Managing academics in Canada and the United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper analyses aspects of the management of academics and managerialism in the United Kingdom and Canada in the 1990s. It is primarily based on interviews with senior academic managers in ten Canadian universities in 1996 and makes comparisons with United Kingdom and Canada in the early 1990s. Managerialism is located in the context of the United Kingdom and Canadian governmental pressures. The relationship between management and market discourse is explored, as is the variation of soft and hard managerialism, accountability and entrepreneurship. There is discussion of the effect of differences in institutional culture on management and of the impact of managerialism on the work of academics. © 1998, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.