When managerialism meets professional autonomy: The university ‘budget update’ as genre of governance

Abstract

Through analysis of 178 texts posted online by university leaders during a severe budget shortfall, I explore the tensions that arise as managerialist practices are recontextualized within university governance. I identify 64 texts constitutive of a hybrid genre, which I call the ‘budget update’. The structure and linguistic features of this genre are described. Interdiscursive and intertextual analysis demonstrate hybridities that emerge when leaders enact, negotiate, and resist managerialism.

Keywords:

• critical discourse analysis
• higher education
• managerialism
• interdiscursive hybridity