The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what happens when the management idea of internationalisation becomes a management strategy for organisational change. Academic operations are a key driving force and concern colleges imitating universities and wanting to become universities. This is the case because a university provides more benefits and is perceived as more attractive in society. Internationalisation is thus being used as a tool to change the status of the institution from college to university. 

The starting point of applying the management idea of internationalisation as a management strategy for organisational change is that academia has inherent international features. To develop on those, the academics in this study propose that internationalisation must fit with current practice and that international activities must be enjoyable to engage in. Instead, if the management rolls out a strategy aimed at altering the international practice of the academics, a strategy infused with specific content aimed at changing the academics’ identity, then the academics perceive this as the annexation of their work. There are two reactions, loyalty and resistance, both driven by identity reinforcement, which involves emphasising that one’s identity is rational, appropriate and correct within the context in which the work is performed. As a result of identity reinforcement, identity as part of the work is given more emphasis than before. The initial reaction of loyalty from academics involves staying employed at the organisation, despite dissatisfaction. Loyalty thus fosters various forms of resistance, that is, actively antagonising the management, with a focus on its strategy of identity work. Academics may employ five forms of resistance: distancing and dissent, discursive resistance, pseudo-loyalty, humour, and professional reinforcement. These resistance forms are aimed at safeguarding the academics’ integrity and autonomy. 

Dette er en studie om endringsprosesser i høyere utdanning, sett fra akademikernes ståsted. Studiens formål er å undersøke hvordan ledelsens strategier og verktøy for endringsprosesser virker på ansatte og hvordan ansatte reagerer med motstand for å ivareta egen integritet og autonomi i arbeidet. 

Det er to sentrale begreper som beskriver ledelsens handlinger på den ene siden og akademikernes reaksjoner på den andre: annektering og identitetsforsterkning. Annektering handler om hvordan ledelsen tar eierskap til akademikernes praksis gjennom identitetsarbeid. I denne studien introduserer jeg begrepet identitetsforsterkning. Identitetsforsterkning innebærer å vektlegge at ens egen identitet er rasjonell, hensiktsmessig og riktig innenfor den konteksten som arbeidet utføres. Forsterkning betyr at identitet som en del av arbeidet blir tillagt større vekt enn før.

Studien er et bidrag til å forstå ledelsesutøvelse fra et ansattperspektiv og hvilke virkemidler ansatte tar i bruk ved misnøye.