The gradual retreat from academic citizenship

Beatson, Nicola; Tharapos, Meredith; O’Connell, Brendan; Lange, Paul De; Carr, Sarah; Copeland, Scott

doi:10.1111/hequ.12341

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 64 publications

(108 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The over-reliance on casual and part-time teaching staff needs to be reduced. Business schools appear to face a crisis in staff morale with workloads and expectations now exceeding sustainable levels (Vesty et al , 2018; Beatson et al , 2021). This issue needs to be recognised and responded to in a meaningful manner by business school management.…”

Section: Enterprise University Going Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adding to this goal displacement, most institutions mimic each other resulting in a lack of diversity across the sector (Beatson et al , 2021). This mimicking could be predicted using a Darwinian perspective of natural selection [12] whereby most universities are driven by competitive forces to emulate the features of the most successful universities as much as they can to survive.…”

Section: Enterprise University Going Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Revitalising the enterprise university post-COVID 19: a focus on business schools

O’Connell

Tharapos

Lange

et al. 2022

MEDAR

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide a polemic on the evolution of universities and business schools over the past two decades. During this period, universities have increasingly adopted a self-interested stance using business-like practices and behaviours to justify their transformation. The authors provide recommendations aimed at enhancing universities’ contributions and relevance to society, increasing their sustainability broadly defined and better positioning them to help solve wicked problems in a post-COVID-19 world. Design/methodology/approach This polemic analyses prior literature relating to the evolution of universities and uses this to generate a framework for ways forward for their improvement. Findings The authors argue that the evolution of universities into entities with missions and operations designed to mimic business and commercial imperatives has yielded undesirable outcomes including the muddling of the core mission of universities, alienation of key stakeholders and an excessive focus on income growth. Business schools face a tension between forging their own, unique identities and simultaneously striving to meet university university objectives. We term this “the Business School identity paradox”. The authors contend that the way forward requires senior management to re-discover the essence of what it means to be a university, re-establish collegial decision-making within universities that includes built-in feedback loops and a fundamental emphasis on developing graduates with an enlightened perspective that goes beyond technical skills. Originality/value This paper is novel in that it analyses the evolution of the “Enterprise University” some 20 years after this term was first coined and in a radically changed environment following the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis is also forward-looking as the authors re-imagine universities and business schools by identifying opportunities for renewal and improvement in their focus and societal impact. The authors also develop a schema that identifies major influences on universities and business schools, the impact of COVID-19 and strategies for them post-COVID-19.

show abstract

Section: Enterprise University Going Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Enterprise University Going Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revitalising the enterprise university post-COVID 19: a focus on business schools

O’Connell

Tharapos

Lange

et al. 2022

MEDAR

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Accounting policies adopted at the subsystem level include focussing on performance outcomes of discipline departments or schools, particularly by a strong reliance on the setting, for individual academics, often stretched and unrealistic KPIs to drive their performance across teaching, research and engagement or community outreach. One of the prices being made for this apparent mania in the current circumstances is a concerning decline in academic citizenship (Beatson et al , 2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Taming the black elephant”: assessing and managing the impacts of COVID-19 on public universities in Australia

Carnegie

Martin-Sardesai

Marini

et al. 2021

MEDAR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The Australian higher education sector faces severe risks from the consequences of COVID-19. This paper aims to explore these risks, their immediate impacts and the likely future impacts. The authors specifically focus on the institutional financial and social risks arising from the global pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The authors collect data using the 2019 annual reports of the 37 Australian public universities and relevant media contributions. The findings of identified sector change are interpreted through Laughlin’s organisational change diagnosis. Findings The sector confronts significant financial and social risks because of its over-reliance on income from fee-paying onshore overseas students resulting in universities primarily undertaking morphostatic changes. These risks include job losses, changing employment conditions, mental health issues for students, scholars, other staff, including casual staff, online learning shortfalls and the student expectations of their university experience. The study reveals how many of these risks are the inevitable consequence of the “accountingisation” of Australian public universities. Practical implications Despite material exposure, the universities provide only limited disclosure of the extent of the risks associated with increasing dependence on overseas student fees to 31 December 2019. The analysis highlights fake accountability and distorted transparency to users of audited financial statements – a major limitation of university annual reports. Originality/value Research on the Australian higher education sector has mainly focussed on the impact of policies and changes. The public disclosure of critical risks taken by these universities are now addressed.

show abstract

“…She further argues that RPT processes may be presented as meritocratic but “[i]n actual practice, however, those metrics are never neutral, and what we are measured against is far more often than not one another—sometimes literally” [ 55 ] (p. 26). Indeed, increases in academic workload and time demands in the areas of teaching and research, and the focus on performance metrics that recognize these activities, results in increased competition among colleagues and diminished attention to academic citizenship behaviors [ 56 ]. Such an environment can fuel resentments and disrespectful conduct among colleagues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of collegiality in academic review, promotion, and tenure

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Review, promotion, and tenure (RPT) processes at universities typically assess candidates along three dimensions: research, teaching, and service. In recent years, some have argued for the inclusion of a controversial fourth criterion: collegiality. While collegiality plays a role in the morale and effectiveness of academic departments, it is amorphic and difficult to assess, and could be misused to stifle dissent or enforce homogeneity. Despite this, some institutions have opted to include this additional element in their RPT documents and processes, but it is unknown the extent of this practice and how it varies across institution type and disciplinary units. This study is based on two sets of data: survey data collected as part of a project that explored the publishing decisions of faculty and how these related to perceived importance in RPT processes, and 864 RPT documents collected from 129 universities from the United States and Canada. We analysed these RPT documents to determine the degree to which collegiality and related terms are mentioned, if they are defined, and if and how they may be assessed during the RPT process. Results show that when collegiality and related terms appear in these documents they are most often just briefly mentioned. It is less common for collegiality and related terms to be defined or assessed in RPT documents. Although the terms are mentioned across all types of institutions, there is a statistically significant difference in how prevalent they are at each. Collegiality is more commonly mentioned in the documents of doctoral research-focused universities (60%), than of master’s universities and colleges (31%) or baccalaureate colleges (15%). Results from the accompanying survey of faculty also support this finding: individuals from R-Types were more likely to perceive collegiality to be a factor in their RPT processes. We conclude that collegiality likely plays an important role in RPT processes, whether it is explicitly acknowledged in policies and guidelines or not, and point to several strategies in how it might be best incorporated in the assessment of academic careers.

show abstract

The gradual retreat from academic citizenship

Cited by 28 publications

References 64 publications

Revitalising the enterprise university post-COVID 19: a focus on business schools

Revitalising the enterprise university post-COVID 19: a focus on business schools

“Taming the black elephant”: assessing and managing the impacts of COVID-19 on public universities in Australia

The role of collegiality in academic review, promotion, and tenure

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About