Friends with Benefits? The Societal Value and the Daily Work of Academics

The concept of societal value has increasingly become prevalent in higher education institutions throughout Europe. The main rationale is that publicly funded universities should, by focusing on societal value generation give back to society, whose contribution through taxes is their principal source of income. Therefore, this study explores the extent to which the narrative of societal value is reflected in the daily work of Norwegian academics over the past twenty years. Drawing on the conceptualization of societal value dimensions proposed by Lindgreen et al. (2021) this study examined the official institutional expectations as reflected in job advertisements, as well as the actual practices of academics in relation to six different dimensions of activities related to generating societal value. The findings revealed a clear increase in official expectations and academic engagement with activities related to interaction and collaboration, as well as consulting and contract research. However, despite being increasingly emphasized in job advertisements, dissemination practices have limited influence on academic work in Norway. The other three categories of societal value—education, public policy engagement, and commercial activities, are not extensively present in official expectations in job advertisements, nor have they witnessed a significant increase in academic engagement and attention.