Bridging the divide: Managed managerialism

Abstract

Management in universities has had to change, as the demands on universities
have demanded different skills. One consequence has been a backlash against
what is perceived to be an emerging culture of managerialism. This conceptual
article argues that a balance is needed between collegial and more corporate style
management if a university is to protect its academic work while surviving in an
external environment that could be perceived to be increasingly hostile to the
traditional collegial model. It is argued that the best of both should be harnessed in
protection of the academic project and that it is naõÈve to assume that it is possible to
revert to a purely collegial model and indeed, that the collegial model itself may be
an abstraction rather than a reality.

South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 20 (5) 2006: pp.582-591