Stressing Academe: The Wear and Tear of the New Public Management

Abstract

In recent years academic commentators have born witness to the emergence of what has been called a New Public Management, or NPM, evident in a number of countries around the world. While the literature has sought to document its appearance and attempt to assess its impact, this article considers an aspect of the NPM which has been little explored: the human cost associated with its introduction. In examining higher education in England, one of the countries where the NPM is thought to have been embraced at least relatively enthusiastically, the article explores research on the experiences and reactions of those working in academe to recent attempts to change working practices through an analysis of the stresses and strains experienced by those subjected to the processes of managerialism. In drawing on published sources and the authors’ own empirical work it is argued that the NPM, not least in intensifying the labour of academics as intellectual workers, has provoked a range of responses which include collusion, resentment and resistance. The consequences of the NPM, it is argued, include blaming of the victim and diverting attention away from processes of control and the action of human agents who initiate stressful conditions of work by implementing the NPM in particularly harsh ways. It is further contended that attempts to encroach on professional autonomy, and operationalize the NPM in English universities in harsh ways, are being mediated by those subjected to the changes who are seeking to preserve elements of collegiality.