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New Managerialism, Professional Power and Organisational Governance in UK Universities: A Review and Assessment

“Governing is about managing the gap between expectations and reality.”

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Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance

Part of the book series: Higher Education Dynamics ((HEDY,volume 2))

Abstract

The impact of the ideas and practices associated with ‘new managerialism’ or ‘new public management’ on the organisation, management and delivery of public sector services in Anglo-American and European welfare states has been extensively researched, discussed and evaluated in recent years (Ferlie et al., 1996; Exworthy and Halford 1999; Politt and Bouckaert 2000). However, higher education has been, and remains, a relatively neglected institutional sector (Trowler 2001) in which the trajectories of institutional and organisational restructuring typical of new managerialism/new public management continue to be poorly understood. This chapter synoptically reports on and interprets a recently conducted research project on the extent to which the ideological, institutional and organisational reforms associated with the latter have impacted on UK universities. The project was undertaken with particular regard to the selection, roles and practices of manager-academics and their implications for the longer-term position of professional academics.

Quoted in Rawnsley, A. Servants of the People, Revised Edition, Penguin 2001.

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  1. Michael I. Reed
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, Matosinhos, Portugal

    Alberto Amaral

  2. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Glen A. Jones

  3. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Berit Karseth

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Reed, M.I. (2002). New Managerialism, Professional Power and Organisational Governance in UK Universities: A Review and Assessment. In: Amaral, A., Jones, G.A., Karseth, B. (eds) Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9946-7_9

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