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A labour of love?: academics in business schools

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A labour of love? academics in business schools. / Clarke, Caroline; Knights, David; Jarvis, Carol.
In: Scandinavian Journal of Management, Vol. 28, No. 1, 03.2012, p. 5-15.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Clarke, C, Knights, D & Jarvis, C 2012, 'A labour of love? academics in business schools', Scandinavian Journal of Management, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 5-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2011.12.003

APA

Clarke, C., Knights, D., & Jarvis, C. (2012). A labour of love? academics in business schools. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 28(1), 5-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2011.12.003

Vancouver

Clarke C, Knights D, Jarvis C. A labour of love? academics in business schools. Scandinavian Journal of Management. 2012 Mar;28(1):5-15. doi: 10.1016/j.scaman.2011.12.003

Author

Clarke, Caroline ; Knights, David ; Jarvis, Carol. / A labour of love? academics in business schools. In: Scandinavian Journal of Management. 2012 ; Vol. 28, No. 1. pp. 5-15.

Bibtex

@article{edaaed50d9974dcba6b2087a6dc16cbf,
title = "A labour of love?: academics in business schools",
abstract = "This paper contributes to a growing literature on new public management in relation to academia in general but more specifically UK business schools. Following interviews with a range of staff in universities, we explore the impact that auditing and monitoring interventions have made on academics and their identities. In some senses, academic identities would appear to have changed as a result of managerialist practices of audit, league tables, research assessments, and other measures of accountability for performance. In exploring our data we were struck by the extent to which our respondents drew upon various narratives of love in accounting for their experiences and so we sought to frame our analysis around conceptions of romantic, unconditional and pragmatic love. We also found that with few exceptions, our respondents were complicit rather than resistant to new public management demands for audit, accountability and performance and we sought to understand this in terms of the management of academic identities. Despite their compliance, however, considerable disquiet and dissatisfaction was expressed such that the romantic notion of a {\textquoteleft}labour of love{\textquoteright} where work is an end in itself is being stretched to its limits as academics are increasingly subjected to loveless or instrumental demands.",
keywords = "Business schools, Academic identities , New public management , labour of love , Loveless demands, audit and performative culture",
author = "Caroline Clarke and David Knights and Carol Jarvis",
year = "2012",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1016/j.scaman.2011.12.003",
language = "English",
volume = "28",
pages = "5--15",
journal = "Scandinavian Journal of Management",
issn = "0956-5221",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
number = "1",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - A labour of love?

T2 - academics in business schools

AU - Clarke, Caroline

AU - Knights, David

AU - Jarvis, Carol

PY - 2012/3

Y1 - 2012/3

N2 - This paper contributes to a growing literature on new public management in relation to academia in general but more specifically UK business schools. Following interviews with a range of staff in universities, we explore the impact that auditing and monitoring interventions have made on academics and their identities. In some senses, academic identities would appear to have changed as a result of managerialist practices of audit, league tables, research assessments, and other measures of accountability for performance. In exploring our data we were struck by the extent to which our respondents drew upon various narratives of love in accounting for their experiences and so we sought to frame our analysis around conceptions of romantic, unconditional and pragmatic love. We also found that with few exceptions, our respondents were complicit rather than resistant to new public management demands for audit, accountability and performance and we sought to understand this in terms of the management of academic identities. Despite their compliance, however, considerable disquiet and dissatisfaction was expressed such that the romantic notion of a ‘labour of love’ where work is an end in itself is being stretched to its limits as academics are increasingly subjected to loveless or instrumental demands.

AB - This paper contributes to a growing literature on new public management in relation to academia in general but more specifically UK business schools. Following interviews with a range of staff in universities, we explore the impact that auditing and monitoring interventions have made on academics and their identities. In some senses, academic identities would appear to have changed as a result of managerialist practices of audit, league tables, research assessments, and other measures of accountability for performance. In exploring our data we were struck by the extent to which our respondents drew upon various narratives of love in accounting for their experiences and so we sought to frame our analysis around conceptions of romantic, unconditional and pragmatic love. We also found that with few exceptions, our respondents were complicit rather than resistant to new public management demands for audit, accountability and performance and we sought to understand this in terms of the management of academic identities. Despite their compliance, however, considerable disquiet and dissatisfaction was expressed such that the romantic notion of a ‘labour of love’ where work is an end in itself is being stretched to its limits as academics are increasingly subjected to loveless or instrumental demands.

KW - Business schools

KW - Academic identities

KW - New public management

KW - labour of love

KW - Loveless demands, audit and performative culture

U2 - 10.1016/j.scaman.2011.12.003

DO - 10.1016/j.scaman.2011.12.003

M3 - Journal article

VL - 28

SP - 5

EP - 15

JO - Scandinavian Journal of Management

JF - Scandinavian Journal of Management

SN - 0956-5221

IS - 1

ER -