Managerialism in the university management: implications of strategic planning in the perception of managers from a public university

Abstract

The transition from the bureaucratic public administration model to a more effective managerial model requires a new kind of behavior within public universities. As a response to demands of a new more competitive for better performance there is a growing trend among universities of incorporating managerial approaches oriented by the market, and characterized as managerialism. However, such practices have identified as inappropriate losing much of its effectiveness by neglecting the organizational complexity of universities, especially the public ones. The purpose of this study is to analyze the contributions and limitations of the strategic planning incorporated by a public university. The results indicate the existence of a consensus among the central administration and the academic units related to the need for a professionalization of public management. It is also stressed that the ambiguity of public policies and overload of regulations together with the complexity of the academic organization ended up being serious barriers to the success of managerial practices like the strategic planning. The main conclusions reveal that the success of such managerial approach requires the adjustment of the rationality implicit in the model to the specificities of the academic organizations, as a condition by which the efforts can generate the expected benefits.