Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 23 Issue 4

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue IV Version I 18 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 C Exploring Motives and Strategies in the Production of Knowledge in the University Context by the Example of Academic Career Trajectories image of an omniscient genius and as being denied to women. As the latter are excluded from the personality construction that creates the image of the professor in the first place ( Engler, 2000, p. 139f .), they are not considered as legitimate actors in the context of knowledge production ( Engler, 2000, pp. 143-145 ). Another aspect of the gender effect can be reduced to a different gender-specific habitus, which causes another way of dealing with competition. For example, the goal of the two women in interview 9 was not to enter into direct conflict with men but to prove to themselves that they could hold their own in such a male-dominated field just as well as their male colleagues. This approach may succeed with the prosocial strategy. However, it can also be inferred from the formulation that male colleagues do not shy away from the competition in the field. All in all, the inequality- forming structures described are seen as the motivating factors from which the prosocial strategy arises. c) Strategies concerning the motive “to impart knowledge” Related strategies for the motive “to impart knowledge” include “to give advice”, “to take along to conferences”, and “to involve in research projects”. 1. “To give advice” Another strategy for dealing with tacit knowledge can be the assistance of superiors (cf. Shah et al., 2018). Applying such a strategy, exclusive knowledge may be gained, and advantages provided to the members of a network. In the academic field, for example, this includes passing on knowledge to its junior scientists, as the following interview passage expresses: “I ALREADY experienced career advancement, but less explicitly, less in terms of ‘you have to do this and that’. Uhm, that was ALSO, so I was then NATURALLY advised ‘You have to make contacts and you have to hold, uhm, lectures here and there, and that’s whom you have to turn to, and that’s where you have to present’, and of course I was also let forward, so I was also allowed to do the whole thing, right? So, uhm, there was this supervisor, also very, uhm, relaxed and had little, uhm, for himself so want, but also passed everything on to me, right? I was allowed to do everything. That was certainly a career advancement in my mind. And, of course, also the clues on where to go, where to show yourself. But there was also a lot of implicit career advancement, in that you have this mixture of friendship networks and professional networks that somehow worked, so that these boundaries weren’t evident in some cases.” (Interview 2, lines 390-399; own translation) Here, the form of knowledge transfer refers to the giving of advice, which is related to the formation of networks. The interviewee also associated with the resulting social relationship with her supervisor and colleagues. On the one hand, knowledge is passed on by giving advice, and on the other hand, a friendship network is created, which is based on a prosocial motive. Other forms of knowledge acquisition include encouraging young scientists to be independent and to take care of their projects, and not work too closely on their superiors’ topics. This is described in the following interview passage: “It doesn’t depend on the fact that he selects a person now, but, uhm, the selection takes place because this person unambiguously solicits, uhm, funds, for himself in the initial phase, over longer periods also and for the first coworkers anyway, actually throughout. And, uhm, that, Uhm, leads to the fact that you speak about it as to what topics you want to go to, how you will orient yourself. At that time, completely clearly, the default popped up, uhm, to make, uhm, to HAVE to do something completely different, because he had already at that time, uhm, experiences, uhm, had experienced that there can be difficulties, if, uhm, the new generation sticks to their research areas too narrowly. Yes, that was unambiguous at that time, and that doesn’t mean that my doctoral supervisor was, uhm, a stickler for principles and that, uhm, he kept on like that for over twenty years of promoting young researchers (laughs).” (Interview 4: lines 84-93; own translation) The motive on the part of the supervisor to promote junior staff here led to the strategy of motivating the junior scientist to acquire money to finance their position or future staff positions. The motive “to give advice” cannot be easily separated from the prosocial and pro-self motives. Prosocial motives are based on a willingness to pass on one’s knowledge and be involved in advancing young scientists’ careers along with them. Pro-self motives serve to avoid competition within one’s ranks, as described here by the compulsion to focus on one’s topic, but also the acquisition of additional staff positions. 2. “To take along to conferences” The strategy of including young scientists at conferences serves both to introduce them to the scientific community and to present tand position them in the networks. “And of course, those were very, very important connections, because we attended all the conferences, and the, let’s say, older woman professors supported the younger, sort of, junior scientists and we were there, sort of, together at the conferences and that was since, let’s say, the early 90s, when we were, so to speak, in THOSE circles.” (Interview 3: lines 199-203; own translation). Here, knowledge was transferred vertically from top to bottom and served to promote young researchers. The aim was to create a platform for exchange and at the same time to give young scientists the opportunity to get in touch with other actors in the field. The following passage illustrates this particularly well. “He said, just take a look at what you want. He also helped me in a certain way, because if you want to get