A plea for a change of headsSandra Grey, TEU National PresidentAs a union activist I understand that management of tertiary educationinstitutions is necessary, but I want to be clear ‘managerialism’ is not.This weekStuart McCutcheon, the vice chancellor of the University of Auckland,used a Universities NZ column to assert that managerial control oftertiary institutions was necessary for them to remain viable.He sang the praises of managerialism without defining it and concluded bysaying “… how would these institutions fare if they were not managedcarefully, in a situation of volatile student numbers and some of thelowest levels of income per student in the developed world? …Unfortunately,we only have to look at some of the other parts of the tertiary sector tosee the answer to that question.”The institutions McCutcheon is pointing the finger at are the ITPscurrently struggling financially. What he fails to tell the readers is thatITPs are being run using the managerial techniques dominant at hisinstitution.All of our tertiary education institutions over the last three decades havebeen increasingly managed in a ‘competitive and business-like fashion’ with‘expert managers’ seeking to ‘efficiently use resources’ (particularlystaff). The result has been a rise in the numbers of senior managers, anincrease in the decisions they make, and a decrease in staff collegiality.The managerialism that has been foisted upon staff by senior leaders isn’tsaving universities. The reason universities are doing okay in the currentenvironment is that they are larger institutions and have bigger assetbases than ITPs. This means universities can smooth out the rise and fallof students more easily, particularly with constant rounds of staffrestructuring.So what is managerialism. Simply put it is a system where managementknowledge and power is held in ‘experts’, depriving all other owners ofdecision-making power.This trend has been seen around the world John Smyth, author of “The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars andNeoliberal Ideology” notes: “sadly the forces of neoliberalism that would have us believe thatuniversities ought to operate like profit-making businesses - engaged incutthroat competition, run as ruthless corporations, where the market isthe arbiter and regulator of all things - has become the prevailing norm inWestern countries”.McCutcheon says there are safe guards to ensure managerial power doesn’t gounchecked. University councils have staff, students, alumni, Māori andministerial representatives, “but only one ‘manager’—the Vice-Chancellor.”And councils must seek the views of the Academic Board—a large group ofstaff and students—before making a decision on any academic matter; and avery high degree of consultation.But these safeguards to managerial excess are not working.We know because New Zealand’s tertiary education institutions do morepoorly than many other work places when it comes to job satisfaction, oneof the markers of good management.A Statistics New Zealand's Survey of Working Life found that 85 percent of all employed people were "satisfied" or "verysatisfied" with their main jobs. In contrast tertiary education staff areless satisfied than most New Zealanders with their job. An AUT study of the sector in 2013 showed only 55 percent of the over 2700 respondents were satisfiedto some degree with their job as a whole.The staff satisfaction surveys run by the employers in the tertiaryeducation sector regularly show the same dissatisfaction and concerns aboutthe lack of staff voice in decision-making.Managerialism has led to a growing gulf between academics and academic managers. TEU commissioned research also highlights concerns about managerialism intertiary education. As one survey respondent noted: “There is animpermeable layer of management which has developed in the last decadewhich is generally focused on meeting governmental (e.g. TEC) requirementsat the expense of quality teaching and research.”Added to staff dissatisfaction, managerialism leads to a range of perverseoutcomes.Greg Dawes a professor of philosophy points out that the ‘managerial’ model has led to corruption in our institutions. One example from Dawes: “Given the prevailing managerial culture, staffknow their jobs are on the line if their departments or programmes fail toattract enough students. So when they are advising students, they have aclear conflict of interests.I would argue the reason is that managerialism is not the right approach torunning a university or a business.Is there a better way?Distributed power and high engagement models are much more effective waysof getting the best out of staff. So it’s time our managers recognised thatthere are many ways to run tertiary education, but that the experiment ofmanagerialism which centres power in a few ‘experts’ is not one of them.