(Special Issue) The Mechanism of Managing Budgeted Staff in National Universities and Colleges:Problem Construction and Analysis Author: Don-Yun Chen (Department of Public Administration, National Chengchi University), Yi-Hua Lai(Department of Political Science,Soochow University), Yu-Ying Kuo (Department of Public Administration and Policy, National Taipei University), Hsin Yeh(Department of Public Administration, National Chengchi University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 67, No. 2
Date：June 2022
Pages：125-153
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6209/JORIES.202206_67(2).0005

Abstract：
Research Motivation and Objective
The staff of national universities and colleges include authorized and contract staff. According to the law, national universities and colleges may maintain positions for authorized staff but hire additional contract-based employees whose salaries can be paid using national university funds. However, instead of improving the efficiency of their management of budgeted staff, universities and colleges generally request authorization for an increase in their allotted number of staff members from the Ministry of Education when they have a higher demand. This practice conflicts with the limitations of the national low-birth rate trend and the government’s policy of downsizing. This study focused on problem construction by incorporating technical, organizational, and individual perspectives to understand the process of managing budgeted staff in national universities and colleges.
Literature Review
Problem construction is crucial and involves understanding conscious choice through quantitative and qualitative analyses (Checkland, 2006). This study elucidated problems underlying budgeted staff management in national universities and colleges, which are closely associated with the rights and responsibilities of many decision-makers and stakeholders with conflicts of value or interest. In consideration of these ill-structured problems (Dunn, 2012), stakeholders’ views and insights were integrated into the problem construction process, which was developed using an approach of multiple perspective analysis, referring to technical, organizational, and individual perspectives. The focus of the technical perspective was micro-economics, cost-benefit analysis, input-output analysis, and decision analysis, through which causal relationships and statistical inferences can be determined. The organizational perspective involved the procedures, principles, and routines of engaged organizations. The individual perspective involved individuals’ perceptions, needs, and values (Dunn, 2012), which were used to determine individuals’ views on specific problems.
Research Methods
1. Document analysis: Documents, laws, rules, and meeting transcripts were collected from the Ministry of Education, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration, and national universities and colleges to understand and construct problems.
2. Secondary data analysis: To obtain the actual and budgeted numbers of budgeted staff, data from 2020 were collected from the websites of the Ministry of Education and national universities and colleges. Statistical analysis of the secondary data provided basic findings for interviews and focus groups.
3. Interviews: Purposive sampling was used to recruit interview participants. Interviews were conducted with 7 personnel chairs and one accounting chair to understand the personnel operations and related budgets of national universities and colleges. Moreover, interviews were conducted with 4 individuals from the Ministry of Education and the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration to determine decision-makers’ thoughts and opinions.
4. Focus groups: Four focus groups were held that included 27 staff members from national universities and colleges to determine the influence of student scale, budget scale, year of establishment of a school, whether the school was a comprehensive or technical university, and the faculty composition on the process of managing budgeted staff.
Findings
Findings regarding the construction of the problem underlying the process of managing budgeted staff in national universities and colleges, which was determined from technical, organizational, and individual perspectives, are summarized as follows:
1. Technical perspective: National universities and colleges generally request more budgeted staff from the Ministry of Education when the universities and colleges expand new departments, programs or consider future development in emerging technology. In addition, universities experienced difficulty in reducing their allotted number of budgeted staff after they were allocated to departments or colleges.
2. Organizational perspective: Allocating budgeted staff and a corresponding budget created tension between the Ministry of Education and national universities and colleges with respect to their autonomy. Moreover, tension was present within different agencies of the Ministry of Education, such as those related to personnel, accounting, and higher education.
3. Individual perspective: The insufficiency or inequity of resources among national universities and colleges may contribute to different aspects of managing budgeted staff, which renders unified methods of management from the Ministry of Education impossible.
Discussion and Suggestions
According to the findings, clarifying responsibilities for managing budged staff of the Ministry of Education and national universities and colleges should be a priority. The Ministry of Education should empower national universities and colleges to manage their own faculty numbers but retain control over the total staff numbers. Moreover, because national universities and colleges wish to gain autonomy and free themselves of pressure from the Ministry of Education, they must become self-sufficient rather than request additional budgeted staff or budgets as new needs arise. That is, under the circumstance of constrained resources, national universities and colleges should strengthen their capacities to self-support with respect to financial and human resources. In addition, national universities and colleges generally recruit contract-based staff to mitigate their immediate or temporary staff shortages; they must assume responsibility for the budget preparation and allocation of an appropriate combination of budgeted and contact staff. In summary, the prosperity of higher education is dependent on good governance and solid collaboration between the Ministry of Education and national universities and colleges.

Keywords：personnel management, staff number regulation, higher education, problem construction, authorized complement

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