Microsoft Word doctoral thesis final[1]. doc

2.2    ACADEMIC WOMEN AND THE “NEW MANAGERIALISM”  
 
The current wave of transformation in universities in South Africa has brought with it the 
inauguration of different forms of management and a fresh corporate culture. Universities 

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are traditionally collegial in nature and academics are essentially self-regulatory, 
independent and autonomous.  Their collegiality is characterised by a culture of loose 
policy definition and loose control of implementation (Dopson & McNay 1996). But this 
collegiality is being fast eroded and replaced by what is termed ‘the new managerialism’ 
or the corporatisation of the academe. This is built upon principles of the corporate world 
with a culture that is characterised by tight policy definition and control of 
implementation (Dopson & McNay 1996), arising out of the new globalisation and 
marketisation of educational institutions (Blackmore 2002).  ‘New managerialism’ in 
Johnson’s (2002:34) perspective is “a complex of various and often contradictory 
organisational and management responses to the programme of reform of publicly funded 
services instigated by many Western governments over the past two decades.” In South 
Africa this ‘programme of reform’ of higher education institutions is still in its early 
stages.  In the context of new managerialism, management and leadership inevitably take 
on new forms resembling those of the corporate world – with an emphasis on efficiency 
and effectiveness. As a result HoDs now find themselves inundated with paperwork, 
marketing programmes, recruiting students, managing decentralised budgets linked to 
cost centres, performing quality audits and performance appraisals and other such non-
academic responsibilities. 
 
What is of concern to this and other researchers concerning women academic 
leaders/managers is:  where in all these rapid changes do women middle managers (in 
this study - academic HoDs) fit in? and what is the likely impact of the ‘new 
managerialism’ on the gains made in equity in the academe? 
 
 It would seem from current changes and the evident move towards corporatisation that 
male hegemony is being reinforced. But what does the literature reveal? Several 
international researchers of the ‘new managerialism’ (sometimes referred to as academic 
managerialism) in schools and higher education in Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), 
Canada, New Zealand, the United States of America (USA)  and South Africa share a 
common perspective on the likely impact of this paradigm shift on the academe,