Networks and Managerialism: Field-testing competing paradigms

Australian universities under stress are pulled between competing paradigms of managerialism and networking. External pressures towards homogenisation contradict the national requirement for higher education system diversity. Managing complexity requires a degree of self-confidence which reinstates collegiality and administration above managerialism and enables the institution effectively to engage with its local-global environment. This paper draws out the competing paradigms. It then sketches the purposes, processes and outcomes whereby UWS Nepean rejuvenated and energised itself to cope with the changes of the late 1990s and the demands of the new entrepreneurialism, without succumbing to economic rationalism. It suggests how changed culture may result in changed behaviour and greater productivity via networking. Structure is less important than shared purpose, culture and morale. Process matters, but can lead to displacement, so that means become ends and outcomes are lost to the procedural outputs of strategic planning