Defending the university? 2019:9 What is managerialism in higher education? And how do academics react to it? In this thesis, the author tries to answer these questions. The first question is addressed through an analysis of managerialism in light of the Defending the university? history and norms of academic work. The second question is addressed through an interview-based qualitative study of how academics react to managerialism. Academics’ reactions to managerialism in Drawing on theoretical concepts like resistance, organizational misbehavior, gaming Norwegian higher education and functional stupidity, the author develops a set of academic reactions to managerialism. A central argument in the thesis states that academic resistance towards management differs from traditional workplace resistance, as it is performed Jo Ese to protect academic work from what academics see as the corrosive effects of managerial systems. By addressing these issues, the thesis contributes to the knowledge on academic work in the 21st century, with a special emphasis on how members of faculty react to contemporary developments in the management of universities. ISBN 978-91-7867-004-8 (print) ISBN 978-91-7867-009-3 (pdf) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ISSN 1403-8099 Working Life Science DOCTORAL THESIS | Karlstad University Studies | 2019:9 DOCTORAL THESIS | Karlstad University Studies | 2019:9 Defending the university? Academics’ reactions to managerialism in Norwegian higher education Jo Ese DOCTORAL THESIS | Karlstad University Studies | 2019:9 Defending the university? - Academics’ reactions to managerialism in Norwegian higher education Jo Ese DOCTORAL THESIS Karlstad University Studies | 2019:9 urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-71461 ISSN 1403-8099 ISBN 978-91-7867-004-8 (print) ISBN 978-91-7867-009-3 (pdf) © The author Distribution: Karlstad University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Karlstad Business School SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden +46 54 700 10 00 Print: Universitetstryckeriet, Karlstad 2018 WWW.KAU.SE Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 4 PART ONE 9 Preface to part one 10 Chapter 2: Academic Norms 12 Historical Examples 12 Contemporary academic norms 34 Chapter 3: Managerialism in academia 41 Chapter overview 41 A quantitative overview on managerialism in academia 43 What is managerialism? 50 Absolute quality, relative quality and quality cliché 54 Quality management 56 Quality management in higher education 60 Chapter 4: Academic norms and managerialism 69 Post-Academic science 69 Academic resistance 71 Defeatist opportunism 72 Comparing CUDOS and managerialism 74 Summing up and pointing forward 83 PART TWO 85 Chapter 5: Methods and methodology 86 A qualitative approach 86 The interview guide and the interviews 88 Sampling and interviewing 90 Data analysis 98 Ethical considerations 101 Further methodological discussions 106 Chapter 6: Open and covert reactions 107 1 “I probably shouldn’t be talking about this, but…” 107 “I am probably of no interest to you…” 116 A continuum between covert and open 119 Chapter 7: Academic Resistance 121 Examples of academic resistance 121 Contributions to theories on academic resistance 130 Academic resistance – summing up 144 Chapter 8: Academic gaming 145 Examples of academic gaming 145 Contributions to theories on academic gaming 152 Academic gaming - summing up 167 Chapter 9: Academic mediation 169 Examples of academic mediation 169 Contribution to theories on academic mediation 172 Academic mediation – summing up 178 Chapter 10: Academic reactions to managerialism 179 The academic reactions compared 179 Categories of academic reactions to managerialism 179 Academic reactions – summing up 182 Reflections 184 Academic reactions to managerialism 186 Chapter 11: Implications of the study 187 A changing academic working life 187 Crisis invites self-appraisal 188 Implications for academics and management 192 References 194 Attachment 1 211 2 TAKK! “Pappa, er du snart ferdig med å grave den der doktorgraven din?” Eit par veker før eg gjorde ferdig det som til slutt vart denne avhandlinga kom dette spørsmålet frå den yngste dottera mi Iselin (4 år). Kva dette spørsmålet eigentleg fortel orkar eg ikkje ein gong å starte å tenkje på, eg nøyer meg med å slå fast at dei fyrste eg vil takke er familien min, som i tillegg til Iselin er Emma, Lily, Alva og kona mi Britt. Takk for at de har fått meg til å hugse at det finnast ting i livet som er mykje viktigare enn ein doktorgrad! Takk også til foreldra mine, bror min, svigerforeldre og ikkje minst bestemor, for gode samtalar undervegs. Takk til alle vener som har orka å diskutere avhandlinga mi med meg. Takk også til kollegaene mine på HiØ og særleg kollegaene mine på seksjon for organisasjon og