Is it taboo to change departments within a university?

Question

I have observed that all ideation and discussion about changing departments (or faculties) within public universities are extremely sensitive and complicated, due to unwritten gentlemen's agreements and unspoken territorial borders.

However, legally, when one is on the payroll of a public university, from exactly the same source of funding, one would expect some rational procedures for repositioning staff between departments. But, these things are typically very hard to discuss and agree upon in practice without tantrums and eerie discussions. Why is that? Is this subject effectively an academic taboo?

In practice, I know such procedures technically exist and sometimes people change departments. But still, no one is willing to talk about how such a process can be started, and at whose initiative.

Answer 1

As a preamble, do you think this is particularly unique to universities? I've known people who have moved between teams/departments in non-academic jobs, both due to directives from higher up and due to personal requests. And a non-trivial fraction of the time that's led to some level of awkwardness/recrimination.

In any employer, moving between departments may carry both practical impacts (if the budget for your salary goes with you so your local management loses out, if a replacement needs to be found and how soon) and social implications ("You guys suck, I'm off to the cool table"). It's not surprising this is something of a touchy subject, no matter where you're starting from.

In academia this is exacerbated by there being fewer obvious options for most academics between departments than there are for e.g. admin or legal staff due to the very different skills involved, so it's an even less-trodden path. But I don't think there's any additional taboo beyond the general social aspects you'd find in most employers.

Answer 2

In many, probably most, universities, who is a member of the faculty is a department matter. Departments do the hiring, not the university as a whole and departments have budgets and specific needs. HR in the US, at least, is there to assure fairness and compliance with laws and regulations in the hiring process.

I don't think it is a taboo or a matter of "territory", but in order to switch you have to follow the other department's hiring procedures, including applications, and such, to assure that you are a good fit. They also probably need to have advertised a position (at least in the US) and to have accepted other applications. And, expect competition for any open slot. The faculty of the "new" department will need to have a say in whether you are accepted, as usual.

It is more like finding a new job than anything else, with the special difficulty that it is probably not possible to keep the current department from learning of this. Moreover, a person on tenure-track seen as dissatisfied with their position, probably has less chance of promotion. It isn't just a matter of moving your office.

The one "territorial" issue I see would be trying to decrease the budget of the current department and move it to the new. There will be objections to that, I'd expect. If the budget is reduced, then that department won't be able to hire a replacement.

You can, however, collaborate with members of other departments.

To get started, you can ask the head of the other department whether they plan to fill any positions in the near future and informally inquire whether you'd be likely to fit. The formal process, however, will probably need to be adhered to.

Note the US perspective here.

Answer 3

In my observation (as a mathematician in a US research university), faculty members' primary loyalties are to their departments, not to the university as a whole.

My department is the group of people whom I see regularly, with whom I regularly collaborate on service assignments, with whom regular faculty meetings are held. We have internal disagreements from time to time, but with my department I feel a sense of common cause.

In contrast, my university as a whole is large and unwieldy, and I don't think all that highly of much of its leadership. Our budget model encourages competition between departments and colleges, and rewards the winners, which means I tend to see other departments as rivals. Overall, I don't get "warm fuzzy" feelings from thinking about the university as a whole.

So, if a colleague left our department for another department at the same university? I might be happy for them, if it was a good move, but I would definitely think of it a a loss for us. The point being, by "us" I instinctively am thinking of my home department first.

Answer 4

I think that there should be mention of the fact that, traditionally, departments (i.e., Department of Mathematics, sometimes called "Faculty of ..." outside of the U.S.) have more independence from one another than departments of a company. Faculty simply aren't organized the same way employees of a software company (for example) might be.

The department someone is trying to leave doesn't want to lose their faculty line they may have fought for (that was meant to be a 20+ year position), nor do they want to be seen as a stepping-stone to a better (?) department in the university. The receiving department doesn't want to cause friction with the sending department.

Regarding funding, even faculty in the same department may have very different funding (e.g., NSF vs. NIH) and so that part of your question doesn't always hold.