Research On Ecological Governance Of Grassroots Academic Organizations In Universities

Grassroots academic organizations are the historical products of the formation and evolution of modern universities,as well as the foundation and source of vitality of modern universities.The improvement of the ecosystem of grassroots academic organizations in universities is related to the effective stimulation of the“academic ecological force”of the university organizational system,the eternal persistence of the academic characteristics of universities,and the continuous prosperity of the modern university system.Since the founding of the modern university system in late Qing dynasty and early republic of China,the grassroots academic organizations,as the most prominent content and the most obvious representation of the modern university system,have also experienced a tortuous and difficult exploration.In terms of external form and internal function,China's grassroots academic organizations have played an important supporting role in promoting the reform of university governance system and the improvement of governance ability,and even the overall rise of university strength.In the context of the new era when the reform and development of modern universities in China are accelerating,the integration of disciplines is booming and the modernization of education is advancing at full speed,the problem of ecological inevitably exists when viewed from the perspective of organizational ecology and ecological thinking.On the one hand,too high expectations and so many requirements from university education stakeholders are superimposed on it,which not only to a certain extent weakens the university academic organization coordination ability among the internal elements and with the external environment,but also appears to cause the structure fragmentation and function decoupling of grassroots academic organizations in universities,and continuously impairs the subjectivity of “taking academic career as its ambition”and“running the university at the grassroots level”;on the other hand,because of the institutional and mechanism barriers that emphasize external over internal forces,partial over overall functions,and immediate over long-term effects,the academic nature of grassroots academic organizations is often obscured by the administrative bureaucratic control,thus deviating from the purpose of taking the academic standards as the core.Under the background of speeding up the construction of“double top class”,the university grassroots academic organizations in our country are in the face of domino effects of benefit struggle and complicated environment,it is of great practical significance to effectively eliminate the ecological“chronic disease”,build a dynamic,diverse,symbiotic ecology management system in order to activate the“academic ecological force”and promote the return of the academic standard as the foundation.Based on the ecosystem metaphor of grassroots academic organizations in universities,drawing lessons from the relevant theoretical frameworks of the organization ecology,in combination with the system science,management science,philosophy and other multi-disciplinary knowledge,using historical research,interview,case study,content analysis and other methods,taking stimulating the “academic ecological force” as the purpose,from the diachronic perspective of evolution of the grassroots university academic organizations and the synchronic perspective of individual,population and community ecosystem,this paper mainly discusses the relationship among the elements in the individual ecosystem of grassroots academic organizations in universities,the relationship among grassroots academic organizations and their relationship with the population ecosystem,and the relationship among the populations of grassroots academic organizations and their relationship with the environment of the community ecosystem.Then the problem is identified and the attribution analysis is conducted,so as to construct an ecological governance system.Under the background of establishing and perfecting the modern university system,the paper systematically analyzes the evolution course of the grassroots academic organization of eastern and western modern universities,and reveals the diachronic ecological logic of its evolution which is a dynamic succession of adaptation and transcendence,an alternative evolution between differentiation and synthesis,and a change of system ethics from “truth seeking” to “force pursuing”;the synchronic ecological logic is the coexistence of multiple functions,the loose union of structures and the behavior division of labor and cooperation.Thus,the premise of ecological governance of grassroots academic organization ecosystem is put forward.Under the theoretical framework of organizational ecology,the paper holds that on the basis of self-organization theory,the individual ecosystem of grassroots academic organizations in universities should have the characteristics of spontaneity;on the basis of niche theory,the population ecosystem of grassroots academic organizations in universities should have the natural pattern of“symbiosis and mutual benefit;and on the basis of organizational boundary theory,the community ecosystem of grassroots academic organization in universities should be symbiotic and co-prosperous.Taking it as a reference,there are some problems in the ecosystem of grassroots academic organizations in China's universities,which are mainly manifested in the following aspects: lack of organizational mission,insufficient opening to the outside world,academic circle “splitting” academic power structure,and lack of contract culture during the formation of internal system in the individual ecosystem of organizations;intensified competition among organizations caused by excessive isomorphism of organizational forms,and the interference,exclusion and utilization competition due to niche overlap caused by the emergence of “empty nest organization”,“species flock organization”and“small coterie organization”in the population ecosystem of organizations;the shortage of“professional integration”in academic inheritance,the constraint of“unit identity” in academic innovation,and the lack of market“conversion mechanism”in academic application in the community ecosystem of academic organizations.Based on the analysis of the self-organization theory,this paper argues that the cognitive errors of organizational mission,the relatively closed organization caused by the bureaucracy of academic system,the lack of the spirit of “academic community”caused by the stratification of structure,the dependence on top-down institutional path and other problems explain why autonomous initiative of individuals in the organization has not been effectively played.Based on the analysis of niche theory,it is considered that the unclear positioning of the survival and development of organizations and the excessive expansion induced by resource dependence lead to the excessive overlap and overgeneralization of niche among the populations of grassroots academic organizations in universities.Based on the analysis of organizational boundary theory,it is concluded that the decline of environmental bearing capacity caused by the“unit system” leads to the utilitarian cooperation with the outside of the organizational community,which results in the solidification of the boundary between the organizational community and its external environment.The above reasons eventually lead to the failure and imbalance of the relationship within the ecosystem of grassroots academic organizations in universities and of its relationship with the external environment,which makes the grassroots academic organizations in China deviate from taking the academic standard as the core,breaks away from the academic logic,covers up academic power and makes it difficult for them to play an effective supporting role in the realization of the functions of modern universities.In this regard,from the overall perspective of ecosystem governance of grassroots academic organizations,with the purpose of stimulating “academic ecological power”,taking the optimal allocation of academic power as the starting point,and adhering to the purposeful,procedural and holistic ecological governance thinking,the paper proposes to promote the coupling of individual ecosystem functions in order to stimulate the internal motive force by defining the organizational mission,to innovate the concurrence mechanism of population ecosystem so as to realize benign interaction with knowledge cross-fusion,and to reconstruct the organizational boundary of community ecosystem in order to strengthen internal and external coordination to achieve symbiosis and co-prosperity.At the same time,we should strengthen the overall planning of the construction of grassroots academic organizations at the school level,establish an organizational evaluation system that transcends academic performance,perfect the flexible personnel system based on the academic community,and provide a conditional guarantee for the construction of an ecological governance system.