University, Ltd: Changing a business school

This article recounts two years in the change management of a European business school. Using evidence gained whilst I was an employee, I describe the conditions and institutional mechanisms which allowed an ‘earth shattering’ change programme to take place. This involved discounting the past and claiming that anyone who is against change is either self-interested or doesn’t understand the ‘real world’. The lack of collective and successful resistance is of particular concern here, since it suggests that (in certain contexts) academics are incapable of preventing their own institutions changing around them. Exit appears to be the only choice, when loyalty is questioned and voice impossible. I conclude with some observations on the relationship between the managerial business school and the idea of the university.