I have accepted the National University of Singapore appointment as an Adjunct Professor, and I will be spending 1 week in Singapore 3 times a year and another 15 days remotely - the task is to help the Institute of Systems Science in NUS build better links with industry, building better connectivity between research and practice, and advisory role on service systems and service innovation research.
The appointment is prestigious, and at par with American professorial salaries (prorated to just one month of course) and they fly me in and out with accommodation provided. All in all, a temptation to invest some time in Singapore.
I think the question on my mind when I was approached was
(a) do I really want to do this
Having worked in industry For 10-15 yrs, I'm not keen on 'admin'. I know many of my colleagues are enamoured by the power of managing people, budgets, departments, schools and all the benefits that the power bestows. I look at my colleagues who have taken this route, becoming Deans, Vice Chancellors and I can say categorically that's NOT where I want to go. I'm sure there are many good ones out there but often, i only see power and ego at play in the name of governance and leadership.
My aspiration has always been to be a good academic, a scientist, a researcher and I love the field work, the analysis, the insights, the discoveries, making a difference to people, firms and societies. Being at the cutting edge gives me a buzz - I love talking about my work, changing how people do things, making a difference.
So why should I take on work that looks like 'admin' or 'service'?
In the end, I have to admit that I have become a good researcher despite the system, rather than because of it. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way technology schools and business schools are increasingly isolated from each other, that business schools believe disciplines (strategy, HR, Mkt, finance&acct, OM) can be acontextual; that reductionistic principles of each discipline would still hold when they interact with other functions or disciplines in real surroundings.
I also find my academic colleagues unable to interact with industry well; the only form of knowledge transfer is through exec ed/MBA/teaching or consulting. There is another way and I have lived this other way for 3 years now. It is knowledge production (mode 2) in a collaborative manner.
So this appointment is to share what I do with ISS and coming up with better ways of engaging with industry, better ways of collaborating with industry and making explicit the structures, funding mechanisms, frameworks I use to do this. By documenting what I do, i am able to make the method more replicable and ISS would also benefit. I guess see this more as strategic leadership more than 'admin'. And I still continue my research, in this case, into my own practice.
I have also come to accept that, at heart, I am an entrepreneur and not a manager. I am much more strategic and I can spot opportunities, put people and events together and make the whole bigger than the sum of it's parts. Clearly, there are not many opportunities to do this at a university. Most 'leadership' in departments and schools/universities are often just managing them. There is little scope of real change.
(b) am I ready to go back Asia to work - even if it's 3 weeks in a year?
This I'm doing because my husband and I would like a life where we can be in Asia some of the time and in UK some of the time. Picking up something worthwhile in Asia would make me gainfully employed there instead of taking my time in Asia as time off.
(c) is the cultural gap (work-wise) too wide; is Singapore ready for some of my rather avant garde ideas?(d) would they be offended by my rather direct approach to things? There were doubts.....
Although I studied in Malaysia and Singapore all through my student life including my doctorate, I was always a bit of a rebel, not really comfortable with what people wanted me to be. It was only when I came to the UK that I felt comfortable, confident and safe to be in my own skin. That my ideas and thoughts were not wrong or right; they were just mine. For the first time in over 40 years, it was safe to be just me, and expand where I thought 'just me' could go. 'Just me' became more experimental with my research and I am fortunate that the UK govt appreciated my work and funded me, as do the companies I work with.
I still think of all 3 countries as home - Malaysia, Singapore and UK since I lived substantial parts of my life in all 3 of them. Yet, I know that working in Asia is very different. As a start, I have not seen any academic-industry collaboration like the way we do it. Many organisations in Asia are small, and would not be funding research the way the firms do it here. Moreover, the culture is different. Academics are of very little use to companies, except to educate and teach their employees. But teaching isn't research and I do not appreciate my role as a researcher sidelined into just teaching. There hasn't been much of a history of academics, inventors or scientists making a difference to firms, people and societies in Asia; Malaysia and Singapore has not had scholars impacting on how they live the way Thomas Edison, Brunel, Adam Smith or Isaac Newton did for western societies nor do the societies in Asia ever felt the impact of their philosophers the way Mills, Hobbes, Weber, Marx shaped western societies. Without a history of respect and appreciation of academics, not many people understand how academics could make a difference nor are they familiar enough to know how they can reap the benefit of the scholars in their midst.
As some of you may know, I did both my Physics undergrad and PhD at NUS and my relationship with the institution has been bittersweet. While I am supportive of my alma mater, I won't lie to say that my experience there was good, particularly around the end of my doctoral years. Returning to NUS as adjunct Professor does give me some satisfaction but more importantly, I am determined to raise ISS into a transdisciplinary school of the future, empowering academics to push boundaries, working closer with firms and society. I know my presence will raise eyebrows at the business school, and hopefully it will raise the right questions although I doubt it. From my experience there, they would probably pick at my credentials to lead rather than critique themselves.
My biggest concern is that of mindset. Over the years, I have learnt to appreciate that academic achievement is about empowerment, a love of knowledge, curiosity, creativity and the need to achieve your fullest potential. In other words, academic achievement is about the individual's freedom to achieve. It's not about top down management, command and control. And it's about treating every individual differently but fairly, and having rules flexible enough to accommodate individuals needs. If someone needs to stay home on Fridays because of looking after a child, s/he should be allowed to work from home. The mindset of treating individuals with dignity and respect, accommodating their needs and not impose rules because we need to have them is something I will probably find most challenging returning to Asia, even for 3 wks in a year. Lets see how this goes.
-- Posted from my iPhone
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