Managing Multiple Goals: Research and Teaching in Colleges

Are “core” or “modern” management practices effective in organizational settings in which employees work towards multiple goals that are not aligned? To explore this question, we create a longitudinal dataset testing and surveying approximately 18,000 students and 5,000 faculty in 260 college departments across India. In line with theory, we find that management practices are associated with increases in research output but not student learning. Management practices are positively associated with research productivity in research-oriented departments but not student learning in research- or teaching-oriented departments. Together, the results suggest that management practices may be less influential in organizations with multiple goals.