AUR 63 02 by NTEU

vol. 63, no. 2, 2021 Published by NTEU

ISSN 0818–8068

AUR

Australian Universities’Review

AUR

Australian Universities’ Review

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Editorial Board

Dr Ian R. Dobson, Monash University

Dr Alison Barnes, NTEU National President

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Professor Leo Goedegebuure, University of Melbourne

Editorial Assistance: Anastasia Kotaidis Cover photograph: Sir John Clancy Auditorium, UNSW, Sydney. Photo by Peter Miller. Used with permission.

Professor Jeff Goldsworthy, Monash University Dr Mary Leahy, University of Melbourne Professor Kristen Lyons, University of Queensland

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Email: editor@aur.org.au

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AUR is available online to view and download at aur.nteu.org.au In accordance with NTEU policy to reduce our impact on the natural environment, this magazine is printed using vegetable-based inks with alcohol-free printing initiatives on FSC® certified paper by Printgraphics under ISO 14001 Environmental Certification. Post packaging is 100% degradable biowrap.

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Australian Universities’ Review (AUR, formerly Vestes) is published by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to encourage debate and discussion about issues in higher education and its contribution to Australian public life, with an emphasis on those matters of concern to NTEU members.

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as various authors (King, 2018; Markwell, 2007) argue ...

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vol. 63, no. 2, 2021 Published by NTEU

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Australian Universities’ Review 2

Letter to the editor

ARTICLES & OPINION 3

The publishing practices of Australian sociology PhD students: Do they achieve outputs in sociology journals? Edgar A. Burns & Adam Rajčan

Through their analysis of a five-year cohort of sociology PhD completions from all Australian universities, the authors identified the publishing practices of sociology PhD students. 11 Teamwork and regional universities: The benefits for women of a third space Anitra Goriss-Hunter & Kate White

This article reports on pre-COVID findings of a study of the benefits and challenges for women working at an Australian regional university across dispersed campuses. 22 Renewable teaching and learning: Untangling the role of the Australian university Anne Richards

Here the author engages with current debate on the role of the contemporary university: the ongoing corruption of traditional values, and the shifting expectations in teaching and learning. 35 Workplace ostracism in academia Sue Sherratt

How can we deal with ostracism in the academic workplace? How can we anticipate and prevent the antecedents of workplace ostracism and ameliorate its consequences? 44 Transitioning into the Australian higher education experience: The perspective of international doctoral students Tania Aspland, Poulomee Datta & Joy Talukdar

In this paper, the lived experiences of higher degree onshore international doctoral students are explored. 55 The Commonwealth of Learning: Scholarship, regulation and the common pursuit of knowledge Michael Tomlinson

This paper looks at the extent to which higher education regulators and quality agencies need to assess the level of scholarship in universities and other higher education providers.

OPINION 62 The understanding and take on the blatant instrumentalism among university students: Reflections from an early-career academic Yu Tao

Are early-career academics merely fee-earners? Or mere providers of ‘educational services’? How can the blatant instrumentalism exhibited by many university students be dealt with? 67 Navigating sexism in Australian universities: A brief guide Marcia Devlin

Beware of the insidious and preposterous gender rules operating in every workplace, including universities! 69 Pity the managers: They woke all day! Arthur O’Neill

With apologies to Herman’s Hermits (1964), Arthur O’Neill ….woke up this morning feeling fine, ‘cos there was something special on his mind… REVIEWS 74 Oh yes, I am wise, but it’s wisdom born of pain Beating the Odds: a practical guide to navigating sexism in Australian universities by Marcia Devlin Reviewed by Kate White

75 Academentia: A portentous concept Contemporary Campus Life: Transformation, Manic Managerialism and Academentia by Keyan G. Tomaselli Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young

80 She blinded me with science The Best Australian Science Writing 2020 by Sara Phillips (Ed.) Reviewed by Neil Mudford

84 The Profit Paradox: A review essay The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work by Jan Eeckhout Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Catherine Link

87 Snake Oil and Management Studies – A Review Essay Management Studies – Fraud, Deceptions & Meaningless Research by Dennis Tourish Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms

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Letter from the editor Ian R Dobson

The ‘new normal’ of university life under COVID-19 has become all too familiar. The competence-challenged federal response to the pandemic, particularly the stuff-ups involving quarantine and vaccines, have been compounded for universities by the LibNat decision not to provide them with access to Job Keeper payments last year. How short-sighted is that! I suppose we’ve had a long time to get used to the antiintellectualism of the right wing. I guess there wasn’t enough left in the coffers after providing support to highly-profitable furniture and fridge warehouses, over-priced handbag shoppes and private schools seeking to keep their fees down! In light of life as we have come to know it, many scholarly journals have assembled special issues built around the coronavirus, and Australian Universities’ Review is no exception. Our next issue will be on that very topic, to be guest edited by Nic Kimberley and James Roffee, from the University of South Australia and Federation University Australia, respectively. Can’t wait! And so, to this issue. We are pleased to present you with six scholarly refereed articles, three opinion pieces, and five reviews of recently-published books. Edgar Burns and Adam Rajčan looked into how and where sociology PhD students publish. They used Web of Science, the global citation database, to establish that most of the work of these students is published in non-sociology journals. Anitra Gorris-Hunter and Kate White are from a regional university, and in their paper, they explored the challenges and the benefits for women in regional universities. They found that women enjoyed working in teams and had a preference for positive teamwork, autonomy and flexibility. Anne Richards rues the huge decline in government funding over the past three decades, observing the unfortunate ‘brave new world’ of job losses, exploitation of casual sessional staff, salary inequity, worsening working conditions in teaching and learning, not to mention wage theft. It’s strange that employers which seem to under-pay staff never inadvertently pay staff too much! Sue Sherratt reports on chilling goings-on at (some) universities: being ostracised in academic workplaces. She examines the background and practical and psychological impacts of such behaviours. It shouldn’t be happening! Reading this paper along with Anne Richards’ offering make one wonder how things got like this.

Letter from the editor Ian R Dobson

Next, we have a study on international doctoral students, looking at their perspective on Australia and its higher education. Tania Aspland, Poulomee Data and Joy Talukdar found that ‘students were required to engage in a series of personal and professional transitions to engage with higher degree research programs in Australia’. Last of the articles this issue is Michael Tomlinson’s paper, in which he asks ‘To what extent do higher education regulators and quality agencies need to assess the level of scholarship in universities and other higher education providers?’ Read the paper, and you’ll find out! In our Opinion section, we have offerings by Marcia Devlin, early career researcher Yu Tao and the ever-observant and irrepressible Arthur O’Neill. Marcia speaks to us about the challenges of navigating sexism in Australian universities. To quote her, ‘…many people working in universities experience undermining, but it is more common for women, and even more common for women who are not playing by the gender rules set for them’. See Kate White’s review of Marcia’s recently published book, also in this issue of AUR. The second opinion piece comes from a UWA early career academic Yu Tao, who rues the ‘obvious instrumentalism among university students’. He considers the impact of this instrumentalism and its impact on academics. He explains how early career academics have the opportunity to rebut this consumerism discourse. Last cab off the ‘opinion’ rank comes from the highlyopinionated Arthur O’Neill. Arthur has found yet another nail to hit on the head. For many people, ‘woke’ is what we do on a morning just before we get up. But wait, there’s more! Dr O’Neill explains. The third section of AUR contains reviews of five recentlypublished books, written by some of AUR’s ‘review regulars’: Kate White, editorial board member Neil Mudford, and hardy perennial Thomas Klikauer (and his entourage from the TK book review workshop). Finally, our journal would not come out at all without the brilliant input of the ‘invisible’ brains and brawn behind AUR. I speak of our tireless and under-thanked production and editorial team. Thank you! Ian R Dobson is Editor of AUR, and an Adjunct member of the Professional Staff at Monash University, Australia. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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The publishing practices of Australian sociology PhD students Do they achieve outputs in sociology journals? Edgar A. Burns University of Waikato

Adam Rajčan University of Western Australia & La Trobe University

In this article, we investigated the publishing practices of Australian sociology PhD students during enrolment. It examines a five-year cohort of PhD completions 2013-17 from sociology departments and interdisciplinary schools of social sciences for all Australian universities. The key question considered is: do sociology PhD students publish in sociology journals? We used the Web of Science (WoS) to analyse disciplinary classification of journals where students’ articles were published. By a ratio of 1:10, students’ articles mostly appeared in non-sociology journals. We then compared these data with a recent study of new sociology faculty in the United States, who showed a similar diversity in publication patterns beyond recognised sociology journals. These empirical data contribute to debates about the adequacy of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) framework: is practically technically correct if that can be done in measuring sociology’s contribution when a major part of this exists outside conventional output metrics. Formal systems like Scopus and WoS provide extensive sets of data for comparing research outputs including by disciplinary classification; these journal indexes of research articles are commonly taken as a basic measure of research quality by universities and ERA. WoS journal disciplinary classification provided a useful basis of comparison with Warren’s data on sociology in the US. Keywords: sociology, sociology journals, PhD students, publishing

Introduction Australian sociology doctoral students represent the newest cohort of academics and researchers in the discipline and the future of its workforce. Their sociological training during enrolment and the influence of supervisors and academic programs and departments would suggest that, except for specialised instances, the output of their research would appear mostly in sociology and related journals. The reality is, however, much more complicated. Factors such as the push to interdisciplinarity, the constant merging and re-arranging vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

of social science organisational units, and the rebundling of academic staff and research clusters, create a range of consequences. At the university level, managerial focus on the organisation-wide impact of research that brings in funding accords selective attention to disciplinary contribution. This works to the disadvantage of sociology’s broad combination of theoretical and empirical skills. Within this contemporary Australian academic milieu, the present article reports findings about the journal publication practices of the most recent cohort of Australian sociology PhD students. The focus here is across all Australian

The publishing practices of Australian sociology PhD students Edgar A. Burns & Adam Rajčan

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universities and all sociology PhD completions within main sociology teaching organisational units (i.e., Schools of Social Sciences or Sociology Departments). We have examined PhD completions with a significant component of sociology as defined by Fields of Research (FoR) codes (ABS, 2008) that are outside these organisational units in other schools and research centres within universities, but these are not included in the analysis presented here. The data described in this article show that, rather than a coherent and disciplinary specific publishing program, these recent sociology PhD completers have published in a wide range of journals, as described below. For a fuller description of the method of selection of PhDs, see Rajčan and Burns (2020). Personal motivation and expectations that led to this diversity of publication outlets could be usefully investigated in further qualitative research projects such as interviewing individual participants or using focus groups to explore their experience. This article presents several confirmatory bodies of evidence about the pattern of sociology PhD students in Australia publishing well beyond boundaries of formally recognised sociology disciplinary journals. Several wellknown avenues of journal disciplinary identification, such as 2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) journal list (ERA, 2020a) or Web of Science (WoS) journal classification, invite a comparative consciousness outside sociology even though the focus here is on one discipline. For instance, contemporary comparative evidence from the United States is brought into the discussion and provides further assessment of this pattern of doctoral journal publication. Again, the statements of academic leaders in The Australian Sociology Association (TASA) over several years provide a series of insights into their responses to the steadily changing academic publishing environment in the Australian and global tertiary sectors. These comparisons help contextualise and draw out implications of the current generation of PhD students’ publication activity.

Theoretical underpinnings to understand these data Disciplinary introspection in sociology ranges from positive to negative (Holmwood, 2010; Rosenfeld, 2010; Savage, 2010). An optimistic view is that the discipline is well embedded in the academy. There are scores of new PhDs being completed nationally across Australia each year, interdisciplinary involvement in other fields is high and, currently, there is even renewed interest and some formation of sociology organisational units in the higher status Australian premier Group of Eight universities (Go8). Nationally, from our research it appears that approximately half of sociology PhDs are gained within the Go8 and half within the other universities. A more pessimistic view sees

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constant restructuring and shrinking of academic staff numbers – long before COVID-19 – amalgamation into anodyne social science clusters with names like ‘global studies’ or ‘social inquiry,’ the distorting pressure of scienceoriented measurement of outputs in ERA and sometimes a perception of hostility to critiques of neoliberal governance in universities. In recent work we explored the tension between contrasting processes evident in discussions about the dangers and opportunities for sociology within the contemporary academy. We called the two ends of this polarity the ‘invisibilisation’ of sociology and the ‘sociologification’ of the academy. The first of these, invisibilisation, is the significant disappearance of sociology’s institutional profile within Australian universities. First, there is the reduction or elimination of ‘sociology’ in identifiable labels and titles across universities. Second, the work of sociologists contributing to the research enterprise is easily attributed elsewhere in output metrics. Third, poor accessibility of links to find out about sociology PhD completions and sociology teaching and research programs on university websites. This information is often buried in webpages presenting information about interdisciplinary social science programs or schools. Collectively, these pressures generate disciplinary invisibilisation, a problem given the importance of sociology to the social sciences more generally. At the other end of the polarity, the second of these concepts is the contrasting idea of the spread of sociology into subspecialty areas and into other disciplines and organisational units across the university through either personnel, ideas or practices. We have dubbed this process ‘sociologification’. In the present article we consider it in relation to these recent sociology PhD completions. The significance of this trend in how other professions and disciplines apply sociological concepts and methods to those fields is not explored here though it supports the wider interpretation of how sociologification operates. As we shall see, within the idea of sociologification, it is possible to include the tendency of sociology PhD students and academics to publish across established disciplinary boundaries and therefore to contribute to other disciplines’ outputs. Different commentators view these trends in either a positive light as ensuring the future of sociology while others view this negatively as part of the erosion of the discipline. These contrasting abstract trends find points of specification in two features of the contemporary university. The first of these is the increasing use of metrics to measure research outputs and other aspects of university life. The second is the repositioning of management in today’s corporate universities in their primary relationship to government funding and the desire to manage staff closely. These two elements are important parts of what is often termed neoliberalisation, Americanisation or corporatisation of the Australian

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university system (Connell, 2013; Murphy, 2015). In this article we largely avoid engaging in the analysis of the politics around these macro processes. However, there are clear connections between these and efforts of senior university managers to exert much tighter controls on the productivity of their institutions and staff and the intersection of these efforts with technological advances enabling precise and pervasive measurement of many aspects of research activity (Beer, 2016; Feldman & Sandoval, 2018; Kelly & Burrows, 2012; Possamai & Long, 2020). The aim of managing postgraduate units within universities is to train and develop PhD students to be research productive for their own careers and to contribute to institutions’ research outputs. Doctoral students’ socialisation into research through PhD training is a different experience to even a decade ago, let alone further back in time. The development of ERA and other measures appears to have permanently changed expectations of research activity (e.g., Warren, 2019).

Method

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disciplinary classification system, Fields of Research (FoR), with the ability to distinguish overlapping disciplinary boundaries by assigning numeric codes and subcodes (ABS, 2008). Fourth, a valuable source of insight into the current publication practices of the sociology discipline in the period these PhD students have been enrolled, is commentary by Australian sociology discipline leaders. We analysed the in-house Nexus newsletter of TASA for 2011-15, particularly the presidential addresses and special sections on ERA. This information is useful in interpreting the quantitative measures. These four ways of measuring the spread of sociology outputs in this cohort of recent sociology PhDs speak to the tension between invisibilisation and sociologification.

Measuring and comparing the spread of sociology PhD students’ outputs The widespread nature of Australian sociology PhD student publications across many different journals provides one way of assessing the presence of sociology in the academy. Our research into publication patterns of Australian sociology PhDs is considered, in this section, as one part of extending the assessment of sociology’s disciplinary presence and position within the Australian academy. From the cohort of students completing an Australian sociology PhD (n=305) 2013-17, 156 students achieved 361 articles in 279 journals. Overall, 186 journals out of these 279 were indexed in WoS (66.7 per cent). In trying to understand the disciplinary focus of this publishing pattern, only 22 of the 186 journals (11.8 per cent) were categorised as ‘Sociology’ according to the WoS rubrics. The remainder of the journals (n=164) were categorised either as ‘multidisciplinary’ or as journals in other disciplines. 122 out of 156 students producing articles did so in WoS journals achieving 254 journal articles. Of these only 46 (18.1 per cent) were in sociology classified journals and 208 (81.9 per cent) appeared in other academic disciplinary outlets. Table 1 summarises the evidence from our five-year cohort (2013-17) of Australian sociology doctoral students’ publication patterns in terms of WoS journal disciplinary categories.

In Australia for the years 2013-17 we identified 305 PhD theses completed in the field of sociology within sociology departments or interdisciplinary schools of social sciences. Three universities did not take part in the study, and we estimate that if these ‘missing’ theses were included, this might bring the total to an overall number of completions of around 330-340. During enrolment, the identified students published 361 articles, plus book chapters, a total of 443 research outputs, not counting the theses. The calculation of these figures allows a period at the end of the formal completion of the thesis itself, described in Rajčan and Burns (2020), but does not include publishing activities in post-doctoral or new employment situations. To explore the dispersal of sociology publications of this cohort of sociology PhD students, we used three recognised tertiary sector quantitative measures and one qualitative measure. First, WoS is one of two global citation databases. Its Master Journal List is used world-wide to measure and compare research outputs across all academic disciplines. For journals to be included in the WoS list certain quality standards have to be met and the list provides information about journal disciplinary classification. The Table 1: Publishing practices of Australian sociology PhD students WoS data enables comparison with data from Web of Science Warren’s (2019) United States study. Second, the ERA initiative within the Australian Category Sociology Non-sociology* Both Total Research Council was established in 2008 to Sociology Non-sociology* cover all tertiary institutions; WoS was the Journals 22 164 N/A N/A 186 citation provider for the 2018 ERA round. Students 9 89 24 122 Its journal list classifies academic journals according to discipline. Third, since 2008, Articles 13 160 33 48 254 *a) multidisciplinary journals or b) journals in other disciplines Australia and New Zealand have used a shared vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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This diversity of engagement by our cohort of doctoral sociologists demonstrates some surprising, but presumably productive, associations with other disciplines. Several dozen WoS journal categories outside sociology include, for example, limnology, agriculture, clinical medicine, ergonomics, forestry, hospitality, leisure and many others. The supporting nature of sociology’s contribution is the additional value that a sociological perspective added to another field in the preparation of each of these articles. While valuable in itself, this contribution often does not appear explicitly. The earlier discussion of the tension between invisibilisation and sociologification of the discipline is illustrated in this example: at the same time that it is contributing to the wider academic project the evidence of that contribution is often subsumed in crediting the research output to the other field. In Figure 1 Warren’s (2019) data shows that even in the US newly appointed assistant and associate professors at top sociology departments also publish more than half of their research outputs outside formally recognised sociology outlets. Warren applied a similar methodology to the present study, using the WoS data ( Journal Citation Reports-JCR) to analyse publishing practices. Some explanation about the different samples in Figure 1 helps understand the differences within the wider trend towards more academic publication. Currently in the United States, among academics working as sociologists, most articles are produced in non-sociology journals, as defined by WoS. This trend is reflected in our data for Australia. Several factors influence the differences in the means between the enrolled Australian PhD students and the United States academics. First, the American cohort are newly established sociology

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career academics. Second, a number of them may have spent a gap year in post-doctoral writing. Third, there are national differences in the importance of publishing between the two countries and many Australian sociology departments are still ambivalent about the desirability of publishing during PhD enrolment (Hatch & Skipper, 2016). Fourth, Warren’s data are from the top 21 United States sociology departments in contrast to our cohort which includes all sociology PhD completions from all Australian universities. Table 1 and Figure 1 show the diversity of publishing across the established disciplinary boundaries when looking at both the number of journal outlets and the number of journal articles. Warren makes the additional point from his data that the number of outputs per academic has increased considerably across a generation of academics. We do not assemble data here to test whether that pattern exists in Australia, but it seems likely that the pressure to publish in Australia is at least in the same direction, in part fuelled by the advent of the ERA and a tighter monitoring of research productivity against global standards. Warren provides evidence of United States sociology becoming much more diversified in where its younger academics publish. He offers several overlapping explanations for this shift, including technological change, but particularly the need of universities, especially those funded publicly, to bring in research monies, given financial pressures from government restraints on funding. By collaborating in teams, institutes or research clusters – as well as relocation into other fields as we noted in the first finding of the section above – sociologists find productive ways to deploy their skills and sociological knowledge. Outputs from this work, however, frequently appear in WoS categories other than sociology implying they have been achieved outside sociology. The success of this work meets the needs of the institution but may reduce recognition of the contribution that sociology as a discipline is making to university research outcomes on various measures. The sociologification – the spread of sociology to other fields – seen in the doctoral publishing patterns is parallel with the Australian discipline generally, but in the early ERA research rankings this diversity worked against sociology, a matter of sustained concern for the discipline’s peak body TASA.

Advent of ERA and commentary of sociology academic leaders

Figure 1. Mean output comparison (Australia-United States) of journal articles by destination and spread between sociology and non-sociology outlets

A third strategy in assessing the sociology PhD publication data of this cohort is to understand the context in which these students worked. This decade has seen the establishment in

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Australian academia of the ERA and Engagement and Impact (EI) processes to distribute research funding according to the newly established metrics. ERA evaluates the quality of university research. EI assesses the engagement and impact of university research. Both ERA and EI are based on the principle that transparent assessment and reporting of university performance provides incentives to universities to improve research quality, engagement and impact. The comprehensive and fine-grained information from ERA and EI assessments provides a valuable resource for universities to use in their strategic planning and research management, and for Government to use to inform research policy. (ERA, 2020b, pp. 5-6) Significant internal processes of debate, adjustment and partial reconciliation to the new managerial and audit regimes ensued within TASA. In this section a window on this process is provided through sociology leaders’ statements in the pages of the TASA newsletter, Nexus. In 2011 then TASA president King, stated that ‘the very nature of our discipline is being challenged by the inception of ERA rankings’ (TASA, 2011, p. 1). Part of the problem was that, at the advent of the ERA process over a decade ago, sociology appeared in a poor light because the ERA system did not capture its diversity of outputs. But this was not simply because of the measurement process, there were internal disciplinary factors as well. As then TASA’s Vice-President Lindsay shows, several influences positioned sociology in Australia at ‘below world standard’ in 2010’s first ERA round (TASA, 2011, p. 17). Further, Lindsay’s comments here show that the cohort of PhD students that we studied were publishing in a broadly similar pattern to Australian sociology academics in the spread and range of journal outlets. Why did the social sciences do so poorly? The social science disciplines are large which makes it more difficult to score a higher average (the denominator is too large) and there is disagreement among ourselves about what constitutes quality in terms of publications. Moreover, our publication outlets are spread across disciplines – we publish in public health, education and multi-disciplinary journals, perhaps spreading ourselves too thinly. Sociology is a diverse discipline and researchers publish in a variety of outlets including those coded as sociology, education, public health and in specialist area journals – we welcome the development of measures that take multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work into account. (TASA, 2011, p. 17) Another response to the 2010 ERA exercise presented on behalf of sociologists from Charles Sturt University reflected similar problems for the discipline: [T]he two main problems with the ERA are (a) the seemingly arbitrary ranking of many journals; and (b) the diversity of our discipline which creates challenges in publishing

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only in journals with sociology FoR. There is also the difficulty of publications arising from multi-disciplinary research teams that can end up in a whole range of journals… With leading research institutes, such as the Institute for Land, Water and Society, at CSU encouraging multi- and trans-disciplinary research, many communities and disciplines stand to benefit greatly from the input sociologists can bring to interdisciplinary research teams, as well as the multidisciplinary courses we teach into. An ERA process which fails to consider the diversity of contributions sociologists can make, nationally and internationally, risks limiting the impact and pursuits of Australian sociologists in the long term if we are overly preoccupied with measuring our worth and choosing future research endeavours using such reporting mechanisms. (TASA, 2011, p. 20) Even after the second ERA round in 2012, in which Australian sociology nationally again failed to score well (i.e., being ranked ‘below world standard’), the consequences of the new measurements for the discipline were only just starting to become apparent. Fozdar, a sociology discipline leader (TASA, 2013, p. 33) stated: FoR of journals – the Field of Research, to which each journal is coded, is very important. While the ARC allowed, in the last round, individuals to argue that their article fits more accurately under a code different from the one the journal has been coded for, it seems most universities did not really make those arguments on behalf of individuals. The result is that sociologists’ work may be lost to the various sociology FoRs (my own and colleagues’ work has been coded as cultural studies, demographics, anthropology, law, political science, policy studies, etc.). While we could approach this generously, supporting our colleagues in other disciplines, the practical effects of the ERA mean that our discipline group may be disadvantaged if too much of our work ends up building other disciplines’ outputs. Eventually research monies will be distributed within universities according to the rank achieved in the ERA, thus the more our work crosses into other disciplinary territory (journals) the less money our discipline stands to secure. Yes, this militates against interdisciplinary work, but that is the system we are working within. So, check the FoR code of the journal before sending your papers (TASA, 2013, p. 33). Other factors supporting a more recent improvement in sociology’s ERA ranking have been raised but go beyond the data presented here. Possible explanations include: some change in the ERA process that better recognises the diversity of sociologists’ publishing practices; fewer universities submitting under sociology, lessening the impact on the mean; and university administrators’ choice of allocation of outputs to FoR codes; deliberate strategising that Fozdar pointed to; and sociologists themselves adapting and aiming to publish in more positively sanctioned journals. Holmwood’s (2010) concept of sociology as an exporter discipline is relevant here to the discussion of the very wide

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spread of journals that are the destination of Australian sociology PhD writing efforts. The concept helps illuminate the fact that a high proportion of journals in which this cohort of new sociologists publish are outside of what might be called ‘core sociology journals’ at least as this is measured by WoS. As Fozdar noted above, the success of outputs in these other places does not visibly benefit sociology as a discipline when formal output discipline classifications are applied. There is a considerable variability, however, in how different universities go about such allocation for ERA purposes. Lyle (2016, p. 1170) noted in commenting on Holmwood: [Sociology’s] rich theoretical and methodological resources are drawn upon by other disciplines. Holmwood argues that the evaluation of research outputs is problematic for exporter subjects – with their resources on loan, their academic output is at risk of being subsumed by other disciplines. Holmwood suggests that sociology is particularly vulnerable to this risk because of its ambiguity as a discipline. Sociology is a broad and varied discipline, with a lack of internal coherence that enables other disciplines to redefine sociological subjects as their own. This disciplinary phenomenon in sociology is expressed as core and frontier by Campbell (2019): ‘frontier’ meaning specialisms and sub-specialities within the larger enterprise, such as sociology of health; and ‘core’ meaning near universally read disciplinary texts and authoritative journals, addressing central theoretical questions of the discipline. A parallel might be drawn between Holmwood’s (2010) idea of sociology as an exporter discipline with Campbell’s idea of a contributory shift beyond the discipline. For Campbell the ‘centre of gravity’ of sociology has moved to the frontiers from the centre with sociologists tending to read and publish in their specialty rather than addressing common or central questions of the discipline. There is, however, a strong nostalgia or ‘paradise lost’ claim here suggesting that mid-century western British or American sociology was the benchmark, forgetting the sexism, colonialism and racism amongst other deficiencies of sociology and academia in that era that nobody would want to go back to as ‘the core’. In one way, Campbell’s comments acknowledge the differentiation and specialisation of the discipline of sociology as it has expanded within a growing academy documented by Abbott (1988) when ‘publish or perish’ was beginning to accelerate. Table 2. ERA 2010-18 results for FoR-1608 sociology 2010

2012

Universities submitting under 1608-sociology

Mean ERA score: Go8

3.5

Mean ERA score: non-Go8

2.03

2.66

Mean ERA score overall: Go8+non-Go8

2.38

2.89

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This is consistent with the evidence of Table 1 and Figure 1 for current sociology doctoral students. It is interesting that diversity of publication is also seen in Warren’s United States data used for comparison, showing empirically greater output spread across the wide non-core sociological journal domain. As the tertiary sector has grown, there are more academics, students, research projects and journal outlets. Rather than seeing this as a dilution or loss, it is possible to read the same data in a more positive way, to say that this opening of the discipline provides space for additional voices and published scholarship that had not previously been possible. In institutional terms, this uncomfortably means the politics of disciplinary and departmental formation and restructuring continue in every university across Australia; this is the contemporary reality. Fozdar, above, mentioned several disciplinary formations adjacent to sociology; these wax and wane over time. Pressures from organisational structures rather than disciplinary knowledge/content are variously constituted from the contributions of individual sociologists and departments, the focus of TASA, the managerial logics of individual universities for control and outputs, and the national settings of government funding and priorities for admission or prioritised qualifications. The experience of sociology in this competitive disciplinary division of expert labour has some points of similarity with other disciplines in the ERA transition. In Table 2 the average sociology ERA disciplinary ranking was low in the initial rounds in 2010 and 2012, only achieving ‘world ranking’ in 2015 and 2018 (on a scale of 1 to 5). As this discussion has shown, substantial debates within the discipline canvassed many aspects of the causes and the possible solutions for sociology appearing to underperform. Other disciplines also experienced difficulties in transitioning to the new ERA system. Crowe and Watt (2016), focusing on psychology in Australia, described a similar trajectory of that discipline being below world ranking before 2015. As a citation-based discipline, psychology occupies a different place on the metrics compared to sociology as a peer-reviewed discipline. Even so, the two disciplines achieved quite similar rankings in the first two ERA rounds. Whereas sociology expressed concern about its ‘service’ function exporting expertise, Crowe and Watt (2016) did not invoke a similar reason for being ‘below world ranking’ in psychology. They saw the citation2015 2018 Mean based system meant psychology’s 27 28 low citation rate relative to STEM sciences placed their discipline at 4.0 4.25 3.81 a disadvantage. Three takeaways 3.0 3.4 2.77 from their analysis of psychology 3.29 3.64 3.05 also apply to sociology. First, the

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metrics, even when improving do not necessarily reflect the overall quality of research outputs. Second, the necessary discretion ERA grants universities in allocating outputs to FoR codes also provides space for opportunistic or ‘strategic’ gerrymandering to maximise selected ERA scores. Third, larger institutions have correspondingly larger numbers of outputs to manoeuvre and exploit their size, and this warrants investigation in interpreting differences between Go8 and non-Go8 universities, as one obvious example. Fourth, other less tangible factors (esteem, research income etc.) are not transparently reported by ERA so cannot be adequately judged for individual institutions. Each of these points also inevitably influences where sociologists and sociology PhD students publish. In a different field, Possamai and Long (2020) described the position of Religion and Society (FoR code 2204) as a peerreviewed discipline and provided a detailed analysis comparing ERA scores of peer-reviewed and citation disciplines. For the latest 2018 ERA (2020a) round they found that when the scores of individual disciplines were averaged, collectively, peer-reviewed disciplines in Australia were ranked at ‘world standard’ (i.e., 3/5), compared to citation disciplines being ranked at ‘above the world standard’ (i.e., 4/5). These authors discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy. First, there could be harsher assessments by peer-review disciplines than those evaluated by citation metrics. Second, in the alternative, their further analysis could suggest that there is a systemic bias towards sciences in the ERA discipline rankings. These concerns mirror some of the statements made by Australian sociology academic leaders cited above. Even with disciplinary variations across the social sciences and humanities, the size of sociology as a discipline and its service function do not protect it from these two issues.

Conclusion This article considered the spread of Australian sociology PhD publications across a wide variety of destination journals. Contextualising the data in terms of interpreting the causes and effects of this diversity was supported though a brief comparison with Warren’s data in the United States where he examined newer sociology academics’ surprisingly diverse spread of research outputs. The latter parts of the results and discussion returned the conversation to Australia and the turning point of ERA metrics being introduced and applied to sociology and other disciplines nationally. The deleterious effects for sociology were recognised at an early stage by sociology leaders cited here. Sociology academics have had to adjust their research practice in light of these measurements. Sociology’s location in non-sociology environments, while beneficial in multiple ways, nevertheless has at least two disadvantages for the discipline. The first of these is achieving vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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appropriate recognition and the second is in facing the pressures of funding, both direct and indirect. In terms of the spread of sociology publications presenting Australian sociology research outputs, our primary interest in this article, these data do not address the long historical trend of increasing publication and increasing diversity. We note the pattern in Warren’s United States data, increasing and more diverse production, and the confirmatory evidence in the emerging academic cohort considered in Australia. The continuing resistance or disinclination by some supervisors to encourage sociology students to actively publish during their PhD enrolment means a partial change rather than a more substantial change in practice under the new ERA system. The information presented here suggests multiple ways that sociology is being collegial and useful across the breadth of disciplines within Australian universities. This contribution is, however, under-recognised in boosting university outputs, and the consequences might mean inadequate or redirected funding. If the discipline significantly disappears from view, accessing this contribution will diminish further across the university, rather than the discipline being able to maintain its research activity and theoretically benefit other fields. The partially recognised contribution in FoR codes seen in PhD completions in other schools and faculties shows that it is possible to provide some measure of contribution by sociology. To do this adequately requires changes not just in the software systems, but more consistent and complete school-level and central university procedures and record keeping. Each of these measures locates broader issues for the profession of sociology in the dispersed publishing practices of both sociology academics and PhD students beyond disciplinary outlets. Edgar A Burns is HBRC Chair of Integrated Catchment Management, School of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6645-3358 Adam Rajčan is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia and an Honorary Associate in the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2559-1949 Contact: A.Rajcan@latrobe.edu.au

References Abbott, A. (1988). The system of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. ABS. (2008). Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@. nsf/0/6BB427AB9696C225CA2574180004463E Beer, D. (2016). Metric power. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Campbell, C. (2019). Has sociology progressed? Reflections of an accidental academic. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Connell, R. (2013). The neoliberal cascade and education: an essay on the market agenda and its consequences. Critical Studies in Education, 54(2), 99-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2013.776990

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Lyle, K. (2016). Shaping the future of sociology: the challenge of interdisciplinarity beyond the social sciences. Sociology, 51(6), 11691185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038516653728 Murphy, P. (2015). Universities and innovation economies: the creative wasteland of post-industrial society. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.

Crowe, S. & Watt, S. (2016). Excellence in Research in Australia 2010, 2012, and 2015: the rising of the curate’s soufflé? Australian Psychologist, 52, 503-513.

Possamai, A., & Long, G. (2020). Losing faith in the classification and evaluation of research: A meta-metrics approach to research on religion in Australia. Australian Universities’ Review, 62(1), 3-9.

ERA. (2020a). ERA 2018 journal list. Excellence in Research Australia. Canberra, ACT. Retrieved from Australian Research Council. https:// www.arc.gov.au/excellence-research-australia/era-2018.

Rajčan, A., & Burns, E. A. (2020). Research productivity of sociology PhD candidates at interdisciplinary schools of social science at elite Australian universities, 2013-2017: A gender perspective. Journal of Sociology, 57(3), 501-521 https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783320927094

ERA. (2020b). ERA EI Review consultation paper 2020. Excellence in Research Australia Canberra, ACT. Retrieved from https://www.arc. gov.au/excellence-research-australia/era-ei-review” https://www.arc. gov.au/excellence-research-australia/era-ei-review Feldman, Z. & Sandoval, M. (2018). Metric power and the academic self: neoliberalism, knowledge and resistance in the British university. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 16(1), 214-233. https:// doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v16i1.899 Hatch, T., & Skipper, A. (2016). How much are PhD Students publishing before graduation?: An examination of four social science disciplines. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 47(2), 171-179. https://doi. org/10.3138/jsp.47.2.171 Holmwood, J. (2010). Sociology’s misfortune: disciplines, interdisciplinarity and the impact of audit culture. British Journal Sociology, 61(4), 639–658. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14684446.2010.01332.x Kelly, A. & Burrows, R. (2012). Measuring the value of sociology? Some notes on the performative metricisation of the contemporary academy. The Sociological Review, 59, 130-150. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02053.x

Rosenfeld, R. (2010). Sociology: A view from the diaspora, British Journal of Sociology 61(4), 666– 70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14684446.2010.01334.x Savage, M. (2010). Unpicking sociology’ misfortunes. British Journal of Sociology 61(4), 659–665. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14684446.2010.01333.x TASA (2011). Nexus: Newsletter of the Australian Sociological Association, 23(2). Retrieved from https://tasa.org.au/content. aspx?page_id=86&club_id=671860&item_id=72651” https://tasa. org.au/content.aspx?page_id=86&club_id=671860&item_id=72651 TASA (2013). Nexus: Newsletter of the Australian Sociological Association, 25(2). Retrieved from https://tasa.org.au/content. aspx?page_id=86&club_id=671860&item_id=72651 Warren, J. R. (2019). How much do you have to publish to get a job in a top sociology department? Or to get tenure? Trends over a generation. Sociological Science, 6, 172-196. https://doi.org/10.15195/v6.a7

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Teamwork and regional universities The benefits for women of a third space Anitra Goriss-Hunter & Kate White Federation University Australia

This article reports on the findings of a study that explored the benefits and challenges for women of working at an Australian regional university in early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines whether living and working at a regional university with dispersed campuses presented particular challenges for women and whether it had an impact on their career progression. Twenty-one women supplied written responses to a list of questions provided by the researchers. The main finding was that women enjoyed working in teams and preferred flexibility, autonomy and positive teamwork environments. To address challenges identified in the study about working across dispersed campuses and the limitations of virtual communication, particularly in the current pandemic, the article investigates the feasibility of a blended approach to teamwork using the concept of a third space.

Keywords: gender, working in teams, career mobility, dispersed campuses, third space

Introduction This article examines the experiences of academic and professional women working in teams across dispersed campuses at an Australian regional university. Staff with ‘professional’, including administrative, roles are those not employed to undertake academic work. It uses a gendered lens to analyse the issues raised in the literature review about the challenges of working in teams and leadership and boundaryless careers, while exploring a third space framework in response to the issues raised in this research in which diverse groups could form democratic collaborative teams and meet in a blend of physical and virtual environments as a means of potentially resolving these challenges. Regional universities make an important contribution to and are closely linked with regional economies and communities as well as national development (RUN, 2021). They attract and retain diverse cohorts – including first-infamily and regional and rural students and staff. As GorissHunter and Burke (2015, p. 112) note: ‘a regional university can act productively as a hybrid space that bridges the known (rural working-class experience) and the unknown vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

or unreachable option (metropolitan university) for some people, particularly … people like ourselves who come from rural working-class backgrounds’.

Literature Review The literature review examines women working in teams including the strategy of intentional invisibility, career theory, the concept of a third space as a way of building collaborative workplaces, and the challenges of this approach.

Working in teams Working in teams has become an integral industry strategy (Lau et al., 2014) especially in higher education (HE) amongst professional and academic staff (Burgess, 1994; Gast, Schildkamp, & van der Veen, 2018; Koeslag-Kreunen, M. & Van der Klink, M. et al., 2018; Posthuma & Said, 2012). This is particularly relevant to women in universities who have demonstrated preference for working collaboratively and are generally employed as professional staff or as lowerlevel academic staff (Cullinan, 2018; Francis & Stulz, 2020; Kuhn & Villeval, 2013). The term ‘team’ might focus on

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collaborative teamwork; groups dependent on leadership authority and guidance; groups comprised of different members constructing diverse knowledge; and democratic collectives. Thus, a team could be defined as ‘a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves and who are seen by others as an intact social entity embedded in one or more larger social systems [for example, a business unit or a corporation], and who manage their relationships across organisational boundaries’ (Cohen & Bailey, 1997, p. 241). A general definition of ‘university teams’ could then be a group of two or more staff who are working together to complete university business or a specific project. While tertiary institutions themselves could be considered to be a ‘team’ or group of individuals working together towards a common purpose, universities encompass a range of what could be called formal and informal teams – faculties, departments/ schools, research groups, informal collegial collaborations and joint ventures with external stakeholders. The ability to form teams within a university could be different for academic and professional staff. Academic teaching is usually an autonomous and lone activity (KoeslagKreunen, M. & Van der Klink, M. et al., 2018). Individual achievement for academics is often privileged over teamwork regarding teaching evaluations, tenure, and promotion policies and processes (Burgess, 1994) which contrasts with women’s preference for collaborative teamwork (Kuhn & Villeval, 2013). There is a body of literature concerning professional (also known as administrative) staff, most of whom are women in Australian universities, and their membership of teams, especially on what might constitute effective leadership and teamwork (Burgess, 1994; Kezar et al., 2020; KoeslagKreunen & Van den Bossche, P. et al., 2018). In general, it is argued that good leadership is evident in functional teams and effective teamwork is demonstrated in cohesive teams where the cooperative collaboration generally preferred by women is foundational and the knowledge, skills and performance of team members are enhanced by developing planning, communication, problem-solving and negotiating skills (Burgess, 1994; Kezar et al., 2020; Koeslag-Kreunen & Van den Bossche, P. et al., 2018; Lau et al., 2014; Müceldili & Erdil, 2015). The rapidly changing landscape of teamwork in universities has been impacted by globalisation, managerialism, neoliberal narratives and funding cuts (Blackmore, 2020). Now the challenges from COVID-19 and boundaries between teams and team members’ positions in the institution have led to a re-thinking of how teams might work in higher education. Various perspectives have emerged that might be useful for women working in higher education, and particularly in the university investigated in this study that operates with a blended delivery of services edging towards online delivery,

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spread across dispersed campuses. These elements include collaborative leadership and teams operating within a third space that combines the expertise of both academic and professional staff.

Groups and Teams Women working in universities have demonstrated a preference for collaboration and teamwork (Cullinan, 2018; Kuhn & Villeval, 2013). Eveline’s (2004) study of leadership in an Australian university identified what she called ‘ivory basement leadership’ and ‘intentional invisibility’ as women spoke about the devaluing of their work. These administrative staff, research assistants and junior academics, who increasingly are casual workers, were forging an almost invisible exercise of leadership that valued personal relationships, loyalty and diversity and was creative, flexible and collaborative. Ballakrishnen, Fielding-Singh and Magliozzi (2019) argued that some women employ an ‘intentional invisibility’ strategy that rejects traditional concepts of the sole leader who takes charge of a group (Wassenaar & Pearce, 2012). Instead, they adopt a collectivist approach to working so that they can retain a sense of self-respect by working ‘in the background’ and therefore have the capacity to balance professional and personal responsibilities and argue that: By remaining behind the scenes and valuing communal, collaborative work, women who embrace intentional invisibility reject—rather than seeking to embody—the masculine norm of the ideal worker … (women) who embrace invisibility often acknowledge that doing so may limit their opportunities for advancement, but nonetheless turn to the strategy to avoid conflict, project an authentic self, and gain a sense of stability (Ballakrishnen et al., 2019, p.26). Thus, women employ this strategy despite the risk of losing visibility, which is conventionally perceived to be vitally important for career advancement (Correll & Mackenzie, 2016).

Career Theory Career theory focusing on career progression and personal evaluations of success can elucidate women’s work preferences and styles. It is acknowledged that general approaches to careers and employability are changing (Arthur et al., 2005; Hamori, 2010). Sullivan & Arthur (2006) developed the idea of a boundaryless career by identifying two forms of career progression: physical and psychological mobility. The former refers to employees changing jobs and occupations and/ or shifting between organisations. The latter focuses on the individual’s own understanding of available career structures and their perceptions of how these frameworks and processes might enable or constrain their mobility as well as how they might transcend any perceived limitations.

