The Variance of German University Governance: Exploring the Effects of Organizational Field Positions

Universities are increasingly perceived as strategic organizational actors that position themselves in the competition for reputation, resources, and talent. This study asks whether such positioning within the organizational field can explain variance in university governance structures. We quantitatively explore and explain the distribution of governance structures in German universities based on the actual organizational structures. Using original, hand-coded data on office, election, and decision rules of 80 German state universities managed by the subnational states (Länder), our study contributes to the existing literature in two regards. First, we provide an innovative and comprehensive, as well as a detailed description of German university governance—capturing the full empirical variance. Second, we test the effects of organizational field positions characterized by (1) state legislation, (2) competition, and (3) disciplinary foci. The findings indicate significant effects on the distribution of governance structures by state legislation and unsystematic effects of strategic and disciplinary organizational fields.