Challenging the post‐Fordist/flexible organisation thesis: the case of reformed educational organisations

Abstract

This paper examines claims that recent reforms to UK education have led to significant organisational changes in primary school and higher education. It also examines two main theoretical explanations for these, namely post‐Fordism and New Managerialism. Examples of changes in both schools and universities, including flexibility and teamwork, are explored. Up to the mid‐1980s, publicly funded educational organisations did display bureaucratic features, including rules, staff hierarchies and complex procedures. However, professionals employed in these organisations retained discretion and autonomy in their work. Since then, the introduction of an audit culture and a greater emphasis on management and regulation of the work of teachers and academics has decreased discretion and autonomy. This paper suggests that theories of New Managerialism offer a more satisfactory explanation of the changes explored than post‐Fordism, which has more often been used as a normative model of what contemporary organisations should look like.

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented to ‘Reshaping the Social’, the British Sociological Association Annual Conference at the University of Leicester, 26 March 2002, and thanks are due to those attending the session for their helpful comments. Barbara Waine and Tony Cutler also provided some very useful suggestions for improving the paper.

Notes

1. The research team was based at Lancaster University in 1998–2000 and the project directed by Rosemary Deem. Other team members were Rachel Johnson, Sam Hillyard, Mike Reed, Oliver Fulton and Stephen Watson.

2. This term is used to denote academics who take on management roles in higher education institutions and to distinguish them from career‐administrators such as finance directors.