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becoming more involved in projects that include research and Having a successful career is a dominant theme in the teaching, the notion of hybrid third spaces as territories that literature in this field. Researchers such as Hamori (2010) include diversified teams of academic and professional staff have tended to focus on the physical dimensions of mobility, engaging with boundary crossing projects is gaining traction for example measuring career success in terms of factors (MacFarlane, 2011; Whitchurch, 2018). Maintaining such as salary and job title. It could be argued, though, that traditional work boundaries is increasingly perceived as not to understand what factors comprise a successful career, being conducive to an efficient working environment (Sebalj, more subjective elements of day-to-day working life need Holbrook, and Bourke, 2012). Whitchurch’s (2018) recent to be taken into consideration. These elements include study found that new work roles had been created for both emotional investment in the job, a sense of happiness, agency professional and academic staff who were expected to be and autonomy, employees feeling valued, the development highly mobile and flexible. Exploring third spaces therefore of positive work relationships, and maintaining work-life provides a useful means of examining the perceptions and balance (Arthur et al., 2005; Sullivan & Arthur, 2006). experiences of staff who work across traditional boundaries in Other research has suggested women prefer to work HE institutions (Whitchurch, 2008; Locke, Whitchurch & collaboratively in teams (for example, Kuhn & Villeval, Marini, 2019). 2013) but at the same time A third space is particularly demonstrate ‘less confidence Regional universities also provide a variety useful when conceptualising about their own abilities’ of physical, social and cultural features regional universities as (Thompson, 2013). While that enable a range of students to establish territories where multiple male workers tend to favour discourses co-exist. As Gorissworking by themselves ‘women themselves as successful learners. Hunter and Burke (2015, p. are generally more focused 112) note: than men on collaborative work and personal rather than physical work conditions and Interconnections between the regional university, a diverse career mobility in what could be described as boundaryless student population, and the local community interactioncareers based on co-operation and teamwork’ (Thompson, ally construct a collective Third Space in which students … 2013). are enabled to re-imagine themselves as participants in higher education and translate these re-imaginings and fantasises Third Space into real life experiences. A ‘third space’ is derived from Homi Bhabha’s (2004) concept of a territory in which two different cultures intersect and, drawing on elements of both groups, a unique culture is established. This ‘in-between’ space enables the formation of new identities and suggests different ways of moving beyond binary thinking, especially in terms of the lived experiences of group members (Soja, 1996). There are democratic and collaborative aspects to this concept where elements from both cultures are equally drawn upon and valued. The dynamic and cooperative nature of third spaces reflects the type of collective teamwork that women prefer (Cullinan, 2018; Kuhn & Villeval, 2013). Technology can also play a significant role in establishing third spaces (MacFarlane, 2011; Schuck, Kearney, & Burden, 2017) which may be especially relevant in a world that is still coming to terms with COVID-19. The third space in contemporary universities is defined by the authors as a territory where new or re-invented forms of university activities that exceed traditional academic and professional portfolio binaries and conventional work identities can form democratic collaborations across physical and technologically mediated space. With the growing encroachment of administration and management into academia, and professional staff vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

Regional universities also provide a variety of physical, social and cultural features that enable a range of students to establish themselves as successful learners. In these diverse and flexible discourses of regional universities, third space territories create new options for learning, teaching and collaborative project work with various teams. So, the concept of a third space might enable universities to provide space for women to work more often in the collaborative manner they prefer.

Challenges There are nevertheless challenges for teams working collaboratively in higher education. One is ensuring that workloads are evenly distributed and fairly allocated (Kyndt et al., 2011). Group members can perceive that they have been assigned a greater workload if their task is overly complicated (Gupta, Li & Sharda, 2013). To ensure they do not feel overloaded when assigned complex tasks, it is important to communicate with them and understand their analysis of what is entailed (Braarud, 2001; Kyndt et al., 2011). Another challenge is achieving genuine team cohesiveness (Michalski & King, 1998; Müceldili & Erdil, 2015). Thus, creating and maintaining a positive working environment for teams can itself be an issue (Seppälä & Cameron, 2015).

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Methodology This study uses an inductive approach to analyse participants’ written responses to questions (Denshire, 2014; Thomas, Thomas & Smith, 2019; Tomaselli, 2013) about the benefits and challenges of working at an Australian regional university with dispersed campuses. The participants responded to an email the principal researcher circulated through the university e-newsletter inviting all women employed either full time, part-time or as casuals to participate in a research project titled ‘The challenges for women working in Australian regional universities’ which had approval from the university’s Human Research Ethics Committee. In total, 21 women participated in the study and returned written responses addressing the list of questions that was emailed to them (see Appendix 1). The responses were anonymised, analysed and common themes identified. In the article, direct quotes from participants are identified by the letter P followed by a number. For example, P4 stands for Participant 4.

Findings Ten of the 21 participants were professional staff working at Higher Education Worker (HEW) levels 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 (a senior role). One was a teacher in the vocational education and training division. Ten were academics, half of them at Level B or lecturer level. The study clearly demonstrated that traditional notions of linear career progression have been replaced by strong preferences for boundaryless careers (Thompson, 2013).

Workplace benefits Participants identified the chief benefits of their work as flexibility, autonomy, financial rewards, a regional workplace, and a positive working environment which included productive and enjoyable teamwork, as discussed below. The key benefit of working at the university was flexibility, mentioned by 12 of the 21 participants. This encompassed flexible work hours, working from home (which was particularly appealing for women with young children), and not being micro-managed. These findings reflect earlier research (Lewis Campbell & Huerta, 2008; White, 2014;). One participant commented: ‘My job also allows me flexibility, such as working at home one day a week, which is important while the children are still young’ (P18). Flexibility played out in several ways, as another explained: ‘I have a ‘wiggle room’ to meet the expectations of the role. I can happily work at home at night, or on weekends – I work hard to ensure I am fulfilling all my duties as I am grateful for the ability to have the role’ (P9). It was clear that this staff member was conscientious about

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getting the work done, even when working from home, and appreciated having the job. Several reported that they could bring their children to work if necessary. Generally, working in higher education provided ‘flexibility, variety, opportunities that don’t occur in industry’ (P8). Some participants considered that autonomy was a key benefit; for example, providing ‘freedom, independence and forcing me to be creative’ (P7), ‘There is a fair amount of autonomy to determine my goals and how I achieve them’ (P4) and ‘autonomy, and the ability to choose which days I work’ (P10). These responses resonate with Riordan’s (2011, p. 118) observation that freedom and autonomy ‘encourage, retain and accelerate the success of academics’. Working at a regional university was crucially important, reflecting Wallace’s (2005) research, as one participant described: ‘The opportunity to live and work in a regional location and to be able to work flexibly as needed when family and other circumstance require this’ (P16). Others said that the university being close to home was a benefit; for example, as it was ‘local, [and] not travelling [to other cities]’ (P13). A further benefit was a good working environment which included meeting interesting people and ‘great team, opportunities for professional development’ (P2). There were also advantages in ‘always learning’ (P1); ‘being in a learning environment which I really enjoy’ (P3); the ‘ability to have a stimulating, challenging and fulfilling role’ (P9); ‘Every [sic] changing roles that provide new opportunities that keep me interested and motivated’ (P14); and ‘unexpected challenges that feels like problem solving’ (P7). Working with other staff was another benefit; for example, ‘I enjoy the university community’ (P4); ‘good colleagues’ (P13); ‘collegiality’ (P16); ‘mental stimulation [and] working with other academics’ (P15); ‘networks of colleagues … making a difference in my field’ (P10); ‘supportive and hard-working colleagues amongst both the academic and professional teams’ (P14); and ‘a good team to work with that is well-organised’ (P3). Job satisfaction and internal and external engagement were also important: ‘contributing to the academic and local community, promoting STEM for women, industry collaboration’ (P21). Interaction with students was an additional bonus: ‘It allows me to work in an area I’m passionate about, to teach students who share my passion, to read widely and think deeply’ (P18). Others identified ‘being in a learning environment which I really enjoy, supporting students’ (P3) and ‘making a difference to students’ (P15) as important, while the following participant thoughtfully reflected on her part in the students’ educational development: ‘I get to be part of the students’ journey. I can see them change from the first week to the end of their first semester. I know that the university will change their life’ (P6). Being student focused had benefits for staff: ‘Finding a solution for those challenges translates in help for students which gives

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me a sense of personal satisfaction and purpose’ (P7). These responses echo various studies that have demonstrated the benefits of student-centred approaches to learning (Asoodeh, Asoodeh & Zarepour, 2012; Laal & Ghodsi, 2012). In summary, staff valued the flexibility that working at the institution provided. They also enjoyed working at a regional university because it was close to where they lived. Further, autonomy, not being micro-managed and being challenged by their role were important. They were generally positive about their working environment, although one observed that ‘some people in middle management like to control your hours even though I have great work outputs’ (P12). Interaction with students was a key benefit for several participants – watching them develop, helping them and making a difference to their lives.

Working in Teams Participants were asked to describe their work team/s (past and present, if relevant) and their relationships within the team. Most reported that they worked in productive teams and enjoyed working with their colleagues, for example: I work in a great team. There are about 12 at my location within the broader team and I get along with everyone. I find them supportive and friendly. Members of the team at other locations are also friendly and helpful. We meet via Skype regularly and I feel connected to them (P2). The team described here worked across several campuses. While the need to travel between campuses could be a challenge, team members were described as ‘friendly and helpful’ and one participant had a strong sense of connection with everyone in the team. Others also reported positive experiences: ‘I have a good rapport and relationship with my current team. We work closely together, and I believe I am a good role model’ (P20); ‘we still enjoy excellent collegiality internally and with our diverse research partners’ (P16) and ‘We have a strong team marked by mutual respect and open communication’ (P18). Interaction with the team could be so constructive that it led to socialising with colleagues: I have worked in some amazing teams during my time at the University and it is what keeps me here. The staff are amazing and having a supportive team has assisted me in challenging times as I have been heavily involved and personally affected by three major restructures during the past ten years. I have developed some close relationships at the University and the people I now consider to be friends and I now socialise with many outside work. (P4) However, while staff demonstrated goodwill towards the university and students, it was felt that this was not always reciprocated, and this increased the levels of stress for staff. Stress generated by high workloads could have an impact on work teams, as this participant described: ‘Previously team vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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teaching across campuses worked very well with goodwill on all sides, however with the latest iteration of workloads ... Cross campus teaching is not as easy as it once was’ (P8). Thus, cross campus teaching could produce challenges for teams. For example, one woman explained: ‘I work with my colleagues via email or phone. All interactions I have with everyone are really positive. However, sometimes, rather than feeling like we are a team, I feel like I am an outsider requesting things’ (P7). Thus, working across campuses left her feeling like she was not part of the team and rather than choosing ‘invisibility’ as a strategy, she was rendered unintentionally ‘invisible’ by working on an outlying campus. Another argued that the university did not have appropriate policies and procedures to support such teams: The cross-campus school team has had some ‘interesting’ politics that directly relate to the differences between campus locations and student cohorts – it has been a positive experience but building relationships within this team has been a journey. The change in the upper management level over the past three years and the change in my role … has added to the complexity of these relationships. I have found that the general university policies and procedures do not always seem to support multi-campus locations (P17). The suggestion here was that constant change in management and in staff roles together with dispersed campuses had created more complexity in team environments and positioned them as what Gherardi (1995) described as ‘outsiders on the inside’. Some of these participants therefore chose an ‘intentional invisibility’ as an agentic response to workplace reorganisation. Changes in the structure and focus of work teams could also be challenging: Past work teams – have largely been faculty-oriented. They were very collegiate; inclusive, focussed on staff development and varied in projects. The current work team – more ‘central’ support. It is less varied and provides less opportunity for development and initiative (P19). These changes had led to fewer opportunities for team members and suggested there was less job satisfaction which in some cases, could lead to the adoption of ‘intentional invisibility’ as a strategy of resistance and agency. However, not all teams functioned collaboratively. For example, the following academic reported that: ‘Most staff respect me because I am intelligent, but some treat me as an inferior being because I am sessional and do not have a PhD’ (P6), indicating a two-tier academic workforce and collective rendering of ‘invisibility’ for the staff member. Another participant described how she worked with a challenging team member and deft management was required to achieve optimal results: ‘I have always tried to bring maximum communication to each team to ensure common

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understanding. One member of one team is not interested in their teaching, so interactions need to be managed carefully to ensure required action is taken by this team member, to achieve positive outcomes’ (P15). The broader organisational culture in which teams operated could also be problematic, as one participant explained: ‘This university has [an] older culture of a boy’s club. It values traditions and older ways of doing things. Whilst there is change, there is still a mindset, and it appears as though the men get more opportunities and promoted quicker and get valued more …’ (P12). What emerges here is an old boy’s club with a ‘mindset’ that promoted its own (Bagilhole & White, 2011). A further participant experienced difficulty with some male team members: ‘some of my male colleagues … who have worked with me in a non-leadership role have difficulty accepting that I am now in a leadership role and are threatened and challenged by it’ (P14). In this instance, these men could not accept the participant moving into a leadership role, again indicating that a masculinist culture was pervasive in some parts of the university. In summary, almost half of the participants worked in positive teams where colleagues were supportive and communicated well. However, workplace stress resulting from organisational change could have a negative impact on teams, and some found cross campus teams could be challenging and noted tensions between sessional and ongoing academic staff in a team. There were also vestiges of a masculinist culture in the organisation that led to some team members having difficulty in accepting women in leadership roles. Despite these challenges, teams generally functioned well, and teamwork was an extremely positive element of jobs.

Impact of dispersed campuses on teams We were keen to ascertain how teams across dispersed campuses functioned. Participants were asked ‘Has the composition and location of your work team aﬀected your ability to participate in events? What impact does this have on working relationships’? While it was not an issue for a quarter of participants, many found that having work groups between dispersed campuses could be difficult. One described how: Having my coordinator based [at the central campus] is challenging at times as I cannot access them as readily as if they were at the same location as me. But I can contact them by phone/skype/email, and I speak to a colleague at my location if I need to (P2). Another also needed to contact colleagues remotely but found there was no substitute for meeting them in person: Skype isn’t ideal, but it allows for regular communication between teams spread across several locations. There’s noth-

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ing like face-to-face communication, however, so I do try to catch up with colleagues in person when possible, even if only once a year (P18). A common theme was that working with colleagues across dispersed campuses often made it difficult to build relationships in the work team. There could be various layers of complexity, as this participant explained: The events that are on other campus[es] can affect the ability to build relationships with the larger school team. While there are times that the team has met [at the central campus or other campuses] this results in more time travelling than time spent in meetings. Not travelling, and engaging in meetings via Skype often make it difficult to fully join the conversation as the technology will often drop out or we have problems hearing everyone in the meeting room and then end up talking over each other. This makes it harder to build relationships and demonstrate your value in a meeting. Working on other campuses also means that there is no opportunity for casual chats in the lunchroom or the ability to pop into someone’s office and ask a question – if I have questions, they come across much more official in an email [P17]. It is clear from this account that joining meetings remotely was a poor substitute for being in the room with other colleagues, reflecting Herman and Hilliam’s (2018) findings. Moreover, informal conversations did not happen if work colleagues were on dispersed campuses. The importance of these face-to-face meetings was emphasised: ‘I feel we would all benefit from closer proximity to colleagues [at other campuses] or more regular in-person meetings’ (P3) and ‘As my teaching teams are physically apart in campuses hours away by car travel, I have found it invaluable to attend any events at another campus, to build face-to face relationships with other team members. Lack of attendance at these events would have inhibited the development of these relationships’ (P15). Therefore, working across dispersed campuses created extra challenges for teams. The following participant had worked at the university before it acquired dispersed campuses and observed that more campuses meant more problems in developing close working relationships for the team: … in the past few years, I have found that we are less able to build good teams and undertake the activities that we need to do to build strong teams due to the time involved to get everyone together. When we were a single campus organisation, undertaking professional development activities and team events were more possible. As a result of the distance involved, many activities have ceased or been reduced which I believe has meant that some staff are left quite isolated from their teams ... The distance means that I have not been able to develop the close working relationships that I have in the past (P4). This account suggested that the joined-up approach across campuses was not working effectively and that some staff

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women professional staff and academics at an Australian regional university with dispersed campuses. The research was undertaken only weeks before the full effects of the COVID19 pandemic forced the institution to transfer all programs to online learning delivery modes. Our study found that working in teams at a regional I don’t participate in the fortnight team meetings, Christmas university was mostly a positive experience for women. Both dinner or just casual catch ups because of my location. For academics and professional staff considered their teamwork that reason, I don’t get to build the level of working relationwas productive and had social benefits while being enjoyable ships that my colleagues have (P7). and establishing connections with other workers. … … previously there was the ability to meet more often. Now Nevertheless, we found that women were looking for new there is a lot of ‘distance’ between staff. Working relationships ways of working in teams and enthusiastically embraced the in some regards are better, in other regards this has been difconcept of contemporary job progression being developed ficult. … Hence it being a challenging aspect of the role (9). in boundaryless careers. For instance, they reported having strong connections with other dedicated team members, The sense of isolation and estrangement from the team being supported by them, and the team being characterised created by physical distance between campuses is clear in by friendliness and mutual these accounts, as Herman and respect. These factors all Hilliam (2018) and Thomas et While virtual communication went some contributed to positive al. (2019) also found. way to keeping teams together, there was no and collaborative work Dispersed campuses were substitute for face-to-face meetings... environments that fostered enormously challenging for a type of career mobility the some, and it was a matter of participants clearly preferred, compromise on occasion. rather than more traditional forms of career progression While it was not always possible to attend other campuses which include a focus on salary and job titles (Arthur et for a particular event, this staff member tried to be ‘fair and al., 2005; Sullivan & Arthur, 2006). Consistent with other equitable’ in choosing when to go to another campus: ‘Having research, the data also demonstrated that women preferred staff on [several] campuses makes it difficult to attend every flexibility, autonomy, and the regional workplace location event whenever something is happening on a campus. I try (Kuhn & Villeval, 2013; Thompson, 2013) which were all to prioritise important occasions and when I choose to miss positive factors in their working life. something, I try to be fair and equitable, so that it’s not always Consistent with other research findings, our study strongly the same campus missing out’ (P11). indicated that traditional markers of career progression such Organising team meetings could also be difficult: ‘My work as salary and job titles were not as highly regarded by women team is across [a number of ] campuses. It makes it nearly as the more intangible benefits of flexibility, autonomy and impossible to have the team together to participate in events collaboration (Kuhn & Villeval, 2013). Thompson (2013) or share ideas. Technology such as Skype is used but is not as argues that women’s preference for collaborative teamwork effective as being together. Some campuses work in isolation to is partially due to their optimistic appraisal of their others, which makes for challenges in the team’ (P13). co-workers’ abilities, in contrast to the more pessimistic In summary, for most participants dispersed campuses were appraisal of teams by male counterparts. It can therefore challenging. They made it difficult to access team members be concluded that women are generally more focused than who were on different campuses. Relying on a few forms of men on co-operative teamwork and career progression technology for meetings also had its challenges regarding based on mobility that focuses on positive workplaces and access, connectivity and technical support. While virtual collaboration. communication went some way to keeping teams together, The feedback provided by participants suggests that a there was no substitute for face-to-face meetings and for the way forward for universities in building teams which cater informal conversations that occurred when team members for women’s work preferences (Kuhn & Villeval, 2013; were in the same room. Those on outlying campuses, at times, Thompson, 2013) would be to re-visit and re-design felt isolated from both the team and the organisation. policies that target inclusive practices with a focus on gender equity. These women valued flexibility, autonomy, Discussion and the opportunity to work collaboratively in positive team environments because this enabled them to effectively This article has focused on issues affecting women working combine work with care-giving responsibilities. in teams, a key emphasis of our project that investigated on outlying campuses were left feeling isolated from their teams and the organisation while experiencing a kind of ‘unintentional invisibility’. Others concurred, describing the negative impact on relating to their colleagues:

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However, the requirement for travel at regional universities and the current use of communication technology could impede the new ways of working that these women preferred. Ongoing travel across dispersed campuses did not work for women, particularly those with family responsibilities, and often left them estranged from the team. Our findings also indicate that the way technology is currently used to enable teams to function is fundamentally flawed. Relying on a few forms of technology to connect team members on different campuses had shortcomings that encompassed access, equipment functionality, and operator knowledge and skills, as well as the level of technical support, that resulted in this technology not always enabling collaborative work. With new ways of working especially since the lockdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, universities may wish to explore implementation of policies to create a third space structure to address issues raised in this research about women working across dispersed campuses. It could include group members from various backgrounds breaking away from traditional notions of the separate work typically performed by academic and professional staff. To address the challenges involved in travelling between campuses and an over-reliance on technology identified by women in our research, universities could establish diverse teams that would function in third spaces to enable group connections for fixed term projects. Third spaces rest on principles of democratic collaboration and in these higher education spaces, group agendas, goal setting, task distribution, deadlines, meeting schedules, and judicious use of different forms of technology could be driven by the group. This kind of space would enable women to work collaboratively for short, sharp time periods on small-scale projects or as a part of programs with members of the team meeting in both face-to-face and virtual modes. Professional learning opportunities and ongoing technical support would enable teams to use a range of technologies. These measures would address the major issues that arose from the data, as collaborative teamwork would enable a flexible work environment and meeting attendance could be cyclical and short-term, depending on the stage of the program. In addition, the use of third spaces might alleviate the tendency for some of the study’s participants not to apply for or take up leadership roles due to a range of factors, preferring to ‘fly under the radar’ or remain ‘invisible’. A third space structure is particularly appropriate in Australian universities where women comprise 66.4 per cent of professional (administrative) staff and 47.7 per cent of academic staff (Universities Australia, 2020). While a ‘them and us’ divide between professional and academic staff has been noted (Graham & Regan, 2016), with misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the scope of the work and decisionmaking authority of professional staff (Conway &

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Dobson, 2003), a third space structure would enable the implementation of projects and processes that traditionally have perpetuated boundaries between professional and academic staff. In a third space, the expertise of both groups could be used to undertake both short-term and long-term projects. This work would be cyclical, enabling the formation of teams to work on particular projects according to the academic calendar such as enrolments, student transitions, credit applications, assessment marking and finalisation, and Open Days and thus, further breaking down boundaries and improving outcomes. There are two examples of informal teams already operating in a third space. The first involves academics and professional staff establishing working relationships in which they can call on each other for advice about student enrolments and credit applications and action the relevant paperwork. Academics provide guidance on program progression and professional staff advise on unit availability and prerequisites. Both sets of workers fill out relevant documentation. The second example is the often-contested issue of placement experiences/work integrated learning (WIL). Academics and professional staff have worked together in lectures and tutorials to give students timely and incremental advice on preparing for placements and then debriefing after the event. Having both groups present when discussing and completing practical activities enables students and staff to gain a deeper understanding of how placement is organised and assessed and how it fits into the program. In these examples of third spaces, students benefit from the expertise and co-operative teamwork of both academics and professional staff. Our research suggests that third space teamwork would be welcomed by participants in our study as a way of implementing their preferred way of working in teams and improving communication. It could be a combination of virtual and face-to-face meetings with regular physical gatherings and virtual check-in sessions negotiated by the group. Such a framework might include research seminars, professional development opportunities, best practice sharing sessions, and collaborations on short terms projects like Open Day, as well as student transition experiences and support. Work on these projects could be undertaken on campus and virtually on a rotating basis. The importance of flexibility and versatility would be paramount as team members would need to be familiar with a few different work areas, so that the absence of a team member could be easily covered by other colleagues in the team.

Conclusion The women at an Australian regional university who participated in this study worked in positive teams where colleagues were supportive and communicated well. However,

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workplace stress resulting from organisational change could have a negative impact on teams, and some found cross campus teams could be challenging. Relying on a few forms of technology for meetings – with issues of access, connectivity and technical support – was no substitute for face-to-face meetings. Our research therefore indicates that implementing third spaces with support for technology use could not only be useful in developing teams in tertiary institutions, it could also be employed for a range of long and short-term projects. Based on difference and diversity, third spaces reject outdated notions of rigid boundaries, especially those between professional and academic staff. They make space for mixed groups of workers from a range of roles who work collaboratively and democratically on projects such as student enrolment, placement opportunities, funding applications and student support initiatives. Such collective, collaborative, flexible and democratic spaces create territory in which a variety of workers can drive and complete a project without being limited by traditional work role boundaries. Third spaces could also be extensions of the new ways of working being explored during the current pandemic. Our data suggest that these third spaces are the kind of hybrid territories that are important for the type of collaboration and teamwork that women wish to accomplish in their working lives at regional universities. Anitra Goriss-Hunter is a lecturer at Federation University Australia and her research and teaching focuses on inclusion and pre-service teacher (PST) education. Her current projects include investigating women’s careers in higher education, exploring inclusive pedagogies for teaching PSTs, and, examining student engagement in STEM education. Kate White is an author and adjunct associate professor at Federation University. Her latest book (with Pat O’Connor) ‘Gender, Power and Higher Education in a Globalised World’ was published by Palgrave Macmillan. Contact: a.goriss-hunter@federation.edu.au

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Riordan, S. (2011). Paths to Success in Senior Management. In B. Bagilhole and K. White (eds.). Gender, Power and Management: a crosscultural analysis of higher education, 110-139, Basingstoke: Palgrave. RUN (Regional Universities Network). (2021). RUN Objectives, Retrieved from https://www.run.edu.au/RUNObjectives Schuck, S., Kearney, M., & Burden, K. (2017) Exploring mobile learning in the Third Space, Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 26(2), 121-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2016.1230555 Sebalj, D., Holbrook, A., & Bourke, S. (2012). The rise of “professional staff ” and demise of the “non-academic”: A study of university staffing nomenclature preferences. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 34(5), 463–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600 80X.2012.715994 Seppälä, E., & Cameron, K. (2015). Proof that positive work cultures are more productive. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr. org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive Soja, E.W. (1996). Thirdspace. Malden (Mass.): Blackwell. Sullivan, S. & Arthur, M. (2006). The evolution of the boundaryless career concept: Examining physical and psychological mobility. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(1), 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jvb.2005.09.001 Thomas, J., Thomas, C., & Smith, K. (2019). The challenges for gender equity and women in leadership in a distributed university in regional Australia. Social Sciences, 8(6), 1-9. Retrieved from https://doi. org/10.3390/socsci8060165 Thompson, D. (2013). Why women prefer working together (and why men prefer working alone). The Atlantic. Retrieved from https:// www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/why-women-preferworking-together-and-why-men-prefer-working-alone/278888/ Tomaselli, K. (2013). Visualizing Different Kinds of Writing: Autoethnography, Social Science. Visual Anthropology 26 (2), 165–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2012.718985 Universities Australia. (2020). 2019 Selected Inter-Institutional Gender Equity Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.universitiesaustralia. edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2019-UA-Selected-InterInstitutional-Gender-Equity-Statistics.pdf. Wallace, M. (2005). The paradox and the price: A case study of female academic managers in an Australian regional university, in V. Maione (ed.), Gender Equality in Higher Education, 355-375, Milan: FrancoAngeli. Wassenaar, C. L., & Pearce, C. (2012). The Nature of Shared Leadership. In J. Antonakis & D. Day (Eds.) The Nature of Leadership. pp. 363-389. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

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Appendix 1 Questions: The challenges for women working in Australian regional universities Section A: Identity 1. 2. 3. 4.

Where did you grow up? What languages do you speak? Do you identify as a carer? Yes No If yes, for whom do you provide care? A child/children A child/children living with an illness or disability A person other than a child living with an illness or disability An elderly person/elderly people

Section B: The University 1.

What is your employment level? e.g., Academic A, B, C, D, E or HEW level. 2. What is your employment status? Sessional, part-time contract, full-time contract, part-time ongoing, full-time ongoing. 3. For how many years have you worked as an academic/ professional staff member? 4. What are some of the benefits of your job? 5. What are some of the challenges involved in your job? 6. Describe your work team/s (past and present, if relevant) and your relationships within the team. 7. Working at the University often requires travel, how easy do you find it to travel given your personal circumstances? 8. How has travel (or the inability to travel) affected your access to professional development and other opportunities, e.g., training, conferences etc.? 9. Has the composition and location of your work team affected your ability to participate in events? What impact does this have on working relationships? 10. What impact has the intersection of gender, personal circumstances, travel, access to professional development/other opportunities and team events had on your career progression? 11. Do you feel the terms of your employment (fraction, employment/contract-type) have impacted on your career progression? 12. Do you have any suggestions to reduce these barriers at the University?

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Renewable Teaching and Learning: Untangling the role of the Australian university Anne Richards Griffith University

This paper engages with current debate on the role of the university following COVID-19, exposing the ongoing corruption of traditional values of the tertiary sector, and the shift in teaching and learning expectations across the academy. It highlights the negative impact of the huge decline in government funding since the 1990s, salary inequity, ongoing job loss and decline in teaching and learning conditions within universities, alongside proven wage theft and exploitation of sessional and casual staff. Government neglect of the higher education sector is obvious in its refusal to support any university staff through JobKeeper funding. These issues, together with an ongoing public apathy towards the education sector, have demoralised, disenfranchised and fragmented this vital knowledge-rich professional cohort. The critique argues that government funding to the tertiary sector must be increased to positively incentivise and restore the role of the public university in a democratic society. There should be a clear recalibration of higher education within the public sector. Staff need to work together across disciplines and hierarchies to address proven dysfunctional practices within the academy with a strong, united voice. It advances some recommendations to recapture the spirit of the once idealistic university mission, while also addressing the many-stranded, utilitarian functions that are demanded in a complex, changing landscape. Keywords: Government funding, managerialism, job loss, course cuts, staff morale, wage inequity, wage theft, research subsidisation

Introduction Many commentators have stressed that there is a crisis within the tertiary education system. And there is. It crosses most sectors of the university, impacting its core functions that are to provide a platform for quality teaching and excellence in innovative research. Both these arms are considered to be essential for the ‘greater good’ of the society that supports them. One 16th century definition based on Oxford University describes itself as a ‘community of teachers and scholars’, the word scholars including the students (French, quoted in Fisher, 2018). This has a distinct utopian resonance. The university traditionally had a mandate to engage with the broader community for the common good

of society. Historically in the western world, there was an acceptance of the university functioning as an active public sphere, promoting community engagement and encouraging democratic citizenship. Certainly, the university of the 21st century is a more complex beast, but it is useful to outline this foundational mission. It supplies a simpler vision of the role of the university. This critique engages with current debate on the role of the university following COVID-19, exposing the ongoing corruption of traditional values of the tertiary sector and the shift in expectations across the academy. It demonstrates the fragmentation and demoralisation caused by ongoing funding cuts and micromanagement that undermines the fundamental conditions required to keep a university

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2018). There is a public acceptance of this corporatisation functioning at a professional, sustainable level. Kenny (2018, that affects government funding, policy initiatives, pp. 365-6) argues that ‘neo-liberal economic policies have led implementation strategies and accountability chains. The to significant reductions in government funding, increased effect of government legislation and policy is shackling the managerialism and external accountability mechanisms’ that sector into a dysfunctional, micromanaged corporate shell have disempowered academics and ‘reduced productivity (Aspromourgos, 2018; Garton, 2018; Kenny, 2018, pp. because they ignore the nature of academic work.’ A 365-67). The University of Sydney alone is governed by 120 productive move, garnered from detailed research, is for separate pieces of federal and state legislation all of which academics to have ‘strong influence over the way their work involve compliance reports and costings (Garton, 2018). is controlled and managed, to ensure the nature of their work Obviously, this is an important element driving the rampant is adequately considered’ (Kenny, 2018, 378). This is one managerialism and administrative governance of university initiative that would help address the disempowerment across policy, assets, staff, research, and also students, the clients/ academia with a resultant shift into survival mode. Inclusion in consumers of the marketing machine. decision making and recognition of the ‘self-managed aspects In addition, from its early incarnation, the university sector of academic work’ (Kenny, 2018, 365) is also recommended, functioned as an alternative public sphere. Our universities alongside a renewed respect for the entrenched professional were accepted channels of innovative criticism of government academic ethos that drives the higher education sector. policy, private enterprise, Universities are ‘national public discourse and civic assets’ according to the Unfortunately, there is also a long history purpose, an alternative University of Sydney in Australia of oppressive action against think tank to mainstream Association of Professors social, cultural and political (University of Sydney, 2018) the independence and freedom of speech systems. The University of and there is a dignity attached enabled by university institutions. Also Sydney Act (New South to that description. However, unfortunately, both federal and state Wales Government, 1989; in current government funding governments have a history of not being 2017), in Sections 6(1) and and policy agendas the sympathetic to, or recognising the value of, 6(2): (b), places the mission university exists as a knowledgeof the university as ‘the making, brain-power supply this alternative public sphere. promotion, within the limits unit within society, justified in of the University’s resources, of terms of its economic benefit scholarship, research, free inquiry, the interaction of research and its usefulness to industry. Certainly, it can be viewed as and teaching, and academic excellence.’ Importantly, it also a ‘brains trust’ resource that becomes increasingly valuable in adds the need for ‘participation in public discourse’, while the a knowledge economy. As Baird (2018) observed, Australian University Charter (University of Sydney, 2019, 2(4.b). p. 2) ‘education exports were $31.9 billion, having increased 14 per goes further to encourage ‘principled and informed discussion cent’ over the previous year. She continued that the figures of all aspects of knowledge and culture’. This is a laudable show that Australian brains ‘are almost equivalent to minerals mission for a publicly funded educational institution, one that and coal as Australia’s top earning sectors’. Such cross-sector academics at all levels have been proud to promote. analysis is both useful and detrimental to debates concerning Unfortunately, there is also a long history in Australia of the role of the university now and into the future. Of course, oppressive action against the independence and freedom of the Covid crisis had a crippling effect; nevertheless, this is still speech enabled by university institutions. Also unfortunately, the accepted discourse for justifying tertiary education as an both federal and state governments have a history of not being industry. sympathetic to, or recognising the value of, this alternative Given this framework, the question too easily becomes public sphere. For anyone passionate about this educational whether universities as a national resource should be treated sector, it seems a dangerous folly to categorise and encourage and managed like any other corporate institution. This universities to situate themselves as competing firms driven argument is raging despite 36 of 39 Australian universities by profit-maximising policies with directors and managers being situated in the public sector. The university is not profitimplementing a corporate mentality. It is essential to driven since any surplus is invested back into the institution, recalibrate this sector firmly within the public sector adhering it pays no tax and there are no shareholders (Garton, 2018; to the more traditional, Australian mandate of the university Sainsbury, 2020). Nevertheless, the relentless managerial mission. As a public sector, it is primarily the government’s push to profit maximisation has shifted the culture and work responsibility to adequately fund the education of its people, practice of higher educational institutions (Aspromourgos, so it is essential to reassess the level of direct funding that 2018; Baird, 2018; Connell, 2016; Garton, 2018; Shergold, vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Australian citizens expect their government to provide for a quality tertiary education system.

Government funding and incongruities Since the 1990s, there has been a systematic withdrawal of funding to tertiary education. The Education and Training: Budget Review 2019-20 states that ‘Total funding for all Australian education sits at around 1.8 per cent of GDP’. The Eurostat report on ‘Educational expenditure statistics’ (2020) highlighted that ‘In 2017, public spending on education relative to GDP was highest in Denmark (7.3 per cent) and Sweden (7.1 per cent) while it was lowest in Romania (2.7 per cent)’. However, ‘most of the Member States reported ratios of public expenditure on education relative to GDP that were between 3.4 per cent and 5.8 per cent, with only Romania below this range’ (Eurostat Statistics Explained, 2020). The average was 4.7 per cent of GDP with the United Kingdom sitting at 4.8 per cent in 2018 (Eurostat Statistics Explained, 2020). Again, I reiterate that Australian education expenditure is an embarrassingly poor 1.8 per cent of GDP lagging behind Romania, one of the poorest European countries that contributes 2.7 per cent of GDP. At the same time, government policy here is to allocate ongoing tertiary funding to universities according to their performance measured against a global comparative scale of excellence. Australia is already under-achieving. The key stakeholders in this teaching and research equation are academics: lecturers, researchers, tutors and technicians (whether long term sessionals or casual staff ) and students (both local and international). There is also a large sector of support workers – 57 per cent of all university staff (Klikauer & Link 2020, p.70) – including librarians, IT staff, catering, cleaning, gardening and maintenance staff etc., who play an essential functional role. Naturally a large institution needs governance, and this belongs in the offices of the chancellor, vice chancellor, the senate, executive deans and directors, with deans of faculties and various academic and administrative units sitting below the main managerial hierarchy. The number and purpose of these managerial towers has multiplied according to the imperatives imposed by government legislation, academic teaching and research priorities. The other bulging hubs here are the national and international marketing departments. Organisational charts, including the University of Sydney organisational structure outlined here, detail the structural elements of managerial and marketing roles with tiers of command within Australian universities which clearly demonstrate the complexification of contemporary university governance. One staggering by-product of managerialism is the exorbitant wages paid to university vice chancellors with most salaries sitting between $1 – $1.6 million according to Smith

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and Guthrie (2020). Australia’s Prime Minister receives just under $550,000. There is still the perception that Australia needs to pay higher salaries to attract the best talent with a parallel argument that the role requires a highly prestigious figurehead. However, there is no rational explanation for this extraordinary example of cultural cringe. Australia became its own nation 120 years ago. It is argued that the Australian salary compares with an average pay rate for Vice Chancellors of A$670,000 in the US and A$635,000 in the UK (Smith & Guthrie, 2020). The Australian Association of University Professors recommends that a fair wage would be double a professorial salary, which would equate to $360,000 a year (Baker, 2020). Equally extravagant pay scales apply to all higher levels of university executive management in Australia. These high salaries are permitted even under the adverse economic climate of severe funding cuts to the education sector. Under the same regime, the universities cannot afford additional permanent staff, or continuing positions for part-permanent contract and sessional teaching staff. There have been huge job losses, whole departments closed and widespread course cancellations. The most vulnerable staff, sessional and casual academics, are victims of wage theft allegations against universities for underpayment, an issue that will be discussed in detail. Many critics argue that academic staff are being micromanaged by highly paid managers and bureaucrats that the university does not need, but somehow can afford to pay. This is not an isolated syndrome. ‘In the UK, two thirds of universities now have more administrators than they do faculty staff ’ (Spicer, 2017). Critical cost savings can be made across the bureaucratic and administrative sections of the university hierarchy, starting with cutting salaries to vicechancellors, directors and executive deans. This whole salary framework needs to be reappraised. Realistically many of these higher management positions should be abolished.

Funding cuts and survival Putting the managerial sector of universities aside for the present, the next section of this argument focuses on the erosion of confidence and stability within the teaching sector which traditionally forms half the professional responsibility of Australian universities. Ongoing cuts to government funding of the tertiary sector since the 1990s have shifted the educational and research priorities, as well as the cultural ethos, of Australian universities (Brett 2021; Kenny, 2018; Klikauer & Link, 2020), although I am not addressing the research sector here. Again Garton (2018) provides this example: In 1990, 89 per cent of the funding for the University of Sydney came from the Government – excluding HECs and

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The University of Sydney organisational structure Senate

Vice-Chancellor and Principal University Executive

Academic Board − Internal Audit

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor (vacant)

− − − −

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education – Enterprise and Engagement)

Education Quality and Policy Post-Bachelor and Continuing Education Graduate Research Academic Enrichment (Learning Centre, Mathematics Learning Centre)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Excellence)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

− − − − −

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Educational Innovation)

− National Centre for Cultural Competence

− Research reporting, analytics, data and systems − Research strategy and policy − Commercial development and industry partnerships − Research development and collaboration

− Research grants and contracts − Research integrity and ethics administration − University-wide multidisciplinary research initiatives − Core research facilities − Libraries

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Vice-Principal (External Relations)

Vice-Principal (Operations)

Vice-Principal (Strategy)

General Counsel

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Life)

− Indigenous strategy

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement)

Vice-Principal (Advancement)

Centre for English Teaching Quality and Analytics Student Support Services Centre for Continuing Education Student Affairs and Compliance

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research – Enterprise and Engagement)

− Development − Alumni and Supporter Relations

− Advancement Services

− Sydney Future Students − External Engagement − Marketing and Communications

− Museums and Cultural Engagement − Media and Public Relations − Events Office

− − − −

University Infrastructure Central Operations Services Student Administration Services Financial Services

Human Resources Information and Communications Technology Risk Management Safety

− Strategic Planning Office − Strategic Ventures Office

− Central Program Management Office − Institutional Analytics and Planning

− Legal services − Archives and Records Management − Policy Management

− Trusts Office − Group Secretary

− Faculties and University schools

− University-wide centres

Vice-Chancellor’s portfolio Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (vacant)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Medicine and Health) and Executive Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Health

Faculty Deans (Dean, University of Sydney Business School Dean, Faculty of Engineering Dean, Faculty of Science)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (University Schools) and Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Heads of School and Deans of University Schools*

Higher Education Policy and Projects

Government Relations

University Secretariat

Vice-Chancellor’s Office

*These roles includF the following: Head and School and Dean, University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning; Head of School and Dean, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Head of School and Dean, the University of Sydney Law School.

