Alienation, Servility and Amorality: Relating Gogol’s Portrayal of Bureaupathology to an Accountability Era

Abstract

This article explores the insights literature can bring to administrative and bureaucratic critique, focusing on the work of Nikolai Gogol. Gogol’s satire of bureaucracy presages many subsequent social science analyses. These encompass the fundamental ruptures in society caused by a surfeit of bureaucracy in ‘The Nose’ and, on a more psychological level, the effects of bureaucratization on the individual in ‘The Overcoat’. His stories portray the alienation, futile activity and servility caused in lower level functionaries through problems of loss of identity, the absence of meaningful work and a lack of separation between public and private life. This article uses Gogol’s work to intensify and sharpen an exploration of the pathological responses of educational administrators and policy makers to an accountability era of burgeoning bureaucracy that has a profound negative impact on performance.

Leadership of international schools

“…The literature provides much support for Simkins' work (Crawford, 2012;Cuschieri, 2007;Rayner, 2009;Sarros and Sarros, 2007) and applies it regularly to what Samier and Lumby (2013) refer to as the ''bureaupathology in an accountability era''. Bunnell (2006) directly applied Simkins' work to the area of international schools and how emerging international school organizations are forming to help 'make sense' of this expanding, and yet loosely defined, area of education.…”

“…There are two distinct parts to this agenda item. My personal experiences led me to conclude that educational leadership roles in Turkish culture are undergoing similar changes to those in 'Western' cultures: expansion of a neo-liberal agenda pushing for increased accountability in an era of information technology and globalization (Clark, 2001;Hursh, 2007;Samier and Lumby, 2013). The differences have much more to do with how many people feel those roles should change.…”

Re-figuring the world of educational leadership

“…What does such an attitude say about educational practice? It appears to indicate the extent of the shift to compromise in the underlying nature of this particular figured world which is the reality of the effects of the market (Samier and Lumby, 2010). Educational leaders expressed a sense that they have no option other than to mediate what is happening around them.…”

“…As Samier and Lumby (2010) argued, a lack of what individuals perceive as purposeful activities can lead to disengagement with educational values and thus may lead them to become disenfranchised with a figured world that they see as no longer representing the values which attracted them to it in the first place. Schools expressed similar challenges but in terms of governmental demands upon them.…”

“…It was clear that irrespective of a sense that educational leaders needed to take a stand, they were conscious that they were facing a particularly difficult period where they are being asked to compromise and mediate change in ways that make it difficult to resist or to foreground best educational practices as the driver of their decision-making as Samier and Lumby (2010) warned. One HE leader discussed the need for courage.…”