Accounting for research in an Australian public sector university : a case study on the impact of Excellence in Research for Australia

This study explores the potential of ERA to foster strategically oriented Management Accounting (MA) technologies and techniques in the form of Performance Management Systems (PMS) designed to achieve and measure research excellence. The purpose of the study is to analyse the processes of PMS, the effects of organisational change in the operationalisation of ERA and its impact through PMS on the working life of academics. This is undertaken through a case study in an Australian University

Accounting for research in an Australian public sector university : a case study on the impact of Excellence in Research for Australia

This study explores the potential of ERA to foster strategically oriented Management Accounting (MA) technologies and techniques in the form of Performance Management Systems (PMS) designed to achieve and measure research excellence. The purpose of the study is to analyse the processes of PMS, the effects of organisational change in the operationalisation of ERA and its impact through PMS on the working life of academics. This is undertaken through a case study in an Australian University

Government research evaluations and academic freedom : a UK and Australian comparison

Performance management systems have been an inevitable consequence of the development of Government Research Evaluations (GREs) of university research, and have also inevitably affected the working life of academics. The aim of this paper is to track the development of GREs over the past 25 years, by critically evaluating their adoption in the UK and Australian Higher Education Sector and their contribution to the commodification of academic labour, and to highlight the resultant tensions between GREs and academic freedom. The paper employs a literature-based analysis, relying on publicly available policy documents and academic studies over the period 1985-2010. GREs are a global phenomenon emanating from New Public Management reforms and while assessments of university research have been welcomed, they have attracted critique based on their design, the manner in which they have been applied, and the unintended consequences of their implementation on academic freedom in particular. Consistent with international research on the impact of GREs, Australian research assessments appear to be undoing the academic freedom that is central to successful research. Further empirical research on the impact of GREs on academics is urgently needed

Institutional entrepreneurship and management control systems

Purpose – This study aims to explore how management control systems (MCS) compliment institutional entrepreneurship. It provides a case illustration of how the Vice Chancellor (VC) as an institutional entrepreneur used MCS to bring about a change in an Australian public sector university in anticipation of an externally imposed research assessment exercise. Design/methodology/approach – This case study gathered qualitative data through key informant interviews (including deputy VCs, research managers, executive deans and heads of departments) and a review of university and other electronic policy-related documents. Findings – The study contributes to an understanding of the external environment that drives university leaders to become institutional entrepreneurs, and what they precisely do to facilitate the internal dynamic change in line with political demands. Research limitations/implications – Being a single case study, care should be taken in generalizing the findings. However, it raises significant issues that deserve further attention, for example, the impact of change on the working life of academics. Practical implications – The research study identifies the proposed imposition of a research assessment exercise as an enabling condition under which an institutional entrepreneur could promote and activate a new vision. It provides useful insights for other universities operating in the rapidly changing environment. Originality/value – In identifying the way institutional entrepreneurs bring about change by promoting a vision and operationalizing it through MCS, the research study extends literature on institutional entrepreneurship MCS and organizational change

Government research evaluations and academic freedom : a UK and Australian comparison

Performance management systems have been an inevitable consequence of the development of Government Research Evaluations (GREs) of university research, and have also inevitably affected the working life of academics. The aim of this paper is to track the development of GREs over the past 25 years, by critically evaluating their adoption in the UK and Australian Higher Education Sector and their contribution to the commodification of academic labour, and to highlight the resultant tensions between GREs and academic freedom. The paper employs a literature-based analysis, relying on publicly available policy documents and academic studies over the period 1985-2010. GREs are a global phenomenon emanating from New Public Management reforms and while assessments of university research have been welcomed, they have attracted critique based on their design, the manner in which they have been applied, and the unintended consequences of their implementation on academic freedom in particular. Consistent with international research on the impact of GREs, Australian research assessments appear to be undoing the academic freedom that is central to successful research. Further empirical research on the impact of GREs on academics is urgently needed

Municipal tax restrictions and economic efficiency: an analysis of Australian local councils

This paper analyses the impact of rate capping policy on local council efficiency. It also examines a set of exogenous factors associated with local government efficiency. A semi-parametric framework based on data envelopment analysis is applied to construct an efficient frontier for Victorian local governments. Findings indicate that rate capping policy had no significant effect on the overall economic efficiency of Victorian local governments. Furthermore, the policy appears to have an adverse effect on the efficiency of metropolitan councils during the study period. The heterogeneity of local governments needs to be considered when setting rate caps