Culture Strategy

As at January 2021

Fig. 1: University of Sydney organisational structure for top tier levels (University of Sydney 2021). Also see University of Queensland organisational structure: https://about.uq.edu.au/files/5643/org-chart.pdf and Australian National University structure: https://www.anu.edu.au/ files/resource/OVC210009%20SeniorManOrgChart%20v2.pdf

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FEE-Help. In 2017, such Government funding was merely 30 per cent. And much of this had to be won in competition with other universities. In a $2b annual business only $30m of the University of Sydney’s funding came from government with absolutely no strings attached. Admittedly, the University of Sydney is a resource rich, sandstone university, but a similar down-scaling of funding can be applied across all Australian universities. The 2015 federal budget alone cut funding to the Office for Learning and Teaching by over 36 per cent ($A16.1m) for the period 2016 to 2019 (Gardner, 2015). This was only one stroke of the pen. As Gittens (2018) argues, ‘For 30 years, successive federal governments have worked to get university funding off the federal budget’. Traditionally – and officially this is still operative – the university sector is situated within the public sector and government funding is an imperative. The corporatisation of universities is directly the result, and probably purposefully the result, of this direct funding policy shift since funding and stable functioning are no longer guaranteed by government. Under these circumstances, the general management response to funding reductions was ongoing restructures and staff cuts. Multiple management theorists argue consistently that the uncertainty created by regular restructuring generates an insecure, demoralised and often resistant staff workplace (Ashford, Lee & Bobko, 1989; Ford, Ford & D’Amelio, 2008; Hechanov & Cementina-Olpoc, 2013; Samson, Donnett & Daft, 2021). Mason (as cited in Crysthanos, 2020; Kenny, 2018) confirms staff ‘burnout’ because of job cutting and increased workloads. The equal and opposite reaction of the universities, as proactive, intelligent institutions, was to seek other sources of income – avenues of revenue which were diligently pursued. Hence the recruitment drive across the international student market which led to the over reliance that rebounded so virulently during the COVID crisis and will have long lasting repercussions. Before COVID, international students made up 26 per cent of the Australian student cohort, with over 50 per cent of students in business schools (Baird, 2018). Pursuing other income streams also resulted in a closer coupling with corporate investment that often came with a self-serving agenda that could not easily be foreseen or vetoed. At the same time as the government slashed direct funding, there was increased regulation through the federal Department of Education and Training. Despite government assurances that they would ‘reduce the reporting and regulatory burden’ in universities (Australian Government, 2013), this has not eventuated (Garton, 2018). Increasingly, accountability was measured in restrictive economic justifications and productivity tables and graphs measuring value. This further disenfranchised specific disciplines such as the humanities, arts and social sciences where learning outcomes are not as

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easily translatable to an Excel spreadsheet (Brett 2021, p2627). The decline in Australian literature offerings is only one example of this trend (Lamond, 2019; Lever, 2019). The vital emphasis in these disciplines is not on factual learning as much as on the development of critical thinking, analytical and communication skills, creativity, innovation and problem solving. Sadly, it is essential to reassert that critical thinking is recognised as a vital foundation of democratic citizenship. It is also an integral factor in the successful completion of any university study. Nevertheless, these departments are now fighting for breath, further challenged to prove their worth through jobready matrices of productivity. It is not only seen in the closure of creative departments such as the School of Photography at Griffith University, theatre and drama programs at La Trobe and Newcastle universities, drama and musicology at Monash. The University of Sydney is cutting staff in the pathology and physiology disciplines by 39 per cent, with the loss of 29 full time positions in physiology alone (Crysthanos, 2020). ANU announced a loss of 20 positions from Health and Medicine as well as the closure of the neuroscience research unit (Evans & Glenday, 2021) – the neuroscience unit being a decision so unpopular that it was rescinded. If the departments and learning disciplines are ‘the engine of university discovery and learning’, as agreed at the University of Sydney Association of Professors Symposium (University of Sydney, 2018), the closure of these schools and subsequent absence of professional expertise from our education system is a critical blow for future students. However, few people recognise or discuss the ongoing consequences of the damage caused by such closures and loss of staff, or the flow on effect in learning outcomes for future students. There is another funding imbalance that must be recognised if Australian universities are to compete successfully in the global tertiary sector. The Budget Review 2019-20 on Education and Training shows that private schools in Australia receive more government funding than the entire higher education sector (Ferguson & Harrington, 2020). It is an obvious indicator of the lack of regard for tertiary education. Budget projections moving towards 2023 show that this level of funding will increase for the secondary private school sector and continue to decrease for the higher education sector (Ferguson & Harrington, 2020). The other inequity here is that private schools receive considerably more funding than government public schools that serve the majority of Australian families. This is a staggering inequity. Since the vast majority of Australian children attend public schools, the figures demonstrate that these children are immediately disadvantaged by their government from their first day of school. Despite numerous reviews and inquiries, it is astonishing that this privileging of the private sector continues. Parents and teachers should be

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The other cumulative and blatant outcome of this strategy is that it detracts from the student learning experience; students are robbed of weeks of teaching expertise and relevant learning material. The financial cost to the student is the same or now, with a new cost equation, it could be less, or it could be doubled. Learning is culled along with the number COVID, job loss and declining student of courses and the shorter time frames. There is less time for experience students to engage with the key concepts and principles of each course, less time for long-term learning, for critiquing COVID was the blowtorch that no one could predict, and content, for learning to write incisive arguments in assessment its impact on our universities was devastating with over responses. And students, many of whom work full time or 17,300 job losses in the first year of the pandemic. Deakin have several part-time jobs, are already time poor. The focus University alone shed over 300 jobs (Carey, 2020). Now it becomes the assignment topics rather than the whole course is estimated that over 40,000 jobs have been lost (McGregor, content, the student is assessment focused rather than learning 2021). The recent cynical disregard by the Australian focused. This again detracts from what should be the teaching Government of the university sector exposes its distrust of, and learning responsibility of the university as an educational and attempts to repurpose, the established educational sector. institution. Mason (quoted in Crythanos, 2020) laments that This is evidenced by its lack of any financial support during in her faculty, ‘We won’t have the COVID crisis and the enough staff to give students exclusion of university staff at The other cumulative and blatant outcome a good experience and that’s a all levels – academic, library, of this strategy is that it detracts from the tragedy’. maintenance or catering staff – student learning experience; students are In a purely logistic sense, from JobKeeper. the overall standard of course Such a targeted omission robbed of weeks of teaching expertise and learning is decreased, as is raises serious questions about relevant learning material. the knowledge imparted to government commitment students. This necessarily to the future welfare and equates with a lowering of skills and knowledge expertise in functional integrity of this long accepted educational domain. course graduates. The parallel argument that has circulated As Moodie (2020) argued, ‘Excluding universities from for the last ten to twenty years on the lowering standards of JobKeeper is another way of keeping universities in their place’. student graduates because of lower entry level requirements, Unfortunately, many more women than men lost jobs during the lowering of academic standards and pass expectations, only the crisis and were further oppressed by this exclusion from adds to the negative equation of what is already proven here. JobKeeper (Woods, Griffith & Crowley, 2021). The current As Brett (2021) argues in an incisive article in The Monthly, state of affairs means that staff are fighting for survival and what we are offering is not world-class. A comparative analysis correct pay rates in an insecure workplace. Instead, they should of staff numbers in specific disciplines here and in major be fighting for professional respect, challenging damaging overseas campuses clearly demonstrates this (Brett, 2021). university policies and inequalities, forming cooperative Brett (2021) states that ‘Many more people can now benefit alliances to address key issues with an empowered, united from university education, but Australia no longer provides voice, as well as actively engaging in community debate. the intensive university education it once did.’ Parents and There is a significant decrease in university course offerings students need to become more informed and look further across all campuses. Sadly, future students and their parents than university rankings in considering educational options. will not realise what they are missing and how it will detract The complacency of the Australian public that allows from their professional education. There is a decline in direct this continuing erosion of teaching, learning, and student teaching and learning time scales: 13-week courses are now 12 experience is unsettling. It should be a major concern, weeks (Brett, 2021) which is already operational at Griffith especially to the families of students who will be attending University and proposed by University of Sydney (Ollivain, these teaching institutions over the next twenty years. The 2021, April). Some universities are offering 10-week courses in slow dumbing down of the university teaching and learning postgraduate offerings with two weeks of non-teaching time, sector cannot be justified or easily rectified. It is not the fault supposedly to allow students time to focus on assignments. of teaching staff who must be highly committed professionals Apart from less rigorous course content, this means that to continue working in this increasingly toxic sector. Rather sessional staff are only paid for the ten weeks teaching time it is the result of cynical government funding cuts and policy rather than a 12 or 13-week contract, a further saving to demands implemented by bureaucrats and managers who university budgets. demanding a radical shift in government priorities to ensure educational equity for all students. However, while it is important to acknowledge these facts here, it is not the focus of this critique.

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have no direct contact with students (Connell, 2016; Gittens, 2018). Indeed, the creeping funding and job cut syndrome is crippling a system that took generations of work by dedicated echelons of academic staff to build. It is also crippling to students left with high debt at the beginning of their working and family lives. The general and insistent argument is made that technology fills in all these gaps and adds many additional benefits for student learning. The information richness and digital innovation that can deliver well-structured, focused course content is praised as raising teaching standards and learning outcomes. It is also argued that it equalises opportunity across the student cohort (Black, Bissessar & Boolaky, 2019) because of the repeated refrain that the online environment is a level playing field – which, in reality, is still debatable. Having taught in many online courses since the late 1990s and more intensively over the last eight years, I have no argument with the amazing teaching and learning opportunities that online platforms can provide to students. The growing expertise and incentivised teaching initiatives do provide a wide range of possibilities for individual and collaborative learning outcomes. Online teaching does provide opportunities for flexible learning, empowering a wide range of students to engage successfully at tertiary level. However, it can be difficult to inspire a student to push beyond their own perceived limits or pick up and motivate a stressed or dejected student, in an online environment. There are many experienced online lecturers and tutors who devote the additional time needed and manage this task successfully. But again, there is usually not enough time allocated for individual attention. For sessional staff especially, this is extra time and effort that is not paid. In terms of face-toface student contact, one enthusiastic colleague posted when returning to on-campus classes: I’ve started giving classes again to real, live, in the flesh human beings, after a year. THANK F**K! Online is fine. Yeah, I get how the buttons work. But hey, good to feel your energy humans. The motivational energy of inspirational lecturers and tutors instilling a passion for understanding and knowledge is rarely recognised in futuristic discussions of learning pathways which are solidly embedded in digital solutions. There will always be a demand for more enticing areas for peer-to-peer learning and social gathering. This used to happen in the libraries and campus refectories, but we are moving into a future with different demands. It is essential to have quality digital learning available to students 24/7. There are already dedicated specialists working across the university disciplines to enable and improve these services. All university strategies for the future incorporate this vision across multiple indices of teaching and learning

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value. However, there needs to be a balance here too. Do we really need infrastructure investment in experiential spaces capable of creating ‘Instagram-worthy moments for students’, as a recent technological report by Optus and Cisco on future university planning endorse? (2021, p. 21). Do we really need a shopping mall at The University of Queensland to replace the existing Student Union complex? These are not visionary learning strategies. The framework here encourages the current individualist, narcissist mentality of mindless ‘me’ moments rather than peer-to-peer learning and debate. The Optus and Cisco report (2021, p. 12) continues that students want university interaction to be ‘friction free’ with systems and applications that are ‘intuitive [with] services delivered to them when they need them, and mostly via [a] mobile device’. It appears that many digital strategies, which are being considered by management as serious solutions, can be dismissed as either short term fixes or ‘clouded’ thinking. There is no doubt that future students must be educated to be change ready, innovative, resourceful and industrious to meet the challenges of a shifting and uncertain local and global landscape. Yet nothing is being done to address some of the central issues impacting undergraduate teaching, that is, ongoing staff cuts, over-worked, demoralised full-time staff and underpaid, exploited sessional and casual staff. This framework obviously exposes diminished teaching and learning outcomes with a reduction in courses, content and reduced teaching hours. As Aspromourgos (2018) insisted, ‘our [academics’] working conditions are our students’ learning conditions too’. Despite the Government recently announcing an investment package of nearly $3 billion for university research (Australian Government, 2020 October 6; 2020 December 14) as part of the Research Training and Research Block Grants programs, there is complete silence on continuing to maintain and, more importantly, improve the quality of university teaching and teaching conditions.

Teaching, research and wage theft Here again is another dilemma. It is little known outside the academy that money is diverted from teaching revenue to support university research. In 2013-14 the federal budget supported just over one-third of university research (Australian Government, 2017, p. 11), 70 per cent of which went to the top eight universities (Gardner, 2015). The wide gap is sourced in other ways through state governments, business and investment income. The Productivity Review: University Education (Australian Government, 2017, p. 44) clearly stated that the majority of additional funding: came from teaching revenues paid by domestic and international students for their education …. In particular, universi-

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ties use the portion of teaching revenues that is in excess of the actual cost to educate the student (the ‘teaching surplus’) to cross-subsidise their research functions.

to parents who pay taxes to support a national education system. It amounts to an abuse of the system and there should be a national protest. Another ethical issue where the universities should be held In fact, the review highlighted that teaching ‘plays second accountable is the exploitation of sessional and casual staff fiddle to research, with consequences for student satisfaction, (Maslen, 2020; Cahill, 2020; Duffy, 5 August 2020; Duffy, 18 teaching quality, and graduate outcomes’ (Australian August 2020; Palmer & Cantrell, 2019; Brett, 2021). Public Government, 2017, p. 2). exposure of exploitative practices highlighted that ‘wage theft By diverting these funds directly sourced from university and casual work are built into university business models’ teaching programs and teaching departments, the universities (Cahill, 2020). The University of Melbourne is Australia’s are systematically short-changing Australian students. The richest university with a reserve fund of AU$4.43 billion Productivity Review (Australian Government, 2017, p. 46) but has 72.9 per cent of its staff in insecure employment admits that these cross-subsidies could result in ‘ultimately on contract, sessional or casual wages (Duffy, 5 August affecting Australian productivity and economic growth.’ 2020; Maslen, 2020). It is ironic that professional part-time Fifty years ago, teaching was the primary focus of tertiary lecturers and tutors, who are responsible for up to 70 per education. There are many reasons for this shift in priorities, cent of teaching at Australian universities (Duffy, July 2020; but there clearly needs to be corrective action taken to address Palmer & Cantrell, 2019), this growing imbalance. are the most vulnerable staff. Despite media reports Despite media reports that highlight It is an exploited workforce, that highlight university university dependence on international underpaid and invisible dependence on international students – and this is a relevant argument within the university system, students – and this is a one that does not rank on relevant argument – it is also – it is also true that ‘Commonwealthanyone’s Excel spreadsheet or true that ‘Commonwealthsupported domestic students generate the comparison charts. supported domestic students greatest value in teaching surpluses’... At least ten Australian generate the greatest value in universities have faced serious teaching surpluses’ (Australian wage theft allegations over Government, 2017, p. 45). This the last 18 months which led to a Senate Inquiry. RMIT, as particularly applies to the commerce, arts and law disciplines one example, was taken to the Fair Work Commission by the which have ‘substantial teaching surpluses as they are relatively National Tertiary Education Union for systemic underpayment low-cost disciplines to deliver with significant economies of of staff. The crisis is evidenced by the payout to 1,500 casual scale’ (Australian Government, 2017, p. 45). Perhaps this is staff from the University of Melbourne for underpayment for behind the government legislation to double student fees in marking following action by the National Tertiary Education the arts and law disciplines – more cash in the bank. Union (Smith, 2021). Smith (2021) highlighted that staff in It does not explain, though, the closure of departments the Arts faculty alone were back-paid an estimated $6 million and high staff loss in many humanities departments across for work dating back to 2014. The University of New South Australia. There are contradictions here, since there seems to Wales is budgeting for a potential $36 million due in backbe no justification for the ongoing demolition of arts faculties. payments to casual staff (Ollivain, 3 June 2021). Early last year, Is it simply that the Government perceives these disciplines to Griffith University contacted me to explain that the wage theft be the generators of left-wing, divergent rather than compliant allegations were alarming, and it was investigating this issue thinking? Surely this is a puerile, implausible argument. The with relevance to its own practice. A week later, I was informed only other possible explanations are short-sighted (and plainly that I was not affected by any discrepancy and need not be wrong): that education focused on the ability to think clearly concerned. How did I know what the investigation process and analytically is valueless in terms of social well-being or was? Did anyone at my university receive back payment? There advancement; or that it does nothing tangible to benefit the is no way of knowing. Australian GDP. In fact, the invisibility and disrespect of contract sessional A report from the Grattan Institute claims that ‘universities and casual staff across all disciplines, alongside chronic earn up to $3.2 billion more from students than they spend underpayment situations, can become a humiliating on teaching’ (Norton, 2015, p. 1). Over half this income is experience. Cancellation of courses, and of whole departments, generated from domestic students (Norton, 2015, p. 18). can occur with no direct notification to the affected staff Gittens (2018) argues that it is unreasonable ‘to require member/s of their job loss. Such cancellations occurred across students, rather than taxpayers, to contribute to the cost of Australia at every university in the last year. Personally, I university research’. This information needs to be publicised vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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have been on 13-week contracts, 52 weeks year-round, since 2009 with the same department at the same university. It was obvious that I was too old to be engaged as a full-time staff member, even though I have four degrees and received several awards. Advertisements for academic appointments from about 2014 started including the phrase ‘seeking generational change’ in job descriptions. Being of a more mature age, I stopped applying. Nevertheless, I consider myself fortunate to have had ongoing academic work. More recently, I went to set up the website for a course I had taught for many years, when I realised that the course was no longer being offered. I rang several colleagues, including the Deputy Dean, who seemed unaware of the course cut, so I contacted the Dean of the faculty. In responding, the Dean referred to cost cutting and restructures – which was to be expected. However, the final words displayed the lack of respect offered to any sessional or casual staff member on a university campus today. I regret that you have been caught unawares by this course cancellation, but such is the nature of sessional teaching--it is insecure, irregular and unempowered. Best wishes – Dean (Personal correspondence, 2021) I totally agree that sessional staff are unempowered, but still insist that any organisation has the obligation to communicate with its staff. Open, clear, consistent communication – which is one of the basic principles of management communication – is regarded as best practice. This ghosting of staff is another unethical practice haunting the establishment. In addition, hours allocated to tasks in casual staff contracts are unrealistic. How can anyone query payment based on a complicated formula with a contract allocating 3.76 hours per week for teaching and 5.49 hours per week for marking? The complex formulas make many staff contracts indecipherable. The time allocated for tasks such as marking are unrealistic and virtually ensure that staff will be underpaid to adequately complete the task (Smith, 2021; Palmer & Cantrell, 2019). Both staff and students are robbed in this scenario. As staff race to complete marking, the risks of incorrect allocation of grades increase, and there will be inadequate feedback. In fact, staff were instructed to ‘skim read student assignments to meet impossible pay rates’ at The University of Queensland (Fenton in Duffy, 18 August 2020). RMIT reduced the marking time per assignment to half the previous allocated time which sets up impossible goals for casual staff (Duffy, 2020, 18 August). There is little time allocated for the administrative work required. The University of Sydney Casuals Network wrote in a submission to the Select Committee on Job Security that a 2020 audit ‘found that casual staff did six times more administration work than they were paid for’ (University of Sydney Casuals Network, 2020). It is useless to complain since

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jobs are insecure and there are reports of staff being blacklisted (Zhou, 2021). Be grateful the work is there ... for now. Nearly all casual staff have no provision of office space, computers or equipment, no sick leave, no staff development or inclusion in basic collegial activities. Importantly, superannuation contributions are 9.5 per cent for casuals instead of 17.5 per cent for permanent and part permanent appointments. Casuals are cheap and easily dismissed from the system.

Achievements The university as a public education institution should be better than this. Our history tells a story. There was a much stronger demand for higher education after WW11, with 31,753 students enrolled in 1949 compared to 14,236 in 1939. By 1979 there were approximately 300,000 students which increased to 828,871 in 2003 (Abbott & Doucouliagos, 2003). Current figures continue this growth cycle with Garton (2018) highlighting there are: 1.1 million Australians in Australian universities, 4.4 per cent of the population and there are 123,000 staff. Ten million Australians now have a post-school qualification, and 43 per cent of Australians aged 25-34 have a bachelor’s degree. The value add to the economy is of the order of $30 billion. This is an immense achievement that should be celebrated. The fact that ‘Nearly 90 per cent of graduates are in full-time work three years after graduation’ is remarkable (Universities Australia, 2017). Making university education accessible to a much broader section of the community over the last 50 years, moving away from the elitist mindset that surrounded the ‘ivory tower’, is a great success story. Yet the system, its ethical code and mode of practice, is now slowly being demolished. Recently, Moodie (2020, May 19) argued that this is an extension of the current ‘cultural war’ being played out on the political stage against organisations such as ‘CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the ABC, the creative arts, museums and offending cultural institutions that don’t support conservative ideology’. This argument cannot be dismissed lightly. The arts, humanities and social science disciplines have been under huge financial pressure since they are not necessarily ‘industry ready’ disciplines and suffered more job losses than other faculties during COVID. However, these disciplines are key functioning elements as ‘teaching surplus’ generators (Australian Government, 2017) for the university as outlined earlier. In terms of employment and productivity, just one example shows the stupidity of dismissing the creativity, innovation and audacity of enterprise that comes from this sector. The film industry in Australia is a high stakes player as the 2019 Study on the Economic Contribution of the Motion Picture and Television Industry in Australia indicates.

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In 2017-18, the Australian film industries earned $22.50 billion, generating $9.19 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA), while also employing 84,982 Australians in Full Time Equivalent jobs (Olsberg•SPI, 2019, p. 6). According to the consulting firm Olsberg•SPI, there was ‘a gross value increase of 15 per cent compared to 2012-13’ (2019, p. 6). This demonstrates what skilled professional creatives, taught and equipped by the arts, humanities and associated disciplines, are achieving, and what they contribute to the Australian economy. These are the cultural industries that entertained and comforted Australian families during the long lockdowns. It also must be remembered that any one cultural sector cannot survive in Australia on its own. There are interdependencies and multiple, complex networks of professionals across many creative disciplines that enable and keep our cultural industries functioning. Again, this success story should be celebrated. There needs to be a reaffirmation of the somewhat utopian vision of the university as a ‘community of teachers and scholars’; a more comprehensive appraisal of the role of the university moving into the future. This vision should more closely comply with the high-minded goals and ethical codes outlined in every university charter and mission statement. This is still discernible in the ongoing commitment of academics to their role as educators and researchers. Historically, there was a strong sense of community that existed on every university campus, within faculties and across disciplines. There was also an active alternative public sphere enabled by staff engagement, lively public debate on campus, and multiple peer-to-peer learning and cultural activities at many different levels. With the retreat of many academics into siloed silence, Australian universities have lost this vibrancy as well as much of its commitment to engage with important social and ethical issues beyond campus boundaries. While some universities, departments and disciplines do successfully create an inclusive, exciting learning culture, overall, it has taken only one generation for that broad sense of a campus community to wither away. It is not unthinkable that this connection can be reclaimed.

Taking the initiative It is the duty of a national government to supply an effective education system for the citizens of Australia. There is an urgent need to recalibrate funding policy and productivity criteria for universities, to depoliticise and stabilise the funding for this sector. This would enable a much-needed revitalisation of the core functions of quality teaching, excellence in research, and of building an inclusive, engaged, scholarly community. Of course, there needs to be accountability, but a direct fundingwithout-strings-attached model needs to be reactivated. It is vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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not an investment strategy that requires constant performance scrutiny and micromanagement of professional teaching and research staff, it is a commitment to higher education as a government responsibility. There is a deficiency of vision and seeming incapacity by politicians to think beyond the next election timeline. This has to change. Politicians don’t lead, certainly and sadly, not in Australia. Restorative change can happen from the bottom up, with a ground swell of dissent and then a vision for reframing the future. Certainly, the National Tertiary Education Union has a strong role to play here, so academics should join the union and/or get to know their union representatives. The conversation might end up surprising and encouraging both parties. The union has an expertise and knowledge of political agendas and nuances, as well as experience in dealing with university channels and political machinery, that is outside the ambit of most academics. The university needs to have a vibrant collective voice to counter government incursions, hostile agendas or corporate intrusions. It is encouraging that one such group of staff and students, past and present, recently succeeded in challenging what appeared to be a fait accompli – the demolition of the Student Union complex and Schonell Theatre at The University of Queensland replacing it with an ‘enterprise hub’ with mall attached. As a result, there will be ongoing consultation with the Vice Chancellor’s office and university management about this redevelopment recognising the history of the complex, not only providing space for the Student Union, but also keeping substantial control of the space with the student body (Duffield, 2021). This is testament to the power of grass roots action, although so many other protests across the country last year to save departments and jobs were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, academics need to talk with each other honestly, and also talk with their students. Academics as a professional group need to forcefully reassert their presence, face-to-face with the governing arms of the university senate, executive and councils. Of course, there will be strong differences of vision and opinion across such a large and resourceful sector. However, these alliances need to be built. The long-term political and ethical potential of asserting a united response to short term, destructive government agendas and restrictive university governance could be liberating. Wouldn’t it be amazing if staff were given the opportunity to ‘question and even veto new administrative initiatives’ as suggested by Andre Spicer (2017, 20 August)? This might seem inconceivable now, but there needs to be a vision for change. Silence is no longer an option. The various disciplines, their departments and schools need to be re-empowered. There is ample evidence from management theorists (Kenny, 2018; McNaughton et al., 2019; Samson et al., 2021) that empowering staff at all levels of an organisation leads to an innovative, enlivened,

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communicative culture with high motivation and increased productivity. Hopefully, this would spread more joy across the hushed department corridors. University staff working at ground level know what is needed to deliver quality teaching and learning outcomes, as well as creating innovative research initiatives, particularly in a positive collaborative workplace. There are many ways to move forward, but the first step for academics is to speak out about the current state of play that is no longer acceptable. This is difficult in an isolated, siloed academic sphere. Lateral communication across these rooms and corridors – including the multiple off-site academic staff working in isolation – needs to rebuild some of the trust and resilience that is essential to move forward.

Conclusion Government funding must be raised to a world-worthy level. It is irrational to impose world standards across every arm of the Australian university when funding is insecure and always decreasing. Education is a government responsibility and universities are in the public sector. Government imposed accountability measures need to be reassessed. The Australian government must move away from its obstructive efforts to dominate, punish and/or privatise this important arm of knowledge expertise by restricting funding. There needs to be an acceptance of direct responsibility from federal and state territories to work cooperatively to fund tertiary education to a high standard. This would immediately address some of the rampant managerialism that is operating within the academies. The university has a responsibility to its many publics, including the wider community – which is part of the former utopian definition. It means broadening the public sphere around university education, taking debates into the community and directly to the politicians. Stronger external engagement with key social, political, educational and economic issues by academic staff should be encouraged, not stymied by fear of government or in-house backlash. There needs to be more discussion with parents and local communities about the quality of education and level of teaching engagement they want for their students. The community needs to be informed of the many defects in its education system that is affecting the quality and consistency of student tertiary education. It is important to recognise the truth behind Aspromourgos’s 2018 argument that academics’ working conditions directly impact on students’ learning conditions. Empowering and sustaining the teaching arm of the university so that learning opportunities are maximised would enable students to leave campus with a high-level professional qualification and less debt. Future students still must pay for their education, no matter the standard of the specific discipline. This is easier if students are well served,

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included and respected. Education is a core component of Australia’s future and young people are our future. Salary packages for Vice-Chancellors and top executives need to be rationalised to align with the public sector positioning of tertiary institutions. It is a blatant inconsistency to reward one sector of the university so highly when there are massive job losses, closure of schools, course cuts, overloaded and demoralised staff, as well as systemic wage theft within the academy. The casualisation of the university workforce must be addressed. As Cahill (2020) argues, ‘Moving casual university work into salaried positions with greater security and employment rights would be good for staff, good for students and good for the broader community’. These are important steps to reinvigorate the higher education sector. The Australian community needs to be educated and should expect more from government in setting tertiary education funding standards and policies. Government funding for education must be lifted above the current abysmal 1.81 per cent of GDP. This is a national disgrace that must be rectified in order to meet the challenges of a complex global future. The figure here undercuts any argument that Australian universities are offering a world-class education system. If more of the Australian GDP was invested directly into university teaching, the education and financial outcomes for this next generation of students would have a revitalising and compound benefit to society. As argued previously, the universities need to reinforce teaching as a grounding priority and reassert their key responsibilities to students. This is not a utopian dream; this is an essential move into the future. Dr Anne Richards (aka Anne Galligan) is an academic and writer at Griffith University. Her memoir, ‘A Book of Doors’ (2020), is based on the student radical movement at The University of Queensland in the late 1960s and 70s. Anne coedited and contributed to ‘Making Books: Contemporary Australian Publishing’. Contact: anne.richards@griffith.edu.au

References Abbott, M. & Doucouliagos, C. (2003). The changing structure of higher education in Australia, 1949-2003. School of Accounting, economics and finance. School Working Papers, Series 2003. Retrieved from https://www.deakin.edu.au/data/assets/pdffile/0006/402594/ swp200307.pdf Ashford, S., Lee, C. & Bobko, P. (1989). Content, Causes, and Consequences of Job Insecurity: A Theory-Based Measure and Substantive Test. The Academy of Management Journal, 32(4), 803829. Aspromourgos, T. (2018, November). Why is the Market for Degrees Different to the Market for Apples? Asymmetric Information and Higher Education. Paper presented at the What should Universities be? Symposium. University of Sydney, Sydney.

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Australian Government. (2013). Government response to the review of reporting requirements for universities. Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Retrieved from https://www.dese.gov.au/ reviews-and-consultations/government-response-review-reportingrequirements-universities Australian Government. (2017). Productivity Commission. Shifting the dial: Five year Productivity Review. University education. Supporting paper No. 7. Canberra. Retreat from https://www.pc.gov. au/inquiries/completed/productivity-review/report/productivityreview-supporting7.pdf Australian Government. (2020, 6 October). 2020-1 Budget Research Package. Dept of Education, Skills and Employment. Retrieved from https://www.dese.gov.au/2020-21-budget-research-package Australian Government. (2020, 14 December). Research Block Grants. Dept of Education, Skills and Employment. Retrieved from https:// www.dese.gov.au/research-block-grants Baird, M. (2018, November). “The Dilemmas (and Delights?) of the Modern University.” What should Universities be? Paper presented at the What should Universities be? Symposium. University of Sydney, Sydney. Retrieved 1 February 2019. http://sydney.edu.au/usap/docs/ Report1.pdf Baker, J. (2020, 20 November). Are heads of Australian universities worth a million dollars?. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/are-heads-of-australianuniversities-worth-a-million-dollars-20201120-p56gga.html Black, D., Bissessar, C. & Boolaky, M. (2019). Online Education as an Opportunity Equalizer: The Changing Canvas of Online Education. Interchange, 50, 423–443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-01909358-0 Brett, J. (2021, March). The bin fire of the humanities. The Monthly. Retrieved from https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2021/ march/1614517200/judith-brett/bin-fire-humanities#mtr Cahill, D. (2020, 27 October). Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-builtinto-university-business-models-147555 Carey, A. (2020, 25 May). Deakin Uni to shed 300 jobs as tertiary sector’s COVID-19 woes grow. The Age. Retrieved from https://www. theage.com.au/national/victoria/deakin-uni-to-shed-300-jobs-astertiary-sector-s-covid-19-woes-grow-20200525-p54w5a.html Connell, R. (2016). What are good universities? Australian Universities’ Review, 58(20). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/ fulltext/EJ1113441.pdf Crysthanos, N. (2020, 18 November). Academics fear Sydney University job cuts will threaten medical research. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ academics-fear-sydney-university-job-cuts-will-threaten-medicalresearch-20201118-p56fre.html Duffield, L. (2021, 11 July). Campaign to save Queensland Uni’s union complex cuts through, Independent Australia. Retrieved from https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/campaign-to-savequeensland-unis-union-complex-cuts-through,15274 Duffy, C. (2020, 15 July). Cashed-up university sector accused of hypocrisy over mass casualisation of workforce, job losses. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-17/university-casualworkforce-redundancies-dirty-secret/12462030 Duffy, C. (2020, 5 August). University of Melbourne to repay millions to staff after decade-long underpayment practices. https://www.abc.

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net.au/news/2020-08-05/university-of-melbourne-exposed-in-decadelong-wage-theft-case/12519588 Duffy, C. (2020, 18 August). University underpayment so rampant tutors ‘instructed to do a poor job’ to avoid unpaid hours, former staff say. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-18/rmit-uqnow-among-universities-accused-of-underpaying-staff/12565528 Eurostat Statistics Explained. (2020). Educational expenditure statistics. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php?title=Educational_expenditure_statistics Evans, J. & Glenday, L. (2021, 18 March). ANU plans to end neuroscience research as it struggles to save $103 million annually. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-18/anuto-shutter-neuroscience-research-in-bid-to-save-money/100015672 Ferguson, H. & Harrington, M. (2020). Education and training: Budget Review 2019-2020. Canberra: Parliament of Australia. Retrieved from https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/ Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/ BudgetReview201920/EducationTraining Fisher, R. (2018, November). The fight for free speech: What it means for universities. Paper presented at the What should Universities be? Symposium. University of Sydney, Sydney. Retrieved from https://usap. sydney.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/richard-fisher.pdf Ford, J., Ford, L. & D’Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the story. The Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 362-377. Gardner, M. (2015, 23 June). Australia’s declining investment in quality university teaching. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/australias-declining-investment-inquality-university-teaching-43243 Garton, S. (2018, November). What Should Universities Be? Paper presented at the What should Universities be? Symposium. University of Sydney, Sydney. Retrieved from https://usap.sydney.edu.au/ wp-content/uploads/2019/05/stephen-garton.pdf Gittens, R. (2018, November). Aligning institutional incentives with good social outcomes. Paper presented at the What should Universities be? Symposium. University of Sydney, Sydney. Retrieved from https:// usap.sydney.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ross-gittins.pdf Hechanova, R.M. & Cementina-Olpoc, R. (2013). Transformational leadership, change management, and commitment to change: A comparison of academic and business organizations. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22(1), 11-19. Kenny, J. (2018). Re-empowering academics in a corporate culture: an exploration of workload and performativity in a university. Higher Education, 75, 365–380. Klikauer, T. & Link, C. The Idea of the University – A Review Essay. Australian Universities’ Review, 63(1), 65-74. Lamond, J. (2019, 19 October). Australian literature in universities is under threat, but cultural cringe isn’t the reason why. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/31/ australian-literature-in-universities-is-under-threat-but-cultural-cringeisnt-the-reason-why Lever, S. (2019, 29 October). Whatever happened to Australian literature? Inside Story. Retrieved from https://insidestory.org.au/ whatever-happened-to-australian-literature/ Maslen, G. (2020, 1 September). Universities face legal action over wage theft claims. University World News. Retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post. php?story=20200901140618585

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McGregor, K. (2021, 17 September). Study finds 40,000 tertiary jobs lost during pandemic. University World News. Retrieved from https:// www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210917061003607 McNaughton, J., Hugo, A. G., Tiberio, G. & Harwood, Y. R. (2019). Empowering satisfaction: analyzing the relationship between empowerment, work conditions, and job satisfaction for international center managers. Tertiary Education and Management, 25, 83–99. Moodie, G. (2020, 19 May). Why is the Australian government letting universities suffer? The Conversation. Retrieved from https:// theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-lettinguniversities-suffer-138514 New South Wales Government. (1989; 2017). University of Sydney Act 1989. No 124. Retrieved from https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/ whole/html/inforce/current/act-1989-124 Norton, Andrew. (2015, November). The cash nexus: how teaching funds research in Australian universities. Grattan Institute. Retrieved from https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/831-Cashnexus-report.pdf Ollivain, C. (2021, 21 April). University considers ‘mitigating’ 12-week semesters with alternative proposal. Honi Soit. http://honisoit. com/2021/04/university-considers-mitigating-12-week-semesterswith-alternative-proposal/ Ollivain, C. (2021, 3 June). UNSW management may pay back casuals for up to $36 million in stolen wages. Honi Soit. Retrieved from http:// honisoit.com/2021/06/unsw-management-may-pay-back-casuals-forup-to-36-million-in-stolen-wages/ Olsberg•SPI. (2019). Study on the Economic Contribution of the Motion Picture and Television Industry in Australia. Report presented to the MPA and ANZSA. Australia. Retrieved from https://anzsa.film/ wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Study-on-the-Economic-Contributionof-the-Motion-Picture-and-Television-Industry-in-Australia_FinalReport.pdf Optus & Cisco. (2021, February). The Tipping Point for Digitisation of Education Campuses. https://www.optus.com.au/content/dam/ optus/documents/enterprise/accelerate/tipping-point-report_final_ nov20.pdf Palmer, K. & Cantrell, K. (2019, May). The casualties of academia: a response to The Conversation. Overland. May, 1-6. Sainsbury, M. (2020, 25 August). Australia’s universities: bosses reel in $1 m-plus alaris, $1bn profit on back of staff underpayment. Michael West Media. Retrieved from https://www.michaelwest.com.au/ australian-university-profits/ Samson, D., Donnet, T. & Daft, R. L. (2021). Management, 7th AsiaPacific edition, Australia, Cengage Learning.

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Shergold, M. (2018). ‘How can universities best prepare students for the future of work?’ What should Universities be? University of Sydney Conference 22-23 November 2018. Retrieved from http://sydney.edu. au/usap/docs/Report1.pdf Smith, E. (2021, Jan 30-Feb 5). Challenging the casualisation of academia. The Saturday Paper. Retrieved from https://www. thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2021/01/30/challenging-thecasualisation-academia/161192520011007#hrd Smith, T. & Guthrie, J. (2020, November). University vice-chancellor salaries are ‘ridiculous’, Macquarie University Media. Retrieved from https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/clippings/university-vice-chancellorsalaries-are-ridiculous Spicer, A. (2017, 20 August). Universities are broke. So let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/21/ universities-broke-cut-pointless-admin-teaching Universities Australia. (2017). Teaching, Learning and Funding. Homepage. Retrieved from https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/ policy-submissions/teaching-learning-funding/ University of Sydney. (2018). Symposium Program: Do universities need to reinvent themselves? Public debate presented at the What should Universities be? Symposium in association with Sydney Ideas. University of Sydney, Sydney. Retrieved from https://usap.sydney.edu. au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/conference-summary-report-2018. pdf University of Sydney. (2019). Charter of freedom of speech and academic freedom. Retrieved from https://www.sydney.edu.au/ policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2011/64&RendNum=0 University of Sydney. (2021). University of Sydney organisational structure. Retrieved from https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/ dam/corporate/documents/about-us/governance-and-structure/ organisational-structure/university_of_sydney_organisational_ structure_chart_as_at_january-2021.pdf University of Sydney Casuals Network. (2020). Precarious Employment at the University of Sydney: A Submission to the Select Committee on Job Security. Sydney. Retrieved from https://aph.gov.au Woods, D., Griffiths, K & Crowley, T. (2021, 7 May). Women’s work: The impact of the COVID crisis on Australian women. Grattan Institute. Retrieved from https://grattan.edu.au/report/womenswork/ Zhou, N. (2021, 10 March). Australian university staff say they were blacklisted after speaking out on underpayment. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/ mar/10/australian-university-staff-say-they-were-blacklisted-afterspeaking-out-on-underpayment

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Workplace ostracism in academia Sue Sherratt Communication Research Australia

Ostracism in the academic workplace has not received attention commensurate with its frequency and seriousness. One of the more detailed models of workplace ostracism incorporates the organisational antecedents of ostracism, its pragmatic and psychological impact and behavioural outcomes. Using a detailed written account of experiences within an Australian university, the model is examined to determine its limitations and suggest extensions which may make it more applicable to academic environments. This paper advances a modified version of the model, tailored specifically to cater for ostracism within academia, by taking into consideration the nature of the academic workplace and the significance of scholarly reputation. Future research may identify additional extensions for academia as well as modifications to the original model to ensure its applicability to other specialised workplaces. This may also lead to better ways in which to anticipate and prevent the antecedents of workplace ostracism and ameliorate its consequences. Keywords: ostracism, workplace bullying, academia, higher education, faculty members, mobbing, whistleblowing

Introduction Bullying in the workplace has now been widely investigated. However researchers from academia have ‘paid relatively little attention to bullying in their own backyards’ (Keashly & Neuman, 2010, p. 48), although the number of studies is increasing. Academia may represent a somewhat distinctive context in which bullying may thrive and the rates may seem relatively high when compared to those in general organisations (Hollis, 2019; Keashly & Neuman, 2018). A covert type of workplace bullying is ostracism. This has been defined as ‘being ignored and excluded, and it often occurs without excessive explanation or explicit negative attention’ (Williams, 2007, p. 429). Whilst overt bullying can be depicted as negative attention, the power of ostracism is embodied in the lack of any attention towards the target, either positive or negative; thus the person who is ostracised is deemed to be unworthy of any attention at all. The target of ostracism is treated as invisible and is excluded from workrelated and social interaction and activities. The impact may be more harmful than overt bullying and is considered to be greater than the effects of sexual harassment on emotional exhaustion, cynicism and professional effectiveness (Robinson, O’Reilly, & Wang, 2013). Ostracism is noted to vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

be a particularly toxic behaviour in organisations and a unique form of social mistreatment (Bedi, 2019; O’Reilly et al., 2015). Within the academic environment it has only received limited attention (Bilal et al., 2020; Zimmerman, CarterSowell, & Xu, 2016). Based on and developed from a review of the research literature on ostracism within organisations, Robinson and colleagues (2013) have proposed a broad model of workplace ostracism. This model was selected as it applies a holistic theoretical framework to explain both the antecedents and consequences (Howard, Cogswell, & Smith, 2019). This model pertains to organisations in general. Educational organisations have some specific distinguishing aspects and these may increase the likelihood of hostile interpersonal behaviours (Keashly & Neuman, 2010). Based on a single case study (Tamara, 2012), I examine their model to demonstrate its limitations with regard to academic environments and suggest extensions which may make it more applicable to academia. This study, drawn from anonymous submissions to a parliamentary inquiry, relates specifically to academia, comprised substantial in-depth detail and is a first-person account. A single case methodology is ideal for investigating complex social processes and takes advantage of detailed access to a phenomenon that may not be easily observable by outsiders (Ozcan, Han, & Graebner, 2017). Workplace ostracism in academia Sue Sherratt

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Single case study Tamara, with a doctorate from a worldrenowned university, had been employed in a regional Australian university ‘by the Speech Pathology discipline …for nearly five years, in various positions as a researcher, lecturer and/or clinical educator on casual and fixed-term contracts’ (Tamara, 2012). She was active in research, had a good record Fig. 1: Organisational antecedents’ model (adapted from Robinson et al., 2013) of publications and conference presentations and contributed to an inter-university enhancing co-workers’ sense of inclusion. It thus fits within research group and professional education. She discussed the framework of academia for a number of reasons. several academic staff misconduct issues with Jana, the head Firstly, its unobtrusive nature aligns well with the indirect of discipline, believing Jana would be concerned. She also met aggression that would be expected by the standards of with Human Resources but did not report any issues outside collegiality (Crawford, 2020; Keashly & Neuman, 2018; the university. Immediately after this meeting, she was told Misawa, 2015). Thus ostracising behaviours in academia by Jana that her ongoing and already organised contracts usually are cronyism, intimidation, malicious gossip, would not be renewed. She was immediately physically and exclusionary strategies and ignoring contributions (Bilal practically removed from her job, her office and contact with et al., 2020; Crawford, 2020; Vickers, 2014). The most colleagues, with no warnings nor reasons for this, either prior, frequently cited behaviour is gossip which threatens the during or since. She has subsequently been ostracised by individual’s professional status. This makes sense considering colleagues from the same discipline at other universities and that reputation is of critical importance in academia and the her attendance at workshops and research meetings has been loss of reputation has major implications for appointments, denied. Her applications for employment at other universities promotions and research funding (Keashly & Neuman, 2010; are ‘not received’. Her complaint was dismissed as baseless by Martin & Peña, 2012). the university. Secondly, ostracism is less easy to prove than overt bullying. For the latter, there may be witnesses or written records whereas, Model of workplace ostracism with covert behaviours, it may be problematic to provide tangible evidence of inaction or omissions. Furthermore, most Following the model’s categorisation of motives, Tamara academics may be too timid to speak out on any controversial was subjected to purposeful ostracism; this occurs when the issue, especially if this is against the university administration ostracism is intentional, either to hurt the target or help the (Martin, 1983). Management and co-workers may consider perpetrator. Purposeful ostracism may occur to protect a ostracism as a safe and undetectable strategy that is less likely to person and/or a group, if it is feared that the ostracised person be viewed as illegal retaliation (Williams, 2002). Furthermore, will disrupt the way the group functions. Tamara’s disclosure ostracism can fall below the horizon of official visibility and of staff misconduct may have been interpreted as a threat to the use of euphemistic language (‘personality clash’) can enable the staff ’s functioning and ultimately to the reputation of the individuals to describe their actions in inoffensive ways with university. Ostracism is effective in dealing with unwanted no sense of personal agency (Miller et al., 2019; Simpson & whistle-blowers and the most frequently used form of Cohen, 2004). retaliation on them (Martin & Peña, 2012; Westhues, 2006). Thirdly, being female has implications for ostracism and Organisational antecedents academia. In general, if females bully at all, they tend to engage in same-sex bullying using rejection and ostracism Robinson and colleagues (2013) contend that the two main (Allen & Flood, 2018). Women used punitive ostracism organisational antecedents of purposeful ostracism (Figure 1) more often than men did (Nezlek et al., 2015). Indeed, the are the psychological costs associated with ostracism (ostracism methods used by women bullies called the ‘weapon of choice’ by a group of co-workers and low task interdependence) and are described as gossip, exclusion, intimidation, undermining, the limited alternative mechanisms (formal policies or culture backstabbing, manipulating and ridicule (Dellasega, 2019), and a non-hierarchical structure). Ostracism is less costly to called the ‘weapon of choice’ (Crothers, Lipinski, & Minutolo, the actor than other options as it is often invisible, subtle 2009, p. 103). and ambiguous (Williams, 2007). Engaging in ostracism Although ostracising someone may cause discomfort to with one’s co-workers can reduce the psychological cost to the perpetrator, co-opting colleagues may ameliorate any the actor and may also reduce the cost to the organisation by

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for resolving conflict. In non-hierarchical organisational negative burden, dilute responsibility and can help justify structures such as universities, more members share the same their actions (Howard et al., 2019; McDonald, Begic, & level of formal authority and they have to therefore rely on Landrum, 2020). Another reason for co-workers to join in more informal means to control or manage others’ behaviour. is fear of becoming targets themselves (Coyne et al., 2019). In Tamara’s case, this issue may be exacerbated by the fact that Jana co-opted her colleagues easily because of the extremely women are under-represented in more senior positions in small number of staff in the discipline with most being Australian universities (Arvanitakis & Pothen, 2019) and may graduates of the university and students of Jana (information thus strive to protect their hard-won positions. from the university’s website). Such informal alliances may Significantly, as named in Tamara’s submission, this play a vital role in forming cliques (Hutchinson et al., 2010). university had a history of covering up academic misconduct; Furthermore, Tamara had discussed the misconduct of many it refused to admit that any problem existed (Biggs, 2002). staff members thereby enhancing their sense of inclusion Ostracism (dismissal, gagging clauses) had been a frequent in Jana’s actions. Corruption cases typically required the means of dealing with academics, particularly whistle-blowers, knowing cooperation of other employees who participated in at this university (Martin, 1983; Parkes, 2011). This reflects the unethical behaviours (Sachet-Milliat, 2016). the assertion that within Australia, sectors of academia were An additional aspect of the cost of purposeful ostracism considered as isolated pockets of tyranny which can be is task interdependence: ostracism occurs more commonly difficult if not impossible to in workplaces when task disrupt and need even more interdependence is low An additional aspect of the cost effort to discontinue (Addison, (Robinson et al., 2013). This of purposeful ostracism is task 2001). Thus it becomes easier means that social contact is interdependence: ostracism occurs more for individuals to engage in reduced, making ostracism less commonly in workplaces when task wrongdoing because others are taxing for the perpetrator. If the doing the same (Zyglidopoulos victim has been ostracised, the interdependence is low... & Fleming, 2008). perpetrator has even less need Robinson and colleagues to acknowledge their existence. (2013) postulated that stressful work environments and Tamara and Jana were both researchers on a governmentorganisations in flux would increase the likelihood of funded research project and thus task interdependence non-purposeful ostracism. Conversely, the culture of the was high. However, Jana, as a chief researcher, was able to organisation could contribute not only to the initiation of, easily remove herself from direct involvement with Tamara, but also to extending, purposeful ostracism (Raineri, Frear, & resulting in an incomplete data set that had a deleterious Edmonds, 2011; Skinner et al., 2015). A culture that breeds effect on the project outcomes. Thus, with little effort, task bullying is competitive, adversarial, lacking trust, stressful, interdependence was radically reduced. with excessive performance pressure and weakened unions, Robertson and colleagues also proposed that purposeful and with employees misusing their positions for personal ostracism is more common in workplaces that have limited power and political gain. Higher exposure to stressors at work, alternative mechanisms to resolve conflict. If the culture as reported by women, increasingly occur in academia and can favours less conflict, ostracism may become the method of incite bullying and other abuse (Zabrodska & Kveton, 2013). choice to remove an employee. Within academia, available In addition, the organisation’s leaders may have a substantial mechanisms may be too formalised and with a limited influence on the workplace culture by lowering the tone of the mandate; furthermore unions may not be able to deal with entity, demoralising staff and withholding resources (Cleary, member-on-member issues (Keashly & Neuman, 2018). Walter, Andrew, et al., 2013; Lumby, 2019). The leaders may Tamara’s university had an extensive library of policies be described as authoritarian, intolerant of nonconformity, regarding their code of conduct, complaints and their own and may support or ignore negative workplace behaviour, anti-bullying program. A formal complaint was promoted leading to deleterious work environments (Hollis, 2019; as the main means of addressing bullying, despite very few Howard et al., 2019). The university’s senior management complaints being upheld, possibly because universities had denied in their local newspaper that bullying was an issue, are places where conflict is often avoided. There has been despite evidence, and stated that it was calling in the police no evidence to demonstrate that organisational responses to investigate an anti-bullying group. Organisations which (bullying policies, training courses) help; indeed there is individualise bullying can obscure the need to understand its growing evidence that they do not (Cleary, Walter, Andrew, organisational basis or the ethical responsibilities to deal with et al., 2013). it (Rhodes et al., 2010). With such an organisational culture Robinson and colleagues (2013) propose that a flat or of cover-up, ineffective complaint mechanisms and high non-hierarchical structure may provide limited alternatives vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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casual staff numbers, it is not surprising that the purposeful ostracism against Tamara was quickly and seamlessly extended to all levels of management.

