BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Do professional managers have a profession: the specialist/generic distinction amongst higher education professional services staff

    Bacon, Edwin (2009) Do professional managers have a profession: the specialist/generic distinction amongst higher education professional services staff. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education 13 (1), pp. 11-17. ISSN 1460-7018.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text (Post-print (Refereed))
    Do professional managers have a profession AM version.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript

    Download (403kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    An emerging literature is beginning to create a theoretical framework for analysing the role of professional managers – that is, those without an ongoing academic background – in the context of UK higher education. Here I argue, drawing on my own experience in a range of higher education institutions, that this literature misses a crucial distinction amongst professional managers, namely that between generic HE professionals, and specialists from professions which exist outside the world of higher education (for example, human resources professionals, lawyers, marketing professionals). Building on this distinction to analyse the professional identities of higher education professional services staff, I recommend ways in which institutions can reduce the professional- academic divide in university management.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): higher education, professional services
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Edwin Bacon
    Date Deposited: 16 Mar 2011 12:45
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 16:54
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/3199

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    735Downloads
    6 month trend
    291Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item