leiing for stor og god støtte. Ei takk går også til meddoktorandane mine og resten av kollegiet på Karlstads universitet for kritiske tilbakemeldingar. Stor takk går og til Ylva Hasselberg, som var opponent på sluttseminaret mitt, som løyste nokre harde flokar for meg slik at eg kom meg i mål. Vegleiarane mine Ann Bergman og Helge Ramsdal skal ha ei stor, stor takk for kyndig rettleiing, gode samtalar og solid vegvising inn i den akademiske verda. Halden 20. mars 2019 Jo Ese 3 Chapter 1: Introduction In the quiet weeks before Christmas 2016, the time of year when the Universities of the world usually go silent due to students leaving their campuses to see their families and friends, and the academics travel to global resort hotel hubs enjoying conference season, a note of warning disrupted the peace. One of the world’s leading scientific journals, Nature, published an editorial on Scandinavian higher education. Scandinavia, the editorial claimed, used to be a sanctuary in a harsh and corporate academic world, a haven where “a combination of social market economy with lavish government expenditure, has guaranteed social peace, affordable higher education and — key for scientists — freedom to do research” ("A creeping corporate culture ", 2016, p. 315). But, according to Nature, this image is cracking up. An alien force has breached the defences of the Scandinavian haven, and has colonized it by employing corporate concepts like accountability, metrics and excessive evaluation, eagerly implemented by overzealous business types. The concepts are used to micromanage what used to be autonomous and freethinking intellectuals, threatening the “very pursuit of science” ("A creeping corporate culture ", 2016, p. 315). Nature is concerned. The developments are in danger of ruining Scandinavian universities, and recent examples like the Macchiarini affair at Karolinska and the Thybo case at the University of Copenhagen are used to illustrate what the journal sees as a corporate takeover. Nature is by no means alone in voicing cautionary comments on the developments in higher education in recent years. On the contrary, critical comments are commonplace in a wide spectrum of publications, from local university newspapers to international higher education publications like Times Higher Education and The Chronicle of Higher Education, or the Norwegian newspaper Khrono. Some critique even transcends into major media outlets, spawning op-eds in major newspapers and debates aired by the largest broadcasting companies (for example Fermariello, Hessen & Lekve, 2017; Taylor, Docherty & Antonucci, 2016). If we shift our perspective from polemic commentaries and media debates and examine the research that has been done on the developments, we find support for the view that something is changing 4 albeit the sensationalist headlines have been modified somewhat. In a major part of the scholarly texts on the organisational trends and working life of the higher education (HE) sector there is a predominant presumption stating that throughout the last decades academia has gone through radical changes (for instance Anderson, 2008; Cheek, Garnham, & Quan, 2006; Collini, 2012; Ginsberg, 2011; Head, 2014; Kjelstadli, 2010; Tight, 2012; Whitchurch, 2008; Winter, 2009). The changes described are many-faceted, and although different authors look at different aspects of the development and emphasize different explanations of how and why the development has occurred, they agree that one part of the shift includes a strengthening of the positions of managers and managerial systems at almost every level and every area of HE institutions. They also agree that the strengthened managerial power, to a lesser or greater degree and in various ways, has led to what could be called a reduction of the academic autonomy in the sector, both on institutional levels and for the individual academic worker. A major theme in the research literature on recent developments of the HE sector is therefore autonomy. The preoccupation with autonomy is not surprising, given the traditions of HE organisations and academic work. Closely associated with the concept of academic freedom, academic autonomy is seen as a characterizing feature of academia and academic work, one of the differentiating dimensions that distinguishes the sector from other segments of society. Thus, it follows that when this peculiar form of autonomy is altered, challenged or even threatened, it generates an interest from scholars studying academic work. If we look at the developments from a policy or organisational viewpoint, yet again we find support for the notion that something is changing in contemporary universities. Scholars in the fields of the political and organisational sciences see the developments in academia as part of a larger trend where generic