Factors affecting the intensity of ostracism Robinson and colleagues (2013) identified four factors (Figure 2) that determine the intensity of ostracism. Firstly, ostracism will be more intense if it is pervasive; in the case of Tamara, the ostracism extended across all facets of her academic life. For example, • She was allocated an office on the other side of campus and denied access to mail. • She was refused access to her office during office hours and only permitted to collect her research and personal belongings (under supervision) after 14 weeks, • She was removed from the discipline email list (despite conducting research within the discipline and being listed on the website), • She was not permitted to contact the head of discipline for one year, • She was physically prevented from attending her research group, and excluded from a workshop by Jana’s colleague, despite the international presenter’s personal invitation.

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• She was shunned in face-to-face encounters and electronic contact by research colleagues from other universities. • Employment applications and enquiries were unacknowledged and never received. • A personal item, stolen from her locked, sole-occupancy office by a fellow academic, was returned seven months later. She received no assistance from Human Resources staff, despite the fact that their failure to protect the health and wellbeing of staff is considered as corruption (Vickers, 2014). Secondly, ostracism is also more intense if it is chronic, rather than episodic (Robinson et al., 2013). For Tamara, the ostracism was total and ongoing (five years at 2012). Bullying in academia is usually of a long-standing nature; the academic environment may be particularly vulnerable to persistent aggression, continuing for five years or longer (McKay et al., 2008). Ostracism persisting over time depletes the targets’ coping resources, resulting in feelings of alienation, depression, helplessness, worthlessness, and, ultimately meaninglessness (Williams, 2012). Thirdly, the intensity of ostracism may also be greater if it emanates from more than one person (Keashly & Neuman, 2010). Tamara’s ostracism spread throughout the university

Figure 2: The Consequences of Ostracism model (Robinson et al.), modified to include the bold-bordered box (Moderators – Higher Education)

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management to senior academics in her discipline at other universities and to clinicians. It can only be assumed that Jana had spoken to them. The spreading of malicious gossip is intended to harm and isolate the target (Pheko, 2018; Vickers, 2014). The ease of networking and the small academic sector and discipline mean that rumours can be easily disseminated (Morgan, 2014). The collective form of bullying, known as mobbing, is an impassioned, collective campaign by co-workers to exclude, punish, and humiliate a targeted worker. Initiated most often by a person in a position of power or influence, mobbing is a desperate urge to crush and eliminate the target. The urge travels through the workplace like a virus, infecting one person after another. (Westhues, 2004, p. 5). Mobbing involves a group dynamic in which a lead bully will initiate and coordinate harassment through informal networks (Duffy, 2018). Bullies use these networks to protect their behaviour by rewarding their allies with promotion, political gain and financial incentives, allowing it to be normalised and acknowledged as acceptable (Hutchinson et al., 2009; Martin & Peña, 2012). Academia has been identified as one of the common sites for such non-violent mobbing, accounting for around 80 per cent of cases (Stokes & Klein, 2008). In academic mobbing, academics gang up on a target to undermine them via any means possible (Cleary, Walter, Horsfall, et al., 2013). The target (often a high achiever with strong principles) becomes isolated and ostracised (Khoo, 2010). Faculty members were almost twice as likely as administrative staff to be mobbed by three or more individuals and female academics are more at risk (Prevost & Hunt, 2018). The more people involved and the longer it went on make it more difficult for bystanders to remain neutral, leading to high rates of mobbing (McDonald et al., 2020; Westhues, 2004). The fourth factor relating to the intensity of ostracism is the number of people who are being targeted, with greater intensity directed at a sole individual. In Tamara’s case, she was the sole focus of ostracism. By experiencing all four intensity factors, Tamara likely experienced the most intense ostracism.

Effects of ostracism According to the model, ostracism has two effects, pragmatic and psychological. The pragmatic impact of ostracism has been overlooked; this has particular significance in organisations when targets are excluded from those aspects from which power is derived, namely, the resources one controls, access to information, and social connections (Al-Atwi, 2017; Robinson et al., 2013). No employee can successfully fulfil the requirements of their work without information and resources, but it can be argued that working in academia demands extensive reliance on information, resources and vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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connections both within and outside of the organisation. It is thus not surprising that the most frequently noted bullying in academia relates to isolating and obstructional behaviour (Keashly & Neuman, 2010).

Moderators of the Ostracism-Pragmatic impact relationships In an extension of the model (Figure 2), there are factors in academia which mediate, positively or negatively, the relationship between ostracism and its pragmatic effect. These moderators are the nature of work, the significance of reputation and the changing university culture. Firstly, the nature of the target’s staff position may be teaching only, research only, or a combination of both, together with administrative duties. A recent shift from teaching to research means that research performance is often used as the main criterion for determining achievements, and access to resources becomes increasingly significant. To be a successful researcher involves producing high quality research, publishing in peer-reviewed high-ranking journals, applying for and receiving research funds, and presenting work at conferences (Cleary et al., 2012). Tamara was removed from electronic communication from colleagues and other relevant professionals, thereby excluding her from accessing significant information and opportunities. In addition, physical ostracism barred her from face-to-face day-to-day information-sharing, events and activities. Research is also a social process; the initial impetus for research projects originates predominantly from informal networks, particularly for women, and contact within departments, universities and professional networks (Maranto & Griffin, 2011). In addition, academic research is increasingly becoming inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional and international ( Jerrams, Betts, & Carton, 2008). A second moderator of the ostracism-pragmatic relationship is the significance of reputation for academic success. Work performance is a critical component of reputation and disseminating news about this performance is as important (Cleary et al., 2012). Having research published and cited is of major significance in academia and is the means for gaining academic respectability and ongoing employment. As Daxner (2006) stated, ‘without recognition, academic work is futile’ (p. 233). In addition, research collaboration is seen as a measure of quality which demonstrates skills of networking and coalition building , as academics cannot go it alone (Cleary et al., 2012; Jackson, Andrew, & Cleary, 2013). International relationships provide opportunities for exchange visits and sabbaticals ( Jackson, Andrew, et al., 2013). An academic reputation is critical for future career prospects and is wide open to public scrutiny (Winefield et al., 2003). Ever-increasing digital networking using academia-focussed websites and forums have accelerated collaboration and the ease with which reputations can be built and destroyed. Due to Workplace ostracism in academia Sue Sherratt

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the extensive reputational damage, publication opportunities for Tamara ceased. The third moderator relates to the changing culture of universities in recent decades. The transformation of universities into entrepreneurial organisations has resulted in increased competitiveness among employees, steeper hierarchical structure, greater casualisation and reduced resources (see Oleksiyenko, 2018; Sharma, 2017; Taylor, 2017). Such a culture provides an arena ripe for bullying.

Moderators of the ostracism-psychological impact relationships The second impact of ostracism within the model is psychological and this has been well-documented. Ostracism has been shown to negatively affect psychological needs, emotions and attitudes as well as health; thus an ostracised individual may become depressed, anxious, fearful, despairing, and feel helpless and worthless (Vickers, 2014; Williams, 2012). These feelings are exacerbated by the frequent lack of support and empathy for the targets from colleagues, managers, unions and health services (Vickers, 2014). Thus it is envisaged that the effects Tamara suffered would be severe. Of more significance to the topic of this paper are the model’s organisational factors that moderate the relationship between ostracism and the psychological impact: awareness of being ostracised and the degree of threat. Firstly, they propose that the extent of one’s awareness will strengthen the impact of this experience. Tamara could not be unaware of her ostracism as this was direct, immediate and all-encompassing. Secondly, ostracism that is more threatening will strengthen the impact of ostracism and it threatened every aspect of her professional and personal life. The psychological impact of ostracism may be enhanced by the value of the person doing the ostracising; this value relates to how much Tamara depended on Jana to fulfil her needs. Jana was a relatively well-known academic and, as the head, could determine what work contracts were available. Furthermore, those with less power (like Tamara) are considered to be more aware of the behaviour of more powerful others; bullying thrives in situations of a power imbalance (Raineri et al., 2011). For Tamara, the psychological impact may have been more severe because she was on contract. Senior academics will direct their aggression against untenured academics, particularly women, who have a lower status, and women’s careers may more often be stopped in lower-level positions (Henning et al., 2017; Keashly & Neuman, 2018). Furthermore, Tamara’s ostracism was sudden and unexpected despite working closely over a five-year period. Unanticipated ostracism following a period of inclusion had a greater effect and was a means of catching the target off guard (Westhues, 2004). If the target is a newcomer or in insecure employment, they depend more on resources and information from co-workers

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(Robinson et al., 2013) and on personal relationships. Australian academia has the third highest level of casual/sessional employment among 14 industries with teaching-only positions being 80 per cent casuals (Louissikian, 2016; Ryan et al., 2013). This precarious employment makes these staff ‘susceptible in terms of: bullying and intimidation, unfair demands, feelings of isolation, lack of recognition and feeling undervalued’ (Ryan et al., 2013, p. 165). For sessional academics, future employment is based on personal relationships and preferences; thus, for Tamara, her annual contracts could be unilaterally terminated by the head of discipline. At the individual level, Tamara experienced both physical and psychological effects from being ostracised (see ‘Consequences of ostracism’ section). The consequences may be magnified by the reactions of senior managers. It is not only the fact of being ostracised by more than one person; the issue is the collusion of other staff at all levels. McKay and colleagues (2008) report that such a lack of reaction by the administration was a recurring theme among their university respondents. All levels of academia readily and openly acted against Tamara based on Jana’s actions. Even her subsequent short-term employment in another faculty was terminated by senior management, rather than by Human Resources. The institutionalised element of bullying is reflected in the openness with which employees show bullying behaviour (McKay et al., 2008). A final factor that may affect the degree of ostracism concerns the attributions made by the victim. Individuals strive to understand negative events affecting them (Weiner, 2018); if they consider these to be due to a personal quality, the effect of ostracism will be greater. Tamara could not attribute her ostracism to any characteristic and it thus related solely to a quality of Tamara herself and she therefore perceived it as her own fault. According to Martin and Peña (2012), the major characteristic of mobbing is that the attack is made on the academic themselves, rather than on their words or actions. Thus reputation is closely linked to another pragmatic effect of ostracism, namely the loss of social connections and influence (Robinson et al., 2013) (see ‘Moderators of the Ostracism-Pragmatic impact relationships’). Staff employment policies can also be used corruptly to damage the target’s career, block promotion and harm their future circumstances and professional status (Vickers, 2014). To destroy a target’s prospects, the bully may influence promotion and selection committees. Thus, Tamara’s job applications are never considered and, at professional events, she is purposefully shunned by previous academic research collaborators. This indicates that the effects on the target escalated to ‘outright hostility and emotional abuse – elsewhere labelled “psychoterror” – which stops nothing short of psychological and physical destruction of that employee’ (Vickers, 2014, p. 13). vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Outcomes of ostracism A final stage of the model relates to the organisational outcomes of ostracism. These outcomes can be positive or negative. Sometimes, ostracism may result in victims attempting to regain their position within the ostracising group. This is the most adaptive response but is rare (Fiset, Al Hajj, & Vongas, 2017). Due to Tamara’s sudden ostracism, these more positive avenues were not open to her. The outcomes for her, as for most cases of ostracism, were entirely negative, resulting in withdrawal and self-banishment. Of particular significance to Tamara, the outcome relates to the pragmatic/practical impact; her absolute and ongoing ostracism by Jana and colleagues extended to ostracism throughout the country (blacklisting). This was ‘inactive occupation: that is, a starvation of work, information and interaction with others in the workplace and the cutting out of all communication with that person’ (Vickers, 2014, p. 12). This had an overwhelming effect on Tamara’s ability to conduct research and prevented any opportunity of her contributing to her profession, as well as any future employment. Academic whistle-blowers pay a long-term penalty and may be effectively blackballed from ever working again in academia (Morgan, 2014).

Future research directions This application of Robinson et al.’s (2013) model of workplace ostracism to the specific field of academia offers a number of opportunities for future research. Firstly, most components of the model remain untested. This model is considered to be an important contribution to the topic of workplace ostracism (Bedi, 2019) and it may be applicable to most workplaces. All components and relationships depicted in this model of antecedents and consequences of workplace ostracism need to be carefully investigated to determine whether the model holds in workplaces in general, as well as specifically within the academic environment. Secondly, research into ostracism within academia is limited, despite a recent increase into that research. This case study suggests that certain modifications to the model are needed. Academia has certain distinctive features that do not occur elsewhere and therefore any relevant model of ostracism must take these into account. These features include the focus on research performance, the significance of reputation for academic success, the transformation of universities into entrepreneurial organisations and the longterm penalty for academic whistle-blowers. The suggested changes also need to be further tested and clarified. To what extent does cessation of collegial relationships or of access to resources have on workplace performance? How deleterious is the loss of reputation to current and future employment opportunities? How has the corporatisation of universities, with its increasing competitiveness, casualisation of staff and vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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reduced resources, contributed to the prevalence of ostracism? Thirdly, a related issue that has been highlighted in this case study was the lack of accountability of the university at all levels. Most academic organisations have extensive policy libraries relating to bullying and complaints procedures. However, the failure of these aspects of the academic workplace is clearly apparent in this case study and in previous research (Bilal et al., 2020; Sharma, 2017). Researchers should investigate not only the content of these policies but the extent to which they are implemented. Managers need to respond appropriately when policies are not followed ( Jackson et al., 2013). Furthermore, investigators should examine how certain work environments result in malicious behaviours being considered normal and acceptable.

Conclusions Ostracism is a particularly destructive but relatively common form of bullying in the workplace. The model of ostracism proposed by Robinson and colleagues (2013) provides a detailed and comprehensive picture of the antecedents and consequences within the workplace. The current paper has advanced a modified and extended version of their model tailored to cater for ostracism within academia by considering the nature of these workplaces and the significance of reputation. Whilst the model may be applicable to most workplaces, modifications may be necessary for other workplaces such as hospitals or schools as well as to academic workplaces in other countries (Meriläinen et al., 2019; Zabrodska & Kveton, 2013). This model and its proposed modifications continue to lay the groundwork for increased focus and research into workplace ostracism; this may also lead to greater awareness of the phenomenon and better ways in which to anticipate the antecedents and to ameliorate the consequences for those who are affected. Sue Sherratt is a scholar with the Communication Research Centre, Rankin Park, NSW, Australia. Contact: Communication.Research.Oz@gmail.com

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Professor Brian Martin and Associate Professor William Sher for their constructive comments.

Endnote For further information on mobbing and whistle-blowing, see https://www.kwesthues.com/mobbing.htm and https:// www.bmartin.cc/dissent/. The author has no conflict of interest. No research funding was received for this article. Workplace ostracism in academia Sue Sherratt

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Transitioning into the Australian higher education experience The perspective of international doctoral students Tania Aspland Australian Catholic University

Poulomee Datta Macquarie University

Joy Talukdar Australian Catholic University

This research explored the academic and non-academic lived experiences of higher degree onshore international doctoral students studying in one Australian university. While the academic dimension of experiences included curricular, resource, research and supervision issues, the non-academic dimension focussed on students’ inter-personal experiences. Students were required to engage in a series of personal and professional transitions to engage with higher degree research programs in Australia. The findings of this research revealed that, for international doctoral students to survive and succeed at the Australian postgraduate university experience in one Australian context, several factors are important, and a series of transitions must occur. These factors and transitions range from matters related to university guidance and counselling, research and supervision experience, and the difficulties implicit in developing both pedagogical and interpersonal or intercultural relationships. The findings provide deeper insights into the experiences of international doctoral students through transitional positioning of their personal and professional behaviours Keywords: international students, lived experiences, higher education research, doctoral students

Introduction The purpose of this research is to explore the academic and non-academic experiences of doctoral onshore international students studying in one Australian university. The academic dimension of experiences investigated their curricular, engagement with resource, research and supervision experiences and the non-academic dimension focussed on students’ inter-personal and inter-cultural experiences. The array of problems faced by international students while

studying at foreign universities is well documented. The works by Maloshonok and Terentev (2019), StudyPortals (2011), Yanhong Li and Kaye (1998) and Al-Sharideh and Goe (1998), de Araujo (2011), Lacina (2002) have explored academic and social adjustment processes adopted by international students studying at universities in Russia, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, respectively. Several bodies of research have also looked into conflict issues in a cross-cultural doctoral supervision (for example, Brodin, 2018; Wu & Hu, 2020),

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the studies are more than a decade old and, therefore, our the roles of motivation and self-efficacy for continuity of study adds fresh information to this body of work. The aspect studies for these cohorts of students (for example, Matheka, that makes this study unique in the literature is that both the Jansen, & Hofman, 2020; Naylor, Chakravarti, & Baik, 2016), academic experiences and the non-academic lived experiences the pedagogies of effective doctoral education (for example, of the international student in Australian doctoral education Choy, Singh, & Li, 2017) and/or institutional effectiveness are explored. in higher education being conducive for doctoral students to The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations thrive (for example, Ayuk & Jacobs, 2017; Coertjens et al., (CAPA) conducted a national survey of higher degree by 2017; Heflinger & Doykos, 2016). research (HDR) students at 31 Australian universities in In the Australian perspective, a recent body of secondary 2012 (CAPA, 2012). A total of 1,166 students responded data analysis published in the Australian Universities’ Review to the survey with 125 of these participating in a follow-up and reported by Torka (2020) noted PhD completion rates focus group and one-on-one interviews. The broad themes and times for the period 2005-2018. Torka, albeit pulling investigated in this study incorporated, but were not limited PhD completion data provided by the Australian Department to, supervision issues, access to resources, funding proposals of Education and Training, suggests the exercise of caution for for research dissemination, and collegiality and academic future research delving into the structural factors determining independence. The findings revealed that, in terms of completion, because better completions data are needed. supervision, ‘a supportive and collegial relationship between Nevertheless, his findings purport to show that the overall supervisor/s and candidate’ doctoral completion rates and (p. 10) was found to be crucial times, despite regulatory and ...in terms of supervision, ‘a supportive and for surviving the university funding framework reforms collegial relationship between supervisor/s experience. The participants in governing timely completion, and candidate’ was found to be crucial for the CAPA study also reported are different across disciplines, the provision of minimal institutions, and student surviving the university experience. base level of resources as cohort specificities. Torka’s integral to the ‘transparency findings further point out and adherence to institutional policies’ (p. 10). In addition, that the drivers addressing the specific structural and social the participants were in favour of ‘best practice in provision conditions of doctoral study completions in the Australian of research funding’ which was deemed as integral to perspective are largely unclear and/or remain unaddressed communicating research findings to a wider audience. The relative to such doctoral education reforms. In a similar vein, CAPA study also revealed that a collegial environment Yu and Wright’s (2016) study enumerating academic and comprised one ‘where HDR candidates’ contributions are socio-cultural adaptation and the satisfaction of international sought and valued by academic staff ’ (p. 10). doctoral students in Australia, reveals student satisfaction Nayak and Venkatraman (2010), in their pilot study, not directly related to academic studies, but to other factors, explored the academic culture of Indian business students namely community integration, student interaction, the pursuing undergraduate or postgraduate degrees at an supervision experience, and physical amenities. Meng Australian university. The findings revealed three main and Gao’s (2020) work also conforms to this finding by academic cultural gaps as identified by the students. These highlighting the need for intellectual interaction between included differentiations in teaching schemes between international research students and western educators in foreign and home universities (annual/semester concept), Australian research education. lack of capacity in terms of writing assignments, and lack of It is this background that renders the current work as familiarity with the Australian accent. timely and significant to delineating the factors integral to Edgeworth and Eiseman (2007) investigated the a thriving international student experience in Australian perspectives of international students with non-Englishdoctoral education. Our study explored the academic and speaking-backgrounds from Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, non-academic experiences of doctoral onshore international and the Middle East regarding living and studying at an students studying in one Australian university. The academic Australian rural university campus. The sample (N=18) dimension of experiences investigated their curricular, consisted of a diverse cohort of students enrolled primarily in engagement with resource, research and supervision an undergraduate management degree with others pursuing experiences and the non-academic dimension focussed pharmacy and information technology courses. The findings on students’ inter-personal and inter-cultural experiences. revealed that, for most of the students interviewed, transition Key findings in the literature related to the experiences of to a new educational environment was markedly affected international students enrolled in the Australian university by the ‘move to a rural environment’ (p. 11). However, the context are outlined and discussed below; however, most of vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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findings also underlined that the small intimate campus was conducive to addressing international student needs in terms of familiarity with academic and non-academic staff, access to resources, and pedagogical approaches undertaken. The above discussion outlined a sample of recent research undertaken in Australia generally designed to ascertain the experiences of international students in Australian universities. While the outlined research is instructive, it is limited in its contribution to knowledge. The research by CAPA (2012), was based on a self-selecting survey of all HDR students (master’s and PhD) including domestic students and those studying in off-campus, online, and distant modes or even part-time, so the results may be skewed by factors unrelated to the perspective of international students studying in Australia. Likewise, Nayak and Venkatraman’s (2010) research was small-scale and focused only on a particular academic discipline and targeted both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Edgeworth and Eiseman’s (2007) research, on the other hand, primarily sought to explore the lived experiences of international students attending an Australian rural university campus, pursuing an undergraduate degree. Therefore, our study is important as it focuses on the lived experiences of full-time onshore doctoral international students studying in one faculty and one discipline at an Australian university. While this brings consistency and depth to the case, it will be shown that the participants come from very diverse cultural backgrounds, and as such their differentiated perspectives are valuable as a rich source of data. There was no intent to pursue sameness, commonality, or generalisability within the purpose of the research project; rather its purpose is to celebrate difference and capture the unique experience of individuals from a range of diverse perspectives. The Australian Educational International (AEI) in their national survey of ascertaining international student voices, stressed the link between student success and retention and the active engagement with fellow learners and supervisors (AEI, 2012). In a like manner, Scott (2008) underlined that the factors influencing the extent of engagement of postgraduate students and their communities include the social climate established on campus, the academic, social and financial support provided by the institution, student in-class and out-ofclass involvement with campus life, and frequent feedback provided to students and staff about their performance. Following on from this work, our aim with this study was to investigate the academic and non-academic lived experiences of doctoral onshore international students studying at one Australian university, across domains of study but based within one interdisciplinary faculty. While the academic dimension explored the curricular, resource, research and supervision issues, the non-academic dimension investigated students’

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inter-personal and inter-cultural experiences. The research questions that emerged from the aim of the study were: 1. What are the curricular, resource, research and supervision experiences of doctoral onshore international students? 2. What are the inter-personal and inter-cultural experiences of doctoral onshore international students?

Methods The appropriate ethics clearance was obtained before collecting the data from participants who were doctoral international students enrolled in full-time study in a particular faculty at an Australian university. The names and contacts of students were accessed through each school/ discipline embedded within the selected faculty, where students were asked to participate voluntarily in a structured open-ended questionnaire via the SurveyMonkey survey software. Twenty-one students responded to the survey questions. The survey questions are outlined herewith: Q1: What is your country of origin? Q2: What degree are you pursuing and which year of your candidature are you currently in? Q3: How different are the curricular demands (for the degree that you are pursuing) back in your home country and at the University of XXXX? Q4: What strategies do you take to meet the curriculum expectations for the degree that you are pursuing? Q5: What are your experiences regarding accessing resources in your discipline? Q6: What are your experiences regarding issues related to research in your discipline? Q7: What are your experiences regarding issues related to supervision in your discipline? Q8: What are your experiences regarding the cultural diversity in your discipline? Q9: What are your experiences regarding the relationship you hold with your colleagues in your discipline? For data analysis, the researchers read the interview responses several times to ascertain relationships among the responses; similarities and differences. Interview data were thematically grouped, and matrices and visual mapping were used to locate patterns and identify similarities and differences between participants’ responses, a technique suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). Accordingly, key concepts or themes underpinning the data were identified and from the collective of concepts a propositional theme was built. For the purpose of this analysis, each theme is dealt with in turn, providing a deeper interpretation of the data from which greater insights in the field of study are elicited and presented below.

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Results The demographic attributes of the generated responses are outlined in Table 1. Twenty-one participants returned the Consent Forms and took part in the current study. These participants ranged from different countries and came from varied cultural backgrounds, and as such their diverse perceptions are valued as a rich source of data. The three key propositional themes that were generated from the data analyses are outlined forthwith. It was the perspective of the participants that: 1. The Australian higher education curriculum is more research intensive than in the home country institution. This requires transitions in terms of professional engagement in learning. 2. The strategies employed by doctoral students to meet the Australian higher education curricular demands are a result of the interplay of several factors ranging from university guidance and counselling to individualised supervisory feedback. This required transitions in terms of engagement in higher education. 3. Surviving the new educational and cultural milieu of the Australian university is contingent on several factors ranging from research and supervision experience to developing interpersonal and inter-cultural relationships. This requires transitions in terms of personal styles of communication. Country of Origin

Pursuing degree

Year of candidature ( frequency)

China

PhD

2nd

Cambodia

PhD

1st

Colombia

PhD

1st

Ghana

PhD

1st

India

PhD

3rd, 4th

Indonesia

PhD

1st (2), 2nd

Malaysia

PhD

1st (2)

Nigeria

PhD

1st

Palestine

PhD

1st

Pakistan

PhD

2nd

Philippines

PhD

1st, 3rd

Syria

PhD

1st

Vietnam

PhD

1st (3)

Zimbabwe

PhD

1st

Total

In the next three subsections, each of these propositions is deconstructed and it is shown how each was built from the key concepts and themes embedded in the data elicited from the open-ended questions of the survey. In justifying the propositional themes that were generated through the analysis of the data, some of the reported responses are cited against their ID in brackets. This brings authenticity to the findings.

Propositional theme one: Australian higher education curriculum is more research intensive than in the home institution. Based on their previous experiences in home institutions, it was the perspective of most of the participants in the study that the Australian higher education curriculum is more robust and research intensive. When they were asked about the differences between their home countries and Australia in relation to obtaining a higher degree by research qualification, twelve out of the twenty-one participants emphasised the importance of high-quality research and critical thinking skills as integral components of higher degree qualifications in Australia. This is evident from the following quote: In Australia a PhD student obtains better preparation in terms of research strategies. (ID-13) This was clearly linked to students’ perspectives that studying for higher degrees in Australia was more rigorous than they had experienced previously, particularly the studying they had completed in their home country. One student referred to his Australian HDR studies as: heavy research. (ID-14) while another signified that: there was a stronger focus on research as integral to postgraduate studies in Australia than was the case in his home institution. (ID-14)

Table 1: Country of origin, degree pursued, and year of candidature of the sample of international students vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Five of the participants pointed out that the demands arising out of an Australian higher degree are more challenging in terms of the structure, academic requirements and standards and also necessitate more personal resilience and continued efforts on the part of the student to make the transition into the new academic environment. One participant from Asia was of the view that the Australian higher degree qualification is the most robust in comparison to most of the Asian countries in the world, based on his analysis of international programs and feedback from colleagues and friends. Whilst robustness is a desirable quality of a graduate program, the qualities of rigour and demand characterise the programs under question as scholarly and of high quality. It has become evident that the manner in which these programs are operationalised is not overwhelming, rather it is the view of some participants that the programs are presented in a manner that facilitates high

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level learning, and in this positive sense, more demanding than they expected. This resulted in students having to reposition their learning styles as they transitioned into the Australian context. Despite the high demands of the academic work reported by students within the study, two participants, also from Asia, highlighted the contrast they experienced with the perceived flexible and easy-going nature of Australian academics or supervisors who delivered higher degree qualifications: Here, assignments, presentations and deadlines are quite relaxed and flexible but in my home country such things are more formal and stricter. Academics are also very relaxed. (ID-2) Students were required to make a series of transitions in their expectations of supervisors in facilitating these new cultural ways of engagement in a university setting. However, as will be shown below, there are several issues that counter or contradict the perceived high quality and rigour implicit in the design and delivery of HDR programs in this one Australian context, making the transitions more difficult than expected. Prior to moving to a fuller articulation of the issues faced by students, the next section highlights some of the strategies outlined by the respondents as they adjusted their modes of learning and engagement to meet the Australian higher education curricular and supervision demands.

Propositional theme two: Higher degree students adopt a range of strategies to meet the Australian higher education curricular and supervision demands. As a result of the interplay amongst a number of factors, academic and personal, the majority of the participants reported that they were required to adopt a range of strategies to meet the demands of the Australian higher curriculum and supervision and transition into a new learning context. These included calling on university guidance and counselling staff to meet their need for individualised supervisory feedback. When international students were asked about the strategies they employ to meet the Australian higher education curricular demands, 17 of the students emphasised the importance of turning to external support in the form of guidance from supervisors, senior colleagues, peers in the discipline and experienced professionals. This element of reliance and dependence is a significant strategy adopted by students particularly in the induction and transition phases on their arrival in Australia. This is evidenced from the following quote: Guidance from the experienced people and professionals from the area, interaction and discussion with colleagues. (ID-21)

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The international students in this study reported perspectives that demonstrated that they have to seek direction in reconstituting the ways they work in higher education in a new university setting, if they were to succeed. Students sought guidance and support in relation to a number of matters, both personal and professional, including academic writing, meeting procedures, modes of communication with supervisors and the acquisition of cultural protocols that were integral to the transition into an Australian academic setting. When it came to academic writing, developing research capacities, and resituating ways of knowing into new cultural contexts, five of the students elaborated further saying that attending as many relevant workshops as possible was absolutely necessary to scaffold their transition into Australian higher degree studies: Attending as many relevant seminars and workshops as is possible. (ID-8) Participants reported that attendance at these seminars, where facilitators, critical friends and academics helped them to meet the curricular and supervisory demands, were instructive in reshaping their research practices, and their academic writing and their positioning as a visiting student in an Australian university. Central to this process of reconstitution is the wellrecognised process of self-adjustment as international students realign their thinking and learning to Australian ways of working. However, only four of the students believed that they could study, work and research independently to accomplish most of the curriculum and supervisory demands. One student captured this sentiment powerfully: I just push myself to keep doing things…I stay awake ’til late and work. (ID-3) This pushing on is often completed in isolation as one of the students report: work hard all by myself. (ID-11) Another group of students turned to their supervisors for support, firstly to confront the feelings of isolation but also as an intellectual scaffold, to guide their thinking about their topic, about research methods and for more basic counselling and reassurance concerning their chosen academic career pathway. For many of the participants, the strategies employed to meet the Australian higher education curricular and supervisory demands encompass several modes of scaffolding interactions, ranging from university guidance and counselling, academic workshops to individualised supervisory feedback. The reasons for eliciting this type of support vary from personal feelings of loneliness, aspirations for success and to build confidence in themselves as they transition into their status as new career researchers. This support provides visiting

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students with the means to sustain their HDR journey in moments of adversity. The next subsection highlights some of the factors emphasised by the participants as helping to survive and successfully transition into a positive university experience.

Propositional theme three: Surviving the new educational and cultural milieu is contingent on several factors One of the key factors that proved to be problematic to most of the participants in transitioning into the new educational and cultural milieu of higher degree research in Australia focuses on the concept of accessing resources. Both positive and negative student perspectives were expressed concerning their experiences regarding accessing resources in their discipline. Sixteen of the students said that resources within their discipline were easily available and they benefitted enormously due to the easy and plentiful access. They were strong in their sentiments that the ease with which resources could be accessed enabled them to progress their studies with greater confidence and success. This situation also reinforced in their minds that they had chosen the right university as it was portrayed as a wealthy and elite university in the Australian context. Six of the students highlighted the abundance of library and online resources which students used effectively to search for journals, academic books and learning materials related to their education. These students found the online resources easy to access and noted the excellent quality of resources particularly the journals and e-books reinforcing that for many students the resources were generally very good, facilitating the achievement of personal and academic goals without too much stress. The following quotes substantiate this viewpoint: Library resources are excellent in terms of journals and e-books. (ID-3) Ease of access, online resources. (ID-15) Library resources are easily accessible. Facilities are generally good. (ID-14) Another two of the student participants pointed out the importance of accessibility to printing, equipment and software resources in their discipline to support their transition as successful researchers: Accessing resources (equipment, printing facilities) has been quite easy; most resources that I needed are available. (ID-19) The relocation of academic work cannot be completed without the necessary knowledge management as well as intellectual engagement. This process requires access to essential academic artefacts to progress the journey. In this context many students found easy access and the fact vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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that good systems were in place to be assets in the complex process of relocation, both physically and intellectually. It was common for students to comment on the generosity of the university regarding the provision of resources and this assisted in overcoming feelings of alienation as the students transitioned into their new academic home and, concurrently, enabling the becoming of self as a researcher. However, there was evidence of dissent in this matter. Five students expressed their dissatisfaction in relation to accessing resources within the university, and thus felt hampered in their transition to research status. They argued that resources were limited, intermittent, not updated or were inaccessible to international students. One of the students surprisingly pointed out the lack of support and competence demonstrated by the administration staff, which resulted in the provision of resources being erratic and sporadically available to some but not all international students. Feelings of alienation became clear as she indicated that the administration staff would usually take long periods of time to process forms and provide access to some of the basic resources like stationery and keys which often led to delays and feelings of frustration. The following quote portrays this perspective: My experiences regarding accessing resources in my discipline (School of A) is not good. Access to the printer and HDR support money is often organised by the administration staff. The admin staff are most often reluctant to some international students or even if they talk positively, they are very slow in processing forms and services for international students. This process most often is frustrating and demotivating. Also, access to cupboards, stationary, keys to the resource room and basic resources are not provided to most students in spite of several requests put forward by international students. (ID-2) The data in this respect are replete with contestations and dilemmas. On the one hand many students claim that the provision of resources to international students is systematically refined and institutionally generous while on the other hand some students expressed feelings of disrespect towards them, of being undermined and being continually frustrated by lack of support. What is common is the finding that access to resources can make or break the successful transition into a research culture that is markedly different from their home experience. In relation to their experiences at the university, nine of the participants articulated that their experiences were not only great but also enriching and elevating by way of the challenge and development in their respective fields. As one student reported: It has been a very good learning experience. The university provides rich academic and professional environment, which is great. (ID-21)

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The group of students within the study who were very positive were able to recognise that the positive research culture in the university led to many outcomes that enhanced their career transition as a scholar. The following quotes portray these perspectives: I personally have many publications and did research during my candidature. (ID-2) Very challenging. It provided me a lot of experiences in exploring the related information and learnt from this sort of research journey. (ID-6) However, 9 of 21 students indicated their dissatisfaction towards their research experiences within the Australian higher education sector. They perceived: research opportunities as narrow and limited for international students. (ID-8) They further argued that: funding was often not enough to cover international conferences, and this left students with little scope to hone and expand their research and professional skills. (ID-7) Their transition to an early career researcher was stifled due to lack of resources and opportunities. There were three other students who believed that, had it not been for their previous extensive research experiences, they would not consider their current research exposure as adequate. This is demonstrated by the following quote: Previous work and research experience helps. (ID-16) One of the students brought attention to a new dimension altogether in terms of the research-related experience at the university. She pointed out that the research journey for higher degree students was often driven by the likes, interests and expertise of their supervisors and even their cultural dispositions towards some students. In such instances, international students often lost control of the focus of their research and were compelled by their supervisors to do things their way, thus limiting the transition in culturally specific ways. As one student noted: Some students are forced into employing software in their research which they do not understand nor are interested to employ. But due to their supervisor’s expertise they are forced to employ software and validate models which they otherwise would not want to do. The students lose control of their PhD. and they are overpowered by their supervisors. (ID-2) Despite this negative experience by one-third of the group, in response to their supervision-related experiences at the university, 17 of the student participants indicated that: they received excellent supervision. (ID-3; ID-14)

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They further highlighted that their supervisors were excellent and attentive supervisors, enabling a successful transition into the Australian research landscape. As one student reported: Supervision has been brilliant. The supervisors have been very helpful, always available when needed and eager to make my research life as easy as possible. (ID-8) From the perspectives of most students, they were content with the frequency of meetings held and stated that their supervisors allowed them great flexibility and independence in their research. It was commonly noted that, in comparison to the supervision that students had experienced in their home country, there was an element of flexibility and independence in the Australian supervision landscape: Australian supervisors are extremely flexible and allow students to work independently. (ID-2) These sentiments reflect the broader proposition that emerged from the study that the responsivity of supervisors and their capacities to change or modify their practices in response to student needs, enhanced the students’ relocation into a new academic environment and lifestyle. This was not the case for all students. Four of the students expressed their disappointment regarding supervision-related issues. Two of the students expressed the view that supervisors were extremely busy and did not provide adequate time to their students. One of them went on to articulate that this had negatively influenced his study career: Well, sometimes I need to see my supervisors, but I can’t because they are busy or not around. I hope this can improve in the future. After all, the supervisors are responsible to make sure students can seek help when needed. The inability to find help is significantly impacting on the study. (ID-1) There were incidences that underpinned such dissatisfaction. For example, one student reported that supervisors often did not read students’ drafts due to their busy schedule. Further, one of the other students pointed out that often their colleagues were assigned to supervisors without appropriate expertise. These students reported that there were allocated academics who were not from their specialised areas and, as a result, supervisors often tended to dominate or reconceptualise students’ projects based on their own research interest area, not the area that the students had been sponsored for or had chosen to investigate. One student who was frustrated with his transition to academia stated: But again here, sometimes students are assigned supervisors not from the content area and also some supervisors force students to use certain methodologies based on their convenience. In such instances, the students’ interests are not taken into account. (ID-2)

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For these students the future at times appeared dim, with thoughts of non-completion at the fore in their minds, and the transition towards successful research not deemed likely. Culturally this was unacceptable to many students and generated heightened levels of student anxiety, and consequently they questioned their capacity to survive the doctoral journey in the higher education context in Australia. Another student participant who was unsatisfied agreed that supervisors were often not interested in students’ research area and treated it more as a managerial responsibility rather than a scholarly endeavour. She further argued that communication was often difficult, with the formal and short supervisory meetings, leaving very little scope for opportunities to discuss crucial research matters. She stated:

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tolerance and promoting respect, fairness and a sense of belonging for everyone. The following quote portrays this perspective: I was confident I could survive in a context where we came together as a group with academics to celebrate Harmony Day, where we get to know each other’s culture more closely. In this process, facilitation between cultures takes place. (ID2)

It was the consensus of the group that a departmental context that foregrounded the valuing of a range of cultures was a suitable landscape for transition of international students into higher education; one that would facilitate better conditions for a successful, long-term commitment to higher degree study. This is the least satisfying of all experiences. My supervisors The student participants also believed that the are not interested in students’ research, focussing on meetunderstanding and exchange of different cultural views, ing deadlines and filling appropriate forms. Communication perspectives and values was a great learning experience for most is sometimes difficult and coupled with the hierarchy, the formal style and short meetings; research becomes a matter and built a strong HDR community where students have an of trial and error. Nothing opportunity to enjoy knowing more. Supervision feels more and interacting with people These students believed that Australia like interrogation sessions to from different backgrounds make sure that the students is a country where cultural diversity and to learn a lot from people are not lagging behind schedis celebrated, and this made them feel from different backgrounds ules rather than (as) opportuin the school. A setting of comfortable in transitioning into a nities for discussion. (ID-9) this type enabled the students university where cultural diversity was one to meet people from various Another concern raised by of its key focus areas. cultures and ethnicities and, as the same student participant such, accept that each of them was that supervisors did not was different, but this difference brought a richness to their make any attempt to familiarise themselves with international community and strengthened their bonds as a HDR group students’ context and background. Rather that they had to undergoing many changes as they relocated their lives and fit a preconceived model, thus limiting every opportunity their scholarship in a new context. One student captured the to build a productive supervisory relationship and reducing sentiments of the group in stating: scholarly capacity building through feedback to, for example, reductionist exchanges about administrative matters. This Working in a multicultural environment is enjoyable – type of transition became one-sided with the student respecting each other’s cultural values is important – building continuously trying to please the supervisor rather than a culture where people can share their knowledge is signififocusing on good research outcomes. cant. (ID-5) In contrast to these sentiments, all the participants in However, one of the students expressed her concerns that the study responded positively in terms of their experiences in an act to facilitate international cultural integration in regarding the cultural diversity at the University. These Australia, the local Australian culture is not fully understood students believed that Australia is a country where cultural by newly arrived students. She believes that she has not diversity is celebrated, and this made them feel comfortable had the opportunity to come to know and understand the in transitioning into a university where cultural diversity was Australian community and the appropriate behavioural and one of its key focus areas. communication styles within the local community: Further, according to the participants, students from different countries in this context acknowledged that they felt However, I still think we will not have the real feel of local comfortable in being recognised as a part of the Australian culture if we do not get to interact with local students and mainstream society. One of the students articulated that this teachers socially. We may be given an opportunity to go out Australian university in particular makes an honest attempt to to see some places of interest together as churches, temples, museums and also visit other universities. I want to share I am facilitate cultural integration by celebrating special occasions always thinking about what appropriate and inappropriate like ‘Harmony Day’ to encourage cultural, racial and religious vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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behaviour is in this culture when it comes to human interaction. I wish somebody could give us an orientation on this. (ID-3) In terms of their experiences regarding the relationship they hold with their colleagues at the University, there were mixed perspectives elicited by the respondents. Seventeen of the students indicated that they shared a cordial, harmonious and amiable relationship with their colleagues and this is evident in the following quotes from three student participants: We maintain a harmonious relationship. (ID-17) Relationship is cordial with most colleagues. (ID-19) I have some very wonderful people as my colleagues, and I enjoy interacting with them. (ID-21) Some student participants also believed that the social activities organised by the universities were often a good platform to build these relationships. Similarly, some other student participants found that peer networking within colleagues of the same discipline and similar research interests was useful particularly with those who are in the same research area. One of the students was of the perception that informal research-related conversations over a cup of coffee and lots of humour added to these chats helped not only to maintain significant bonds between colleagues but also build collegiality in the workplace. It was noted that conversations of this type make the work stress-free and fun and enabled a comfortable transition in a workplace that differed from their own back home. However, four of the students spoke of some ‘unhealthy competition’ within the discipline area, which had led to some conflicts and disagreements between colleagues in the recent past. One student stated that: I do not share a good relationship with colleagues due to a lot of unhealthy competition. (ID-20) which developed into: some unpleasant relationships (that) have cropped up among colleagues. (ID-2) This made the transition one that was replete with high emotions, uncertainty and disdain. One of the students further pointed out that some international postgraduate students often make an attempt to belittle other students and in doing so breed disharmony and unrest among colleagues. One of the key reasons that underpinned the relationships amongst students was based on quality output. As this student reported: some research students fared favourably in the academic culture with more publications, and this became the sole reason for jealousy and ongoing competition. (ID-2)

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The above discussion convincingly portrays that for most of the participants, that transition into a new educational and cultural milieu as international students in Australian universities is contingent on several factors ranging from research and supervision experiences to developing interpersonal relationships. The next section discusses these broad propositional themes and its underlying findings against the backdrop of relevant literature.

