The Secret Ingredient – Blog post by Mariah Loukou

The conundrum

‘What does the policy say?’, ‘Is there a process for that?’, ‘This is a tight deadline, how can I accelerate the process?’, ‘We do not need a policy, we know what we are doing’ are things that I often hear as a university policymaker. The research/academic policy world is often perceived as bureaucratic, hard to navigate and sometimes pointless. As Stephen Page says in his 2016 book ‘Writing Effective and Successful Policies and Procedures’ policies are often taken for granted; they are simply there when we need them. The reality, however, is that quality policies take time not because they need a million approvals, but because there should be created after a well-structured consultation process. As Page emphasises a good policymaker is not glued to their desk; their willing to interview the users who are supposed to follow the policy; understand the institutional needs, translate them and implement them through a quality policy.

Debunking the institutional ‘stick’

Policies are seen as the institutional ‘stick’, but they are much more than that. Policies should serve both as motivation and retribution. Its motivational aspect will make the academic/research community willing to follow it as it will advance their personal and professional careers. Its retribution aspect will mitigate institutional risk and lessen the possibilities of things going wrong. And this is where a robust and well-established process comes into play! Although processes and policies often are interlinked and sometimes perceived as the same thing, I see them as two distinct elements that support and enhance each other. In other words, policies are the building blocks and processes are the pillars that enable their implementation. A robust process does not only streamline steps and guide users, but it also enhances the relationship between the academic/research community and research support staff. The academic/researcher feels they can trust the process because they were consulted before it was created, and the research support staff feels they can rely on the process to answer questions of how things are done. In other words, when a process becomes synonymous with clarity and transparency it turns into a trusted tool for both parties.

So, how?

So, how can the universities emphasise the importance of quality policy writing? Firstly, by encouraging the idea that more policymakers dedicated to this field are a must so they can create, implement and audit the success of policies and processes regularly. Secondly, promote specialised training as research policymakers come from diverse backgrounds and their understanding of what a good policy looks like might differ. And lastly, and, most importantly, the willingness of Research Directors to trust the process, and allow policymakers to spend appropriate time researching, consulting and writing quality documents. As they say ‘all good things take time’.

Bio

Mariah Loukou is a Research & Enterprise Policy Officer at City, University of London. In recent years, she has worked on the Intellectual Property policy and guide; Conflict of Interest policy and streamlining the Spin-out companies Approval process and User form. Prior to her policy role, Mariah worked in the Governance office looking after Senate business and Student & Academic Services. She is also a PhD Candidate in Critical Military Studies and serves as the Election & Funding Officer at the British International Studies Association.

This article from Mariah Loukou was in response to ARMA’s Reaching Out initiative which aims to foreground voices from underrepresented and underserved members of our ARMA community. If you would like to write a short blogpost, video or podcast, do please get in touch.  We’d love to hear your ideas!