Living in the gray: Faculty perspectives on their professional roles under contemporary managerialism

Abstract

As our society has changed, calling for a focus on transparency and accountability, so have our perceptions of both the roles higher education and its purveyors, the faculty. As a result, university administrators have turned to managerial assessment strategies to provide stakeholders with quantitative measurements of what has historically been an understood intangible value (Dumay & Guthrie, 2012; Secundo et al., 2018). This research delves into faculty perspectives of their roles as they relate to contemporary administrative oversight, finding that faculty perceive indirect affronts to their autonomy as well as academic freedom, leading to a series of negative emotions and consequences including depression and defeat.