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Aligning academic career management in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities

Aligning academic career management in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities
Aligning academic career management in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities

Purpose: this study examines the management practices and alignment features needed to develop academic staff’s careers, mainly focusing on teaching competencies in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities.

Design/methodology/approach: a multiple-case research design was adopted to collect data from interviews with 11 academic leaders and focus-group discussions (FGDs) with 13 academic teachers at two public universities in provincial Cambodia. A thematic approach was performed to code and analyse data to address the research questions.

Findings: this study found that the management of academic careers in the selected universities was hybrid, deregulating state control to relative institutional autonomy for contracted employees but rather centralised management for civil servants. However, weak institutional leadership and negligence in formulating comprehensive institutional guidelines for strategic human resource management (HRM) have caused misalignments of management practices to develop academic careers in the studied contexts.

Research limitations/implications: this case study limits its findings to two universities in provincial Cambodia. Nevertheless, this study adds to the scarce literature on the research topic in Cambodian public universities and opens a path for cross-institutional and national comparative studies on similar foci.

Originality/value: this is a ground-breaking study set in the evolving space of Cambodian public higher education, where attention to the research area remains limited.

Academic staff, Alignment, Cambodia, Management practice, Public university
2396-7404
Hum, Chan
76ecb6a8-eb5c-4ff0-b410-ccf8bfcb974b
Choi, Tae-Hee
3cec7c93-92cd-4329-b0a7-3b208c65dcb7
Lo, Sing-Kai
c98aa4a8-39c4-4fdb-b2dc-8fec5adc6661
Sok, Say
ec0cf31d-65dd-48a8-8b82-ea938422a4c7
Yu, Wai Mui Christina
5e81169a-190d-41b6-a6ba-bacd6a0fa066
et al.
Hum, Chan
76ecb6a8-eb5c-4ff0-b410-ccf8bfcb974b
Choi, Tae-Hee
3cec7c93-92cd-4329-b0a7-3b208c65dcb7
Lo, Sing-Kai
c98aa4a8-39c4-4fdb-b2dc-8fec5adc6661
Sok, Say
ec0cf31d-65dd-48a8-8b82-ea938422a4c7
Yu, Wai Mui Christina
5e81169a-190d-41b6-a6ba-bacd6a0fa066

Hum, Chan, Choi, Tae-Hee and Lo, Sing-Kai , et al. (2024) Aligning academic career management in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities. International Journal of Comparative Education and Development. (doi:10.1108/IJCED-06-2023-0049).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose: this study examines the management practices and alignment features needed to develop academic staff’s careers, mainly focusing on teaching competencies in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities.

Design/methodology/approach: a multiple-case research design was adopted to collect data from interviews with 11 academic leaders and focus-group discussions (FGDs) with 13 academic teachers at two public universities in provincial Cambodia. A thematic approach was performed to code and analyse data to address the research questions.

Findings: this study found that the management of academic careers in the selected universities was hybrid, deregulating state control to relative institutional autonomy for contracted employees but rather centralised management for civil servants. However, weak institutional leadership and negligence in formulating comprehensive institutional guidelines for strategic human resource management (HRM) have caused misalignments of management practices to develop academic careers in the studied contexts.

Research limitations/implications: this case study limits its findings to two universities in provincial Cambodia. Nevertheless, this study adds to the scarce literature on the research topic in Cambodian public universities and opens a path for cross-institutional and national comparative studies on similar foci.

Originality/value: this is a ground-breaking study set in the evolving space of Cambodian public higher education, where attention to the research area remains limited.

Text
Hum et al. 2023_the management of academic careers in Cambodia (IJCED) - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 2 January 2024
Published date: 20 February 2024
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords: Academic staff, Alignment, Cambodia, Management practice, Public university

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 488658
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488658
ISSN: 2396-7404
PURE UUID: f9b05efc-e182-4e5e-8a51-d682bd181b87
ORCID for Tae-Hee Choi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8840-4082

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Apr 2024 16:31
Last modified: 10 Apr 2024 02:10

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Contributors

Author: Chan Hum
Author: Tae-Hee Choi ORCID iD
Author: Sing-Kai Lo
Author: Say Sok
Author: Wai Mui Christina Yu
Corporate Author: et al.

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