Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Educational Leadership, Evaluation and Organizational Development

Degree Program

Educational Leadership and Organizational Development, PhD

Committee Chair

Sun, Jeffrey

Committee Member

Buckley, Jessica

Committee Member

Cola, Philip

Committee Member

Herd, Ann

Author's Keywords

Interpretative phenomenological analysis; organized anarchy; research administration

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how central office research administrators perceive and describe their professional interactions with faculty researchers, and how those relationships may impact compliance with sponsored project requirements in United States higher education institutions. Cohen et al.’s (1972) organized anarchy theory and Schein’s (2010) organizational culture theory provided a foundational context for understanding research systems within higher education institutions and the social environment in which research administrators navigate potentially contentious roles, both facilitating research and stewarding compliance for the institution and the sponsor. Findings emerged around specific challenges faced by research administrators, which included role clarity issues faced by research administrators in an expanding regulatory environment, as well as inconsistent or inadequate reporting or escalation processes related to policy or compliance matters, shifts in institutional knowledge due to fluid participation of administrators and faculty, variations in departmental and leadership support, and the appearance of conflicting priorities between academic and administrative units. These findings suggest that three conditions influence relationships between research administrators and faculty researchers: the consistency with which institutions uphold policies, the level of support from academic leadership, and a collective understanding of the expertise, roles, and responsibilities of both parties. The findings also provide implications for practice related to the institutional evaluation of central research office functions, which may inadvertently distance their research administrators from productive professional relationships with faculty researchers, due to the contextual nature of academia and the expanding regulatory environment governing sponsored research.

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