Managing Expectations In An Academic Exercise Science Laboratory: A Stakeholder Perspective

Abstract

This study applies stakeholder theory to examine the governance of academic exercise science laboratories, using a research-intensive university in the Gulf region as a critical case. The research identifies the key expectations of stakeholders linked to the University’s laboratories and analyzes how these laboratories attempt to balance competing expectations. Adopting an interpretivist, qualitative approach, the study gathered data through a single case study design, comprising nineteen semi-structured interviews across various stakeholder roles, including faculty, postdoctoral researchers, administrators, safety specialists, and postgraduate students. Findings reveal stakeholder expectations around three core needs: i) operational access to resources and responsive institutional systems, ii) relational participation in governance and communication, and iii) developmental support for research and learning. These expectations are not balanced through any deliberate institutional strategy. Rather, the data expose a governance cascade in which low institutional urgency toward dependent stakeholders generates downstream operational and relational consequences. Despite these systemic gaps, participants sustain strong affective investment in the laboratory’s identity, expressed through belonging and pride. The study makes three levels of contribution. Empirically, it provides the first fine-grained stakeholder analysis of an academic exercise science laboratory, situated within a Gulf higher education context that existing frameworks have not examined. Theoretically, it extends stakeholder theory into a relational, academically governed setting and identifies three substantive limitations of the framework. Practically, the study advances five evidence-based recommendations addressing governance, role formalization, procurement, knowledge transfer, and the dual institutional review board barrier that excludes Master's-level students from interdisciplinary research. The study concludes that i) the laboratory's excellence appears to persist largely in spite of, rather than because of, the institutional structures surrounding it, and ii) sustaining that excellence long-term requires governance mechanisms commensurate with the urgency and legitimacy of the stakeholders most dependent on it.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Science and Engineering