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A Fish out of Water? Management Consultants in Academia

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Abstract

What happens when management consultants enter the academic arena and offer their services to universities? In the following article, we examine this question by drawing on findings from a qualitative study based on a series of 30 interviews with senior management consultants and academic managers in Germany. The aim of this explorative study is, first of all, to provide theoretically informed observations about the working mechanisms of management consulting in academia. A second, and related objective, is to contribute to the ongoing debate on the changing nature, role, and implications of managerial expertise and authority in higher education institutions. We begin our study by providing an overview of the literature on the changing nature of university management. Although these studies show a shift in the power constellation of universities from professional to managerial authority, we argue that they remain suspiciously vague as concerns the way academics and managers actually deal with this conflicting situation. By drawing on the insights of consulting studies, we then explore the stakes of consultancy in academic change projects and determine the analytical factors that will guide our qualitative analysis. Finally, we present and discuss the findings before concluding with more general remarks on the nature of academic management in German universities.

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Notes

  1. We thereby base our typology of academic manager-types in higher education on the study of Deem et al. 2007. The authors define manager-academics as academics who have temporarily or permanently taken on management/leadership roles in universities. Senior administrative staff, on the other hand, might have an academic background, but follow a straightforward administrative career in the university. Henceforth, we will use the term academic managers when referring to both groups.

  2. As early as 1993, the discourse theorist Fairclough undertook a longitudinal analysis of the promotional culture in British universities. In his qualitative analysis of press advertisements for academic posts and programme materials for academic conferences, Fairclough noted a growing “marketization” of the discursive practices in/around academia. In 1996, Sporn called for an “integrative communication culture” capable of unifying the preponderant sub-units of this complex/fragmented organisation, thereby readying universities to face increasing competition. A year later, Leslie and Slaughter (1997) published their much discussed book Academic Capitalism on the “commercialisation” of academic work.

  3. The explorative study of Santiago et al. (2006), undertaken among the middle management of Portuguese universities, confirms the hybridisation thesis of Deem et al.

  4. In particular, neo-institutional translation theory has stressed the importance of consultants as carriers for the “travel of ideas” (Sahlin Andersson and Engwall 2002; McKenna et al. 2003), i.e. the diffusion of managerial practices and concepts in different fields.

  5. By the term “scientific evaluation” we refer to a methodological procedure of knowledge assessment that is specific to the academic community and impacts on the discursive culture of the organisation.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Paul Du Gay, Andrew Sturdy, Ekkehard Thümler, Annelies Fryberger and the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. Institute of Sociology, Heidelberg University, Bergheimer Str. 58, 69115, Heidelberg, Germany

    Kathia Serrano-Velarde

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Correspondence to Kathia Serrano-Velarde.

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Serrano-Velarde, K. A Fish out of Water? Management Consultants in Academia. Minerva 48, 125–144 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-010-9148-9

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