Australian academics’ perceptions on research evaluation exercises

The purpose of this paper is to explore academics’ perceptions in response to a research evaluation exercise and its impact on their working life. Adopting a case study, the research examines the period 2006-2010, in which the case study university was preparing for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) exercise. It relies on academics’ responses to an open-ended question in a survey, contextualised with academic policy and organisational literature interpreted from an institutional perspective. The responses to the survey are analysed qualitatively. The case study university performed well in the first ERA exercise in 2010. However, academics reported immense pressure to increase research outputs, fear and anxiety, gaming and strategic initiatives, focus on quantity and not quality of research, and increased workload. Academics also felt that appointments, promotions, and tenure decisions were determined by measures aligned with ERA. In investigating in detail the responses of individual academics to Australia’s research evaluation initiative, the paper reveals a disconnect between the institutional demands placed on the higher education sector, university changes made to accommodate these demands and the ability of the academics to meet these pressures in a sustainable way. The study provides insights to regulators and higher education leaders into the impact of ERA on the working lives of academics. It also highlights the need to take account of academics’ views in the design and implementation of research assessment exercises

Outcomes-based metrics and research measurement in Australian higher education

This chapter explores how four decades of neoliberalist policies have transformed a historically erudite and collegial culture within Australian universities into a mass-delivery mechanism for education and research outputs. It examines the pervasiveness of New Public Management accounting and auditing in academic performance measurement. We find that academic performance in Australian universities has become increasingly characterized by a managerial audit culture

Institutional entrepreneurship and management control systems

The public higher education sector (HES) alongside health, is one of the biggest portfolios in most national governments, and is one that potentially provides the greatest returns to a country in productivity gains through skills acquisition, and research and development (Chatterton and Goddard, 2000; Kogan and Bauer, 2006; Middlehurst, 2001). Given the central role university research plays in a nation’s competitive capacity in the international market, and the prominent position it occupies in a nation’s overall research efforts, governments have centralised their control over universities’ outcomes predominantly through making government funding contingent on their achievement of research targets (Broadbent and Laughlin, 2003; Tooley and Guthrie, 2007). Consequently efforts to measure research performance have multiplied in the last decade (Bazeley, 2010). As universities struggle with changes in funding mechanisms and compete for contracting public funds with other well-established universities, they have adopted strategic management activities, and are engaged in institutional entrepreneurship (Liu and Dubinsky, 1999). Thus, universities (and therefore Vice Chancellors) have become entrepreneurs, risk takers, innovators and change makers (Marginson and Considine, 2000; Mautner, 2005; Wong et al., 2007). The impact of managerialism on univeristies and more directly on the management responsibilities and practices of VCs has dominated the public agenda for a while (McClenaghan, 1998). University management, changes to the Australian higher education environment and the impact this has on the role of the most senior executive officer, the VC, occupy the theme of this paper. In comparison to studies in the US and the UK, there is very little research devoted to the role of VCs in Australia. Although institutional studies emphasise the understanding of how entrepreneurs can impact and change institutions and their related fields (e.g. Greenwood et al., 2008; Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006), much less work examines how institutional entrepreneurs contribute to the creation of change and emergence of new institutions, and what they actually do to bring about change. This paper seeks to address these gaps

Institutional entrepreneurship and management control systems

The public higher education sector (HES) alongside health, is one of the biggest portfolios in most national governments, and is one that potentially provides the greatest returns to a country in productivity gains through skills acquisition, and research and development (Chatterton and Goddard, 2000; Kogan and Bauer, 2006; Middlehurst, 2001). Given the central role university research plays in a nation’s competitive capacity in the international market, and the prominent position it occupies in a nation’s overall research efforts, governments have centralised their control over universities’ outcomes predominantly through making government funding contingent on their achievement of research targets (Broadbent and Laughlin, 2003; Tooley and Guthrie, 2007). Consequently efforts to measure research performance have multiplied in the last decade (Bazeley, 2010). As universities struggle with changes in funding mechanisms and compete for contracting public funds with other well-established universities, they have adopted strategic management activities, and are engaged in institutional entrepreneurship (Liu and Dubinsky, 1999). Thus, universities (and therefore Vice Chancellors) have become entrepreneurs, risk takers, innovators and change makers (Marginson and Considine, 2000; Mautner, 2005; Wong et al., 2007). The impact of managerialism on univeristies and more directly on the management responsibilities and practices of VCs has dominated the public agenda for a while (McClenaghan, 1998). University management, changes to the Australian higher education environment and the impact this has on the role of the most senior executive officer, the VC, occupy the theme of this paper. In comparison to studies in the US and the UK, there is very little research devoted to the role of VCs in Australia. Although institutional studies emphasise the understanding of how entrepreneurs can impact and change institutions and their related fields (e.g. Greenwood et al., 2008; Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006), much less work examines how institutional entrepreneurs contribute to the creation of change and emergence of new institutions, and what they actually do to bring about change. This paper seeks to address these gaps