‘The smell of the place’: Managerialist culture in contemporary UK business schools

De Vita, Glauco; Case, Peter

Abstract

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. By introducing an intentionally provocative critique of managerialist regimes which typify contemporary UK business school culture, we argue that current business school management practices generate a climate of mistrust and alienation amongst academics. Such a climate is not conducive to a reformative agenda that business schools should be pursuing if they are to improve staff morale and the educational environment. Drawing on Ghoshal’s ‘smell of the place’ metaphor to structure this argument, we court deliberate irony and paradox. Rather than draw on heterodox theory to inform our critique we, instead, turn relatively mainstream management and organization theory against itself. Our argument is that even when examined through orthodox lenses, managerialist practices are found wanting and contradict the precepts of much mainstream normative theory.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 26, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Oct 23, 2014
• Publication Date: Aug 7, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 13, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 14, 2016
• Journal: Culture and Organization
• Print ISSN: 1475-9551
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-2760
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 348-364
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2014.971122
• Keywords: business schools, culture, Ghoshal, higher education, managerialism, metaphor
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/918312
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2014.971122
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Culture and Organization on 23 October 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14759551.2014.971122
• Contract Date: Jun 14, 2016