The academic teaching manager: a comparative case study within the Italian context

Universities are becoming more entrepreneurial by the day, adopting the same managerial principles that business schools typically promote. Some new managerial figures are being introduced, with the aim to help governing universities. However, this does not appear to be an effortless process, because it deeply changes the basis of legitimacy and the decision-making premises in academic organizations. The purpose of this research is to analyse a peculiar managerial position which arose in many Italian universities tasked with managing academic teachings, by also defining its expected and actual competences. Afterwards, a comparison between the ideal model and the existing Italian teaching management models is conducted, addressing the following research questions: 1) Which dimensions should be considered to build efficient academic teaching management models? 2) Which model can be considered the most effective? To answer these questions, this paper uses a three-phases mixed research approach structured in: 1) a literature review; 2) an in-depth analysis of an Italian case study aiming at identifying the competences and the profile of these new professional roles; 3) a comparative analysis of five Italian teaching management models. The results of the analysis offer interesting insights in terms of recurrent issues arising during the implementation of these figures and their possible solutions.