Being Managed: Universities, Business Schools & Academics. Responsible Research in Business & Management

Entrepreneurship And Strategy

Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk

Professor Katy Mason - Speaker

7/12/2022

This presentation was part of a ANZAM-IFSAM-BAM panel that looked at managing research well in Business & Management Schools, particularly in relation to the Responsible Research in Business & Management (RRBM) agenda

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Short Film about what it means to manage and be manged in business schools today while adopting a Responsible Research and Innovation approach in the Business & Management field. This short films was part of a plenary panel at the ANZAM International Conference in December 2022 The panel considered international trends that are shaping our industry and how we may better facilitate flourishing in our new normal. Are we considering a paradox? With regard to their governance and employment arrangements, many people assume that universities are collegial and egalitarian with quasi-democratic decision-making and are bastions of privilege with academics enjoying a relaxed working life of reading, reflection and jovial discussion with tenure of employment where scholarly values prevail. But such assumptions are problematic and based on old stereotypes. These may reflect the ways in which universities and academics have been portrayed in novels and movies. In spite of the stereotypes, currently, in Australia and other liberal market economies, in universities there appears to be hierarchical centralised decision-making, corporate-style managerialism and precarity of employment. Many academics say that they do not enjoy a relaxed working life, but that they have strong pressures to perform. Further, rather than scholarly values prevailing, there has been a financialization and marketization of universities. Are we considering another paradox? At least some enterprises and managers claim to be moving away from corporate-style “command and control” towards having more employee involvement, yet many universities in A, NZ & other countries have been moving in the opposite direction: the ways in which academics are being managed in universities and business schools seem to include more “command and control” -- old fashioned corporate managerialism with less collegial and less democratic management styles and decision-making than hitherto. The panel discussed how we may foster transparent decision making, academic freedom, decent work, workplace wellbeing, fair career prospects and conflict resolution, while avoiding employment precarity, micro-management, discrimination, wage theft, work intensification, bullying, harassment, cronyism, surveillance, and health (including mental health) challenges for academics. Questions raised included: What are the key institutional changes in 'neo-liberal’ universities? What are the implications of the use of new technologies? What is the future of work for academics’ roles and voices in universities? What are the causes and consequences of such transformations? There’s an unprecedented degree of industrial unrest in universities in Australia and internationally, including the UK. How should we frame our analyses in terms of theory? The importance of being a Responsible Management School and using Responsible Research & Innovation approaches was a strong theme of the session.

External organisation (Research grants)

Name	Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management
Country/Territory	Australia

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Keywords

Lancaster University Keywords

Keywords

Being Managed: Universities, Business Schools & Academics. Responsible Research in Business & Management

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