Staff attitudes towards NTNU-merger in Norway: the difference of feeling affected or not

Studies of mergers have primarily analysed the level of policy, strategic decision-making at the organizational level and to some extent structural re-organisation. Analyses of how merger processes impact the academic staff and the provision of education and research have been less prominent in existing research on mergers in higher education. By using quantitative and qualitative data collected during the first two years of implementation of the new institutional structures, we attempt to shed light on how the academic staff perceptions of the merger vary according to whether they are structurally or academically affected. Academic staff working at a unit which have had educational and/or research collaboration with another unit at one of the former institutions, express being more satisfied with the merger than employees who were less affected by the merger. The less affected, on the other hand, express dissatisfaction with the new administrative reorganisation.