This book explores the impact of globalisation and organisational
change on
academic institutions and their staff; considers (a)
restructuring of
universities as part of a broader process of reconstructing academic identities for the global knowledge economy; (b) corporatization of academic life and its particular
implications for academic women; and looks closely at how women managers now handle the management of change within their own institutions against the backdrops of the past decade’s globalisation and restructuring of academia.
Of the two chapters in Part 1, Restructuring Global Knowledge, the first, Restructuring Bodies of Knowledge is by Ann Brooks, one of the editors of the book. Like the Introduction, this chapter is mainly a critique of the literature on the theme of the book, without which the book would not have had its valuable perspective. Its conclusion summarizes the scope of the chapter:
The impact of restructuring on academic institutions and identities as the ‘ivory tower’ is confronted by the reality of the ‘global knowledge economy’ manifested in the corporatization, privatisation and commodification of academic life.
The impact of the ‘metallic new entrepreneurialism’ of the ‘corporate academy’ has been an underlying concern, articulated throughout chapter.
The significance for the changing knowledge base of universities and the
gendered implications of the growth of the ‘global knowledge economy’ is an important area for the direction of future research.
The second chapter, by Jill Blackmore and Judyth Sachs, is on Women Leaders in the Restructured University. Its main observations are:
§ Universities in many western nation states confront radical change of unprecedented scope.
§ In general, academic work is being transformed, driven by an ‘academic ratcheting process’ that encourages more but not necessarily better research productivity.
§ The related factors collectively challenge the legitimacy of the western rationalistic tradition of objectivity and rationality, upon which universities are founded.
§ Universities increasingly operate in this competitive global environment on a principle of performativity, where efficiency is the bottom line.
§ Increased public transparency of individual performance leads to forms of self-management both through desire for promotion, and shame and blame for not doing the right kind of research. This leads to a focus on work for its own sake and not how it contributes to teaching or knowledge production.
§ The entrepreneurial functions of the university are displacing and devaluing the social trusteeship function of the social sciences.
Of the two essays in Part 2, Gendered Work Cultures, Jeff Hearn’s essay, Academia, Management and Men: Marking the Connections, Exploring the Implications, is somewhat different from the rest. Hearn would have it that researching on women in universities focusing on review of the organization of exclusion, the institutionalisation of sex inequality, gendered jobs and gendered knowledge in relation to organizational theory and research can be understood through a critical focus on men as providing information on how men control women in universities.
§ The second essay, Globalisation and Gendered Work Culture in Universities, by Jan Currie and Beve Thiele, with narrative accounts, is the only chapter with quantitative data on treatment of women in universities. Its conclusions are important:
§ The narratives portrayed have implications for universities that are increasingly affected by globalisation agendas shaping their environments. How universities respond to these outside market forces will make a difference to how welcoming and supportive they are of female academics.
§ There are enough examples of different organizations resisting globalisation practices to suggest that universities can decide on local practices that will not neceessarily imitate the neo-liberal reforms that are considered best practice in some parts of the world.
§ However, having said that, we are cognizant that it is not easy to change organizations into places where women can feel comfortable and supported. We are also aware that ‘the gender we do’ may be easier to change than the ‘gender we think’.
Of the four essays in Part 3, Women Managing Change, which may turn out to be the most important part of the book as the grip of the knowledge economy on academia tightens, Carol Bacchi’s, Managing Equity: Mainstreaming and ‘Diversity’ in Australian Universities, focuses on the changes in academia through a study of how equal opportunity officers are negotiating the changing face of equity; directs attention to two related developments: mainstreaming and the introduction of the language of diversity in the place of equal opportunity and affirmative action .
The second essay, Managing innovatively, by Robyn Munford and Sylvia Rumbal, starts with the claim that a key challenge for women in senior management positions in universities is to create empowering and enabling environments within the context of the new managerialism prevalent in the corporatized university.
The third essay, Fighting the Pipeline Fallacy, by Margaret Allen and Tanya Castleman, considers the pipeline fallacy in the context of systemic gender inequities and the implications of institutional restructuring for the continuation of such inequities in universities.
The concluding essay, Managing Within the ‘Malestrom’, by Eleaor Ramsay, provides insights into what occurs at the management fulcrum within a university when restructuring occurs, and provides a practitioners perspective without attempting to place itself within the literature or draw theoretical conclusions.
The book makes fascinating reading, despite overlapping issues and ideas.
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