Session 13: Enhancing team effectiveness in university professional services: a case study of a ‘third space’ collaborative approach with Business School academics’

Abstract

Session overview:

Within UK universities there are 51,000 ‘professional’, ‘support’ and ‘administrative’ staff (Kings College London, 2021) and they play a pivotal role in higher education institutions day-to-day running and long-term success (Vere, Verney, and Webster-Deakin, 2024). Despite this, there remains a paucity of literature examining relationships and knowledge sharing between professional services and academics (Veles, Graham and Ovaska, 2023). This research seeks to advance scholarship on the impact and lessons learned from collaboration between professional services staff and LBS academics.

We share outcomes of collaboration between academics from Executive Education and the LBS professional services team, whereby academics and senior professional service management created their own ‘third space’ (Whitchurch, 2008; Whitchurch, 2015) within LJMU, to focus on knowledge sharing expertise (de Wit-de Vries et al., 2019) to enhance team effectiveness and talent maximisation within the LBS professional services team. In doing so acting as ‘complex collaboration champions’ (Veles, 2022; Veles et al., 2019).

Based on the principles of organisational learning theory (Senge, 1990), emphasis was placed on employee voice and feedback to leverage collective insights in order to prioritise areas of development, coupled with a strengths-based approach of appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider and Srivastva, 2017) to determine existing effective practices. Further underpinning utilising Boundary Spanning theory (Aldrich and Herker, 1977; Williams 2002; Martin and Ibbotson, 2021) was employed to focus on the enablers of knowledge transfer between academics and professional services. A co-constructive qualitative approach was adopted via ongoing learning conversations to achieve a shared goal and clarity of purpose.

Key learning points from this session:

Outcomes of the knowledge transfer and exchange were guided by Social Capital theory (Bourdieu 1986), to highlight the value of collaboration and skills enhancement to support cross-functional interactions for team effectiveness. We aim to extend current understanding of the importance of ‘third space’ collaboration, to better support students, academic colleagues, and the mission of LJMU.

Enhancing team effectiveness in university professional services: a case study of a ‘third space’ collaborative approach with Business School academics’ PowerPoint. Only LJMU staff and students have access to this resource.