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Perverse Audit Culture and Accountability of the Modern Public University
Author(s) -
Craig Russell,
Amernic Joel,
Tourish Dennis
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/faam.12025
Subject(s) - accountability , audit , scholarship , new public management , organizational culture , political science , work (physics) , public administration , academic freedom , public management , performance audit , managerialism , public relations , sociology , accounting , business , internal audit , public sector , higher education , joint audit , law , engineering , mechanical engineering
The audit culture which has developed in public universities has led to counter‐productive outcomes. Managerial oversight of academic work has reached a critical tipping point. Extensive auditing of research output by means of performance management assessment regimes motivated by a New Public Management mentality has damaged individual scholarship and threatened academic freedom. Such assessment regimes are perverse and conducive to the development of psychotic tendencies by universities. It is important to understand the effects of a perverse audit culture when re‐thinking and reforming approaches to university performance management. We suggest ways for public universities to acknowledge the need for accountability while remaining true to core academic purposes.