Blames UiO-leadership for sabotage

Professor Johan Frederik Storm is tired of the University of Oslo being controlled from the top down, without listening to feedback from the academic employees.

– There are those who pull the load and feel where the shoe pinches. They know from experience how one solves problems, they’re an enormous resource that the UiO don’t use, says Storm, who is a professor at the Institute of Medical Sciences, and the leader of Academic Forum at UiO.

Storm refers to the medical faculty, but believes the problems recur all over university. He is frustrated by the management. Especially disappointing is that feedback from the employees often is ignored.

Many simply don’t have the energy to talk about this anymore, they have tried for so long that they have given up

Johan Frederik Storm

– You lose courage, because you’re not being heard – especially if you’re critical. Many simply don’t have the energy to talk about this anymore, they have tried for so long that they've given up. Thus you lose valuable feedback, says Storm.

Frustration at the medical faculty is noticeable, but many don’t complain – because they've given up, according to Storm. This is also confirmed by several other academic employees at the medical faculty Universitas talked to.

Leader election at every level

Johan Frederik Storm wants democratic elections of leaders, including department leaders and section leaders. He will discuss this issue on Thursday September 10th, in an open debate meeting organized by the Academic Forum and Forskerforbundet (the Norwegian Association of Research) at the University of Oslo. Today the dean and faculty board are elected – but it's not enough, according to Storm.

– Our closest leaders are appointed from the top, not by us. If you get a managerial position from the top you also get more loyalty to the management, says Storm, and adds that even the elected employee representatives arrangement at the faculty works especially well.

– Won’t democratic elections of all managerial positions be very inefficient?

– On the contrary, it will be much more efficient. We are experiencing repeatedly that valuable time and human resources are wasted due to the one-sided management from the top.

Storm believes the management makes this situation worse by making meetings with the employees boring and haphazardly, mostly with one -way communication.

Frustrated: -We are experiencing repeatedly that valuable time and human resources are wasted due to the one-sided leadership from the top, says professor Johan Frederik Storm.

Frustrating waste

The professor uses the animal department at Medical Sciences, a stable for laboratory animals used in research, acting as examples of what can go wrong when the management is not open for feedback.

– When we were to get a new animal unit, there were many who suspected that there might be some problem if not the users didn’t get a say in the matter. We invited to several meetings, but they were largely sabotaged by executives who went their own way. This led to many problems and costs several millions, says Storm, and adds that many of the users have complained about the expensive department.

There are challenges such as these Storm believes can be solved with a change in management, something that also other sources confirm.

– We see a frustrating degree of waste and bad management. Much is caused by a poor attitude and a lack of respect for the regular employees.

– What can be done?

– First we must get a change in the attitude towards the management. They must understand that feedback is often the best advice you can get. How will it happen? Me need sensible leaders who are more democratic – that is where it fails.

Don’t recognize the problem

Pro-Rector at UiO, Ragnhild Helene Hennum, says that she doesn’t know of the frustration at the medical faculty.

– We are aware that Johan Frederik Storm has spoken out about this before, but we don’t have any other knowledge about this from anyone but him.

– Shouldn’t you know about these problems, when several can confirm what Storm says?

– I want to encourage people to speak up if there is something they wish to speak up about. It is difficult for us to know about this people don’t tell us about it, says Hennum,

She acknowledges that the management should have known about it such a problem existed.

The Pro-Rector knows that there has been discontent around the animal department at Medical Sciences, but these problems should be solved today. There was also a user representative taking part in the design, says the Pro-Rector.

Besides, department managers can be elected democratically with the current arrangement, according to Hennum.

– Both the rector and I have gone to election on both rectors and deans being democratically elected, and that the departments themselves should decide on how they manage things. This is being done.