The role of universities for workplace innovation: a Turkish case

Abstract

Universities have three essential functions. One is educational and other is about generating knowledge and technology. The last one is related to the bridge between the theory and practice that is being practically engaged to the society that is generally called “Service”. In many of them, to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for the society is a much more important mission then the latter. They do this through their commitment to the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education. While focusing on the educational issues of students, university administrators should also take into consideration the training needs of their own administrative personnel, since they are among the fundamental internal customers of the university. Creating an innovative workplace for all is essential at a contemporary university, since it is accepted as one of the role model workplaces within society. This paper emphasises the crucial need and the steps of in-service training programmes for administrative personnel, which contributes to the educational and managerial quality of higher education institutes. As a sample case, an in-service training programme is shared for the training needs of the administrative personnel of a Turkish State University, located in Istanbul, after conducting a detailed needs analysis.  Following the response of the sample university to the research findings, the paper concludes with reflections on alternative institutional structures, based on Quality Circles / İmece Circles.