General Staff Experiences in the Corporate University

Abstract

“I am general staff, therefore I am not.”

Quip from a general staff colleague

The working lives of general staff in universities have been a rather closed book until recently, having been largely ignored in both academic and non‐academic literature. When discussed or referred to, general staff have been depicted in problematic ways that, in recent times, can be associated with the prevailing discourse of corporate managerialism. This paper attempts to redress this situation by illustrating some aspects of the lives of general staff in universities. In particular the paper considers how changes in universities, as they have become more corporate, have influenced the work, perceptions and constructions of working life as described by a group of general staff.

Notes

1. HEW refers to the classification structure generally used in Australian universities (called various things in different institutions). The classification ranges usually from HEW1, which is the lowest level rarely used in most institutions, to HEW10+,which includes directors and managers who might be on individual negotiated contracts.