Numerous universities throughout the world have established top-level advisory boards -- informal bodies and councils that the institutional leadership may consult on issues perceived as important. Through a series of qualitative interviews with members of such entities as well as representatives of the institutions appointing them, the article…

This study examines the historical role preparation experiences of professional staff and academics in a managerialised university field. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify the impact of these experiences on the individual's ability to 'play the game' of the managerialised university field. The Bourdieusian concepts of habitus, doxa…

Purpose: The concept of distributed leadership (DL) has been widely advocated within higher education (HE). Yet, there have been few empirical investigations and little theory development outside Western contexts to date. This study presents a unique conceptualisation of DL and tests it empirically in India. Design/methodology/approach: This study…

University governing bodies, especially academic boards, play a crucial role in policy formation. However, due to the predominance of managerial values over academic values in the policy-making process, a persistent divide exists between policy formulation and implementation. This divide results from the marginalisation of academics and the…

"Plantation politics" refers to the lingering impact of slavery's afterlife or how vestiges of enslavement permeate contemporary culture, including institutions of higher education (IHEs; Hartman, 2008; Squire et al., 2018; Williams et al., 2021). For Black women administrators (admins), the enduring legacy of caretaking, bodily control,…

Purpose: The primary aim of this study is to delve into the causes of occupational stress and burnout amongst administrative staff members in Pakistani universities. It does so by employing a qualitative research strategy, offering a comprehensive understanding of the issue. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative research…

Research focusing on White male allies confronting racism on Predominately White campuses remains scarce. White males in higher education dominate leadership roles and these roles still perpetuate White privilege on predominately White campuses. According to Lemaire (2001), White privilege examples can be found in four paradigms. The first is that…

Despite recent evidence linking top management power with firm performance, our understanding about the interaction effect between power and personal characteristics of the top manager is still very limited. Building on and extending the Upper Echelons and Power literature, we address the empirical question: How, i.e. UK Vice-Chancellors' (VC)…

A Netflix original six-episode series, "The Chair," examines the experiences of a woman faculty of color department chair at the fictional Pembroke College. One of the many stressors she must navigate is a response to an incompetent white male faculty (who is also her love interest) after he makes a Nazi salute during a lecture in class.…

If centralising university services is regarded as operationally ineffective, why do managerialised universities continue to organise themselves this way? We investigate an occurrence of this paradox at a regional Australian university, where professional staff services were centralised for a period of 7 years. They were separated from academics…

Division I college athletics is a billion-dollar industry where success or scandal can impact the entire university. This research endeavored to identify the characteristics of infractions cases at the Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision level resulting in lack of institutional control violations and how those have changed over time. Lack of…

The neo-institutional theory indicates the impact of the institutional environment on organizations. This leads to the creation of homogeneous institutional structures, due to the existence of dominant institutional logic. University reforms, embedded in ideas of New Public Management, mean that evolution of the institutional logic associated with…

This study uses the concept of 'organisational power' -- control over the environments in which others interact -- to investigate the structures and lived experience of power among academic associate deans at public, research-intensive universities in the US. Previous research claims that the associate dean role lacks 'legitimate power.' Through…

In academia, plagiarism is considered detrimental to the advancement of sciences, and the plagiarists can be charged with sanctions. However, the plagiarism cases involving three rectors of universities in Indonesia stand out, as they could defend their stand for not committing academic misconduct despite evidence found. By analyzing the three…

The university academic manager (AM) or head of school/department is typically positioned in a hierarchical world: as a middle manager 'sandwiched' between senior management and subordinates. I propose a different framing: the AM cohabits two worlds, the worlds of hierarchy and collegiality respectively. Using an ideal type framework and data…