring and wonderful place of work with much freedom for the individual employee. Let us together make it even better! In the management team we will take the initiative to begin the dialogue. Let it be another contribution to the department’s “The Hill We Climb” collection.