Discussion This research explored the academic and non-academic lived experiences of higher degree onshore international students studying at a particular faculty at an Australian university. While the academic dimension explored the curricular, resource, research and supervision issues, the non-academic dimension investigated students’ interpersonal experiences and indicates that transition into academia in Australia can be very successful on some fronts but problematic on others. The findings of this research are largely similar to other studies conducted in Australia and abroad which explored the perspectives of international students studying at a foreign university. For example, the findings of this research are similar to those of the national survey of HDR students conducted by CAPA (2012) which found that issues related to supervision, access to resources, funding proposals for research dissemination, and collegiality and academic independence are factors enabling students to survive the university experience. The works by StudyPortals (2011), Yanhong Li and Kaye (1998) and Al-Sharideh and Goe (1998), de Araujo (2011), Lacina (2002) which explored the academic and social adjustment processes by international students studying at universities in Europe and the United Kingdom and the United States of America, respectively, also emerged with similar results to that of the present research. In a like manner, the other broad finding of this research, that international students find the Australian higher education curriculum to be more robust and research intensive reflects the works of Nayak and Venkatraman (2010) and Edgeworth and Eiseman (2007) who found that pedagogical cultural gaps as outlined by international students were mainly in terms of the research rigour in the Australian higher education curriculum. The findings of this research, therefore, have important implications for policy and practice in Australian higher education. The policy and practice initiatives, largely drawn from the propositional themes as generated from the dataset, are based on the factors enabling doctoral international students to successfully transition into the Australian higher educational experience. As evident in the findings, international students find the Australian higher education curriculum to be more robust

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and research intensive. Accordingly, their transition into the new educational and cultural milieu is contingent on several factors. These factors range from, but are not limited to, university guidance and support, support from supervisors, peers and professionals, the overall research and supervision experience, and developing interpersonal relationships. In light of this evidence, the following recommendations are suggested for policy and practice in Australian higher education: 1. Development and monitoring of researcher education programs that inculcate research methodologies and academic writing skills and encouraging the initiation of academic writing groups within a particular discipline. These would allow international students to familiarise themselves with the expectations of the Australian higher education curriculum in terms of academic writing and research communication. 2. Enhancing the supervisor-student relationship by organising workshops, seminars, and training programs for supervisors. The content and extent of these training programs should necessarily consider, but not be limited to, the pedagogical and cultural differences of international students in general, supervision issues, research skills, and time management. 3. The guarantee of minimum resources in each faculty should be adhered to and in a timely and appropriate manner. The orientation programs both at the university and faculty levels should highlight the entitlement of each student in terms of internet and printing quota and borrowing books and journals. Moreover, funding should be set aside in each faculty for research communication and capacity building in terms of journal publications and attending seminars and conferences. 4. Cultural activities should be organised in the school, for example, Harmony Day, Flag Day, and barbecue parties in an effort to enhance understanding and exchange of different cultural views, perspectives and values and developing interpersonal relationships. These would produce a sense of homecoming to international students to reduce feelings of disorientation and home sickness they often are plagued with. In addition, it would also allow the locals to understand and appreciate other cultures and values.

Conclusion

The findings of this research revealed that, for the successful transition of international students into the university experience, several factors are important which range from university guidance and counselling, research and supervision experience, to developing interpersonal relationships. This study was a small-scale study and focused on the experiences of international students at a particular faculty at an Australian university. Although the findings of this study are not generalisable to all cohorts of international students, findings have important implications for policy and practice in Australian higher education. What is of significance here is that students experience the transition differently at all levels of academic transition, with the repositioning of themselves as early career researchers into the Australia university context, and in the reconstitution of their personal relationships with supervisor and colleagues throughout the transition. While some students in this one context were scaffolded successfully throughout the transition, others felt the transition was one-sided, exclusionary, overly competitive and inequitable. While cases such as these that highlight that some dissatisfied students fail to make the transition, higher education in Australia remains wanting in its opportunities for international doctoral students. It is important that a large-scale study is carried out further testing of this theory and whether the results differ across Faculties/Disciplines and across international student countries of origin. If this can be achieved, the key industry of international higher education in Australia may benefit from listening to the perspectives of fee-paying international students who value Australia for its high research profile but may well be disappointed with the experience.

Acknowledgements This research has been funded by the Momentum Fund, Faculty of Professions, the University of Adelaide. The authors have no conflict of interest for this article. Professor Tania Aspland is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia and has been a leader in teacher education for many years particularly in relation to professional standards and evidence-based assessment. Dr Poulomee Datta is a senior lecturer in Inclusive Education at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

This research explored the academic and non-academic lived experiences of higher degree onshore international students studying at a particular faculty at an Australian university. While the academic dimension explored the curricular, resource, research and supervision issues, the non-academic dimension investigated students’ inter-personal experiences. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Dr Joy Talukdar from the Australian Catholic University has research which spans teaching and teacher education, particularly aspects that address teacher quality. Contact: poulomee.datta@mq.edu.au

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References Al-Sharideh, K. A. & Goe, W. R. (1998). Ethnic communities within the university: An examination of factors influencing the personal adjustment of international students. Research in Higher Education, 39(6), 699-725. doi:10.1023/A:1018714125581 Australian Educational International (AEI). (2012). Student voices: Enhancing the experience of international students in Australia. Retrieved from https://aei.gov.au/research/Publications/Documents/ Student%20voices%20-%20FINAL.pdf Ayuk P. T., & Jacobs, G. J. (2017). Developing a measure for student perspectives on institutional effectiveness in higher education. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 44(6), e1-e12. doi: 10.4102/sajip. v44i0.1485 Brodin, E. M. (2018). The stifling silence around scholarly creativity in doctoral education: experiences of students and supervisors in four disciplines. Higher Education, 75(4), 655-673. doi: 10.1007/s10734017-0168-3 Choy, S., Singh, P., & Li, M. (2017). Trans-cultural, trans-language practices: Potentialities for rethinking Doctoral education pedagogies. Education Sciences, 7(1), 19. doi: 10.3390/educsci7010019 Coertjens, L., Brahm, T., Trautwein, C., & Lindblom-Ylänne, S. (2017). Students’ transition into higher education from an international perspective. Higher Education, 73(3), 357-369. doi: 10.1007/s10734016-0092-y Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA). (2012). The research education experience: Investigating Higher Degree by Research candidates’ experiences in Australian universities. A research report developed by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA), with support from the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE). Retrieved from http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv55942 de Araujo, A. A. (2011). Adjustment issues of international students enrolled in American Colleges and Universities: A review of the literature. Higher Education Studies, 1(1), 2-8. doi:10.5539/hes.v1n1p2 Edgeworth, K. & Eiseman, J. (2007). Going bush: International student perspectives on living and studying at an Australian rural university campus. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 22(9), 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.jrre.psu.edu/articles/22-9.pdf Heflinger, C. A., & Doykos, B. (2016). Paving the pathway: Exploring student perceptions of professional development preparation in Doctoral education. Innovative Higher Education, 41(4), 343-358. doi: 10.1007/s10755-016-9356-9 Lacina, J. G. (2002). Preparing international students for a successful social experience in higher education. New Directions for Higher Education, 117, 21-28. doi:10.1002/he.43

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Maloshonok, N., M., & Terentev, E. (2019). National barriers to the completion of doctoral programs at Russian universities. Higher Education, 77(2), 195-211. doi: 10.1007/s10734-018-0267-9 Matheka, H. M., Jansen, E. P. W. A., & Hofman, W. H. A. (2020). Kenyan doctoral students’ success: Roles of motivation and self-efficacy. Perspectives in Education, 38(1), 115-129. doi: 10.18820/2519593X/pie.v38i1.9 Meng, H., & Gao, D. (2020). An intellectual interaction between international research students and western educators in the internationalization of Australian research education. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 29(2), 113-122. doi: 10.1007/s40299-01900457-1 Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Nayak, R. R. & Venkatraman, S. (2010). A pilot study into international students’ academic culture: The context of Indian Business students in an Australian university. e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 4(2), 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.ejbest.org Naylor, R., Chakravarti, S., & Baik, C. (2016). Differing motivations and requirements in PhD student cohorts: A case study. Issues in Educational Research, 26(2), 351-367. Retrieved from http://www.iier. org.au/iier26/naylor.pdf Scott, G. (2008). Review of Australian higher education request for research and analysis: University student engagement and satisfaction with teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://www.uws.edu.au/__ data/assets/pdf_file/0007/64087/Research_-_Scott_-_pdf.pdf StudyPortals. (2011). Key influencers of international student satisfaction in Europe. Retrieved from http://www.studyportals.eu/ research/student-satisfaction/ Torka, M. (2020). Change and continuity in Australian doctoral education: PhD completion rates and times (2005-2018). Australian Universities’ Review, 62(2), 69-82. Wu, M., & Hu, Y. (2020). Transitioning to an independent researcher: Reconciling the conceptual conflicts in cross-cultural doctoral supervision. Studies in Continuing Education, 42(3), 333-348. doi: 10.1080/0158037X.2019.1615423 Yanhong Li, R. & Kaye, M. (1998). Understanding overseas students’ concerns and problems. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 20(1), 41-50. doi:10.1080/1360080980200105 Yu, B., & Wright, E. (2016). Socio-cultural adaptation, academic adaptation and satisfaction of international higher degree research students in Australia. Tertiary Education and Management, 22(1), 49-64. doi: 10.1080/13583883.2015.1127405

Transitioning into the Australian higher education experience Tania Aspland et al.

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The Commonwealth of Learning Scholarship, regulation and the common pursuit of knowledge Michael Tomlinson University of Melbourne

To what extent do higher education regulators and quality agencies need to assess the level of scholarship in universities and other higher education providers? To answer this question, we need to address the following issues: What is scholarship and why does it need to be upheld? Does it feature in higher education quality standards and codes, and how would an agency go about assessing the level of scholarship? Scholarship is an essential dimension of a higher education learning environment based upon the educational theory of constructivism. Constructivism leads us to a concept of higher education based on the common pursuit of knowledge through inquiry. If the prime role of teachers is to stimulate and support student learning through inquiry, then it follows that they must be continually engaged in inquiry themselves. Agencies can take a risk-based approach to testing the level of scholarship in higher education providers, which will not normally be necessary for low-risk providers. Keywords: scholarship, quality assurance, regulation. higher education

Introduction Universities and colleges have been inextricably linked with scholarship since they began in the late medieval and early modern period. They evolved from groups of scholars who banded together to offer their services to students in a more organised context. The level of organisation has increased over the centuries, until 21st century universities became large corporations with professional management and tens of thousands of students. Most governments invest large amounts of public money in higher education through grants and subsidies, and so they seek ways of holding the universities and colleges accountable. Research grant agencies often mount periodic assessments of the research they have been funding, such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom and the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) framework. To what extent do other higher education quality agencies assess the level of scholarship in universities and colleges, and to what extent is this necessary? To answer this question, we vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

need to address the following issues: 1. What is scholarship? 2. Why does it need to be upheld? 3. Does it feature in higher education quality standards and codes? 4. How would an agency go about assessing the level of scholarship at a university or a college?

What is scholarship? Scholarship in the early modern period consisted almost exclusively of the intensive study of texts. Knowledge was based on the authoritative texts passed down from antiquity, and scholarly activities consisted of clarifying those texts, copying them, and then interpreting them for the contemporary context. In his British Academy lecture, ‘The life of learning’, the renowned historian of this period, Keith Thomas, recounted how Protestant and Catholic scholars produced opposing accounts of church history to justify their respective religions, The Commonwealth of Learning Michael Tomlinson

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and Biblical scholarship had profound political implications. Scholars also sought instruction on all topics from the works of the ancient authors of Greece and Rome, which ‘were believed to contain the foundations of human knowledge’ (Thomas, 2001). Around the same period, others started to pioneer a new approach to the accumulation of knowledge through systematic direct observation of the natural world. This approach was first codified in Francis Bacon’s Novum Organon (1620), in which he maintained audaciously: ‘my aim is to open up a new road for the intellect to follow, a road the ancients didn’t know and didn’t try’. His proposed method was to accumulate ‘instances’ that confirm a hypothesis as widely as possible, and to rule out conflicting instances as irrelevant. He proposed actively searching for instances that would confirm a hypothesis if observed, such as observations that would confirm that the earth revolves around the sun rather than vice versa (Bacon, 1620, Book 2, #36). This developed into the experimental method based on confirming hypotheses based on pre-determined tests, including pre-determined processes of research and outcomes specified in advance that have to be achieved to confirm the hypothesis. The experimental model proved to be so successful in uncovering reliable knowledge about the natural world and in devising new technologies that it become the dominant mode of knowledge discovery, tending to overshadow the older forms of scholarly endeavour. In scientific discovery, propositions should be tested, and as Popper (1963) maintained, should be formulated in such a way that it is possible for them to be tested, and therefore to be ‘falsified’. It is not enough to accumulate confirming instances as Bacon maintained, but the scientist must set a test which has a binary outcome – a result which either confirms or refutes the proposition. This leads to a higher standard of proof compared to non-scientific disciplines, which brings to mind the distinction in law between the criminal standard (proof beyond reasonable doubt) and the civil standard – proof on the balance of probabilities. The Carnegie Foundation (USA) realised that the devaluing of other forms of knowledge work had gone too far, which led to the publication of the most famous work on scholarship, Ernest Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered (1990). Boyer revalued other forms of scholarly work through proposing a typology of four forms of scholarship: 1. Discovery – conducting original research that leads to the addition of new knowledge 2. Integration – the synthesis of existing knowledge across topics and disciplines 3. Application – applying existing knowledge to solve problems 4. Teaching and Learning – the systematic study of teaching and learning processes.

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The traditional study of texts and artefacts from the past has continued and become more sophisticated over time. But the critique and analysis of a work of literature or art does not fit easily into this typology as it does not extend across disciplines or topics, required in Boyer’s conceptualisation of the scholarship of synthesis, nor indeed does their creation. Boyer’s own field was audiology and speech pathology, so it is understandable that his framework was not so accommodating for the humanities and the arts. It is more suitable for forms of propositional knowledge, and least suitable to sheer invention. To select an example closer to home, Tomlinson (1984) maintained that Shakespeare’s history plays were not aligned either with the conservative viewpoint of monarchs or with the radical opposition to the established order posed by rebels but were intrinsically multivocal. While elements in the plays were persuasively characterised in the paper in such a way as to support this view, there is no test of validity that can be applied and so it is not falsifiable. To my knowledge it has not been falsified in nearly 40 years, so at least we can say it has stood the test of time! There is a need to find a more evident place within scholarship for work that brings new insights into the existing body of knowledge and creates works of art that break new ground. These forms of scholarly activity are more suited to disciplines in the creative arts and humanities than the scientific model of objective testing and falsifiability. Boyer’s second category could be reconceptualised as ‘Analysis’, to accommodate analysis both across and within boundaries that brings new insights. However, the Australian Research Council defines research as spanning both categories: the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings. This could include the synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative. (ARC, 2017) This builds on a definition in the OECD’s Frascati Manual: Research and experimental development (R&D) comprise creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge – including knowledge of humankind, culture and society – and to devise new applications of available knowledge. (OECD, 2015 2.5) The OECD goes on to observe that ‘R&D is always aimed at new findings, based on original concepts (and their interpretation) or hypotheses’ (2.6). It lists some tests of whether an activity meets the definition (2.7). It must be novel; creative; uncertain; systematic; and transferable and/ or reproducible. Some of these are attributes of the research process rather than outputs. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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public policy, creating an architectural design, or working They fit all the forms of advancement of knowledge with the public schools’ (Boyer 1990, p. 22), the Frascati discussed, with the exception perhaps of the last attribute: manual is more focussed on developing innovation in a transferable and/or reproducible. Neither the processes business and industrial context. But the underlying concept by which creative artists arrive at their creative works or of using knowledge derived from research to solve problems performances nor many of the works themselves are easily is essentially similar. reproducible, unless we count mass production of books and So, we can see that the contemporary scope of the term records. However, any creative work can be disseminated, one ‘research and development’ has expanded to include three out way or another, and can form a precedent for a new direction of the four categories of scholarship in Boyer, thus colonising taken up by other artists. most of the territory. We can reformulate all of these as To accommodate creative works and innovation better, ‘research, innovation and development’. Boyer’s first category could be reconceptualised as research The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is a useful and innovation. The overall title of ‘Discovery’ implies there category, taking in the great expansion of knowledge about are existing territories or phenomena out there which are not strategies that enhance student learning. yet known but need to be discovered or uncovered. This is The Higher Education Academy published a literature compatible with the basic definition of research as the creation review on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), of new knowledge, but not so much the creation of an artefact which observed that: ‘There is a which never existed before, degree of perplexity as to what which could be a notable work Fortunately, Beethoven did not have to SoTL actually means, both in of art but could also be a new justify the Eroica Symphony as research, the minds of academics; and in technology that never existed the field of research’ (Fanghanel before. Conceptualising this but it undoubtedly represents the highest et al., 2015, p. 9). form of scholarship as research form of artistic innovation, that changed At one end of the spectrum, and innovation would relieve the course of symphonic music. SoTL consists of the scholarship pressure on artists to emulate of discovery as applied to the methodologies of the teaching and learning, in other natural or social sciences to words traditional publications on this subject based on formal justify their place within the academy and would give free research. Formal research into how students learn and what rein to agencies to become research and innovation agencies. strategies teachers can use to support and promote student Artistic creation belongs under the heading of ‘innovation’ learning forms a major part of the Scholarship of Teaching and more fittingly than under ‘research’ or ‘discovery’. Learning, distinguished by the production of papers in research Fortunately, Beethoven did not have to justify the Eroica journals recording the ‘new knowledge’ that is being added to Symphony as research, but it undoubtedly represents the the knowledge base. highest form of artistic innovation, that changed the course However, a case can also be made out for including many of symphonic music. A creative composer or writer operating traditional collegial activities related to teaching within the within the academy works within a different context compared ambit of the scholarship of teaching and learning, including to those outside. While the creative process and output might the sharing of knowledge within communities of practice, be essentially the same, they will bring an expanded knowledge deliberations within academic governing bodies about course of these to their teaching, compared with colleagues who have design and all aspects of practices undertaken to shape and not ventured into creative development. develop optimal learning environments, regardless of whether The contemporary definitions of research sidestep the they lead to publication, but so long as they are part of a issues relating to proof and justification discussed above, and collegial conversation with colleagues. Many of these activities could accommodate scholarly papers (such as this one) that yield insights that can improve teaching, and therefore support their contentions with arguments and evidence but student learning. Even the systematic study of a field or topic do not aspire to the criminal or scientific standards of proof. undertaken in preparation for teaching and course design can Boyer’s ‘Application’ sounds close to the Frascati Manual’s be considered a form of scholarship. definition of Experimental Development (2.9): ‘systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and These studies point to a need to maintain the concept of a ‘big practical experience and producing additional knowledge, tent’ …, and to foster diversity in the way SoTL is practised which is directed to producing new products or processes to accommodate newcomers in a highly diversified sector. or to improving existing products or processes’. Whereas Diversification has generated the concept of contextualised scholarship – that is, knowledge production/co-production Boyer wrote of applications to professional activities such as based on the premise of solving problems in the field of prac‘medical diagnosis, serving clients in psychotherapy, shaping vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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tice and the wider social and global context … – so a kind of conflation of SoTL with the scholarship of application. (Fanghanel et al., 2015, p. 16) These diverse activities can be clarified through the typology used in Kern et al. (2015), who arrange various activities pertaining to the scholarship of teaching and learning within quadrants along two axes: private v. public, and systematic v. informal. Traditional scholarly publications fall into only one of these quadrants, and the other quadrants constitute essentially types of ‘scholarly teaching’, including presentations, portfolios and course development. The contributors to Hutchings (1998) explain how a course (or subject) portfolio can be seen as a scholarly report of an investigation into the evolution of the course, into the extent to which its design enabled students to achieve the intended learning outcomes, and how it could be modified to improve outcomes. Schön (1995) maintained that the scholarship of teaching could be seen as a kind of action research. Scholars needed to go beyond the conventions of technical experimental design and pursue forms of inquiry based on reflective practice – both practice in the professional disciplines and their practice as teachers. This is all the more important in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which many providers were forced to transfer all teaching and assessment to online modes. This was an emergency response which met the objectives of enabling students to continue their course without faceto-face interaction, but more sophisticated approaches to teaching and assessing online will be needed to be developed as online education is expected to continue as a higher proportion of the delivery mix into the future. Students reported through surveys that there was a decline in their opportunities to interact with academic staff and supporting staff to find ways to maintain interaction online will be an important focus for the scholarship of teaching and learning going forward (TEQSA, 2020a). The larger the tent, the more difficult it is to make any meaningful distinction between scholarship and academic teaching itself. Some of the activities in Kern’s non-research quadrants amount to ‘preparation for teaching’, so that it becomes difficult to imagine any form of academic teaching that did not include these activities. Scholarly teaching is one of the few spaces left for forms of scholarship beyond the augmented domain of research (including research into learning and teaching). We can also include dissemination of knowledge to professional networks, through activities such as the development of new standards and publications in professional journals containing commentary on new developments. Including active engagement with the professions can counter any impression that ‘scholarship’ is an arcane activity carried out

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in the cloistered environment of academe but not relevant to the real world of business and industry. So, a new typology of scholarship could contain only two categories: • research, innovation and development • dissemination, through • scholarly teaching • professional development outreach. However, typology and sorting scholarly activities into categories have their limitations. In a further Carnegie Foundation report, Scholarship Assessed, Glassick et al. (1997) propose six standards that any academic work must meet to be considered scholarly: clear goals, adequate preparation, appropriate methods, significant results, effective presentation, and reflective critique (p. 36). These attributes cut through a lot of the discussion of typology to show what many of the types have in common but are somewhat oriented towards process as opposed to purpose. What is the conceptual unity that draws all these forms of scholarly activity together and illuminates their purpose? The common purpose that runs through all forms of scholarship is: systematic inquiry, innovation and the advancement of knowledge. Contemporary scholars extend the boundaries of knowledge within a wide collegial environment. This environment can be seen as the ‘Commonwealth of Learning’ referred to originally by John Locke (1690) in the ‘Epistle to the Reader’ of An Essay concerning Human Understanding. This formulation in turn is akin to the concept of ‘The Republic of Letters’ and indicates a self-organising community of scholars that engages in a running high-level conversation across time and space to advance knowledge.

Why does scholarship need to be upheld? Innovation and the advancement of knowledge have value in themselves and bring manifold benefits to society. Both can take place outside the academy, including within research institutes and commercial companies that have research arms, whose scientists may publish scholarly papers on generic topics that are not commercial in confidence or originate patents on topics that are. So, universities and other teaching institutions by no means have a monopoly on either innovation or the advancement of knowledge. Scholarship has a vital role in forming the distinctive learning environments of higher education, as referred to by Probert (2014), at the very beginning of her discussion paper on ‘Why scholarship matters in higher education’. In the higher education learning environment, knowledge cannot be conceptualised as fixed and ‘given’ but is constantly vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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developing. Teachers need to be aware of these constantly extending boundaries of knowledge and to be introducing their students to the latest developments. Paul Ramsden referred to ‘a vision of higher education as an engaged partnership between students and providers’ (Ramsden, 2008, p. 8,). He goes on to observe that: ‘There is abundant evidence that the most effective higher education environments are ones in which students are diligently involved as part of a community of learners’ (p. 16). One of the implications of these two observations is that learning is a communal endeavour in which both teachers and learners must actively participate. The learning environment is designed and operated by teachers who are also learners, who are perpetual students. Teachers need to constantly refresh and extend their knowledge before sharing it with students. We can go further by considering the nature of learning. Constructivism is a dominant paradigm of learning in higher education. Both teachers and students are engaged in a process of active inquiry. Knowledge must be continually constructed or reconstructed in the terms understood by each individual: ‘In other words, students learn by fitting new information together with what they already know’ and extending their mental models. The role of teachers is to support and facilitate this process of constructing knowledge through dialogue with students (Bada, 2015). The river of knowledge is never the same when you return to it to teach the same unit again. So, constructivism leads us to a concept of higher education based essentially in the common pursuit of knowledge through inquiry, in short – scholarship. If the prime role of teachers is to stimulate and support student learning through inquiry, then it follows that they must be continually engaged in inquiry themselves. They too need to build and rebuild their understanding of a given topic or field in the common pursuit. If their knowledge remains fixed and does not develop over time, they will not be able to support student inquiry. Accordingly, it is almost impossible to be an effective higher education teacher without engaging in continual scholarship, and it would be impossible to build a higher education learning environment without teachers maintaining a constant level of scholarly activity. The higher education provider must develop as an advanced learning community, in which both teachers and students are continually learning.

The place of scholarship in higher education standards and codes If scholarship is an essential attribute of higher education, then we would expect it to feature in the standards that are set for providers of higher education to achieve, and this can be observed easily in the Anglophone countries. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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These standards characteristically focus on the learning and teaching environment, on the components or building blocks of that environment and on the level of scholarly activities of academic staff. The New England Commission of Higher Education’s Standards for Accreditation (2021) include many references to scholarship. They assume that the institution’s purposes include ‘scholarship, research, and public service’ (1.3), so these activities are considered necessary in and of themselves. They also assume that ‘through their scholarly pursuits, all faculty are current in the theory, knowledge, skills, and pedagogy of their discipline or profession’ (6.11). The 2012 edition of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education (QAA, 2012) contained many references to scholarship. Its Chapter on Teaching and Learning started from a general expectation that ‘every student is enabled to develop as an independent learner’ (p. 8). A key indicator of good practice was that: ‘Learning and teaching practices are informed by reflection, evaluation of professional practice, and subject-specific and educational scholarship’ (Indicator 3, p. 13). Echoing Boyer, it went on to declare: ‘Scholarship may include conventional research (discovery of new knowledge), innovative application or integration of existing knowledge, for example in professional practice, or the study of learning and teaching processes and practices’ (p. 14). In appointing and developing staff, providers should consider the extent of their understanding of disciplinary scholarship and teaching and learning scholarship (p. 15). In the light of the restructuring of the UK quality assurance system and the transition of QAA to a membership-based voluntary participation model, the text of the Quality Code was extensively revised and stripped down to the fundamentals of teaching and learning. Consequently, supporting functions such as scholarship no longer feature in the Code itself. However, the advice on appointing and developing staff reappears in non-mandatory ‘Advice and Guidance’ (QAA, 2018). The new regulatory body, the Office for Students (2018), has a regulatory framework document that contains requirements for providers who seek degree awarding powers, which must provide evidence that all staff have: Understanding of current research and advanced scholarship in their discipline and that such knowledge and understanding directly inform and enhance their teaching. Also, active engagement with research and/or advanced scholarship to a level commensurate with the level and subject of the qualifications being offered. (Criterion C1.1) Finally, Australia’s Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021, (Australian Government, 2021) includes within the fundamental requirements of all providers that their ‘academic and teaching staff are active in scholarship The Commonwealth of Learning Michael Tomlinson

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that informs their teaching’ (B1.1.3). And the Section on Staffing requires teaching staff and their managers to have ‘knowledge of contemporary developments in the discipline or field, which is informed by continuing scholarship or research or advances in practice (A3.2.3a). The UK and Australian standards are largely based around the concept of ‘scholarly teaching’, and do not include scholarship as an end in itself, as the New England standards do.

Assessing levels of scholarship How do agencies go about assessing whether the academic staff of a provider (or of a prospective provider that applies to be admitted into the higher education space) are engaging sufficiently in scholarship? Quality assurance agencies can leave the qualitative evaluation of scholarly outputs that fall under the broad heading of ‘research’ to the research agencies. This is because their main interest is in assuring the quality of student learning outcomes, and their standards and codes direct them towards assessing scholarly input into teaching. As we have seen, this is a fundamental requirement in threshold standards. However, all types of scholarly activities should be considered, and the importance of research outputs is higher when assessing requirements that go beyond the threshold, such as the Australian category standards for registration as a university. These specifically require levels of research activity across a number of broad fields, requirements which are due to be progressively increased as a result of the new HESF in force from 2021. Agencies can take a risk-based approach to evaluating evidence of scholarly teaching. Paradoxically, it is practical to commence with lists of publications which will mainly fall into the category of research (including research into teaching and learning) without the application to teaching being evident. But these lists can extend beyond peer-reviewed research to other forms of publications, such as professional journals and commissioned research. Agencies can also have regard to the reference lists in the unit outlines or guides for the courses offered by the provider to ascertain, for example: do they include the most relevant and recent publications? Lists of publications and references provide some prima facie evidence that staff members are both engaging in their own scholarship and engaging students in consideration of current scholarship by others. Most providers will be compiling this evidence for annual reports on scholarship, so it is likely to be readily available without placing an additional burden on them to demonstrate compliance. Direct evidence of scholarly input into day-today teaching is more difficult to obtain. When the level of scholarly activity is not sufficiently evident on the basis of publication lists, agencies may need to go further and require

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some additional evidence of how a sample of selected staff members are drawing on other scholarly activities to inform their teaching. This might include evidence about their active participation in communities of practice relating to learning and teaching, literature reviews in preparation for course design and so on. They might also be called upon to show how a sample of staff members were contributing to their professions. But to be considered scholarship, this should go beyond routine professional practice to show how the staff members are applying their academic knowledge to advance the profession. Preparing routine tax returns for individual taxpayers is professional practice, and there is value in lecturers in accounting continuing to practise their profession. However, the examples given above of contributing to the development of new professional standards or writing in the professional journal are more appropriate for inclusion in a report on scholarly activities. Prospective providers cannot be expected to hire a full complement of staff before approval to operate is given, which makes it difficult for the agency to assess their level of scholarly activity. On the other hand, applicants can approach prospective staff members and secure their agreement to be included in a list of staff members lined up for employment if approval is granted, and these can provide their resumés including lists of publications. And the agency can seek evidence on paper about the applicant’s commitment to supporting scholarship, for example by committing funds for scholarly professional development in the budget or by adopting a policy framework for the promotion of scholarship. The agency will want to know whether there is an (existing or planned) program of professional development that includes scholarly activities such as those communities of practice. To what extent is scholarship integrated into a provider’s reward and recognition framework, including recruitment, promotion and performance review policies? Many of these issues are discussed in the guidance note on scholarship issued by Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, and a recent discussion paper seeking input into whether the scope of activities classed as scholarly activities should be widened (TEQSA, 2018 & TEQSA, 2020b). Overall, an agency can take a progressive approach to assessing the level of scholarly activity in a provider. In the case of the lower risk providers, it may not need to go beyond the traditional annual report on scholarship mainly listing research and development publications (including patents), but, if necessary, can seek out examples of the advancement of a profession or scholarly teaching To what extent should agencies go beyond assessing the mere prevalence of scholarship within a provider to evaluate the quality of the scholarship? In the case of the scholarship vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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of discovery, they can rely on the elaborate systems of peer review operated by academic journals, and the further layer of qualitative review in national evaluation exercises such as the United Kingdom’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). It would be a waste of public money to duplicate these. But in some cases (for example applicants for registration in one of Australia’s university categories), this information will not be available as they are not yet eligible to participate. The agency can then simulate the evaluation methodologies of the research agencies, using experienced assessors who have served on the national exercises. Peer reviewers can also be used if necessary to evaluate non-research forms of scholarship.

Conclusion So, providers and prospective providers need to be ready to show how they will create an environment conducive to scholarly activity, and operational providers need to be able to show that staff are in fact active in scholarship that informs their teaching. And scholarship must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. It must be evident to the outside observer, including quality agencies, that each provider is an active learning community engaged in the common pursuit of knowledge through inquiry, and the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. Academic work is essentially exploratory. The contemporary scholar cannot rest with received knowledge but must continually strive to go beyond, or as Tennyson put it, in his immortal poem ‘Ulysses’: To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. Dr Michael Tomlinson is an Honorary (Principal) Fellow at the L. H. Martin Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia Contact: miketomaus@gmail.com

References Australian Government. (2021). Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021. Australian Research Council. (2017). ERA 2018 Submission Guidelines. Bacon, F. (1620). Novum Organon. Retrieved from https://www. earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/bacon1620.pdf Bada, S. (2015). Constructivism Learning Theory: A Paradigm for Teaching and Learning. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education, 5(6), 66-70. Boyer, Ernest L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, N.J.: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

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Fanghanel, J., McGowan, S., Parker, P., McConnell, C., Potter, J., Locke, W., & Healey, M. (2015). Literature Review. Defining and supporting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): a sector-wide study. York: Higher Education Academy. Glassick, C., Huber, M., & Maeroff, G. (1997). Scholarship assessed: Evaluation of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN-07879-1091-0. Hutchings, P. (ed.) (1985). The Course Portfolio: How Faculty Can Examine Their Teaching To Advance Practice and Improve Student Learning. The Teaching Initiatives. Washington DC, American Association for Higher Education. Kern B, Mettetal G, Dixson M, & Morgan R. (2015). The Role of SoTL in the Academy: Upon the 25th Anniversary of Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered. Journal of the Scholarship for Teaching and Learning, 15(3), 1-14. Locke, J. (1690). An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books I. and II. (of 4), retrieved from: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10615/10615-h/10615-h.htm New England Commission of Higher Education (2021), Standards for Accreditation, adopted 2020, effective 2021. Burlington. OECD. (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). (2015). Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development. OECD Publishing, Paris. Office for Students. (2018). Securing student success: Regulatory framework for higher education in England. Bristol. Popper, K. (1963). Science as falsification. Excerpt from Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 963, 33-39; from Schick, T (ed.), Readings in the Philosophy of Science. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000, 9-13. Probert, B. (2014). Why scholarship matters in higher education, Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. QAA. (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education). (2012). UK Quality Code for Higher Education. Part B: Assuring and Enhancing Academic Quality. Chapter B3: Learning and Teaching. QAA. (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education ). (2018). UK Quality Code for Higher Education. And related Advice and Guidance: Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from https://www.qaa.ac.uk/qualitycode Ramsden, P. (2008). The Future of Higher Education Teaching and the Student Experience. Report presented to the UK Dept of Innovation, Universities and Skills’ Debate on the Future of Higher Education. Schön, D. (1995). The new scholarship requires a new epistemology. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 27(6), 27-34. TEQSA. (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency). (2018). Guidance Note: Scholarship. TEQSA. (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency). (2020a). Foundations for good practice: The student experience of online learning in Australian higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. TEQSA. (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency 2020b). Discussion paper: Making and assessing claims of scholarship and scholarly activity. Thomas, K. (2001). The life of learning, [British Academy] Review, July-December. Tomlinson, M. (1984). Shakespeare and the Chronicles Reassessed, Literature and History, 10(1), 46-58. The Commonwealth of Learning Michael Tomlinson

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The understanding and take on the blatant instrumentalism among university students Reflections from an early-career academic Yu Tao University of Western Australia

The increasingly obvious instrumentalism among university students presents considerable challenges to early-career academics (ECAs). Many ECAs consider themselves to be inspiring educators, but they are merely fee-earning providers of educational services in the eyes of many students. This painful contrast can significantly disempower ECAs. To maintain their well-being and prevent spiritual burnout, ECAs need to understand that the blatant instrumentalism among many university students is not of itself a disease or disaster. Instead, it is a symptom reflecting some profound structural changes in higher education. In taking on this challenge, ECAs have the opportunity to rebut the consumerism discourse in higher education while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their teaching activities. Keywords: teacher-student relationship, instrumentalism, consumerism, early-career academics, university students

Being an early-career academic (ECA), I vividly remember what I did and how I felt when I was at the same stage as my students. As a result, I often find the generational gap between them and me shockingly wide regarding the attitudes towards learning. For example, I thought classrooms were venues for seeking pleasure or virtue – reasons that venerable sages such as Confucius and Socrates claimed teaching and learning should be all about. However, I soon realised that very few students walk into my classroom with a mission to transform themselves or to improve society. Instead, many students care much more about tangible outcomes such as scores and certificates and seem to feel no need to hide their instrumental pursues. The blatant instrumentalism among many of today’s university students presents considerable challenges to lecturers – especially ECAs. Many ECAs, freshly transformed

from being good students to inexperienced educators, are ambitious to make a difference. However, they often soon find themselves perceived as fee-earning providers of educational services in the eyes of many students. This painful contrast can significantly disempower ECAs. To maintain and improve their personal and professional well-being, I argue that ECAs should understand that the blatant instrumentalism among many of today’s university students is not of itself a disease or disaster. Instead, it is a symptom reflecting some profound structural changes that have altered the norms, behaviours and power relations in the higher education sector. By taking on, rather than walking away from, this challenge, I argue that ECAs can rebut the consumerism discourse in contemporary higher education and utilise the instrumentalism among their students to improve their teaching.

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students seem to have no problem letting me know that they are there primarily to collect credits. Many are not shy to ‘bargain’ for a lighter workload, either. Some even openly claim (often through half-cooked jokes) that they are paying for the new buildings on campus or perhaps even the salary of my colleagues and me. Many ask how they can achieve a good grade, but few care how to master a set of knowledge or skills. These experiences lead me to feel that many students see their academic credits and certificates – and, to some degree, myself – as what the Chinese call ‘knocking bricks’ – something you pick up to knock on the door and throw away as soon as it has served its purposes. Blatant instrumentalism in contemporary I am never too shy to confess that I took a few courses to higher education boost my GPA during my undergraduate years. I knew the GPA was essential for my plan of going to a top-ranking According to The Oxford English Dictionary, instrumentalism graduate school. However, to reconcile the pragmatical need refers to various views that regard an activity – especially of getting a high score and the moral obligation of learning, education and scientific research – primarily or exclusively I studied very hard in those courses. I also extended my as an instrument or tool for practical purposes. In the field knowledge and developed new skills from those courses. of education, Mellin-Olsen (1981) defines instrumentalism Moreover, I never asked my as ‘a rationale for learning’ lecturers to tell me how to get which considers ‘the role I never asked my lecturers to tell me how a good grade without studying school has as an instrument to get a good grade without studying hard because I thought that for future schooling and was wrong. However, many of employment’. In other words, hard because I thought that was wrong. my students seem to have no university students with a However, many of my students seem to have problem letting me know that sense of instrumentalism tend no problem letting me know that they join they join my classes primarily to view higher education as my classes primarily for grades and credits for grades and credits rather a means for gaining material rather than knowledge and skills. than knowledge and skills. returns, such as a well-paid job I never blame my students for or an opportunity for further being honest, but their blatant education in a prestigious instrumentalism constantly demoralises me. I sense that institute, which offers even better income and prestige in the my uneasy feeling is shared widely by colleagues, especially future. those ECAs who, like me, take teaching seriously. In an era It is not necessarily problematic for students to consider when research is valued significantly more than teaching in education as a means rather than an end. Confucius, for many universities, prioritising teaching is a conscientious example, famously claimed that learning is a ‘pleasure’ (Shim, decision for ECAs (Matthews, Lodge, & Bosanquet, 2014; 2008). On the other hand, Socrates saw learning as an essential Young, 2006). ECAs’ devotion to teaching is often driven approach in seeking virtue (Flanagan, 2006). More recently, by their sense of professional duty rather than institutional in the field of second language acquisition, instrumental incentives. In other words, many ECAs take teaching motivation is widely regarded as an essential and effective seriously because they perceive themselves as inspiring driver for good study results (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1991). contributors to the great enterprise of social progression As Allan (1996) observed, ‘learning experiences in higher and human development rather than salaried professionals education are becoming increasingly outcome-led’. That providing service to earn a living. Unfortunately, according said, according to my observations, students demanding to my observations, ECAs who are initially passionate explicit returns for their education is not necessarily in about teaching are more likely to feel disappointed and itself a reason why many lecturers – ECAs in particular – disempowered when their idealist view on teaching contrasts feel demotivated in today’s higher education sector. After with their students’ passive and instrumental attitudes all, isn’t it good for students to know clearly about their towards learning. Thus, I argue, for these ECAs (myself purposes of study? What bothers many colleagues and me is included), the first step to protecting their well-being and that many students seem to care very little about the learning their passion for teaching is to change perspectives. As I content as long as they get an easy pass or a satisfactory explain in the next section, the blatant instrumentalism grade. When asked about why they take my classes, many

In this article, reflecting on my own experience and observations, I first depict some typical symptoms of blatant instrumentalism among many of today’s university students. I also explain why this instrumentalism may significantly demotivate ECAs. I then discuss the structural factors driving instrumentalism to become increasingly apparent in contemporary higher education. Finally, I offer a few personal suggestions on how ECAs can better guide and support their students in the face of blatant instrumentalism in the higher education sector.

