An investigation into the possible effects New Performance Management may have on academic identity and culture within Business Schools in Post 1992 Universities

The purpose of this scoping study is to consider New Performance Management (NPM) in relation to academic identity, culture within business schools taking into consideration job satisfaction and stress and its possible impact upon academic identity. To this end, this paper focuses on one aspect of that study, NPM compared against gender and age range. A critical realism approach is adopted where we can look at how different mechanisms (for example policies and power influences via the UK Government), may impact upon academic identity and the culture the individual works within. The study found that participants identified that their school was driven by targets, and as such had an audit culture. Nevertheless, we found this was not always the case among those who were inexperienced at teaching in HE, and/or were relatively new to the school.