Casual academics: a new public management paradox

ABSTRACT

Like most management ideologies, New Public Management, is paradoxical in practice. In the case of universities, New Public Sector Management (NPM) practices have led to a core academic workforce that is tightly controlled in conjunction with a peripheral workforce of casual academics paid on hourly contracts. We examine this paradox through the experiences of academic managers responsible for casual academic employment at an Australian university. The line management of casual academics is informally delegated to subject coordinators. We conclude that the management of casual academics not only highlights the contradictions between efficiency and effectiveness in NPM practices, but, given the increased reliance on casual academics, also threatens the future of tenured academics and the ‘idea of a university’.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic managers
• casual academics
• new public management
• universities

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the research support provided by Karen McNeil and Christiaan McComb and research funding provided by the Faculty of Business and Law, University of Newcastle.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suzanne Ryan

Suzanne Ryan (PhD), Assistant Dean Research Training, Faculty of Business and Law. Research interests include higher education and business schools, management, change and current issues. Management education - pedagogy, values and graduate attributes Academic labour - precarious employment and workforce planning.

Julia Connell

Julia Connell (PhD), Adjunct Professor, Curtin University and University of Technology Sydney. Between May 2017 and 2018 will be Research Development Advisor, Universitas Hasanuddin, Indonesia.Research interests include issues related to employment, change, employee wellbeing and effectiveness.

John Burgess

John Burgess (PhD), Professor of HRM. Research interests in HRM practices of multinational enterprises; working time and health; and work in the aged care sector. Recent books include Human Development and Capacity Building: Asia Pacific Trends, Challenges and Prospects and Flexible Work Organizations - The Challenges of Capacity Building in Asia.