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among many of our students is not necessarily a problem in itself but a symptom of some profound structural dynamics in the modernisation of higher education.

Not the students’ fault What, then, are the reasons behind the instrumentalism among many of today’s university students? The answer, I argue, lies in the profound social changes associated with the economic developments and technological innovations since the industrial revolution. In other words, the instrumentalism in contemporary higher education is not a unique problem of our time. Instead, it is merely the latest episode in an ongoing series of socio-economic changes that have fundamentally reshaped many aspects of human life, including the missions, status, and perceptions of higher education. For hundreds of years, education – higher education in particular – was preserved as a privilege for a tiny proportion of elites who were more or less trained to reign. Medieval higher education was primarily an intellectual apprenticeship on general reasoning, rhetoric, and argumentation ( J. C. Scott, 2006). However, modern labour markets require employees to have specific skills due to scientific and technological innovations (Peck, 1989). Meanwhile, in response to ‘the “technological shocks” that swept the “knowledge industry” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries’, higher education has also become much more affordable and accessible – at least in industrialised societies – since the end of the Second World War (Goldin & Katz, 1999). As a result, higher education has become a default step forward for many school leavers, especially those in the developed countries. To this day, the world’s major advanced economies have all witnessed the transition from elite to mass higher education – and the problems associated with this transition (P. Scott, 1995). The emergence of student consumerism during the transformation from elite to mass university systems has been widely noted by higher education researchers and practitioners alike. Concerns have been expressed that ‘attempts to restructure pedagogical cultures and identities to comply with consumerist frameworks may unintentionally deter innovation, promote passive and instrumental attitudes towards learning, threaten academic standards and further entrench academic privilege’ (Molesworth et al., 2009; Naidoo & Jamieson, 2005; Svensson & Wood, 2007). It has also been flagged that, in the context of consumerism, university students are more likely to become ‘more directly and exclusively focused on the utilitarian value of education, and its role as a gateway to occupational opportunities and social prestige’ (Delucchi & Smith, 1997). As a result, many may become obsessed with grades and take part in unethical behaviours such as cheating (Wellen, 2005). Therefore,

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some scholars argue that a significant number of universities have lost their sense of identity in the face of increasing consumerism in higher education, and the apparent successes of these universities are ‘excellence without a soul’ (Lewis, 2006). Another essential reason behind the blatant instrumentalism in contemporary higher education is the neo-liberal paradigm adopted by many governments to manage, evaluate, and fund universities. By introducing funding models that rely extensively on tuition fees, many universities are ‘marketised’ into service providers, and students are transformed into ‘consumers’ (Molesworth et al., 2009). Moreover, consumerist narratives are widely adopted by university management. The surfacing of consumerism has transformed many people’s perception of higher education, making it, in many eyes, a marketable service that universities trade for financial returns (Michael, 1997). This perception is further aggravated by the fact that many university students are now paying expansive tuition fees through loans, which require decades of work after graduation to be paid off. Consequently, the traditional teacher-student relationship is often replaced by something similar to the seller-customer relationship, where the former fulfils the latter’s demands for financial and other returns. In business, customers are always right, or so people are often told. Therefore, unsurprisingly, as methods and discourses centred on customer satisfaction are widely applied to address student experience in higher education, many students feel that they are entitled to demand getting good scores for minimal inputs and effort. Facing such blatant instrumentalism, ECAs who are devoted teachers may experience what Terry (1997) describes as the ‘spiritual burnout’, quickly losing their passion for inspiring a younger generation of thinkers and doers. To avoid so, ECAs need to understand the aforementioned structural reasons behind the blatant instrumentalism in contemporary higher education. In addition, they should constantly remind themselves and their peers that students’ instrumental attitudes towards learning are the results of, rather than the cause of, the changing missions and discourses of modern universities. Equipped by such an understanding, I believe ECAs can positively impact the blatant instrumentalism in contemporary higher education.

Supporting our students in an era of blatant instrumentalism Even the most nostalgic ECAs should understand that many changes associated with the transition from elite to mass higher education are likely to continue, whether we like it or not. Therefore, however uneasy and unpleasant the initial feelings may be, ECAs should not walk away from the blatant instrumentalism among their students because we, as future

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education leaders, have obligations and responsibilities to improve the institutional environment for teaching and learning. We should acknowledge the changing perceptions of teaching and learning among university students, develop a realistic and empathetic understanding of the changing teacher-student relations, and innovate our teaching styles and strategies to utilise certain aspects of instrumentalism among our students. Existing research has demonstrated that instrumentalism is a double-edged sword to our teaching and learning efforts. For example, replacing the traditional hierarchy with equal status between teachers and students can empower students to take more active roles in learning activities, enabling innovative pedagogies such as ‘flipped classrooms’, which can further motivate the ‘millennial students’ (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015; Roehl et al., 2013). Acknowledging instrumentalism can also motivate ECAs to pay more attention to the students’ needs and expectations and explain how their teaching can benefit students in the short and long run (Harvey, 2000; Lehmann, 2009). Furthermore, acknowledging and understanding the instrumentalism among our students allows ECAs to set up explicit, straightforward, and tangible (though not necessarily measurable) goals for students at the various stages of their study. These goals are more likely to motivate our students to take better ownership of their learning when traditional learning motivations such as to seek pleasure or virtue may be viewed as too vague, too big, or too abstract to achieve, Drawing on my own experiences and reflections, I would like to offer two pieces of personal advice to fellow ECAs on how to take on the blatant instrumentalism among our students. Firstly, we should proactively engage with and redefine the consumerism discourse in higher education. As Svensson and Wood (2007) correctly point out, ‘marketing buzzwords’ do not bring ‘a correct description or an accurate understanding of the student‐university relationship’. However, the consumerism discourse will not disappear soon even if we ECAs choose to ignore it because the government, university managements, and many other stakeholders will continue using it (Mahony & Weiner, 2019). Engaging with the consumerism discourse and redefining it from within, on the other hand, allows us to shape the perceptions of the teaching-student relationship towards a healthier, fairer, and more productive direction. For example, whenever my students joke that they have paid for academic credits, I continue the conversation by saying that they have indeed paid for the opportunities of receiving quality training and support to pursue academic credits. I often go further by comparing taking my course with joining a gym scheme – in both cases, simply paying the fee does not guarantee a satisfactory result, and success can only be obtained after substantial inputs. Likewise, as a supervisor for research vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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students, I also sign ‘contracts’ with my students. In so doing, my students know what they can expect from me and what they are expected to contribute and deliver. These ‘contracts’ also remind my students that an equal teacher-student relationship means both parties have to commit to a similar level of input to the process of teaching and learning. Secondly, we ECAs should always set clear goals for our students, give them explicit incentives, be fair, and reward good practice. Under the right conditions, a sense of instrumentalism can motivate students to establish a rationale for active learning (Mellin-Olsen, 1981). Instrumental students are likely to choose to invest in the means that are directly relevant to their ends. To motivate these students, we should give clear articulations on how the learning outcomes of our courses can benefit our students either immediately or down the path of their career and life progression. For example, if attending seminar groups is essential for achieving a course’s learning outcomes, participation in seminar discussions should be assessed explicitly. Many students do not like or are not good at interpreting what we expect them to achieve. Rather than assuming that students will automatically grasp what is good for them, we should design and put in place an effective incentive structure. Empirical evidence has also demonstrated that students’ perceptions of distributive and procedural justice in a university course are significantly correlated with their motivation concerning the course, their effective learning in the course, and their aggression toward the course instructor (Chory‐Assad, 2002). I find this is particularly true for students who appear to be more instrumental. To motive these students, ECAs need to establish a clear link between good practice and rewards. To conclude, blatant instrumentalism among university students challenges the perception that many ECAs have on the teacher-student relationship in higher education. If unaddressed, it may lead some devoted ECAs to feel disappointed, demoralised, and disempowered. To prevent spiritual burnout, I argue, ECAs should understand that blatant instrumentalism is not the students’ fault but a symptom of some profound structural changes in higher education. Furthermore, ECAs should take on rather than walk away from blatant instrumentalism in contemporary higher education. In so doing, we have the opportunity to reshape and redirect the consumerism discourse in our universities and improve our teaching. Dr Yu Tao is a senior lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Western Australia, where he teaches contemporary Chinese society and language and coordinates the Chinese Studies major. Contact: yu.tao@uwa.edu.au

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References Abeysekera, L., & Dawson, P. (2015). Motivation and Cognitive Load in the Flipped Classroom: Definition, Rationale and A Call for Research. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(1), 1-14. Allan, J. (1996). Learning Outcomes in Higher Education. Studies in Higher Education, 21(1), 93-108. Chory‐Assad, R. M. (2002). Classroom Justice: Perceptions of Fairness as a Predictor of Student Motivation, Learning, and Aggression. Communication Quarterly, 50(1), 58-77. Delucchi, M., & Smith, W. L. (1997). A Postmodern Explanation of Student Consumerism in Higher Education. Teaching Sociology, 25(4), 322-327. Flanagan, F. M. (2006). The Greatest Educators Ever. London: Continuum. Gardner, R. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (1991). An Instrumental Motivation In Language Study: Who Says It Isn’t Effective? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13(1), 57-72. Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (1999). The Shaping of Higher Education: The Formative Years in the United States, 1890 to 1940. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(1), 37-62. Harvey, L. (2000). New Realities: The Relationship between Higher Education and Employment. Tertiary Education and Management, 6(1), 3-17. Lehmann, W. (2009). University as Vocational Education: Working‐ class Students’ Expectations for University. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(2), 137-149. Lewis, H. R. (2006). Excellence without A Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education. New York: PublicAffairs. Mahony, P., & Weiner, G. (2019). Neo-liberalism and the State of Higher Education in the UK. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43(4), 560-572. Matthews, K. E., Lodge, J. M., & Bosanquet, A. (2014). Early Career Academic Perceptions, Attitudes and Professional Development Activities: Questioning the teaching and research gap to further academic development. International Journal for Academic Development, 19(2), 112-124.

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Michael, S. O. (1997). American Higher Education System: Consumerism versus Professorialism. International Journal of Educational Management, 11(3), 117-130. Molesworth, M., Nixon, E., & Scullion, R. (2009). Having, Being and Higher Education: the Marketisation of the University and the Transformation of the Student into Consumer. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 277-287. Naidoo, R., & Jamieson, I. (2005). Empowering Participants or Corroding Learning? Towards a Research Agenda on the Impact of Student Consumerism in Higher Education. Journal of Education Policy, 20(3), 267-281. Peck, J. A. (1989). Labour Market Segmentation Theory. Labour & Industry, 2(1), 119-144. Roehl, A., Reddy, S. L., & Shannon, G. J. (2013). The Flipped Classroom: An Opportunity to Engage Millennial Students through Active Learning Strategies. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 105(2), 44-49. Shim, S. H. (2008). A Philosophical Investigation of the Role of Teachers: A Synthesis of Plato, Confucius, Buber, and Freire. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(3), 515-535. Scott, J. C. (2006). The Mission of the University: Medieval to Postmodern Transformations. The Journal of Higher Education, 77(1), 1-39. Scott, P. (1995). The Meanings of Mass Higher Education. Buckingham: Open University Press. Svensson, G., & Wood, G. (2007). Are University Students really Customers? When Illusion May Lead to Delusion for All! International Journal of Educational Management, 21(1), 17-28. Terry, P. M. (1997). Teacher Burnout: Is It Real? Can We Prevent It? Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Chicago, IL. Wellen, R. (2005). The University Student in a Reflexive Society: Consequences of Consumerism and Competition. Higher Education Perspectives, 1(2), 24-36. Young, P. (2006). Out of Balance: Lecturers’ Perceptions of Differential Status and Rewards in Relation to Teaching and Research. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(2), 191-202.

Mellin-Olsen, S. (1981). Instrumentalism as an Educational Concept. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 12(3), 351-367.

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Navigating sexism in Australian universities A brief guide Marcia Devlin Victoria University

The national conversation about sexism and gender inequity sparked by Brittany Higgins’ allegations of being raped in Parliament House continues. While triggering and deeply distressing for many as they are reminded of their own experiences of sexual assault and harassment, the conversation is also contributing to greater awareness of the invisible, insidious and preposterous gender rules operating in every workplace, including universities. As one example of these rules, most university senior women I know have had ‘the style chat’ at least once in their career. It goes something like this. The line manager of the female staff member asks for a meeting or raises the matter during a performance-review meeting. There has been ‘feedback’ about her, and it’s not positive, unfortunately. There is apparently a concern about her ‘style’, which is creating a bit of angst. You see, her style is just a little bit – how shall I put this – brusque, abrupt at times, tending towards blunt, sometimes terse, has an element of briskness about it, and can be a little bit sharp. She has been known to be short, on occasion. She cut someone off when he was speaking last month. (Or was it last year? The details and examples are sometimes a bit vague and hard to recall.) If you haven’t had this chat yet and you are a woman with a leadership role or ambition, it’s more than likely coming. If you’ve instigated this chat with a woman, maybe it’s time to make yourself a strong cup of tea and sit down and have a good hard think about your unconscious gender bias. Style is something that male staff and leaders in universities generally need to give little thought to. None of the senior men I have asked about the style chat have understood what I was talking about. Men generally put on clothes, go to work vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

and get put in charge (really – check the stats for male versus female senior appointments in Australian universities). Not so for women, unfortunately. Having a woman in university leadership can be threatening and difficult for some people, whatever their gender. This is especially true if a woman rejects the implicit expectations of her to be nice, nurturing and ‘mothering’ in her leadership style. When this ‘lack’ of ‘softness’ is accompanied by an assertive approach that focuses on outcomes and deliverables and/or includes candour about the performance of direct reports that may be below par, the result can be a general sense of threat. One of the potential consequences of not being liked or being perceived as ‘not nice’, as a woman, is that colleagues may undermine a woman as a way to ‘punish’ her and slow her down/trip her up/put her back in her box. Many people working in universities experience undermining, but it is more common for women, and even more common for women who are not playing by the gender rules set for them. Many women I know who work in academia have experienced undermining – though, often, it is covert and while a woman feels like she knows it’s happening, she can’t always point to hard evidence. Another potential consequence of not meeting gendered expectations that many women experience is gossiping/badmouthing and rumour-spreading. Women are far more often victims than men. Malicious gossip can be about a woman’s ‘style’, character, management of emotions, personal life or any other aspect of her personhood. Even if the gossip is completely untrue (as it often is), throwing mud like this is effective in creating wariness, dislike or distrust of a woman. Navigating sexism in Australian universities Marcia Devlin

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This, in turn, can successfully undermine her efforts to build relationships, camaraderie, effective, happy teams and harmonious workplaces. It can also harm her reputation and undermine her ambitions and goals. In some cases, it can create even greater damage and negatively affect her mental health. One of the best pieces of advice I got as a female leader dealing with poorly behaved men reporting to me was from an experienced senior (male) colleague. He was mentoring me secretly because he was a good bloke and he wanted to help. It had to be secret because when I asked my (male) line manager if we could appoint this person as my mentor, he said no. ‘The trouble with you, Marcia,’ the secret mentor began one day, after I had my usual debrief about undermining and distressing behaviour from male colleagues, ‘is that you have high standards. You hold yourself to them, you expect others to be held to them, and you are utterly predictable in all of that.’ He went on to say that ‘the boys’ – as he referred to my troublesome colleagues – all knew exactly what I was going to do next, and that they could predict and plan for that ‘every single day’. They were ‘playing with me’, undermining my authority, doing things ‘deliberately to upset’ me and, to top it off, ‘really enjoying themselves’. ‘Flip this,’ he advised, ‘and become unpredictable.’ While initially reluctant, after some reflection on the fact that the approach I had been using hadn’t worked, I took his advice. I cancelled all my regular planned one-to-one meetings with each of ‘the boys’ for the rest of the year. I wrote a personalised email to each of them. I told them that I had been reflecting on our working relationship and that I didn’t think I was meeting their needs as a leader. I quoted negative feedback they had given to our senior boss, including about my ‘style’. I invited them to pop in or arrange to meet with me whenever they chose to do so, rather than keeping to a schedule of meetings I had set for them. I signed off, noting that I hoped my efforts to make a change would prompt an improved working relationship.

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If only because they were all now wary of me and unsure about what I would do next, the poor behaviour and undermining reduced significantly. My relationships with each of them improved slightly – if only on the surface. They all eventually asked to have regular one-to-one meetings reinstated. It is hardly role-model behaviour to cancel meetings, but as doing the right thing as a leader wasn’t working, it was worth a radical shake up in the circumstances. I have shared the technique of becoming unpredictable with a few senior women in universities and other industries. All of them have reported back that it has had positive impacts for them. One reported a joyous feeling of liberation from the ‘good girl’ approach she had adopted for the whole of her career. Another reported satisfaction in disarming ‘the opposition’, as she described her male colleagues. It is far from ideal to have to make your colleagues wary of you. But it is better than letting your wariness of them prevent you from doing your job. As we increase our individual and collective awareness of sexism and gendered rules in Australia, the onus is on us all to call them out and make change to enable equity for all genders. Marcia Devlin is an Adjunct Professor who serves on several education-related boards. She is author of ‘Beating the Odds: A practical guide to navigating sexism in Australian universities’. Contact: mttdevlin@gmail.com See also Kate Smith’s book review, this issue of AUR (p. 74).

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Pity the managers: They woke all day Arthur O’Neill

THE REV DR FOLLIOTT And as for the human mind, I deny that it is the same in all men. I hold that there is every variety of natural capacity from the idiot to Newton and Shakespeare; the mass of mankind, midway between these extremes, being blockheads of different degrees; education leaving them pretty nearly as it found them, with this single difference, that it gives a fixed direction to their stupidity, a sort of incurable wry neck to the thing they call their understanding. So, one nose points always east, and another always west, and each is ready to swear that it points due north. MR CROTCHET If that be the point of truth, very few intellectual noses point due north. (Thomas Love Peacock, Crotchet Castle. (Peacock, 1986 [1831], p.156))

Introduction Nowadays, to be ‘woke’ is to be with it, in touch, riding the wave. It’s woke to know you are woke, a fashionista who wouldn’t be seen dead in cuff-less stove-pipe skinny jeans. Mind you, we in the shabby clothes community support the purchase from op shops of woke apparel like old cardigans with big buttons down the front – and find them to be extrawoke if a few buttons are missing and the material is spotted with pea and ham soup encrustations. In a rather perverse way, it demands attention, by turning apparel that many consider un-woke into woke. Shabby chic is in counter-vogue. Trakky daks, dress shorts and knee-length socks are irredeemably un-woke; and if you don’t know that, or don’t give a toss whether they are or not, then you, like them, are un-woke. Ah! what a tangled woke we weave. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

Blessed are those who, in their own eyes at least, shake a pepper of wokes over their ‘discourse’ – now there’s a word that is, hopefully, on its way to the exit door, just ahead of ‘wholistic’ (with and without the ‘w’) and behind ‘paradigm’ that has shifted out already. My purpose here is other: to discover how woke and un-woke fare in the contemporary world of polemical dispute, especially in and about universities.

It’s a woke thing Meet a professor of sociology at the University of Kent, who packs 24 mentions of ‘woke’ into a newspaper article that is about three quarters of a broadsheet page long: ‘Woke Capitalists: Who Made Them Gods?’ (Furedi, 2021a, p. 17). In an appendix, I have summarised his uses of and the case he makes against woke capitalist roguery. Let’s stick to what he is up to. Furedi is not set on demolishing the capitalist system. It’s woke capitalists and woke capitalism that are on the nose. He condemns business leaders and their firms for zealous support of social causes – the legitimation of same-sex marriage, for example – and that’s what makes them and their operations woke; and makes the US ice cream maker, Ben and Jerry’s, ‘the wokest of woke companies’ for promoting social policies ‘that are extreme even by the standards of many woke capitalists’. The implication is that un-woke bosses are good (at least don’t share the failings of woke capitalists) because they keep their noses to corporate grindstones. An online site raised the stakes twenty-fold against Ben and Jerry’s and would have its executives pinned to ice cream poles. I recommend that you read the jeremiad on UnwokeNarrative (2021a) entitled ‘The politics of Ben and Jerry’s’. And for comparison, read an opinion piece in The Guardian by Mark Hage (2021), entitled ‘We got Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling in Israel settlements. Here’s how we did it.’ Pity the managers: They woke all day Arthur O’Neill

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But wait, there’s more. Not only does their pursuit of social causes make capitalists smell of woke. Also, they have adopted means used by their erstwhile enemies, left-leaning activists, to achieve their ends. ‘Their [woke capitalists] campaign style resembles the authoritarian practices of hard-line advocates of cancel culture on campuses,’ says Furedi, and: ‘The intolerant and censorious practices of social media giants towards opponents bears all the hallmarks of the no-platforming of political opponents on university campuses’ (Furedi, 2021a, p. 17)). Furedi adds threats posed by left-leaning activists to the prosecution docket. It’s a double whammy. In an article titled ‘Why does the “woke left” tolerate anti-Semitism?’ he comments: The politicisation of identity is not confined to campuses or to groups promoting their own personal lifestyles. Given the support identity politics enjoys among the cultural elites, it exercises a powerful influence over wider society. Its ambivalence toward Jewish identity is actively supported by Islamist campaigners targeting Israel. … But who needs these Islamists when the Hamas slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a hateful call to wipe Israel off the map – is frequently chanted by the woke left? (Furedi, 2021b, p. 16). The woke left is centre-stage for many foot soldiers in the capitalist cause. In an article immediately below Furedi’s first piece in The Weekend Australian, Peter Singer is taken to task by Helen Trinca for announcing publication of a journal ‘designed to protect academics and others whose ideas run foul of the twitterati or of their own university colleagues and bosses’ by publishing their work in this journal under pseudonyms. ‘The suggestion is,’ Trinca says, ‘the campuses are now so woke and left wing that ideas which challenge that side of politics or social thought are at risk because their advocates are either relentlessly trolled or driven out of university departments and are denied promotion and careers they seek’ (Trinca, 2021, p. 17). ‘More people might consider using existing laws to protect themselves from employers who try to punish them for political views that don’t fit with the woke zeitgeist,’ says Janet Albrechtsen in the course of discussing a case in which a woman lost her fellowship after expressing her view ‘that a transgender woman cannot change her biological sex’. A judge tossed out her case, then an appeal judge found in her favour – ‘His reasoning was simple: in a democracy un-woke views deserve the law’s protection too’ (Albrechtsen, 2021, p. 2). Some foot soldiers in the Australian Department of Defence were encouraged by their leaders to arrange special morning tea parties and to wear rainbow clothing at them in order to mark IDAHOBIT (the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia). Dutton, the Minister for Defence, came down heavy on the idea. A newspaper reported that he had ‘ordered his

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department and serving military personnel to stop pursuing a “woke agenda”’. ‘Our task,’ he said, ‘is to build up the morale in the Australian Defence Force and these woke agendas don’t help’ (Massola & Galloway, 2021). Hastie, the Assistant Defence Minister, had a plainer view of the task. According to a defence correspondent, he ‘told military personnel their “core business will always be the application of lethal violence” and warned “mission clarity” is vital to their work’ (Greene, 2021). To be woke, then, an agenda will be a diversion, a piece of frippery – not to the point. To be woke, a capitalist steps up to a social goal and comes down hard on those standing in the way of its pursuit. Furedi says that woke capitalists are leading the charge against ‘refuseniks’ who insist on remaining un-woke. Does this insistence help put refuseniks on the side of the angels? Yes, though not for their refusal to do something but as a result of their not being allowed to do something they wished to do. Refuseniks were those (including Jews, many of them wanting to migrate to Israel) who were denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. The American coinage pointed the finger at totalitarian failings; and served to hammer another nail in the lid of the commie coffin. What now attracts the ire of woke capitalists? Other capitalists who refuse to join social justice campaigns! In which case, to be a refusenik counts (for those who are not refuseniks!) as a moral shortcoming. For Furedi it counts as a virtue – that’s why woke capitalists are so irked by refuseniks – and their remaining un-woke is, for him, a jolly good thing. For others, too, it tastes good: resolute and vocal adherence to contrarian stances is the very stuff of un-woke principle. Here is an extract from a piece on the UnwokeNarrative website, dated 27 June 2021 and titled ‘The State of American Colleges’ (UnwokeNarrative, 2021b): Political Indoctrination Some schools make indoctrination mandatory and require students to sign up for politicised training sessions. Marxism & Socialism 30 years ago, NYT Reported on ‘The Mainstreaming of Marxism in US Colleges’. They were right. A 2004 study from Harvard found that 25 per cent of sociology professors self-identified as ‘Marxist’. Thirty-six per cent of college students admitted they view communism favourably. Now, 51 per cent of young people prefer socialism to capitalism. In the classrooms, ideas from academia like equity push Marxist ideas to students. Some schools have courses on abolishing prisons and police. In general, schools across the nation have joined in on defunding police. The un-woke stand up to be counted as opponents of pernicious influences, especially those nurtured in university vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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weed-beds. Their works are studded with examples of those who have suffered for their heresies. These heroic victims are not burned at the stake but for the likes of Trinca and Albrechtsen smoke drifts about the campus. Something needs to be added to this understanding of the un-woke. In a newspaper report headed ‘Unis defy “woke” bid to ban mining talent’, activists are denounced for using woke tactics to oppose senior appointments because the people in question have been, or still are, associated with mining industries. Nine universities had made such appointments. This is how they are shown in a table accompanying the article: These captains of industry are not called ‘un-woke’ for wearing daggy britches; or for defying the woke bid – universities did – but because they were big-wigs in large coal, gas, metals and oil companies and, in one case, a defence contracting company. Labelling depends on the side you are on. Unwoke Chancellors Chancellor

University

Links

Stephen Gerlach

Flinders University

Former chairman of gas company Santos, ex-mining director

Paul Jeans

University of Newcastle

Former BHP mining executive

Belinda Hutchinson

University of Sydney

Chairwoman of defence contractor Thales

Pauline Carr

UniSA

Former mining executive

John Abbott

CQU

Former mining oil executive

Xiaoling Liu

QUT

Former Rio Tinto executive

Christine McLoughlin

University of Wollongong

Former director of Whitehaven Coal

Ziggy Switkowski

RMIT University*

Former director of Oil Search; headed govt inquiry recommended nuclear energy

Simon McKeon

Monash University

Director of Rio Tinto

(Source: Dodd & Ferguson, 2021, p. 2) * In Sept 2021, RMIT gave Ziggy the shove when he joined Crown Resorts.

We don’t want no sociology About woke capitalists, Furedi says: Many of the elite private schools in the Anglo-American world have been in the forefront of promoting countercultural values. These sentiments were further reinforced during the course of their university education. Those who went to business schools to get their MBAs soon discovered that the curriculum they were offered was not that distant from vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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the ideals they encountered in social science and humanities departments (Furedi, 2021a, p. 17). Can blame be laid at the door of one sort of department? In an article decrying falls in school education performance, Glen Fahey, an education analyst from the Centre for Independent Studies, is quoted as declaring: The educational science is as settled as it can possibly be on this. The divide in the education community is between those who follow the educational science and those who embrace sociology instead (Kelly, 2021, pp 13, 16) Yah! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Frank Furedi!! Hang on a tick! as noted earlier, Furedi is agin woke capitalists and woke lefties. Who is what? Depends on who is holding the microphone. Furedi asserts: ‘The threat to democracy posed by woke capitalism is all too evident in the US’ (2021a, p. 17). But a complaint shared by those who forecast these threats to democracy is that they don’t fight fair, those woke capitalists, not least because they have made the tactics of woke lefties (who don’t fight fair, by definition) their own. What these crusaders stand for –preservation of democracy and freedom of speech – is undermined by powers that be. For Chris Kenny some media organisations are doing the undermining. He says the Taliban – can host Twitter accounts to promote their extremist views globally while the former US president Donald Trump is banned from the platform. Also using Twitter to promulgate slaughter is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who rails against the ‘wolf-like Zionists’ of Israel he labels as ‘malicious, criminal and barbaric’ while he suggests a ‘final solution’. All this while Sky News Australia was banned from YouTube for a week because it hosted robust and diverse views on the most contentious issues of our time, such as pandemic management and COVID-19 treatments. This is free speech and the contest of ideas distorted and deformed not by community standards or democratic will, but by the feeble posturing of woke Californian billionaires. (Kenny, 2021, p. 14) We have a witches’ brew, with some woke noses pointing right, others pointing left, and all certifying that assertions of their enemies are on the nose. What about the un-woke? I search online for a plausible meaning, and find one in an example of use contributed to the Urban Dictionary on 22 February 2017 by ‘Tyrone_blackdude’: Luke is so unwoke he thinks mullets are still in style. (https:// www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Unwoke) Many are so un-woke they think Marxist bogeymen are still in style in universities. If only Trots could be recruited to run some of the MBA programs … Pity the managers: They woke all day Arthur O’Neill

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Having come up in the world, Arthur O’Neill is now a Northern Beaches Pensioner, maintained by the State to evidence its benign intention in clothing and feeding wastrels of a bygone age. Contact: arthurjhj65@live.com.au

Sources

Appendix Summary of uses of ‘woke’ in Furedi, F. (2021). ‘Woke capitalists: who made them Gods?’ Weekend Australian, 1-2 May, p. 17. Term woke

Frequency As in 3

Albrechtsen, J. (2021). Will the High Court help or hinder the cornerstone of intellectual freedom? Weekend Australian, 26-27 June, 2.

‘The reality is that the bosses of some of the largest corporations in the world are woke themselves’

Furedi, F. (2021a). Woke Capitalists: who made them Gods? The Weekend Australian 1-2 May, p. 17. Furedi, F. (2021b). ‘Why does the “woke left” tolerate anti-Semitism?’ The Weekend Australian 10-11 July, 16.

and ‘At present symbolic capital is the monopoly of the woke’ going/gone woke

Hage, M. (2021) ‘We got Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling in Israel settlements. Here’s how we did it.’ 5 August. Retrieved from https:// www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/05/ben-jerrys-israelsettlement

‘One of the most disturbing consequences of capitalism going woke is that influential groups of unaccountable executives have a corrosive impact on public life’

Kenny, C. (2021). ‘Dire Press Council ruling a woke-up call for free speech.’ The Weekend Australian 21-22 August, 14. Massola, J. & Galloway, A. (2021). ‘We are not pursuing a woke agenda: Dutton bans special morning tea at Defence after IDAHOBIT.’ Sydney Morning Herald, 21May. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/ politics/federal/we-are-not-pursuing-a-woke-agenda-dutton-bansspecial-morning-teas-at-defence-after-idahobit-20210521-p57u2g.html

and ‘In reality woke has gone mainstream and its outlook has permeated the boardrooms of the most influential and powerful businesses’

Peacock, Thomas Love (1986 [1831]). Crotchet Castle in Nightmare Abbey/Crotchet Castle. London: Penguin. Trinca, H. (2021). ‘As ideas go, hiding behind an alias is as false as they come.’ The Weekend Australian 1-2 May, 17.

and ‘With the likes of Amazon, Nike, BlackRock, Google, Apple and Warren Buffett going woke the problem is far from small’

Unwoke Narrative. (2021a). The Politics of Ben and Jerry’s. 28 July. Retrieved from https://www.unwokenarrative.com/the-politics-ofben-and-jerrys/

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‘For Australian corporations, like their competitors abroad have decided that going woke is good for business’ and

Kelly, P. (2021). ‘Lessons in Failure. Declining education standards are a national crisis that’s harming our children’s future and our economy.’ The Weekend Australian 24-25 July, 13, 16.

Unwoke Narrative (2021b) ‘Political Indoctrination’ in ‘The Current State of American Colleges’ 29 July. Retrieved from https://www. unwokenarrative.com/us-colleges-indoctrination/

‘The impulse to moralise and lecture the public comes naturally to woke CEOs’ and

Dodd, T. & Ferguson, R. (2021). ‘Unis defy “woke” bid to ban mining talent’ Weekend Australian, 26-27 June, 2.

Greene, A. (2021). ‘Military reminded core business is to use “lethal violence’ to defend Australia’s values and sovereignty.’ 15 April. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-4-14/militaryreminded-lethal-violence-defend-australian-values/100066796

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woke issues

‘Many of them [the bosses] may exploit woke issues to promote their brands but they also believe that throwing in their lot with the cultural politics of identity is the way forward’

woke saviour stakes

‘They [Australian corporations] are not simply attempting to gain a bigger share of the market but also vying with one another in the woke saviour stakes’

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woke capitalism

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‘The assumption of the duty to use the power of Big Business to bring about political and cultural change

woke washing

‘They [numerous observers who have been surprised by the speed with which the corporate world has absorbed the language, values and practices associated with identity politics on campuses] frequently suggest that what’s at work is simply a case of “woke washing”, of brands cashing in on the culture wars. The implication of the charge of woke

woke virtues

washing is that the branding of woke virtues is merely a public relations exercise’

wokeness

‘Others assert that the wokeness of capitalist firms will not endure or that it is not as influential as it appears’

woke values

‘Most CEOs and executives have been educated into woke values’

woke oligarchy

‘It is worth noting that the arrogant tone adopted by a company [Ben and Jerry’s] that brands itself as open and cuddly, reflects the paternalistic and intolerant instinct of the woke oligarchy’

is the most disturbing feature of woke capitalism’ and ‘The threat to democracy posed by woke capitalism is all too evident in the US’ and ‘Those who believe that woke capitalism is just a fad that will soon disappear had better think again.’ and ‘Yet blaming the young business elite for the ascendancy of woke capitalism underestimates the grip that the cultural politics of identity holds on business leaders.’ wokest of woke

‘Many critics poke fun at Ben and Jerry’s, the wokest of woke companies’

woke capitalists

‘This company [Ben and Jerry’s] employs “a social mission and activism manager” and now promotes policies that are extreme even by the standards of many woke capitalists’

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and [according to a portfolio manager at Schroders] ‘ “people are increasingly looking to corporates to step up and lead us not just out of the coronavirus crisis, but also to address wider social problems”. Woke capitalists are doing far more than just stepping up. They are leading the charge against un-woke

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the refuseniks who insist on remaining un-woke.’

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REVIEWS

Oh yes, I am wise, but it’s wisdom born of pain Beating the Odds: a practical guide to navigating sexism in Australian universities by Marcia Devlin ISBN: 9780645101034, Marcia Devlin, North Melbourne, 188 pp., 2021. Reviewed by Kate White

This is a fascinating book which presents an account of Australian university leadership from the inside. Marcia is well qualified to provide an insider view. As an academic she had an impressive track record of securing competitive research funding and went on to become a leader in higher education. She has worked in eight universities, and after being appointed a professor in 2008, held several senior executive positions, including senior deputy vice-chancellor (DVC). She is also a proficient research communicator and has written about higher education in the Australian and international media. As well, she has coached and mentored women in universities. The author makes it clear in the introduction that the book targets ambitious women and offers strategies that she and other senior women ‘have found useful to getting and staying there, while remaining relatively sane and healthy’. She observes that while men continue to dominate decisionmaking in universities, the pace of change to address this imbalance will remain slow. The book examines the impact of the sexist expectations of women at work. One is that women, even in senior positions, should be invisible which leads to them being overlooked, ignored, interrupted, spoken over, and their ideas being appropriated by others. Another is that they should balance gravitas and humility. Marcia relates how she unsuccessfully applied for a DVC position. Feedback on the application and interview included that she had ‘lacked gravitas’. So, when she applied for another DVC role she tried to have ‘a small bit of the necessary gravitas’. Again unsuccessful, the recruitment panel said she ‘lacked humility’. This story demonstrates the conundrum for women in university leadership. As I have written elsewhere, women’s capacity to impact on decisionmaking in managerialist universities mainly relates to ‘soft’ management skills which are not valued in the dominant male managerial culture (White et al., 2011). The author warns women aspiring to leadership (p. 49) that ‘the structural and systemic barriers to women succeeding in

universities at the same rate as men are not within your control’. She therefore recommends that they ‘focus on what is within your sphere of control – or at least your sphere of influence’. The book offers practical advice for dealing with sexism in universities. It suggests that women need to develop a confident attitude, be accepting of the way things are, use humour, and adopt a work smarter, not harder attitude. Moreover they should handle being undermined with a bad girl attitude (or being unpredictable, such as forgetting things that you had agreed to do, or cancelling a meeting at short notice); whenever ‘manterrupted’ (interrupted by a male colleague) say ‘I haven’t finished’; and do institutional housework less well (such housework includes: being responsible for units of study with large enrolments; coordinating large numbers of sessional staff; taking multiple tutorials of the same unit of study; marking large numbers of the same assignment; taking notes in staff meetings; organising social events; and washing up). Women who are ambitious and wish to succeed are encouraged to develop a secret strategy to further their careers, such as setting goals, making plans, saying no and being bad at housework, raising one’s profile, focusing on what counts for promotion, focusing on research, being clever with teaching, and leading where possible. A support squad is recommended to help women advance their careers. That squad can include work colleagues, confidantes, line managers, mentors, coaches, and sponsors. In describing elements of this support squad, the author lists things that have gone wrong for her and other women she knows in universities. The list includes being variously: formally accused of breaching university policy, harassed, stalked, lied about, disparaged, bullied, mobbed, emailed in the middle of the night, denied promotion, repeatedly denied access to research funds, put under performance management for having the ‘wrong’ style, expected to work while seriously ill, threatened with legal action, and being forced to resign (pp. 142-3).

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This is chilling list suggests just how difficult university leadership can be for women and reinforces the view that it takes a courageous and resilient woman to decide to apply for a senior management position (White et al., 2011). It also begs the question of why young, ambitious women to whom this book is targeted would aspire to leadership in Australian higher education. At one point Marcia advises women to ‘get on the radar of senior people’ (p. 126). But this could in fact be a risky strategy. A male line manager once advised me to keep under the radar of senior management, as it was too dangerous to be noticed. I am not sure that some women would want to take the risk of aspiring to university leadership for fear of the bullying and harassment described in the book. In fact, Louise Morley (2014) argues that some younger women are looking at but dismissing university leadership, making a conscious decision in the current organisational context not to seek leadership roles. Others can be ambivalent about taking on leadership positions or resist traditional career paths and ambitions (Blackmore & Sachs, 2007). There is a wider issue here. How does increasing the number of women in university leadership roles change the dominant masculine culture, and thus facilitate more younger women aspiring to top jobs? Burkinshaw’s (2015, p. 130) study of women VCs in the UK found that these women had to work hard ‘at fitting into an inhospitable culture’, while O’Connor (2017, p. 277) has argued that ‘existing male-dominated masculinist power structures may inhibit a paradigm shift while appearing to meet the requirements of gender equality in the interest of institutional legitimacy’.

