When generations of academics are taught to value research by its publication venue more than the verisimilitude of the knowledge created, we shouldn't be surprised when our own institutions stifle the very kind of introspective and unconventional work that drives true progress. An academic culture of "counting beans" may be suffocating genuine intellectual breakthroughs.
As the following sources show, our own professional associations are not immune to this problem:
Aguinis, H., Cummings, C., Ramani, R. S. and Cummings, T. (2019) '"An A is an A": the new bottom line for valuing academic research', Academy of Management Perspectives, 34, 1, pp. 135–54.
Aguinis, H., Shapiro, D., Antonacopoulou, E. and Cummings, T. (2015) 'Scholarly impact: a pluralist conceptualization', Academy of Management Learning and Education, 13, 4, pp.623–39.
Original Message:
Sent: 08-18-2025 21:28
From: Marta Calas
Subject: Forming a Research Team to Study Universities: "When Researchers become Subjects"
Very interesting !!! Great idea! A very much needed reflective turn... even if it feels a bit late...
Perhaps you would like to check the issue of Organization (vol 9, no. 2, May 2001) we edited with papers presented at the international conference "Re-Organizing Knowledge, Transforming Institutions: Knowing, Knowledge and the University in the 21st Century", a conference rwe (Linda Smircich and myself) organized at UMass-Amherst in Sept. 1999. Also, see the special section of Organization (vol 18, no 4, July 2011) on journal publishing and rankings, as well a Martin Parker's multiple works on the business schools in the context of contemporary universities, for instance "Shut Down the Business School: What's Wrong with Management Education" (2018, Pluto Press). You may also find interesting a recent ASQ paper Bechky, B. A., & Davis, G. F. (2024). Resisting the Algorithmic Management of Science: Craft and Community After Generative AI. Administrative Science Quarterly, 70(1), 1-22.
Marta B. Calás
Professor of Organization Studies
and International Management
Isenberg School of Management
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003 USA
Original Message:
Sent: 8/7/2025 8:36:00 AM
From: Shaista Khilji
Subject: Forming a Research Team to Study Universities: "When Researchers become Subjects"
Doing Research "In the Midst": When Researchers Become "Subjects"
By: Shaista E. Khilji & Arthur J. Wilson
The weakening of the American higher education system has been a project in the making for the past few decades. A significant amount of literature, focusing on prohibitive tuition costs, shrinking enrollments, public skepticism, and the shifting narrative about the value of a college degree, documents its gradual decline (Deem et al. 2007; Fleming, 2021, 2022; Shepherd, 2018). As faculty members, we are also witnesses to commercialization of universities, resulting in the conversion of students into customers, budget cuts, expansion of casual employment contracts, administrative bloat, increased student stress, faculty burnout, and an erosion of shared governance (Bowes-Catton et al. 2020; Childress, 2019; Collini, 2017; Fleming, 2021; Khilji & Wilson, forthcoming). However, the recent crackdown on higher educational institutions, involving freezing of federal funds, political and cultural attacks, accreditation threats, academic freedom erosion, and scrutiny of faculty and student activism, is of epic proportions. Its full impact on universities is still unfolding, providing us an opportunity to document our experiences "in the midst."'
Universities represent an unusual context within published MOS research. Despite their paradoxical complexity nature representing (for example) high inter-dependence and independence of its stakeholders (Khilji & Wilson, forthcoming), high value for autonomy along with compliance with managerial edicts (Alvesson & Spicer, 2016), and the shifting academic norms (Fleming, 2021), we have overlooked studying a breadth of issues in our backyards. Bamberger (2010) argues that the most significant contributions to MOS theory have emerged from unconventional research- "research where either or both the sample and the context are unusual by today's norms." (p. 665).
Within this broader context, we are forming an unconventional research team that is curious about collectively observing the political, economic, and cultural transformation of the American higher educational institutions and is interested in documenting their experiences using a narrative inquiry approach. This team will serve as witnesses to the ongoing changes, capture micro-level shifts, and study hard-to-get phenomena 'in the midst' by reflecting on questions such as:
1. Micro-level Impact: How is the current political crackdown impacting our respective institutions, students, faculty, and the work we do?
2. Where are the leaders and other stakeholders (Blinder, 2025; Owen-Smith, 2025)? How are university leaders, students, trustees, and faculty reacting and responding?
3. Researcher as the Subject: How am I sensemaking 'in the midst'? How is it changing my perceptions and relationship with research and academia?
The above themes and questions represent a sample and are likely to evolve within the team and in response to external shifts and pressures.
If you are interested in participating in this project, please email Shaista E. Khilji (sekhilji@gwu.edu) and Arthur Wilson (ajw1@gwu.edu). We are looking for participants with expertise in diverse MOS areas and methodologies. No prior research experience on universities or narrative inquiry research is required.
References:
Alvesson, M., & Spicer, A. (2016). (Un)conditional surrender: why do professionals willingly comply with managerialism? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 29(1): 29-45.
Billsberry, J., Ambrosini, V. and Thomas, L. (2023). Managerialist control in post-pandemic business school: the tragedy of the new normal and a new hope. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 22(3): 439-468.
Blinder, A. (2025). As Trump attacks universities, some are willing to negotiate. New York Times, Aug 1, 2025. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-university-college.html
Bowes-Catton, H., Brewis, J., Clarke, C., Drake, D. H., Gilmour, A. & Penn, A. (2020). Talkin' 'bout a revolution? From quiescence to resistance in the contemporary university. Management Learning, 51(4): 378-397.
Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, F.M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experiences and stories in qualitative research. Jossey-Bass.
Clandinin, D. J., Caine, V., Estefan, A., Huber, J., Murphy, M. S., & Steeves, P. (2015). Places of practice: Learning to think narratively. Narrative Works, 5(1), 22-39. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/article/view/23783
Deem, R., Hillyard, S., and Reed. M. (2007). Knowledge, higher education, and the new managerialism changing the management of UK Universities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fleming. P. (2022). "Never let a good crisis go to waste": How consulting firms are using COVID-19 as a pretext to transform universities and business school education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1-14.
Fleming, P. (2021). Dark academia: how universities die. London: Pluto Press.
Khilji, S.E., & Wilson, A. (Forthcoming). Finding the 'middle way': An autoethnographic account of tampered resistance at Urban University. Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences.
Owen-Smith, J. (2025). Why universities are so powerless in their fight against Trump? The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 14, 2025. Available at https://www-chronicle-com.us1.proxy.openathens.net/article/why-universities-are-so-powerless-in-their-fight-against-trump
Rintamaki, J. and Alvesson, M. (2023). Resisting while complying? A case study of a power struggle in a business school. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 22(2): 257-273.
Shepherd, S. (2018). Managerialism: an ideal type. Studies in Higher Education, 43(9): 1668-1678.
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Shaista Khilji
Prof
The George Washington University
Washington DC
2022137684
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