Aligning for transformational cross-border partnership : a case of Sino-U.S. university partnership

Abstract

By using the concept of “alignment”, the case study explored how a Sino-U.S. university partnership brought about university transformation within a multitude of interconnections both within and between the two universities. The purpose was to investigate how contextualized alignments of both universities co-shaped and got reacted by the partnership, and how university transformation was generated and expanded during such interaction. Qualitative data were collected from document review and semi-structured interviews with 22 partnership participants from the two universities. Findings showed that the loose and diffused internal alignment featured by the U.S. university was beneficial to individual innovation, learning and change, however posed challenge in aligning strong silos to institutionalize and transfer such learning and change on university level. The Chinese university by contrast featured a tight, unidirectional and almost exclusive alignment to the central government which ensured efficient planning, implementation and resource allocation of top-down initiatives during the partnership. It however led to either restricted human agency or intentional dis-alignment with prevailing institutional norms by proactive individuals, the former of which impeded the generation of individual learning and change while the latter hampered their expansion on university level. Both universities are suggested to 1) take each other’s internal alignment pattern into serious consideration in conceptualizing and practicing the partnership; and 2) move to the middle ground between tight and loose internal alignment to make the partnership a propeller for university transformation. The study suggests a typology to examine and explain the process during which university transformation is generated and expanded within the alignment roadmap through the transference between individual and organizational learning, which depends largely on the transference between social, organizational and partnership capitals. With a contextualized and holistic perspective, the relationship between cross-border partnerships, internationalization and university transformation is investigated from a social-constructivist perspective. The study has implication for how cross-border university partnerships could be theorized and practiced as relationship-oriented rather than outcome-oriented beyond the dominant managerial framework.