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Women working in Australian universities are encouraged to read this book and evaluate whether aspiring to university leadership is for them. If they have the courage to seek leadership in the difficult management culture Marcia describes, the book will provide a range of strategies to hopefully help them beat the odds. Kate White is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Federation University, Ballarat. Her latest book (with Pat O’Connor), ‘Gender, Power and Higher Education in a Globalised World’ was published by Palgrave Macmillan. Contact: kate.white@federation.edu.au

References Blackmore, J. & Sachs, J. (2007) Performing and Reforming Leaders: Gender, Educational Restructuring, and Organisational Change. Albany: State University of New York Press. Burkinshaw, P. (2015) Higher Education, Leadership and Women Vice Chancellors: fitting into communities of practice of masculinities, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Morley, L. (2014), Lost leaders: women in the global academy, Higher Education Research and Development, 38(1), 114-128, https://doi.org /10.1080/07294360.2013.864611 O’Connor, P. (2017). Towards a New Gender Agenda and a Model for Change. In K. White and P. O’Connor (eds.) (2017). Gendered Success in Higher Education: global perspectives, pp. 255-283, Basingstoke: Palgrave) doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-56659-1. White, K., Carvalho, T., & Riordan, S. (2011), Gender, power and managerialism in universities, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33, 2, 179-188, doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2011.559631

Academentia: a portentous concept Contemporary Campus Life: Transformation, Manic Managerialism and Academentia, by Keyan G. Tomaselli ISBN: 978-1-928246-26-8 (pbk.), Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, USA, xi+244 pp., 2021. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young When 19th century elite universities were transformed into 20th century mass universities to eventually become the 21st century’s neoliberal universities, manic managerialism and academentia started to hold sway. Yet, universities have also been converted by today’s managerial apparatchiks from places where one wanted to go into places which have to be vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

endured in order to get a job. To illuminate contemporary campus life, South African communications professor, Keyan G. Tomaselli has divided his highly insightful book into 11 chapters. Tomaselli starts his thoroughly enjoyable book with Hacking Through Academentia. This is followed by Cash

Oh yes, I am wise, but it’s wisdom born of pain Reviewed by Kate White

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Cows, the Backlog Syndrome, Science and Souls, Bulls and Bears, Ranking and Abacus Management, Shifting (Our) Selves, Colonise and Capture, Cartoons and Blackfaces, Culture can Kill and concluding with Academentia Sunrise. The keen observer may be familiar with the term managerialism (Klikauer, 2013, 2015, 2019a). Yet a more recent concept is that of ‘academentia’, combining ‘academia’ (post-secondary education) with ‘dementia’ (progressive impairments to memory, thinking and behaviour which negatively impacts a person’s ability to function). In short, academentia describes a state of organisational insanity in which academics can no longer function as scholars. Academentia is the outcome of a severe loss of touch with the scholarly reality of universities due to an environment shaped by the ideology of managerialism and neoliberalism (Klikauer & Simms, 2021a). Such an often-toxic environment is run by a university’s very own managerial apparatchiks. This is a hierarchically structured management body with several layers ranging from line managers to CEOs. The latter are still called vice-chancellors and/or university presidents. The new boss of the University of Sydney, Mark Scott, is getting up to $1.15m (Baker, 2021). As one would expect, in the USA this has reached even more obscene levels. The CEO of the University of Southern California rakes in a cool $7 million a year; the boss of Chicago University: $6 million; Jefferson University: $5.3 million; Columbia University: $4.5 million; Harvard University: $3.5 million and University of Pennsylvania: $3 million. The list goes on (Bauman et al., 2021). Overseen by top-dollar-receiving university bosses, below them a huge apparatus opens up, creating academentia. This is an entire new condition that is formed by excessive and manic managerialism. It destroys next to all scholarly creativity and intellectual endeavour. Academentia downgrades what once defined the very existence of a university – the academics – into over-stressed semi-academic factory workers. Simultaneously, real academics have been sidelined by managerial apparatchiks. Under academentia, those academics dedicated to scholarship have lost next to all input to university policymaking. Just as described by dementia, the rule of managerial apparatchiks over academics at neoliberal universities has had a negative impact on academics’ ability to function as academics. For managerial apparatchiks, academics are an (unfortunate) necessity. They are a cost factor still needed to operate a university until online teaching can be made the norm and research can be outsourced. For managerialism’s apparatchiks, the rather innocuous words ‘cost factor’ automatically imply a burden, something negative and a cost to be reduced. To the innocent observer, it may indeed appear just as Tomaselli says, there is a ‘loss of the human dimension within

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the all-encompassing bureaucracies’ (p. 6). Yet reality is different. Firstly, there is no ‘loss of the human dimension’ under managerialism. Managerialism does not have a human dimension – it has a managerial dimension. Human beings are reduced to human resources, tools, implements and chattels. Secondly, university managements no longer operate ‘bureaucracies’. Bureaucracies existed in organisations that administer a public entity for the benefit of its people and the public good. Under managerialism, things are different; a so-called ‘as-if ’ ideology reigns. This means that the management of neoliberal universities has taken on significant features copied from companies and corporations including strict hierarchies, a quasi-dictatorial managerial authority (no democracy), the self-invented right of management to manage, performance management, KPIs (‘key performance indicators’), etc. Of course, this means that managerial apparatchiks invent structures and plans while ‘individuals are responsible to perform’ (p. 70). Most of these initiatives come from the private sector. They come like a fast-advancing invasion force destroying everything in its way. Along the way, they create academentia in virtually all parts of a university. Much of managerialism’s pushing of academics towards academentia operates as a so-called ‘as-if ’ operation. This occurs when managerial apparatchiks pretend that universities are like real companies and corporations. In other words, today’s neoliberal universities no longer have bureaucracies. Instead, they are run by full-scale management systems as overseen by managerial apparatchiks. Keyan G. Tomaselli argues that under ‘neoliberalism’, the state’s role is to create an institutional framework appropriate to reduce government spending [which is deliberately designed] to turn academics and workers into incomegenerating productivity units. Texas A&M University, for example, ‘…calculates a profit and loss statement for each faculty member, weighing annual salaries against numbers of students taught and research grants obtained’ (p. 10). In human resources (HR) management (Klikauer 2019b), this is known as the ‘balanced scorecard’ (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). Its goal is to create academentia – an automaton fulfilling the automaton’s pre-designed role through behaviour modification (read: behaviour manipulation). The managerialist’s goals are to be achieved through a process known as MBO: management by objectives (Frølich, 2005). These academentia-creating goals of managerialists are used to manipulate the behaviour of those that HR managers call ‘underlings’ or ‘subordinates’. Such MBO goals are minutely laid out on an Excel spreadsheet that is invented, overseen, assessed and controlled by managerial apparatchiks. Its function is to control human behaviour. To create Academentia, contemporary managerialism applies what Jerry Mander calls the ‘Rules of Managerial

Academentia: a portentous concept Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young

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Behaviour’ (2001). Author Tomaselli argues that one of these rules demands that managerial apparatchiks ‘reduce everything to that which can be measurable’ (p. 10). Under academentia, the individual becomes a purely measurable unit. Only what is measurable is recognised – publication output, student numbers, student surveys, grant applications, industry funding and of course, the all-important impact fetishism enshrined in the infamous h-index (Fleck, 2013). According to Wikipedia (n.d.), ‘The h-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar’. However, it is criticised for misrepresenting data and for being prone to manipulation (Wikipedia, n.d.). In academentia, researchers are reduced by managerial apparatchiks to a function in a mathematical equation, which according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index is:

Google says, formally, if f is the function that corresponds to the number of citations for each publication, we compute the h-index as follows: First we order the values of f from the largest to the lowest value. Then, we look for the last position in which f is greater than or equal to the position (we call h this position). For example, if we have a researcher with 5 publications A, B, C, D, and E with 10, 8, 5, 4, and 3 citations, respectively, the h-index is equal to 4 because the 4th publication has 4 citations and the 5th has only 3. In contrast, if the same publications have 25, 8, 5, 3, and 3 citations, then the index is 3 (i.e. the 3rd position) because the fourth paper has only 3 citations. f(A)=10, f(B)=8, f(C)=5, f(D)=4, f(E)=3→ h-index=4; f(A)=25, f(B)=8, f(C)=5, f(D)=3, f(E)=3→ h-index=3. This inhuman but managerially-pushed system ‘punishes employees and frustrates students (p. 11). Hence, one suffers (academics) while the other one endures (students). Unknown to the simple-minded managerial apparatchik employed as a ‘Willingman’ (p. 45) or as a willing executor of neoliberalism, university managerialism follows what Greek historian Thoukydides (472-400 BC) described as, the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. This is the ‘us-vs.-them’ version of top-down managerialism. Much of this is based on ‘mindless managerialism that measures academic impact by means of ticking boxes on Excel spreadsheets’ (p. 13). Hence, ‘academics now report to managers and the managers are instructed by the People of Worth (PoW)’ (p. 14). PoW consist of a university’s overseer class, the upper echelons of managerialism, the top managerial apparatchiks and their CEO. Worse than that is that much of this has created a mind-numbing reporting culture furnished by endless report writing, box ticking and form filling. These are sent to those who neither understand research and vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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teaching nor have any interest in research and teaching. Their interest is checking forms, overseeing and assessment. They file reports for those with a bigger desk – at least until they themselves get a bigger desk. Keyan G. Tomaselli emphasises that much of this operates with the ‘…Peter Principle, which explains why managers rise up to the level of incompetence’ (p. 17). In managerialism, this makes perfect sense – incompetency rises to the top. Yet, and to the annoyance of managerial apparatchiks, universities still need researchers and lecturers. University management needs people who can do the teaching, can research and can publish. In short, those with competencies cannot be promoted into the higher ranks of managerial apparatchiks. They are needed to do the work. Beyond that, university apparatchiks claim to need even more managers (mostly middle managers) who can manage, oversee, access, monitor and, most importantly, control those who can do research and teaching. This is for the simple reason that they themselves cannot do either of these themselves. Quoting cross-dressing Corporal Klinger in a season 10 episode of TV’s M*A*S*H, ‘Well, as my Uncle Amos used to say, “Those who can’t, manage those who can.” One of his employees made that up for him’. A particular evil heretic might have said, the higher a monkey climbs, the more you can see his bum. Others might prefer to follow ‘Matsch’s Maxim: a fool in a high station is like a man at the top of a mountain – everything appears small to him, and he appears small to everybody’ (p. 45). Largely or fully freed from research, teaching and formfilling, these high-up university apparatchiks (or PoW) initiate university mission statements, invent business plans, research strategies, teaching policies and work – always very hard in endless ‘business’ meetings (Grady, 2014) – on university branding. For Keyan G. Tomaselli, university branding is ‘a badge [it gives a university] institutional personality’ (p. 27). On institutional personality, some people might say, I know people on crack-cocaine who make more sense than this. Yet for managerialism this makes perfect sense. As academics are deprived of what philosophers call personal identity or personhood (Olson, 2019), the Orwellian ideology of institutional personality is installed to camouflage the inhumanity of managerialism. Of course, the inventors of mission statements and institutional personalities represent ‘a new generation of PoW [in] top management now earning stratospheric salaries, even in the face of widespread student poverty’ (p. 33). Not to show their real character, managerial apparatchiks are quick to install ‘well-being programs’ for their subordinates and underlings and ‘safe spaces’ for students while sitting in air-conditioned office towers (top floor, of course), enjoy a private car park, drive corporate cars (i.e., university owned) and fly business class.

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Beyond that, managerial apparatchiks are also busy with managerialism’s all-time favourite instrument: restructuring – a too-common and handy thing to do for university apparatchiks. Une idée fixe is the following: ‘never let any institutional sector settle while creating the impression of transformation by endless (and often fruitless) restructuring. Restructuring is like being on a treadmill. Its very raison d’être is to go nowhere. Yet it ‘is a mechanism enabling managerial-led centralisation of power’ (p. 34). Going nowhere is precisely the point. Going somewhere is not the point of restructuring. One of key ideas behind eternal restructuring is that it provides a great and useful reason for management to fire people. Today, firing people is framed as letting you go, setting you free and free to seek other opportunities (HR talk). One of the more obscene versions is delivered by Amazon: to graduate. Furthermore, ‘PoW aspirants, in order to secure worthy positions, thus ensure that bureaucracies expand constantly, and that work expands to fill the time available’ (p. 34). This remains one of the core principles of managerialism. Managerialism beefs up the importance of managerial apparatchiks and their academentia-creating apparatus – collateral damage included. Of course, this also means that ‘officials make work for each other. They also make work for everyone else and hijack time that was previously available for productive activities’ (p. 46). This is another feature of academentia. Real academics are hampered in what they used to do before managerialism arrived. Now they fill in forms for managerialists ranked above them. This is ‘the ailment of academentia’ (p. 8) where academics can no longer function as scholars. Now they work for ‘educational Fordism’ (p. 48) suffering on ‘an education production line’ (p. 49) with plenty of managerial apparatchiks measuring and assessing their output (Klikauer & Simms, 2021b). This also means that ‘managers and administrators outnumber academics at many institutions’ (p. 49) sometimes by a factor of 2-to-1. Perhaps Forbes magazine was asking the right question in 2020, who is running our universities? Forbes also found the answer, Administators! (Vedder, 2020). For Keyan G. Tomaselli’s ‘Willingman’ (p. 45) and managerial apparatchiks, ‘work means going to meetings and generating more work for academics that needs to be done at night and weekends after the meetings are over’ (p. 76). Some have rebelled and continued to do so. ‘I refuse to waste a morning justifying my employment by mindless form-filling’ (p. 84). Rest assured, the punishment will be forthcoming: no promotion or even demotion, put on a PIP (‘performance improvement plan’, which is the first step to dismissal) and in severe cases immediate dismissal. In milder cases, it means organisational isolation, being made an outcast, seen as being recalcitrant, stamped as a trouble-maker, as not joining

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the great cause, etc. Worse, managerial apparatchiks and ‘administrators set unrealistic targets [but they are never] themselves responsible for ensuring throughput’ (p. 84). This is pushed onto academics, and when they fail, managerialism is there to punish them accordingly. Self-evidently, ‘the first law of academic mismanagement’ (p. 86) applies here too, namely, it ‘punishes the academic sector for problems not of their own making’ (p. 86). This fits to the second law of managerialism, always blame others when things go wrong and always take credit when things turn out well even when you have done nothing to achieve such positive outcomes. Gone are the days when departmental deans supported academics. Today, they are part of the body managerial apparatchiks. They are the Willingmen – the willing executors of managerialism. Gone are the days when ‘deans represented academics and not just authority, as they do now’ (p. 97). When two world-class economics professors were dismissed from an English university, one said to me on the way out, stay away from the dean! After all those years, I still remember that. Of course, they found employment elsewhere. Both continued to be world-class economics professors until one retired while the other one still appears in the international press. Only a few days ago, one appeared on www.bloomberg.com. While they got the chop, the remaining managerial apparatchiks who engineered the dismissal are still there. Perhaps this little episode represents ‘Imhoff ’s law: the organisation of any bureaucracy is very much like a septic tank. The big chunks rise to the top’ (p. 98). Keyan G. Tomaselli concludes by saying, the virus of Managerialism is ‘like influenza – it is extremely difficult to treat with any sort of vaccine, largely because vaccines are effective only against specific and individual mutations’ (p. 222). Yet university apparatchiks and their ideology of managerialism aren’t some sort of individual mutation. It operates similarly in virtually all universities. Managerialism has a few common features found in all contemporary universities (Klikauer, 2013). Overall, Managerialism’s success has two basic ingredients. The first ingredient is a state or country hooked on the ideology of neoliberalism. This creates the ideal condition for managerialism to grow like a cancer. In many cases, the apostles of neoliberalism have deliberately engineered the right environment for managerialism to take over universities (Murray & Frijters, 2017). Secondly, and perhaps even worse, is the fact that many academics think along the path in which they are trained. They tend to assume that managerial apparatchiks can be convinced to support real scholarship by using rationality and logical arguments. In many cases, they know that they have the intellectually superior arguments. In science this makes perfect sense (Chalmers, 2013).

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Unfortunately, and sadly for those professors of science, this does not make sense in the realm of managerialism. Managerial apparatchiks know that they are intellectually inferior to scientists. Crucially, managerialism is something that operates with its own internal logic, rationality and above all, with its own ideology. The fight against managerialism and against managerial apparatchiks cannot be won with rational arguments. In short, don’t bring a knife to a gun fight! The fight against university managerialism can only be won with the only thing the managerial apparatchiks of managerialism and crave: well-organised and overwhelming power. Consequently, academics can only face up to managerialism and managerial apparatchiks through power. The only institution that gives academics organisational power to challenge managerialism is their trade union. It is as simple as that. This is not rocket science. Yet, rocket scientists need to use the power of trade unions to fight managerialism and managerial apparatchiks. Overall, Professor Tomaselli’s most exquisite book offers extremely valuable insights into the working conditions of a South African academic experiencing the slow but steady rise of neoliberalism and managerialism. Over the stretch of about 40 years, the politics of neoliberalism combined with the ideology of managerialism has converted academics into a sickness correctly described as academentia. Worse than this are the previously mentioned People of Worth (PoW). These upper echelons of managerialism, top management and CEOs, have comprehensively replaced academics when it comes to governing universities. These can be former academics now preferring to masquerade as academia while showing off their impressive titles and perks. Beyond that, they run semi-Stalinist operations cleansed of nearly all of those who do not hold the managerialism party line. Thomas Klikauer is a senior lecturer at Sydney Graduate School of Management, Western Sydney University, Australia. He teaches MBAs and supervises plenty of PhDs. His next book is on ‘media capitalism’ (Palgrave, UK). He lives in sweet Coogee, NSW. Meg Young is a Sydney Accountant who enjoys foreign films and music and, in her free time works on her MBA. Contact: T.Klikauer@westernsydney.edu.au

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References Baker, J. (2021). Vice-chancellors’ pay cut as NSW universities feel heat over salaries. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ vice-chancellors-pay-cut-as-nsw-universities-feel-heat-over-salaries20210609-p57zkh.html Bauman, D. Piper, J, & O’Leary, B. (2021). Presidential Pay – Executive Compensation at Public and Private Colleges, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/ executive-compensation-at-public-and-private-colleges/ Chalmers, A. F. (2013). What is this thing called science? (4th ed.), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. Fleck, C. (2013). The impact factor fetishism, European Journal of Sociology, 54(2), 327-356. Frølich, N. (2005). Implementation of new public management in Norwegian universities, European Journal of Education, 40(2), 223234. Grady, D. (2014). How to save the world (or at least yourself ) from bad meetings, Ted-Talks. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/ david_grady_how_to_save_the_world_or_at_least_yourself_from_ bad_meetings?language=en Kaplan, R. S. & Norton, D. P. (1992). The balanced scorecard: measures that drive performance, Harvard Business Review, Jan–Feb, 71-80. Klikauer, T. (2013). Managerialism – Critique of an Ideology, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Klikauer, T. (2015). What is Managerialism? Critical Sociology, 41(78), 1103-1119. Klikauer, T. (2019a). A Preliminary Theory of Managerialism as an Ideology, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 49(4), 421-442. Klikauer, T. (2019b). Managing People in Organisations, London: Macmillan International. Klikauer, T. & Simms, N. (2021a). Nightmare on Uni Street, ZNet, 9th March 2021, 6 pp. Klikauer, T. & Simms, N. (2021b). University Spiralists and AcaZombies, Counterpunch, 16th March 2021, 5 pages. Mander, J. (2001). The Rules of Managerial Behaviour, in: Goldsmith, E. & Mander, J. (eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy – and for a turn towards localisation, London: Earthscan Press. Murray, C. & Frijters, P. (2017). Game of Mates: How Favours Bleed the Nation, Brisbane, Queensland: Cameron Murray. Olson, E. T. (2019). Personal Identity. Retrieved from https://plato. stanford.edu/entries/identity-personal/ Vedder, R. (2020). Who Is Ruining Our Universities? Administrators! Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ richardvedder/2020/08/03/who-is-ruining-our-universities--administr ators/?sh=32fd164e14df Wikipedia (n.d.). h-index. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/H-index#Calculation

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She blinded me with science! The Best Australian Science Writing 2020 by Sara Phillips (Ed.). ISBN: 9781742236841 (pbk); 9781742245072 (ebk); 9781742249599 (ePDF), New South Publishing, Sydney, xviii + 282 pp., 2020. Reviewed by Neil Mudford

No matter what reaction anyone else has to science – the public, media, government, etc. – I am still astounded and fascinated by the exciting ideas and new perspectives that keep welling up out of the world’s scientific efforts. This book offers a kaleidoscope of these efforts and vivid descriptions of what is being produced. The striking aspect of this book, that sets it aside from science journals and science news feeds, is its focus on the inner lives of scientists. These insights tell us far more than transcripts of formal interviews. The book reveals how it feels to do scientific work, what drives a scientist on to seek deep knowledge and, perhaps most telling for today’s world, how it feels to be repudiated, or comprehensively ignored, if your hard-won results challenge the interests of wealthy and powerful people. In this review, I spend considerable time exploring that last point and consider the role and place in public debate of this book of scientific writing in the current intellectual climate. Even though the book concerns the science writing of 2020, there is only one article on COVID-19. This might at first seem strange because the disease and the pandemic were the most astounding things to burst upon the world in 2020. On deeper reflection, however, it is unsurprising. It takes considerable time to research an issue, publish the results and then write a popular article about it or have someone else do so. The articles here do touch on issues relevant to the topic, mostly via the similarities of the COVID-19 issue and the question of society’s response to climate change. There are numerous articles in this book that consider climate change. Here, I first consider this issue by examining a selection of the book’s articles relevant to it, and environmental disaster more generally, and reflect on what they reveal. Following this, I take a look at articles that concerning more cheering scientific developments. These are still progressing and producing new and exciting developments in all sorts of areas. In ‘The Murray-Darling’s dry mouth’, Jo Chandler tells us of father and daughter researchers, Drs David and Fiona Paton, who are closely and comprehensively monitoring the bird and plant populations of the Coorong Wetlands at the

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mouth of the Murray River near Adelaide in South Australia. They have been doing this for 20 years. The wetlands are recognised under the 50-year-old Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance and Australia has supporting legislation ratifying this international treaty. The wetlands are vital for the birds that use it in migrating across the world and for local populations. The convention is designed to protect these and other wetlands worldwide, but the Patons’ surveys show that the bird populations of the Coorong are starving; the river is drying up; the delicate salinity balance that supports the complex ecosystem is drifting out of balance and so on. Too much water is drawn from the Murray-Darling river system and climate change marches inexorably on. The governments responsible for the wetland’s protection are ignoring the problem. As David says, in an example of completely uncomplicated speech from a scientist, ‘They don’t give a fuck about the birds.’ (p. 90). The Patons’ anger and frustration spring from their love of the country there and their long association with it but, more important, they know that the death of the Coorong would bring about the death and degradation of so much else that depends on it. Jen Martin’s ‘Listening to Antarctica’ gives us a moving reaction to her visit to Antarctica. It is beautifully done. She intersperses her tale of the Antarctic environmental degradation she witnesses with passages that beautifully and lyrically describe the Antarctic soundscape around her. At the article’s end, she declares she is so moved by the accelerating disaster there, that she vows to bend all her future effort towards fighting to reduce human impact on the planet and preserve Antarctica. In ‘More help needed for scientists on the frontline of ecosystem loss’, Gemma Conroy confronts the issue of the trauma suffered by scientists witnessing environmental disaster firsthand. Conroy describes ecologist Daniella Tiexeira’s distraught reaction on visiting her ravaged study site on Kangaroo Island after the disastrous 2019-20 fires. The public expects scientists to be neutral and objective towards their research and, certainly, objectivity is necessary in seeking the truth from experiments and observations but that does not mean avoiding a love of vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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your studies. As Tiexeira says, ‘Most conservationists got into this job because they love the natural world, so why shouldn’t we feel anything [when we see the destruction of our studied species]?’ (p. 227). Conroy argues that the trauma experienced by environmental researchers like Tiexeira is similar to that of others under traumatic stress, such as those in healthcare, disaster relief and the military, but mental health services for such scientists are extremely scarce. Good and sorely needed researchers are leaving the profession through lack of support. More needs to be done to help these people.

Passion and grief in the work Clearly, passion and grief abound in these researchers’ professional and private lives, these two not really being separate in spite of popular expectations that they be so. For my part, I find no necessary contradiction between being passionate in your science and being ‘scientific’. I certainly don’t want to be part of a profession in which there is no enjoyment, excitement or engagement. Being emotionally stirred does not preclude applying the scientific method which, in essence, is to let experiment and critical observation guide us to the answers to our questions. My experience is that scientists are passionate about their work; it’s what drives them on to put so much effort into it. At base, being objective means taking a long hard look at what Nature is telling you; you can still be thrilled about it. Indeed, isn’t it more exciting to have your conclusions really mean something in the world because you ‘kept at’ the data until it capitulated, and spoke the truth to you, rather than to arrive at erroneous conclusions by allowing preconceptions to lead to sloppy analysis? There is a sad and disturbing side to passion in science, though; it is the grief that overtakes you watching the animals, plants and country that you particularly love dying in front of your eyes. In fact, as the articles above show, environmental scientists can suffer a particular grief being the ones providing the proof of disaster. What makes this grief all the more intense is that the extinction, from habitat loss, water drawn off from the environmental flow to be used instead for agriculture and so on, is almost always caused by humans. It is one thing to lose whole ecosystems to an asteroid strike, for example, but quite another to come to terms with the fact that we humans are the authors of the degradation and destruction. If that isn’t enough, humans hold the keys to any reasonable solutions, but the great difficulty seems to be to convince humans to commit to those solutions. At the time of writing, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released. It warns that, even if we now act quickly and decisively and channel great effort into avoiding runaway climate change, we are still facing terrible times. The sad and vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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damnable truth is that many are still opposing the necessary action or being complete laggards about taking effective action. Scientists have been some of the foremost advocates of effective climate change mitigation action. Many others accept the science and advocate with them but the puzzling and grossly disappointing response from others is to oppose or actively avoid climate mitigation action. Many articles in the book report that scientists’ calls to climate change action are rebuffed or ignored. The following article, however, views this phenomenon from a different perspective. This, I think, is the exciting side of academic endeavour, that deep thought can produce new and transforming interpretations of an issue that we thought was familiar and already settled. In ‘Climate change denial and inaction – we are (almost) all deniers, of one kind or another’, Iain Walker and Zoe Leviston examine the various shades of climate denial and their origins. Scientists are frustrated that, apparently, many people reject their results and their calls for emergency action. Walker and Leviston’s point is that, at heart, everyone does believe the scientists’ results but it is the horror of science’s warnings of what we face that drives people’s rejection of it. People shy away from it in various ways. Of course, there are those who actively and deliberately oppose climate action out of greed and (extremely short-term) self-interest. Yet, perversely, even they often believe the scientific consensus. Their tactics, such as that spreading unsound science and promoting the idea that ‘the science is not settled’, were pioneered by the tobacco lobby from the mid-twentieth century onwards. Irrespective of whether the science is settled, it is clear that the ‘science’ of advertising spin and misinformation is accepted and well understood, and they are acting in accordance with it! Walker and Leviston’s conclusions fit with the general experience that presenting the facts in a clear, digestible form is not an effective counter to the falsehoods. This is the result you would expect in circumstances in which people generally believe the science and scientists. Superficially, the purpose of the latest anti-science meme to arrive on your social media seems to be to attack peer-reviewed scientific opinion. Walker and Leviston’s work implies that its real function could be to provide people with the urge or excuse to avoid the necessity to act to reverse climate change.

Distrusting scientists? While Walker and Leviston tell us that people now believe the climate science, it seems that many are filled with doubt about COVID-19 research results. The doubts extend to whether the disease even exists, whether wearing a mask helps protect you from others or helps protect others from you, whether the vaccine protects you from the disease and whether the vaccine She blinded me with science! Reviewed by Neil Mudford

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reduces symptom severity if you do contract it. Science’s answer to all these questions is ‘yes’. The answer to the puzzle of why so many entertain these doubts may well be along similar lines to Walter and Leviston’s conclusions on climate science refusal. Whether or not this is so, much of the propaganda of the COVID-19 nay-sayers consists of spreading rumours that discredit and side-line scientists and their scientific opinions. I remember this being a significant feature of the climate science debate a decade ago though it seems to have faded in recent years, perhaps as climate science belief has grown. Just the same, the climate change attacks seem to have inflicted lingering damage on the overall reputation of scientists. This may be providing a springboard for those pushing back against the measures being used to combat the pandemic. The very fact that social media memes from completely opaque sources can inflict damage on peer-reviewed research from known, traceable sources is a considerable worry in itself. Memes are so much easier to produce than a rebuttal to them that it is impossible to respond with facts and reason to the snowstorm of misinformation. In any case, facts and reason seem not to make much headway against those peddling the misinformation. All it gets you is to be ‘unfriended’. Another parallel ‘movement’ is the campaign to induce mistrust in all figures of authority. This social development was starkly evident in the Trump presidency and seems not to have ended with it though we now hear of it less frequently than every day. A novel element there was that the President himself continually acted to sew distrust and conspiracy theories. So, they had a head of government encouraging distrust in government and public servants! The underlying message seemed to be ‘don’t expect governments to do anything to help the community’, echoing President Reagan’s famous attitude that government is not the solution; government is the problem. This movement, if that is what it is, is doubly bad for the hope of achieving urgent climate change mitigation and action on vaccination and pandemic suppression. Little coordinated effort can be undertaken without government legislative power and their formidable infrastructure. The question then naturally arises as to what publishing a book like this one can hope to achieve in the current political and social environment? It could confer great benefits if it could positively influence its readers but there seem to be considerable countervailing influences. In the Foreword, Nobel Laureate and National Trust Living Treasure Peter Doherty considers the problem of the upsurge in the anti-vaccination movement, saying: Part of the problem here is, I think, an inability to engage with ideas based on probability and relative risk. How do we cut through and get such people to move on from a position that

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is certainly dangerous for their children and for the community at large? Simply providing more information, no matter how honestly and intriguingly it is presented, does not seem to do the job. (p. xvii-xviii) Doherty nevertheless concludes that we have to ‘keep getting good stories out there with titles that intrigue and seduce the potential reader’. Thus, the antidote would seem to be to steadfastly keep soundly-based and attractive information in front of the public but, following the lead of Walker and Leviston, ways may need to be developed to encourage everyone to bravely face the danger and help solve the community-wide problems.

The Sunny Side of the Street As promised in the beginning of this review, I will now consider a selection of articles that bring more cheering news of scientific developments. Even these involve some ethical or social dilemmas but nothing as gloomy as the areas we have just examined. In ‘Stranger things,’ Donna Lu delves into the terrestrial science that underpins and informs the search for extraterrestrial life. To give ourselves the best chance of detecting signs of such life we need to accept that it might be quite unlike the terrestrial life most familiar to us. Thus, we need a broad definition of ‘life’, a broad range of environments in which it might be found and a fulsome list of chemical cycles that could support it. In the last few decades, wide-ranging surveys of terrestrial life and ‘extreme’ environments have already greatly expanded the net we can cast when looking for life elsewhere. Lu reports on research that employs a general theoretical approach to expand even further the range of chemical cycles that could power life. This novel approach considers basic chemistry to point to candidate reaction schemes. The answer is that the reactions at the heart of such schemes belong to a class known as redox (reduction-oxidation) reactions. Quite a number of these release enough energy to sustain life, are slow enough to sustain life for useful periods but have yet to be observed in use on Earth. Some are precluded from existing here by the rarity of the required reactants or absence of the necessary thermodynamic or chemical environments but the results of this study could redirect the search on Earth and other forms could yet be found here. This, in turn, informs the searches by rover and remote sensing on Mars and in the searches conducted by examining the spectral signatures of the atmospheres of the more than 4000 already known exoplanets. Almost every star seems to have a planetary system around it. ‘Brain Wave’. Cameron Stewart reports that a technique has been developed, and a sampling and analysis system implemented, that allows a limited version of ‘mind reading’. This has been realised in a system employing an instrumented vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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helmet. At this stage of development, it can’t really ‘tell what you are thinking’ in general terms but it can recognise particular, vivid, pre-arranged thoughts in a known subject. This is already sufficient to be able to use it to improve mobilityimpaired people’s interaction with the world around them. The efficacy of the system was demonstrated by having someone drive a Formula One car around a racing circuit by directing the vehicle with his thoughts alone. For example, to accelerate, he thought of the triumph of scoring a soccer goal; to turn right, he thought of riding a bicycle and so on. That is most impressive. The article extols the clear virtues of the invention for assisting those with disabilities. It makes no mention, however, of the rather obvious worries of the social disruption that would ensue if this technology were to mature to a point where a person’s thoughts would be read in detail. If one’s mind can be read, then isn’t that the ultimate end of privacy? ‘Bringing home the ancestors’. Nicky Phillips reports on a program in which DNA analysis is being used to link Aboriginal Australian stolen human remains with their descendants so as to facilitate accurate repatriation of the remains. DNA sequences are highly sensitive data. Consequently, in spite of the obvious benefits, people can be nervous about taking part in such a scheme over concerns about who has access to the data and ownership of it and how the integrity of its storage is to be ensured. Phillips writes that the secret to success is for the Aboriginal people to have ownership and full control in these matters. She reports that it is a tremendous source of comfort to people to have their ancestors come home to Country. The longer term intention is to broaden the program and apply it to the Stolen Generations. That will no doubt be an application with even more sensitive privacy and other issues but, again, with promise of such high rewards. ‘True grit’. Ceridwen Dovey informs us that Moon dust presents special challenges. The astronauts who walked on the Moon last century found it almost impossible to remove the dust from their clothes and from the lander interior once they returned to it. Worse than that, it scratched their visors and degraded the seals on their pressure suits. John Young, the Apollo 16 Commander, declared the dust ‘the number one concern in returning to the moon’ (p. 188). Australian physicist, Brian O’Brien persuaded NASA to piggy-back a simple instrument, about the size of a thick bar of soap, onto apparatus installed as part of the Apollo 11 mission and then on all subsequent Apollo missions. His devices measured the rate of deposition of Moon dust, over the long term, at all of the landing sites. Many years later, when the dust was recognised as a major concern, it became important to recover the collected data and thoroughly re-analyse it. At first it seemed that the data may have been lost but after much detective work, the data storage tapes and the necessary ‘ancient’ tape-readers, were found and the data were recovered. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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O’Brien has now become a foremost authority on the dust and its properties and is in much demand for informing the teams working towards new Moon landing missions. ‘An Identity Crisis for the Australian Dingo’. Dyani Lewis examines the arguments for and against the idea that the dingo is a separate, Australian indigenous species and the implications of the choice for the dingo. The dingo may be identified quite reliably from its morphological characteristics but DNA analysis classes it as just another dog. The outcome of this dispute has ramifications far beyond the usual for a taxonomic classification, having implications for the animal’s fate. National legislation considers the dingo a native species, but most States and Territories treat it as a feral dog and cull and eradicate it accordingly. In Australia, the dingo plays the environmentally healthy role of top predator, having been here for 3500 years, but this is much less than the 10,000 years since domestic dogs split from their ancestors. Some argue that you have to ‘go’ with the DNA based science no matter the implications. Others contend that we should treat dingoes as a valid member of the Australian fauna on historical and environmental grounds. Still others argue that it is futile trying to protect them via this route because community attitudes will lead to culling and eradication no matter the official policy. Here, then, is a case of two areas of science pulling in different directions. DNA science says treat it as a dog; environmental science says dingoes are ecologically special and therefore deserve special treatment. As in other areas of endeavour, science provides knowledge, but wise choices are a human responsibility. ‘Bovine Friends Forever.’ Rebecca Giggs describes a study of cow behaviour that shows that they make close and lasting friendships, further narrowing the gap between us humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. They seek their friends’ company, where they can, grazing with them and licking them and are calmer when amongst friends and so on. These behaviours are observed strongly in wild herd animals and in free range domestic animals but are stifled in factory farm settings. Once again, research causes us to question the humanity or otherwise of our exploitation of animals, especially when it is carried out in a factory or caged environment.

Conclusion As you can see, this book contains a wide variety of articles with fascinating content. They are a fine tribute to those carrying out the research and to their authors who describe the work and its results and implications so economically and in ways that draw the reader in so successfully. A feast for the intellect. Neil Mudford is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Queensland and is an AUR Editorial Board member. Contact: neil.mudford@bigpond.com She blinded me with science! Reviewed by Neil Mudford

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The Profit Paradox – A review essay The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work by Jan Eeckhout ISBN: 9780691226385, Princeton University Press, Princeton USA. viii+327 pp., 2021. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Catherine Link

Even before Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Janet Yellen, some might have suspected that there are three elements that define the core of capitalism. These are, of course, capital, land and labour. But capitalism is also a system that is defined by profits – commonly camouflaged as shareholder values – as well as wages. From Adam Smith to Jenet Yellen the existence of these three fundamentals was never threatened. Yet the relationship between the three has changed in recent years. This is the argument of Belgian economist Jan Eeckhout. His highly readable and exquisitely insightful The Profit Paradox is divided into three parts: the origins of market power; the harmful consequences of market power; and the future of work and finding solutions. Eeckhout begins his journey with helpdesk worker Erin who despite having numerous degrees, was squeezed into an openplan office until the Coronavirus pandemic hit her workplace. Erin ‘works around forty hours a week, thus making $480 a week, or $23,000 a year’ (p. 3). The US Census Bureau lists the annual real median personal income at $35,977 in 2019. For many workers in many countries ‘wages have stagnated… since the 1980s’ (p. 4). With the election of Thatcher (44 per cent) in the UK in 1979 and Ronald Reagan (51 per cent) in the USA, the year 1980 marks the beginning of a sustained colonisation of society by neoliberalism (Žižek, 2015). One of neoliberalism’s key goals is the destruction of trade unions and the weakening of workers leading to widespread wage stagnation (Mishel et al. 2015). 1980 also marks the year when wages and productivity parted company. Until that year, both rose together. An analysis by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (p. 5) distinctly shows that ‘since 1980 there has been a clear break between the evolution of worker productivity and that of wages for most workers’ (p. 4). In other words, ‘workers are getting a smaller share of the pie’ (p. 4) – just as neoliberalism has set out to do. As workers’ productivity increased but wages stagnate, ‘they’re walking fast and moving backward’ (p. 6). This also means there is an ever-increasing ‘rise in wage inequality’ (p. 9). Top earners have increased their income while workers at the bottom half have not experienced such gains. Even unhealthier is the fact that ‘the top 1% worker

now earn on average twenty times more than the bottom 99% workers in the same firm’ (p. 10). What economists call ‘the bottom 99% workers’ means all of us. Neoliberalism has vacuumed wealth upwards. This is camouflage through, for example, the ‘all boats rise’ and the ‘trickle down’ ideology (HGA, 2018). In fact, ‘The labour share, the total expenditure on wages as a share of production in the economy has historically been around twothirds, or 65%. The remaining one-third is expenditure on capital and profits. Today the labour share is below 58%. A decline of 7% [this] may seem tiny, but that includes the salaries of all those top earners, not just the low-paid workers’ (p. 10). While we are daily sold the ideology of competition, there are many sectors of the economy in which oligopolies or even monopolies reign. Online shopping is monopolised by Amazon, social online relationships by Facebook, online work meetings by Zoom, online auctions are run by eBay (p. 48), computer software comes from Microsoft, etc. In short, ‘it is an entrepreneur’s dream to be a monopolist, the only firm active in the market. Without competition, the monopolist sets a price that maximises profits’ (p. 23). Correspondingly, ‘when only a small number of firms compete, then the market is an oligopoly’ (p. 24). Back at the monopoly, the actual board game of ‘Monopoly’ was ‘designed in 1903 by Elizabeth Magie … as a pedagogical device to illustrate the perils of monopoly’ (p. 25). Of course, there is ample evidence of the market power of monopoly (p. 27; cf. Klikauer 2013:6). There are also extremely outstanding examples like the Mylan company that produces an ‘anti-allergy device that sells for $609. … the estimated production cost being $35’ (p. 31). Of course, the profit is not going to workers. It goes to shareholders. This creates ‘the profit paradox: the success of thriving firms is not beneficial for workers’ (p. 36). We can see this in darksatanic-mill-like working conditions of Amazon warehouses for example (Klikauer & Campbell, 2020). The entire setup applies even more to wages; Amazon pays a little above minimum wage while Jeff Bezos’ net worth is estimated at $195.3 billion.

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When taxation enters the picture, things get even worse, as Warren Buffett acknowledged openly when saying that he pays less tax than his secretary (Isidore, 2013). Meanwhile, ‘in order to reduce a firm’s tax base, accountants will book many costs (for example, the CEO’s private jet)’ (p. 58). In other words, Jeff Bezos’ private jet is tax deductible while the Amazon warehouse worker pays a goods and service tax even on the bus ticket that gets him to Jeff Bezos’ warehouse. Capitalism and a pro-business state can hardly get any better. The fattening up of capitalism ‘is observed around the world’ (p. 74) as ‘the labour share [of global wealth] has been falling substantially [since] the 1980s’ (p. 74). Much of this is the result of the rise of power of companies and corporations. This power comes to them through neoliberal governments. It is accompanied by a deliberately engineered decline of the power of the worker that came with the destruction of trade unions. What we see is that ‘market power does not simply redistribute funds from the pockets of the workers to those of the owners of the firm. Market power and the decline in the labour share destroy value in the economy’ (p. 74). The ‘central thesis of the book’ (p. 75) is this: ‘A firm with market power for the goods it sells does take one fundamental step back. Because it sells at higher prices, it sells less and it produces less. Therefore, that firm reduces the number of workers it hires. If market power is widespread in the economy, and there are many dominant firms in all sectors, then the small step back becomes a giant leap backward that drives wages down in the entire economy. If one trucking company hires fewer drivers, drivers’ wages are unaffected because they can drive trucks and cars for other companies, they can work in the food industry, in security, in construction, and so on. But if there is market power in many firms in all industries, then the economy-wide demand for labour falls and, as a result so do wages in all industries. If one locust lands and eats at the crop, there is no loss to the farmer’s yield. If a swarm of locusts lands on the field, the crop disappears entirely.’ This has dire consequences. For example, ‘labour now accounts for 59% of GDP and profits account for 12%. In the 1970s those numbers were 65% and 3%’ (p. 77). In other words, wealth has been vacuumed upward since the advent of neoliberalism in the 1980s. Critically, ‘wages of the low earners have stagnated in dollar terms and have decreased as a share of GDP’ (p. 85). This means that poor are made poorer. It also means that their wealth is declining in relation to the overall wealth of a society when this is measured against GDP: the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period. Even more dismal, ‘since the 1980s the weekly wage of [the] median worker has barely moved [while] over the past forty years, GDP has nearly doubled. The median wage as a share of GDP has nearly halved. The overall picture of wage stagnation of the low-income earners is therefore much more dire’ (p. 85). vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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As planned by the advocates of neoliberalism, the poorer you are the more you are hit – the richer you are already, the richer you have been made during the last 40 years of neoliberalism. We are not moving closer at all. Instead, we are moving further apart as society are further and further split into rich and poor. Neoliberalism damages a convex society in which the middle-class is strong and the bottom (the poor) and the top (the rich) are a few. Instead, neoliberalism creates a concave society with a shrinking middle-class while giving to the already rich and pushing the poor further down. As a consequence, we produce more wealth every day but get less of it. We work harder only to get less. Meanwhile at the top end of the income scale, ‘competitive pressure raises the compensation of all CEOs, and no firm is better off for it’ (p. 100). In many cases, CEO pay, perks, golden parachutes, corporate jets, etc. have next to no link to profitability, value of a corporation, and corporate success – performance related pay exists mostly for those further down the chain. Yet CEO pay is linked to a CEO’s ability to create a monopoly. Moreover, ‘the rise in CEO compensation goes hand-in-hand with the rise in market power. Firms with more market power pay their executives more. This leads us to the conclusion that executive salaries are not only high, but excessive’ (p. 101). Many of these excessively overpaid CEOs ‘can’t be found on the front pages of glossy magazines’ (p. 111). Many CEOs shy away from the limelight. Plenty of well rewarded CEOs ‘tend to be financial managers and owners of private equity firms. In 2004, Eddie Lampert became the first Wall Street manager to make more than $1 billion in one year’ (p. 111). In real numbers, this is: $1,000,000,000. The average price for a new car in the USA is $40,000 which means, Mr Lampert’s $1bn could have bought him twenty-five-thousand new cars. Even unhealthier is the fact that, ‘the increase in the average total income of the top 1% between 1980 and 2018 is 217%. During that same period, wages of the median workers… have stagnated’ (p. 113). This too shows that the rich are made richer while the rest stagnate. And this is even the case when one looks inside companies where wages of workers and rewards of CEOs grows every more disconnected even when the stratospheric money paid to CEOs is a reward for questionable business practices. These are found in the Nestle’s baby formula case, the Ford Pinto, RichardsonMerrell’s Thalidomide, Exxon Valdez, Bhopal, BP’s Gulf of Mexico, Volkswagen’s emissions, Enron. The list is endless, but corporations don’t need to worry as long as ideologies like corporate social responsibility and business ethics are able to convince the public that all is fine. As it is so often the case, ‘behind every great fortune there is crime’ (p. 119), from John D. Rockefeller’s Ludlow massacre (Gitelman, 1988) to ‘the Sackers billionaires [and the] estimated 72,000 overdose deaths in 2017 in the United

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States alone’ (p. 119). Yet, some of the rich and wealthy seek to buy their way out of their crimes by giving donations and by philanthropy. They do this undeterred by the fact that ‘the result is that donations…fail to target those in society who need it most. But most importantly, donations are not free; the $1 million donation to Harvard cost the taxpayer $350,000 if the donor pays a 35% marginal tax rate. The total amount of foregone tax income is in the order of $50 billion per year’ (p. 121). In other words, philanthropy comes with a double whammy. Rich individuals, companies and corporations save truckloads of taxes. Meanwhile, corporate public relations based on philanthropy makes the rich and their corporations look good. Meanwhile, taxpayers and society foot the bill – an ingenious setup that systematically engineers inequality. Yet ‘despite the decline in inequality worldwide, income inequality within each of these groups of countries has increased … ‘At the same time, income inequality within Western countries went up as well’ (p. 135). In other words, there is ‘more inequality within our own economies at home and in adjacent neighbourhoods, and less inequality between economies far away’ (p. 136). Likewise, ‘income inequality in larger cities has started to rise since 1980’ (p. 139) – the year neoliberalism started to make a showing. Inequality shows up in evermore ways. ‘Since the 1980s, the Dow Jones, adjusted for inflation, has been growing at an average rate of about 6.2% per year. It wasn’t always like that. In 1981, the inflation-adjusted index was at the same level as it was after World War II in 1946, or zero-real growth over that thirtyfive-year period. This shows that since 1980, big- and not-so big business has thrived’ (p. 161) while many others did not thrive. Those who did not thrive are workers. Today, a ‘typical worker is hit twice: her wages are lower due to lower labour demand, and what she consumes is sold at monopolistic prices, further lowering her purchasing power. And if this is not enough, the worker is hit a third time because she holds no stocks and therefore forgoes the financial gains of market power’ (p. 161). These are just three ways in which neoliberalism makes to poor poorer and the rich richer. Of course, this is accelerated in an economy in which ‘the immediate effect of robots and automation is to make workers poorer and firms richer’ (p. 181) and not only are made richer firms, their shareholders and CEOs are getting richer too. For the rest, things are made worse and worse. For example, ‘the skilled miner who becomes an Uber driver or a security guard is likely to earn only a few dollars more than minimum wage’ (p. 183). In the so-called gig economy (Koutsimpogiorgos et al., 2020; Woodcock, 2021), ‘most drivers work fewer than ten hours per week and only 19% work full-time … many workers report to be willing to accept lower wages in exchange for flexibility’ (p. 203). This may well continue until the driverless car appears. When automation

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replaces workers and ‘when robots increase productivity with fewer workers, the displaced jobs disappear permanently’ (p. 231). What might also disappear permanently is democracy, as the Slovenian philosopher Žižek (2015) argues. Jan Eeckhout’s book closes with the famous ‘US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis [who said], Americans might have democracy … or wealth concentrated in a few hands, but they could not have both’ (p. 282). For corporate capitalism, democracy is merely an add-on, an unwarranted and disturbing feature at best. Neither companies and corporations nor corporate capitalism has ever needed democracy. Within companies and corporations, democracy has been eliminated; there is no industrial democracy. In international institutions that govern global trade, commerce and globalised capitalism, democracy has also been eliminated. Yet in some – and by no means all – countries, companies, corporations and corporate capitalism are forced to deal with democracy. In those countries, ‘the current institutions ensure that capitalism is pro-business’ (p. 282). The prime institution to achieve a suitable level of probusiness democracy are corporate media (Klikauer 2021). This seems to continue until capitalism has turned out planet into The Uninhabitable Earth (Wallace-Wells 2019). Thomas Klikauer teaches MBA at the Sydney Graduate School of Management, Western Sydney University, NSW Catherine Link is an Adjunct Fellow with the School of Management at Western Sydney University, NSW. Contact: t.klikauer@westernsydney.edu.au

References: Gitelman, H. (1988). Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre: a chapter in American industrial relations, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. HGA. (2018). Trickledown Economics (Honest Government Ads. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yzeOqV7eKI. Isidore, C. (2013). Buffett says he’s still paying lower tax rate than his secretary. Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/2013/03/04/news/ economy/buffett-secretary-taxes/index.html. Klikauer, T. (2013). Managerialism – Critique of an Ideology, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Klikauer, T. (2021). Media Capitalism, London: Palgrave-Macmillan (forthcoming). Klikauer, T. & Campbell, N. (2020). Inside Amazon, Counterpunch, 4 September 2020. Koutsimpogiorgos, N., van Slageren, J., Herrmann, A. M. & Frenken, K. (2020). Conceptualising the Gig Economy and Its Regulatory Problems, Policy & Internet, 12(4), 525-545. Mishel, L., Gould, E. & Bivens, J. (2015). Wage stagnation in nine charts. Economic Policy Institute, 6, 2-13. Retrieved from https:// termadiary.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wage-stagnation-innine-charts.pdf.

