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This article discusses the ways that the trends of corporatization and commercialization have changed managerial roles in universities. The authors argue that we have gone too far with these trends and plea for redesigned management roles. Performance measurement systems relying on student polls for teaching and on journal metrics for research support managerial interventions. However, managers also need to acknowledge the autonomy and different capabilities of their staff members in order to get the best results. This article contributes to the debate about desirable management roles in universities in the light of a meaningful academic knowledge production.IMPACTThis article will be of interest to university managers because it encourages them to rethink their roles by considering the need to ensure the long-term survival of academia, to academics who wish to engage in managerial positions because it warns them against a mechanical use of performance metrics, and to academia in general because it stimulates everyone to ask: where are we going? Politicians will benefit from reading this article because it makes them aware of the consequences of favouring New Public Management (NPM) principles in academia.

Purpose This paper aims to unveil how sustainability is integrated into the courses/programmes of higher education institutions. The research question addressed is: how do academics representing different disciplines cooperate and engage in the work of integrating sustainability into their teaching programmes. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws upon the notions of practise variation and institutional work from institutional theory and empirically focusses on the case of Kristianstad University (Sweden). This case is based on an autoethnographic approach and illustrates the experiences shared by six colleagues, representing different disciplines, engaged in implementing sustainability in their courses/programmes. Findings The findings highlight how academics representing different disciplines, with specific traditions and characteristics, face the sustainability challenge. Despite being bound by similar sustainable development goals, differences across disciplines need to be acknowledged and used as an asset if trans-disciplinarity is the ultimate goal. Research limitations/implications Although the intrinsic motivation of individuals to work with sustainability might be a strong driver, the implementation of sustainability within courses/programmes and across disciplines requires joint efforts and collective institutional work. Practical implications By highlighting how academics engage in the work of integrating sustainability, this study emphasizes that managers of higher education institutions need to account for the time and additional resources needed to ensure that academics effectively cope with sustainability. Intrinsic motivation may not last if organizational structures and leadership are not supportive on a practical level and in the long run. Social implications With the successful implementation of a holistic approach to sustainability, students will have better insights and understanding of both themselves and the surrounding society, layi

Contribution to the Panelsamtal om etik held at the Nordisk workshop i ekonomistyrning, NWES XXIV, Stockholm (Sweden), 16-17 January, 2020

Researchers in general and public sector accounting (PSA) researchers in particular are faced with increasing pressures to publish in international top journals. Recruitment procedures for new staff members, protocols for the quality assessment of existing staff members and decisions for funding research are impacted by publication metrics. This paper aims to unravel the impact of the increasing importance of publication metrics on the identity of PSA researchers. Identity of professions is applied as a theoretical lens and so-called real-life constructs are developed for empirical investigations through interviews with senior researchers. The increasing importance of publication metrics can be seen as the major pressure. However, our findings reveal that various other pressures exist, especially publishing in niche journals, doing societally relevant work, conducting high-quality teaching and serving niche-specific audiences through research. Two basic reactions to competing pressures are observed. On the one hand, a conformance/adaption reaction to the major pressure, at the expense of other pressures (for instance, by adapting to the requirements of top accounting journals, and lessening connections with the PSA field). On the other hand, resistance to the major pressure in order to preserve values attached to the other pressures (for example, by ignoring pressures from publication metrics and remaining connected to the PSA field and its journals). In addition, we found in-between reactions, ranging from a balancing of competing pressures (for example, in two-pillar publication strategies), and a reinforcing reaction (for example, seeing work for practice as an input to high-quality research), to reshaping of work devices (e.g. by distinguishing between mixed research-teaching jobs and pure teaching jobs, and/or developing career paths for excellent teachers in addition to those for excellent researchers). Also manipulation strategies can be observed, such as rec, Workshop

Presented at Quality Conference, Kristianstad (Sweden), 28 August 2020. Digitally held via Zoom

Traditionally, universities are places where people are committed to their work and to the colleagues they are working with. Scholarship and collegiality are seen as virtues to protect. These virtues are, in our opinion, threatened by the neo-liberal ideology which takes ground more and more. This ideology claims that everyone should be prosperous, successful and thus happy. And additionally, that this is achievable due to your own efforts. This manifests itself in being the best, or at least belonging to the top. You have a top wife or husband; are going on top holidays; and you are working in a top university, publishing in top journals. The counter argument posits that, if you fail, this is a consequence of your own shortcomings., Published in the CIGAR Network April Newsletter, 2020

Popular lecture held at Kulturkvarteret, Kristianstad (Sweden), 12 March 2020.

This question is the theme of a recent book by Richard Watermeyer (2019) which focuses on the impact that competitive accountability has on the capacity of academics to act as public intellectuals. In eight intense chapters, Watermeyer shows how a culture of increased competitiveness, based on performance metrics, has given rise to stress and anxiety among academics, who struggle to legitimise their work within marketised and corporatized universities. Watermeyer’s answer to the above-posed question is ubiquitous: competitive accountability is more than evil; it destroys the work of university people who are aiming to meet research impact devices at the expense of their primary mission of being public intellectuals. The underlying analysis is provocative, as it fundamentally questions taken for granted ways in which research is assessed, not only in the UK but also in many other Western countries. Scholars in public policy, education policy and public management and accounting can benefit from taking notice of this book, but this does not mean that all of Watermeyer’s ideas are convincing, as will be explicated.

Relying on the actorhood theory, this study explores how European Course of Auditors (EXA) depicts and stages itself in relation to its stakeholder. To explore ECAs actorhood journey this study employs visual accounting methodology and analyses front pages of its official journal from its inception in 2009 until 2019. By showing how combination of different visual artefacts have evolved over time this study highlights how transnational public organisations such as the ECA construct their actorhood and position themselves on the stage. It further reveals the underlying legitimacy mechanisms through which organisations like ECA position themselves in the public eye. Finally, the study illuminates how individuals and context are depicted in interaction with each other and how this interaction reveals the development of the actorhood journey of the ECA over time., Presented at the CIGAR Workshop 2020 The Quality of Public Sector Audit: Profession, Institutions and Standards, Drammen (Norway), 16-17 June 2020. Digitally held via Zoom.Workshop session discussant: Tobias Polzer.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the CIGAR Workshop 2020 was held online.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which strategies and business models (BMs) are disclosed in Integrated Reports (IRs). In addition, this paper seeks to understand the reasons for the changes in such disclosures over time. A longitudinal case study focusing on Terna, an Italian listed public utility operating in the electricity sector, is presented. Multiple methods of data collection and analysis were adopted. A content analysis based on the framework of Sukhari and De Villiers (2018) was performed on Terna’s IRs from 2011 to 2017. Interviews were conducted with several managers to integrate the data stemming from the content analysis. The paper opens up the ‘black box’ of corporate strategy disclosures, showing how they can evolve over time. The findings reveal a resistance to fully communicating sensitive corporate information related to strategic goals and their implementation.