In this paper, we examine how Covid-19 was utilized by the management of a university as a catalyst for ideological change, with the objective of transforming the ethos of a university management school and the role(s) of the academics employed within. Through new modes of working that maintained corporeal distance between university staff, market-based ideology was mobilized to institute radical and lasting change within the roles of academics and operations of the institution. We focus on a singular case study: “Blue Management School” (BMS, pseudonym), based within an English mid-tier research university which has historically embraced corporatization more readily than most of its peers. We conducted a qualitative analysis of management email communications and from interviews with nine academics (both current and former employees) who were working at BMS during the time concerned (March 2020 onward). We observe that Covid-19 posed significant challenges to corporatized universities, and that university managers at BMS sought to address these challenges by undertaking further steps toward corporatization and mobilizing organizational change legitimized by the need to manage the Covid-19 situation. This included hierarchical forms of accountability, with academics answering for module content to teaching convenors and the management team (“manager academics”). We draw attention to how management communications carried profound effects for the mobilization of ideological change within the institution, during this period. In addition, academic identity was affected, moving away from traditional research and teaching scholars toward revenue-generating customer service workers, facilitating a power shift away from academics and further toward managers.

中文翻译：

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作为意识形态的管理：“新”管理主义和Covid-19时期的企业大学

在本文中，我们研究了大学管理层如何利用 Covid-19 作为意识形态变革的催化剂，目的是改变大学管理学院的精神和内部学者的角色。通过保持大学教职人员之间身体距离的新工作模式，以市场为基础的意识形态被动员起来，在学术界的角色和机构的运作中进行彻底而持久的变革。我们重点关注一个独特的案例研究：“蓝色管理学院”（BMS，化名），该学院位于一所英国中型研究型大学内，该大学历来比大多数同行更容易接受公司化。我们对管理层电子邮件通信以及对相关期间（2020 年 3 月以后）在 BMS 工作的 9 名学者（包括现任和前任员工）的采访进行了定性分析。我们观察到，Covid-19 给公司化大学带来了重大挑战，BMS 的大学管理者试图通过采取进一步的公司化措施和动员因管理 Covid-19 情况的需要而合法化的组织变革来应对这些挑战。这包括分级形式的问责制，学者们向教学召集人和管理团队（“管理者学者”）负责模块内容。我们提请注意在此期间管理沟通如何对动员机构内的意识形态变革产生深远影响。此外，学术身份也受到影响，从传统的研究和教学学者转向创收的客户服务人员，从而促进了权力从学者转向管理者的转变。