City Research Online

Abstract

The raison d'etre of all universities is to create and deliver ‘academic value’, which we define as the sum total of the contributions from the 360-degree ‘angles’ of the academic community, including all categories of staff, as well as external stakeholders (e.g. regulatory, commercial, professional and community interests). As a way to conceptualise these complex relationships, we present the ‘academic wheel’ to illustrate the structural nature of them. We then discuss the implications of the different – and sometimes difficult – perspectives of academic, professional and administrative groups in the context of a number of important social psychological processes. We ask whether it is possible to reconcile, what is sometimes perceived as, managerial Taylorism with the academic freedom of (Laurie) Taylorism. We conclude that recognition and active management of these processes are required for each university to optimise its own brand of core academic value.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education on 20 Jun 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13603108.2016.1181117
Publisher Keywords:	Academic value, community, student experience, social psychological processes, professional services, managers, administrators
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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