Overcoming Managerialism: Power, Authority and Rhetoric at Work

Managerialism has often been defined as an ideology, according to which the effective and efficient running of commercial firms, not-for-profit organisations and public administrations is delivered by individuals who possess superior formal knowledge and expertise in management. Arguing to their exclusive education, managers deprive employers and employees of decision-making power (including the distribution of financial resources) and ensconce themselves systematically in the power structure of workplaces to advance their own interests and agenda.

Manifestations of managerialism abound. Within universities, managers with little or no experience in the higher education sector have ousted academics from decision-making bodies and now increasingly come to see themselves as 'the university'. At the same time, faculty members have been relegated to the periphery, considered as expendable resources only required to deliver grades to students. Similar phenomena have been observed in corporations, hospitals, the police, fire-fighter services, defence forces, utilities distribution, infrastructure maintenance, etc. In each of these sectors, financial considerations have taken over the objectives that had led to the creation of the firm or administration in the first place. Consequences include falling academic standards, lack of innovation and risk-taking in firms, declining service levels in administrations and a general decrease in the ability to achieve stated goals. If management as a group benefits, society suffers.

While such phenomena have received attention from scholars (and in particular 'critical' scholars), another trend has been largely unnoticed. Specifically, in the age of managerialism, rationality and argumentation have been under attack and, consequently, authority has been progressively replaced with power as forms of managerial control. Authority, however, directs power to managers and redirects it to professional colleagues thereby setting a limit to managerial power. This is recognised in authoritative management which stands opposed to authoritarianism in all its forms. The book offers a sustained defence of these themes and its varied manifestations within workplaces.