This paper explores the challenges faced by educational researchers investigating the places where they work. It reviews the literature on insider research and draws upon the author"s own experience of researching faculty appraisal at two Higher Education institutions where she taught. It argues that the insider/outsider dichotomy is actually a continuum with multiple dimensions, and that all researchers constantly move back and forth along a number of axes, depending upon time, location, participants and topic. The assumption that one kind of research is better than the other is challenged, and the advantages and disadvantages of insider research are discussed in terms of access, intrusiveness, familiarity and rapport. Finally, three dilemmas relating to informant bias, reciprocity in interviews, and research ethics are examined from an insider researcher"s perspective, and the ways in which the author responded to these dilemmas at different points in her own four-year two-site study are critiqued.

Design / methodology / approach -The paper draws upon previous literature and a small case study of one university department in a mid-ranking UK university. Findings -Junior academic-managers experience similar kinds of tensions to Heads of Department. Although distributed leadership is considered a necessity in HigherEducation, in practice, devolved leadership is more common than genuinely distributed leadership. Junior academic-managers would benefit from the same types of support as Heads of Department, but increased administrative assistance would be particularly helpful. Some, though not all, of the tensions felt by both groups could be alleviated if HEIs adopted a modified form of workforce remodelling, similar to that being implemented in English and Welsh schools.Research limitation / implications -the empirical data comes from within one department of one university. It is debatable how far the findings of this study are generalizable to other contexts.Originality / value -There are relatively few studies looking at academic Heads of Department, and virtually none looking at junior academic-managers. The argument that school workforce remodelling might be adapted for the HE sector is not made elsewhere.

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