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Wallace-Wells, D. (2019). The Uninhabitable Earth: life after warming, New York: Tim Duggan Books. Woodcock, J. (2021). The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy. London: University of Westminster Press.

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Žižek, S. (2015). Democracy and Capitalism Are Destined to Split Up, Big think. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AXVEnxtZe_w.

Snake Oil and Management Studies – A review essay Management Studies – Fraud, Deceptions & Meaningless Research by Dennis Tourish ISBN: 9781108727488, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, x+304 pp., 2020. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms More than one-hundred years ago, Henri Fayol’s highly militaristic, if not authoritarian, Fourteen Principles of Management (1916) – division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interest, remuneration, centralisation, chain of command, order, equity, stability, initiative and finally esprit de corps – moved administration closer to identify what management actually is. More than Fayol, it was the snake oil salesman Frederick Taylor (1911; Lepore 2009) who shaped our perception of management. To further legitimise an administration’s rule over workers, une idée fixe of Management Studies became a handy ideology backing authoritarianism, at least academically. Management gained even more legitimacy as the crypto-scholarly subject of ‘Management Studies’ became part of business schools associated with universities (Klikauer, 2013a). With that, Management Studies conjured up the hallucination of being similar to real academic subjects like geology, mathematics, philosophy and sociology. Much of this occurred even though many believe that ‘most management research is rubbish’ (p. 1). Others say it simply is ‘bullshit’, as Spicer writes in his ‘Business Bullshit’ (2018; cf. Klikauer & Tabassum, 2019). Perhaps worse than being rubbish and bullshit is being called irrelevant. A very quick check shows how inapt almost all of what Management Studies produces actually is. For example, by 2015 there were ‘115,000 papers in management published since 1990’ (p. 1) – the year Bill McKibben published his seminal work on The End of Nature (1990). Only 328 or a whopping ‘0.28 per cent were concerned with climate change’ (p. 1). In other words, for Management Studies the issue vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

of the 21st century plays no role at all. Furthermore, out of the 222,500 papers in management, business and finance just 292 were concerned with the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), in percentage terms or 0.13 per cent (p. 1). In other words, Management Studies missed the boat big time, while publishing itself into irrelevance. There is simply no better way to show your own insignificance than having 0.28 per cent and 0.13 per cent of your papers published on the two most relevant issues of the last decade, the GFC and global warming. In short, most publications in Management Studies have ‘little or no impact’ (p. 3). To camouflage its own cluelessness, Management Studies follows the ideology of impact factor (Fleck, 2013) introduced and strictly enforced by the university’s managers and apparatchiks. But that is only the start of a journey into the failure, incompetence and pathologies of Management Studies. In 2010, Harvard Business School’s Amy Cuddy published a paper that, according to Tourish’s book, asserts that ‘a person can, by assuming two simple 1-min poses, embody power and instantly become more powerful’ (p. 4). With such a supposedly mind-shifting conclusion, TED talks were assured and so were appearances in The New York Times, which treated her like ‘a Hollywood movie star’ (p. 4). Of course, she had a book with ‘glowing reviews…on Amazon’s website’ (p. 5). ‘There is only one slight problem. The study that led to all this exposure was replicated by another team of researchers with a sample five times bigger than the original. It did not find any of the effects that had been claimed’ (p. 5). Conclusion: Cuddy’s work is nothing but fraud, deceptions and meaningless research.

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Yet such ‘appeal to the media [spiced up or better “sexed up” as Tony Blair (March 2012) would say with the] latest sensational discoveries [can] enormously advance academic careers’ (p. 5). Another person who sexed up his findings and career long before the term ‘sexed up’ was invented was none other than Management Studies’ greatest proponent, Frederick W. Taylor. Even today, Taylor is ‘revered [inside Management Studies] because…he reduced workers to the status of mechanical body parts’ (p. 9; Klikauer, 2013b). On workers, Taylor’s leading ideas are that a worker should have the ‘mental make-up [of an] ox [and that] he is so stupid that the word percentage has no meaning to him’ (p. 12). This may no longer openly mirror what Management Studies thinks about workers (the Big Bosses have learned to be more subtle and devious) but it testifies to an underlying ideology set in motion by Taylor and still prevalent in sections of Management Studies. An even closer examination of the self-appointed inventor of management reveals that the snake oil salesman Taylor was ‘more fiction than fact [producing] little more than falsification’ (p. 14; Lepore, 2009). Despite of all this, Taylor became famous. By early 2021 Google-Scholar listed 174,000 hits on ‘Frederick Taylor Scientific Management’. Taylor’s book on Scientific Management presents little more than a ‘scientific process known by experts as conjuring figures out of thin air’ (p. 15). Again, the master of pseudo-academic bullshit set up a still reoccurring theme in Management Studies. Overall ‘the guru of scientific management had a footloose relationship with facts’ (p. 15) setting the tone for what was to come in Management Studies. And just in case you wonder why management gurus are called gurus? It is because, as Peter Drucker once said, some management academics can’t spell the word ‘charlatan’ (Gaynor, 2017). Next in line of succession and similarly revered is Elton Mayo and his Hawthorne experiment. ‘In 1928 and 1929 he spent a total of six days at the site of the experiment’ (p. 18). During the experiment, ‘disconfirming data…were discarded’ (p. 19). In other words, torture the facts until they confess. This and other things the great Mayo did in ‘violation of the most elementary experimental protocols’ (p. 20). Well, in the end ‘a stunningly selective use of data’ got him what he wanted (p. 22). Fame and fortune, but no one said, Hold the Mayo! Later on, ‘Mayo and his colleagues kept their data to themselves for many years’ (p. 23) – for good reasons: they were good old fashioned horse apples. Overall however, ‘like Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo had a creative relationship to empirical evidence’ (p. 13) to put it politely. What became relevant to Management Studies wasn’t scientific endeavour but grand-standing claims – a circus show. Not surprisingly, ‘in many [business] schools, no more than lip service is paid to the need for research’ (p. 14). Whether with faulty research or without any, many

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Management Studies articles only purvey ‘the blindingly obvious’ (p. 25). As a consequence, ‘More and more articles [are] involved [in] the micro-analysis of obscure aspects of firm or management performance’ (p. 26) while deliberately excluding the most relevant moral, political and social issues of our time.

Rapidly diminishing relevance One management academic openly admitted, ‘Increasingly, it seems, we write for ourselves and the micro-tribes with which we most closely identify’ (p. 26) and ‘we have had a proliferation of quack remedies masquerading as best practice’ (p. 28). It is, Dennis Tourish goes on to say, ‘the production of useless knowledge’ (p. 28) that ‘resembles astrology more than astronomy’ (p. 29). Undeterred by the futility of it all, much of this rubbish informs the teaching of Management Studies (BAs, MBAs, PhDs), all pushing a rather one-sided view of the world of work – the world of management, corporate leaders, CEOs and corporations. Not uncommonly, however, most of the so-called research that Management Studies produces reflects this bias. For example, it is not rare to find that an article or a PhD dissertation in Management Studies has ‘up to 60 per cent of its quotes coming from senior management; 25 per cent came from other managers; one single quote from an employee, two from customers and 23 [12.5 per cent] from other voices’ (p. 30). Toeing the corporate line, of course, virtually assures that business school academics ‘become paid advocates for corporate causes – guns for hire – rather than … searchers for truth’ (p. 31). The one-dimensional focus on companies and corporations in support of corporate capitalism creates, at least partly, four problems for Management Studies (p. 32) can be identified from what Tourish says. The discipline 1. Ignores pressing problems like global warming. 2. Fails to reach a broad audience. 3. Writes only for itself; and 4. Sees its own relevance almost exclusively in terms of how it can serve one organisational constituency (management). Even the (of course, always) ‘departing’ (p. 24) ‘editor-inchief [read: main gatekeeper] of one of managements most influential journals, Organisation Studies, bemoaned the lack of political and social relevance of much research conducted in the field’ (p. 34). It is, he averred, ‘publishing for its own sake [leading to] more and more published research’ (p. 34). The publishing game in Management Studies revolves about quantity, not quality. It shows four general pathologies (p. 34): 1. articles published regularly produce nonsense; 2. articles are poorly written; 3. articles are long-winded; and finally, 4. articles have little or no appeal to the public.

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This is supported by fixed idea that ‘publishing comes to be seen as a game [conducted to increase] rankings, crucial for the fashioning of academic careers [but all of this is] devoid of intrinsic meaning and value’ (p. 34). Much of this moreover is turbo-charge by university apparatchiks pushing ‘a growing obsession with measuring, monitoring, auditing and ranking universities, business schools, journals and individual papers’ (p. 34). Almost self-evidently, ‘the growth of auditing can lead to a decline of organisational trust’ (p. 35) which is something of little concern to the university Munchkins of Managerialism (Klikauer & Simms, 2021a). Instead, the ideology of Managerialism favours the ‘the defensive strategies [of ] blamism’ (p. 36) – always blame others for your failures. Worse, ‘as managerial power has increased, so has the temptation to resort to crude, bullying and toxic forms of control’ [next to] churning out ever-increasing quantities [of publications] often with the sole purpose of being evaluated, graded and forgotten in time for the next round of research assessment’ (p. 38). Beyond that, ‘business schools that want to inflate the ranking of their MBA programs routinely encourage their faculty to prioritise publications in journals listed in the FT [Financial Times] top fifty’ (p. 39’ cf. McMaster, 2021; Monbiot, 2011). Yet the ultimate key to understanding all this is something else entirely. The system of numerical quantification allows (p. 41; cf. Mander, 2001): University managers [to] evaluate the quality of a paper without having to undertake the tiresome job of reading it. Two further aspects should be kept in mind on this. First, the word ‘quality’ is rather vague and doubtful. It might indicate popularity, signifying a beauty pageant. Second, the real problem for managers – who have now mutated into apparatchiks in the neoliberal university – is not that they no longer have to read it. But even if they do glance at the published articles, they do not have to understand what they say (Klikauer & Simms, 2021b). For the academics, much of this processing by gobbledegook means ‘conforming to the political game of publishing in the ‘right’ (the top four US) journals’ (p. 43). Virtually any academic in a business school can rattle off the names of those periodicals considered to be ‘top journals,’ while not being able to tell you what ‘top’ actually means beyond being listed on some dodgy ranking site (Gingras & Khelfaoui, 2020). And we all know the old saying about what floats to the top. Overseen, monitored and strictly applied by university apparatchiks, the career engineering students and later academics drive towards factor fetishism (Fleck, 2013) and this irrational bundle of beliefs has now started to shape research programs, grant applications and PhDs topics. Today, ‘selecting a PhD topic [means going with the] flavour of the month [so that one gets published in] a handful of [top] journals’ (p. 43). Some people might call all this a ‘game’. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Others might call it corruption. That all this corrupt scholarly engagement is of no concern to university apparatchiks. Yet the one-dimensional focus on publication in a select few journals has other, perhaps intended consequences, when ‘books have come to be regarded as Regalmüll – that is, shelf trash’ (p. 44). Not only have academic publishers started to shift their publishing program towards non-academic fields but great books are increasingly less often written and published (Seymour-Smith, 1998). What are the great books that shaped modern humanity? • The Origin of Species • Critique of Pure Reason • Das Kapital • Thus Spoke Zarathustra • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • The Idea of a University • The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy • The Interpretation of Dreams • The Magic Mountain • The Second Sex • On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres • Ulysses • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding • Syntactic Structures • The General Theory of Employment • Interest and Money • The Structure of Scientific Revolution • A Brief History of Time All of these titles (and a few hundred more) are harder and harder to find. What counts today is the standard 7,500-word article strictly following the mind-numbing and dreary formula of ‘Introduction, Theory, Method, Findings, Conclusion’. This robotic stuff that reminds one of the Czech playwright Karol Čapek’s robota – forced labour. These robotic articles are published in obscurantist journals that are rated highly and read by virtually nobody outside a small circle of academics. This is what the impact factor fetishism means in its final consequence. Humanity goes into the dustbin of History and is sacrificed on the altar of Managerialism. Undeterred, university apparatchiks march on. Today, ‘journals remain top journals because they are viewed as publishing top work, and they publish top work because they are considered to be top journals’ (p. 45). This vicious circle signifies the eternal madness of the system and the insanity in ‘The Age of Reason’ (Foucault, 1967). Yet still worse, the system ‘advantages…incumbency [and] impedes competition…[operating a kind of ] Matthew Effect, for to him or her who has more will be given, and he will also have abundance; but from him who has not, even that he has will be taken away’ (p. 45).

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The height of this sort of Foucauldian-style post-modernist lunacy and absurdity may be found in the ‘h-index’. The focus on the h-index by university apparatchiks has led to ‘a significant increase in the number of self-citations’ (p. 47). It also fosters what is known as ‘coercive citations [which] occur when journal editors pressure authors to cite papers published in their journal to boost the impact factor’ (p. 49). Regularly, one experiences this more in so-called top journals than in those not ranked as top journals – not very surprising. Not so surprising, however, is the fact that out of 12,000 academics, a whopping ‘14.1 per cent ‘reported that they had experienced it’ (p. 49). Rather obviously and to no-one’s surprise, ‘Business journals are more likely to coerce citations than other disciplines’ (p. 49). One problem with this is ‘When the measure becomes the target, it ceases to be a good measure … people play the system [just as] Scottish police officers [who] have reported charging suspects even when they have insufficient evidence against them, in order to meet targets for arrests and convictions. Universities are no different’ (p. 50). Beyond that, journal editors operate under the motto, ‘If they reject a potentially good paper, no one will ever know. But if they publish a bad one, it is out for all to see’ (p. 53). Next to journals, the managerialist’s audit culture (Aspromourgos, 2012) shapes research grant applications. The ‘audit process compels more and more academics to write more and more grant applications in the pursuit of a diminishing pot of money’ (p. 53). Since many, if not most, grant applications are unsuccessful, millions of hours and billions of dollars are wasted in composing applications that go nowhere. The heights of the madness are achieved when universities introduce special departments to assist academics in writing grant applications: All Power to the University Apparatchiks! For example, the EU’s flagship research and innovation program handed out €80 billion between 2014 and 2020. Just 4,315 won funding. A grant proposal’s chances of success is 14 per cent (THE, 2016). In other words, 86 per cent failed, wasting time and money on a colossal scale. The EU is by no means the largest provider of research funding. The same wasting of hours not spent on research but on writing grant applications is replicated at state level just with much greater intensity. But the systematic madness of university apparatchiks has other, even more pathological consequences, as shown in the case of London Imperial College’s Toxicology Professor Stefan Grimm who was driven to suicide (p. 60; Klikauer & Simms, 2021b). Perhaps KPIs can kill. Not surprisingly, 73 per cent of academics said that, ‘I find my job stressful’ (p. 65); and it is often made more stressful by spiralist bosses who spiral into universities due to restructuring, for example, and then spiral out of a university to the next job up the ladder with an even bigger desk and more perks.

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Spiralists and Fraudulent Research At Swansea University’s School of Management, their spiralist boss (Klikauer & Simms, 2021a) ‘described some of the staff as a poison that is infecting and destroying the rest of the School of Management.’ Certain senior individuals, he went on, ‘have transformed themselves into a cancer that must now be removed to allow the rest of the school to survive.’ This is a model of academic management that values staff ‘as little more than recalcitrant cattle’ (p. 69). ‘It is almost as though we have consciously designed a system to maximise stress and fear [that is] against the spirit of universities’ (p. 72). University apparatchiks, in case you hadn’t noticed, are unconcerned with the spirit of the university. The final episode in this exciting tale of wonders tells one about, not just ‘the oppressive regime [that] seeks to project the impression of performance’ (p. 74), but also about the pathology of the impact factor fetishism. In 2002, Sydney Brenner won the Nobel Prize. In 2014, Brenner reflected on ‘the career of Fred Sanger, a two-time Nobel winner for his work on proteins and DNA sequencing methods’ (p. 75). Nobel Prize winner Brenner said, A Fred Sanger would not survive in today’s world of science. With continuous reporting and appraisals, some committee would note that he published little of importance between insulin in 1952 and his first paper on RNA sequencing in 1977. He would be labelled as unproductive, and his modest pension support would be denied’ (p. 76). Meanwhile, university apparatchiks sit on auditing committees, drive university-owned cars, receive comfortable salaries, and disable useless people like Fred Sanger because of his insufficient h-index. To get a sufficient h-index, KPIs and a raft of convoluted promotion criteria, struggling academics are increasingly forced to go to insane lengths to satisfy the idiots they work for. The relentless pressure put onto academics by university apparatchiks forces or entices academics to resort to plagiarism. This includes ‘scientific misconduct [which] occurs in nearly 3 per cent of all funded studies [while] one in twenty scientific papers contained errors or falsification’ (p. 80). In some cases, academic papers are retracted by journals according to retractionwatch.com outlines. Rather uncommon is the case of the Dutch academic Diedrick Stapel who ‘had fifty-eight papers retracted’ (p. 81). At the European level, there is committee on ‘Research Integrity and Ethics’ (www.scienceeurope.org). Overall, very few (3 per cent) of academics resort to drastic measures such as ‘recycling’ existing knowledge to get into so-called top journals in the field of Management Studies. This is a kind of old-boys club that some journals have established so that a tightknit group of academics can get published. Much of this is akin to the all-white old boys’ club that runs the USA’s Academia, dishing

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out more Oscar-like awards than Hollywood and ignoring the integrity of science, independence and objectivity. Beyond all that, there lurks the age old problem that ‘journals want to publish only positive results’ (p. 85). The drive to produce publishable data encourages ‘data torture [where] data are interrogated mercilessly until they confess they support a given hypothesis’ (p. 87). To support all that, ‘un-dead theories [are dished up] that is theories that are fervently believed but which are nevertheless unsound’ (p. 88). It is quite possible that Management Studies academics might not have expected this but many others might have suspected that ‘a detailed review published in 2018 summarised the evidence as showing that 25 per cent to 50 per cent of published articles in management have inconsistencies or errors’ (p. 89). It might also indicate that potentially half all published articles, even including those in the so-called top journals, are coated with a thick layer of inconsistencies. A sobering fact, perhaps. From examining the contents of these top journals, the author of the book we are reviewing claims, ‘88 papers [in] strategic management [it emerged that they too have] credibility problems’ (p. 91), a rather pretty use of the phrase ‘credibility problems’. Perhaps when management articles claim that something is ‘too good to be true’ (p. 91) conceivably it just is not true at all. Meanwhile, in the UK it was ‘found that 17.9 per cent [of academics] admitted to using entirely invented data’ (p. 97). In other words and rather incredibly, 18 per cent of the professional staff just make up stuff. Might all this indicate that there is ‘a progressive erosion of scholarly integrity [and that] publishing, in this environment, is widely seen as just a game that we play in the pursuit of careerbuilding?’ (p. 103). Such thoughts are sheer blasphemy within the ivied halls. It smacks of the infamous ‘Lance Armstrong defence…everyone else was doing it’ (p. 104). Is the ‘game’ to do what everyone else is doing? Is the game called cheating? In such an environment, ‘corruption [and] fraud [have] become an on-going and habitual process…[they have] become…normalised’ (p. 104). Furthermore, the infamous bad apple theory might not quite cut it either. ‘Bad apples (malpractising individuals) can lead to bad barrels [and] ultimately, this may produce bad orchards’ (p. 104). Particularly juicy is the case of James Hunton who had ‘thirtyseven retractions [while his speciality] included ethics in accountancy’ (p. 108). He even ‘created fictitious organisations from where his data were allegedly obtained’ (p. 108). He wasn’t quite beaten by Ulrich Lichtenthaler’s ‘sixteen retractions’ (p. 109). Perhaps, though, he was beaten by Lichtenthaler’s subsequent appointment. Despite or perhaps because of his retractions, Lichtenthaler was hired by Germany’s ‘International School of Management in May 2018…appointed as professor of business management’ (p. 110). Right on! This is the way to become a professor of Management Studies. vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Worse, if worse is needed, ‘Some papers even continue to attract citations after their retraction – a common problem’ (p. 114). To exasperate such problems, authors simply ‘cut and paste references from other papers without actually reading the originals’ (p. 114). For some reason, this is less prevalent in ‘quantitative papers’ than in qualitative papers because of the ‘continued dominance of positivist and qualitative methods in business and management journals’ (p. 115). Business and management academics like to follow Aaron Levenstein’s dictum, Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. The very idea of Business and Management Studies is to conceal what is vital while producing volumes of ‘meaningless research’ just as the cover blurb on Dennis Tourish’s book says. Yet, Tourish identifies five reasons (p. 116) for the dominance of quantitative-statistical articles: convenience; it is easy [cut-&-paste some survey, adjust it, run it through a stats. program, etc.); there are huge rewards for data collection efforts; it often values novelty rather than replication; and finally and most importantly, it provides an illusion of scientific rigour, looks good, and assures useless publications. Beyond that, a nice set of statistics attracts ‘journals and publishers [that] have a cavalier attitude to ethical research standards’ (p. 123). A rather common conviction among many simple-minded management academics is, ‘I better publish more papers, I better. So [you = I] become a robot’ (p. 127) as one academic said. It is indeed reminiscent of the aforementioned Čapek’s robota. And just when you think it cannot get any worse, it still does in the world of Management Studies. Above and beyond all that, lurks the influence of corporate capitalism.

Management Studies and Capitalism Many commentators would have predicted that ‘studies funded by drink companies are five times more likely than studies not funded by them to deny the link between sugary drinks and obesity’ (p. 131) – surprise, surprise. Yet many if not all, business schools pride themselves on two things: first, of having excellent links to business, boasting about this on their websites and in brochures, having business conferences, business seminars and, of course, business lunches while simultaneously hiding how beholden they are to corporations; and second, of being able to attract plenty of euphemistically called industry grants, i.e., corporate funding and sometimes even the corporate lobbying that comes with it. As long as children get sugary drinks and profits are rolling in for large corporations, all is fine with the world of business schools and Management Studies which is just a ‘study’ after all.

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Since Management Studies is seen as a ‘study’ and not as a science; Management Studies seeks to camouflage its very own inferiority complex. It likes to pretend to be a proper social science by enforcing management theory. Ever since Fayol’s command-and-control and Taylor’s time-and-motion system, management is about controlling workers and administering factories and offices. Management Studies is still administration, as one can still see in the ‘A’ (administration) in MBA. Management Studies people lack confidence in their own academic status. As a consequence, they push ‘theory development [which] has become an unhealthy obsession’ (p. 133). Since neither management nor Management Studies nor management professors are theoreticians, ‘The result is a great deal of pretentious gibberish [while] trivial insights are converted into [grandiose] theoretical statements’ (p. 133).

Management Studies Theory As many so-called top-management ‘journals place such a strong emphasis on theory building…it seems reasonable to expect some standard definitions that tell us what theory is in fine detail’ (p. 134). Yet ‘much of organisation theory [is not much more than] technocratic unimaginativeness [spiced up with] generalisations [that] often display a mind-numbing banality’ (p. 138). The standard 7,500word journal-science contribution, as we have noted above, follows ‘a very tired formula [of ] introduction, literature review, methods, results and discussion’ (p. 138). Even more boring and painful is the fact that ‘one might imagine that they are written by a computer rather than a human being’ (p. 138; Mindzak, 2020). Yet sticking to this robotic formula nevertheless, ‘helps authors [to] achieve their primary goal – publication’ (p. 139). After having served up this nonsense as president of the American Academy of Management (AMR) (1992-1993), more than a decade later, Hambrick admitted, ‘Our field’s theory fetish…prevents the reporting of rich detail about interesting phenomena for which no theory yet exists’ (p. 139). In other words, journal editors serve the course of Management Studies and, once done, some admit the truth. In this case, there is a fetish-like fascination – in a Freudian not Marxian understanding – with theory in Management Studies. Quite often Management Studies theory development has led to what Shakespeare (1599) would have called Much Ado About Nothing. In fact, it prevents new research. Some blaspheming heretics might wrongly think that is the very purpose of scholarship in Management Studies. Such admissions always come ‘after’ journal editors have enforced the dogma of Management Studies for years. Perhaps, it is some top-journal editor’s ‘McNamara Moment’ (Blight & Lang, 2005), in effect: ‘Well, I bombed Viet-Nam

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into oblivion, killed two million of its people and poisoned the rest with Agent Orange for years on end, but now decades later, when all is done and dusted, I can lean back and freely admit that I was wrong.’ Unlike real theories such as Einstein’s E=MC2 or Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, ‘no more than 9 per cent of the theoretical presentations published in Academy of Management Review are never tested’ (p. 141). It is insular nonsense read by a handful of academics who aspire to get into the AMR. It is what Gare (2006) once called, The Triumph of the Airheads. The overwhelming number of so-called theories outlined in the AMR and similar periodicals have no ‘predictive value’ at all (p. 142). Much of all this applies to one of the stars of Management Studies, Gerd Hofstede with an ‘h-index of 97’ (p. 142). In Management Studies one can reach 97. Just produce a theory that puts virtually all countries into just six boxes of ‘national culture’ (p. 143) and that is easy to comprehend. Following that, one also needs to produce a ‘theory’ – well, six boxes labelled ‘theory’. Such a theory needs to be incapable of predicting outcomes and incapable of explaining why, for example, Austria – deemed to have ‘a very low power distance [culture] with a fairly high uncertainty avoidance’ (p. 143) – produced Sigmund Freud but also Adolf Hitler (p. 143). This might raise the question of ‘how useful can a theory of national culture be when it is held to explain one person’s behaviour in fine detail but fails to account for the opposite behaviour in someone else?’ (p. 143). Finally, your theory needs to be based on very thin evidence. ‘Hofstede drew his data [from] Hong Kong, Singapore and Pakistan [from just] thirty-seven’ questionnaires (p. 143). Hofstede’s book was published in 1980 (Hofstede, 1980). At that time Pakistan had about 80 million people. So 37 out of 80 million is 0.000043 per cent – hardly a convincing sample to make assumptions about the national culture of a large complex country. Perhaps stuff like this gets you an h-index of 97 because it follows the old saying, Never let the facts get into the way of a good story. Yet, ‘despite their weak empirical basis [such “research”] fulfils the following conditions (p. 143f.). It offers a strong narrative that makes bold claims and it can fit readily into pedagogy.’ It is ‘overblown nonsense’ (p. 145) that makes one wonder about an h-index of 97, just as one wonders when one sees the often flaunted title ‘Professor of Management Studies’ on a business card handed out at every Management Studies conference one tends to attended until realising what a scam the entire charade is. More often than not, ‘One is left with the impression that certain authors are re-writing the same paper any number of times. This is called having an ‘established track record’ by university apparatchiks. Careers have been built by these means (p. 147), particularly in Management Studies. Careers are also built by stoically adhering to the fact that

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‘most mainstream journals are formulaic, cautious, dull and unreadable’ (p. 148). Career progression comes with a hefty dose of subordination to the stringent recipe of a ‘big claim + jargon x gaps – humour [divided by a] humungous list of references’ (p. 148). This comes in addition to the ‘four golden rules for academic writing’ (p. 150). Of course, the ‘gold rule’ means that those who have the gold rule. In publishing in Management Studies, it is journal editors. In any case, the rules are (p. 150): 1. Never use a short and familiar word where a long and unfamiliar one will do. 2. Never use one word when you can stretch it out to four words. 3. Bamboozle people with managerialist jargon; and finally, 4. Fresh metaphors, humour and irony wake people up and are therefore your enemy; so rely on clichés, plodding seriousness and tonelessness. On the whole and, as at least one academic admitted, ‘If I don’t write for our top journals, I might as well be writing a letter to my mother. I am tempted to suggest that writing a letter to our mothers, even those who have passed away, would be a better use of our time than writing many of the papers that appear in our hollowed journals’ (p. 158). Many hollow management journals indeed publish articles with, as Henry Mintzberg once said, ‘banal results, significant only in the statistical sense of the word’ (p. 158). This is even more so in one of the greatest fads (Abrahamson 1996) of Management Studies: leadership.

Authoritarian leadership One of the supreme ideologies that has been bequeathed to Management Studies by its Floundering Fathers is the ideology of leadership (Klikauer & Campbell, 2020). Une idée fixe of leadership is a near perfect ideology for Management Studies because it serves three functions: a. camouflaging contradictions b. supporting domination; and c. preventing emancipation’ (Klikauer, 2019:424). As a consequence of the importance of the ideology of leadership for Management Studies, ‘There are at least 94 academic journals devoted exclusively to leadership, in one context or another [with 244,000 articles [and] 100,000 books on leadership’ (p. 161). Nothing in the world of Management Studies beats the grant ideology of leadership. Not surprisingly, the ideological flagship of Managerialism’s fleet, the Harvard Business Review, is ‘convinced that all our problems can be solved if only the right leader is in place’ (p. 161). Mussolini and Donald Trump would agree. Both of these Great Leaders (Il Duce and ‘Your Favourite US President’) would agree even more with une idée fixe of Management Studies that there is ‘an enthusiastic army of vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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devoted followers’ (p. 161) cheering on the great corporate leader (Bolchover, 2005; Schrijvers, 2004). To improve the ideology of leadership, Management Studies has assigned the term ‘authenticity’ (p. 162). Authentic leadership sounds not only better but also fulfils its role as an ideology even more than simple leadership. In rhetorical theory it even fulfils what Poole (2006) calls ‘Unspeak’ – nobody wants to be ‘inauthentic’. Self-evidently, the ‘feeble theorising, shoddy empirical work, questionable research practice, a bias for positive results and dubious statistical analysis’ (p. 162) is cranked up by unctuous followers whenever management academics write about leadership. Like Mussolini and Donald Trump, a Management Studies guru likes it when ‘most power [is] concentrated in the hands of leaders’ (p. 163) like himself. The fact that all of this eliminates democracy escapes Management Studies in a reminiscence of nineteenth-century authoritarianism and today’s plethora of military dictatorships and many others. The word ‘democracy’ is almost never mentioned by Management Studies. Simultaneously, we have been made to believe we live in a democracy even though the places where we spend eight (or more) hours a day for roughly forty years of our lives are democratic exclusion zones. To gaslight its own authoritarianism, Management Studies folk also like to talk of transformational leadership (p. 163) by which, of course, none of them means a transformation to democracy. Beyond that, experts and exponents of Management Studies pretend that ‘Authentic leaders are paragons of perfection and candidates for canonisation’ (p. 165). And indeed, Management Studies ‘encourages business leaders … to regard themselves in a messianic fashion’ (p. 167). Lagging never far behind, ‘the Harvard Business School, a fad surfer par excellence, now offers executive education courses on it [telling its disciples] you [are] to become the type of leader you most admire … in Harvard’s case [the cost for this hierophany is] US$15,500 for five days’ (p. 168). Some of the great corporate leaders once paraded by Management Studies include, not only Enron boss Ken Lay, pyramid-builder Bernie Madoff, Blockbuster’s John Keyes, Time Warner’s Gerald Levin, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, HP’s Carly Fiorina, IBM’s John Akers, Toys R Us’ Santa’s little helper Robert Nakasone, Polaroid’s Gary DiCamillo, BlackBerry’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, Ford’s Mark Fields, Mattel’s Margo Georgiadis, etc.; but also Linda Wachner who Fortune Magazine once called the ‘toughest boss in the US. Why? Because she had a brutal attitude towards people. On one memorable occasion, she ordered a colleague to fire people at random to show that he was serious about improving performance’ (p. 171). These and plenty of others, like BP’s Tony Hayward overseeing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that also killed eleven workers, are hardly mentioned when Management

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Studies trumpets the great corporate leader. Perhaps most of what Management Studies scribes are writing about as leadership is ‘written to conceal rather than reveal’ (p. 174). Much of this extends to the fact that writings on leadership tend to present an ‘over-attributed responsibility for organisational outcomes to leaders … [It stands to reason, they say,] if an organisation succeeds, the leader was authentic. If it fails, the leader was inauthentic’ (p. 176). Great managerial ideologues live from simplicity and a willing business press to push the party line. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) CEO Percy Nils Barnevik is a case in point, ‘Harvard Business Review described him as a corporate pioneer building the new model of the competitive enterprise; Fortune magazine offered the view that if lean and mean could be personified, Percy Barnevik would walk through the door; Business Week opined that the hard charging executive of ABB has seen the future and it contains no boundaries … despite a manic drive and a fast-track career, Barnevik is … surprisingly unpretentious; Forbes claimed that Barnevik relishes taking a scythe to corporate bloat. But when performance dipped so did the narrative around its leader. He had built walls around himself; he had been high-handed in his treatment of the bloat; he has monopolised the flow of information, and much more’ (p. 178). Virtually, the same happened to Enron CEO Kenny Lay virtually overnight. Undeterred, leadership as presented by Management Studies just adds a few ‘positive-sounding adjectives [like] transformational, servant, spiritual, complexity and authentic [to] leadership’ (p. 186) and the ideology can roll on. Perhaps ‘the Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman [was correct when saying], ‘if you have a theory, you must try to explain what’s good about it and what’s bad about it equally. Without this, we have pseudo-science. Researchers into authentic leadership have fallen into this trap, willingly’ (p. 188) at best. At worst, they are the propagators of an empty and fatuous ideology. Much of this is in line with the core task of Management Studies, namely the ‘privileging of a management voice above that of other organisational actors’ (p. 190). As you would expect, this is ‘enforced [by] a positivist and functionalist paradigm within Management Studies’ (p. 191) flanked by ‘obscure topics and impenetrable jargon that fill the pages of our journals’ (p. 192). Within the broader scheme of Management Studies, this applies to some extent to human resource management as well. ‘The study of human resource management showcases this problem perfectly. Despite decades of work and the publications of hundreds of studies, we are still in no position to assert which any confidence that good [Human Resources Management] HRM has an impact on organisational performance’ (p. 193).

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Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics Overall, ‘empiricism fails to come to grips with real-world problems because of its scientific reduction of complex multidimensional and multi-causal problems to that which can be measured’ (p. 195). This explains why none of the books ever written in the area of Management Studies will ever feature on the list of the one hundred most influential books ever written (Seymour-Smith, 1998). Much of Management Studies is narrow-minded garbage that is irrelevant to humanity. Worse, Management Studies offers ‘an enriched theoretical lexicon but a diminished sense of social responsibility’ (p. 196). To camouflage this, Management Studies has invented not just business ethics (Klikauer, 2017) but also yet another ideology that pervades the pages of Management Studies journals – corporate social responsibility (CSR). In leadership studies, business ethics and CSR, one finds an ‘unremittingly pro-top-management tone [almost] to the exclusion of any evidence that might cause us to reflect’ (p. 197). What defines Management Studies, then, is ‘profitability, control, and so on’ (p. 197). Like the aforementioned democracy, profits and control are avoided like the plague by Management Studies. For profits, Management Studies tends to use the nicesounding words ‘shareholder value’ even though. Yet, one of their most celebrated and notorious gurus and the uber hero of maximising shareholder value (according to Forbes magazine), General Electric CEO Jack Welch (1981-2001) admitted half a decade after leaving his position in 2015 that ‘Shareholder value is the world’s dumbest idea’ (Denning, 2017). Undeterred by the admission of one of their own heroes, the ideology of shareholder value defines business schools and Management Studies. They and their ideology ‘exist only to serve the needs of managers’ (p. 200). As a consequence, both push une idée fixe that the ‘managerial voice articulates a universal interest’ (p. 200), another empty product of ideology. Management Studies represents the very opposite of a universal interest. The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, for example, represents the universal interest, but not Management Studies. Management Studies represent the sectarian interest of managers, companies, corporations and corporate capitalism. Just ‘imagine if medical schools were told that their research should aim to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical industry’ (p. 200). It is ‘this skewed logic that animates much of the writing’ of Management Studies (p. 200). They aren’t even ashamed of what they do. Much of this is built into the system constructed by business schools, university apparatchiks and corporations. The interest symbiosis between them – and adjacent players – creates an ever ‘greater reliance on funding from companies and well-off alumni [which] has led to a decline in research on

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topics that attempt to measure social impact’ (p. 202). Global warming is a case in point from which we all will suffer for decades to come (Wallace-Wells, 2019). Part of that is the university apparatchik’s relentless pushing of ‘student satisfaction surveys [which] are increasingly common in universities’ and business schools (p. 203). Some even ‘suggest that academics should maintain a certain level of smiling behaviour before, during and after lectures, and that these behaviours should be carefully monitored’ (p. 203). This is not only Jeremy Bentham’s ‘panopticon’ come true and Foucault’s Discipline and Punish (1995) but also Orwell’s Big Brother is Watching You! (1948).

Critical Management Studies However, during the 1990s a few people inside Management Studies started to detect that not all is well in Management Studies. They introduced a corrective to Management Studies by adding the term ‘critical’, and Voila! you get ‘Critical Management Studies’. CMS tends to claim that it originated, at least in parts, in the Frankfurt School of critical theory (Parker & Parker, 2017:1375). In a rough understanding, Critical Theory works to end domination and to introduce emancipation (Klikauer, 2015). By contrast, CMS has none of this but seeks to deliver better management, better Management Studies and ‘better end products’ (p. 207). Whatever better means. CMS operates on four key premises (p. 206): 1. Critical thinking – the critique of rhetoric. 2. Being sceptical of conventional wisdom – the critique of tradition. 3. Being sceptical of one dominant view – the critique of authority; and 4. Being sceptical of information and knowledge – the critique of objectivity. Despite or perhaps because of CMS and Management Studies, ‘We have made even more progress towards the dystopian goal Orwell has identified’ (p. 218). In the dystopian world of Management Studies, business schools and CMS ‘publishing has become an end in itself rather than a means to an end – the dissemination of good ideas’ (p. 234). In a way, Management Studies and even CMS represents the very opposite of what Chomsky said: ‘It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies’ (p. 236). For Management Studies and business schools this creates two problems. First, Management Studies and business schools are full of academics – not intellectuals; second, both are working hard to cover up lies using the crypto-scientific methods at their disposal while adding a hefty dose of ignorance and narrow-mindedness. Today ‘the Academy of Management (https://aom.org) has a CMS sub-division with over 700 members. CMS has become part of the mainstream…CMS has failed’ (p. 247). If vol. 63, no. 2, 2021

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Critical Theory would have become part of the mainstream, probably it would have lost all sense and purpose. Not so CMS. Once CMS has become part of the mainstream, it has fulfilled its task. Overall, ‘CMS sometimes resembles a fire fighter who spots an inferno but decides to write a report on it rather than help to extinguish the flames’ (p. 247). In other words, CMS is about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic so that these can float better. Perhaps ‘Paul Thompson [was not off the mark when saying] CMS is predisposed to problematise everything and resolve nothing’ (p. 248). As a consequence, ‘Mats Alvesson, Yiannis Gabriel and Roland Paulsen’s [admission that]… high-quality journals…bore people by writing…little more than tedious rubbish’ (p. 236). And yet, ‘young academics at such institutions [supposedly world-class business schools] arrive in a blaze of glory after publishing a few papers in world-leading journals, only to find with horror that they are now expected to maintain barking-mad work norms for decades to come … to make your career your life. For when the music stops, the applause fades and speaking invitations dry up, it is easy to see one’s whole-life achievement as little more than an empire built out of sand’ (p. 237). In the end, there is ‘more to life than publishing in top journals’ (p. 238), slogging along for the benefit of Management Studies and working in a business school. Conceivably, the author of Shut Down the Business School (2018) and himself an ‘enfant terrible of CMS Martin Parker’ wasn’t wrong when advocating that ‘business schools should be abolished and replaced instead by schools of organising’ (p. 250) serving humanity rather than the narrow interest of the self-serving elite of Management Studies. In the end, Dennis Tourish’s Management Studies: Fraud, Deceptions & Meaningless Research provides one of the most insightful illuminations of the pathologies of Management Studies. Based on a substantial amount of evidence, case studies, and statistics, Tourish’s book shows how – often less than ‘why’ – Management Studies operates with fraud and deceptions while producing meaningless research and worthless articles in what the field calls top journals. Yet the pathologies of Management Studies serve its core constituencies, namely, business schools and academic journals (Monbiot, 2011), as well as university apparatchiks with their obsession with rankings, KPIs and the fetishism of impact factors and, most importantly, companies and corporations and, above all, corporate capitalism. Thomas Klikauer teaches MBA at the Sydney Graduate School of Management, Western Sydney University, NSW Norman Simms is a retired professor of the English and Humanities Departments at the University of Waikato, NZ, and is editor of an online journal Mentalities. Contact: T.Klikauer@westernsydney.edu.au

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