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

Glauco De Vita; Peter Case

doi:10.1080/14759551.2014.971122

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

Glauco De Vita, Peter Case

University of the West of England

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

164 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	348-364
Number of pages	17
Journal	Culture and Organization
Volume	22
Issue number	4
Early online date	23 Oct 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2014.971122
Publication status	Published - 2016

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Culture and Organization on 23/10/14 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14759551.2014.971122

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

Keywords

BUSINESS schools
Culture
Ghoshal
Higher Education
Managerialism
Metaphor

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Business, Management and Accounting(all)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1080/14759551.2014.971122Licence: CC BY

Post-printAccepted author manuscript, 984 KBLicence: CC BY

Glauco De Vita
- Research Centre for Business in Society - Professor in Business and Management
Person: Teaching and Research

Cite this

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abstract = "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 {\textquoteleft}smell of the place{\textquoteright} 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.",

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