ABSTRACT
I take as the starting point for this chapter a statement made by Bill Tierney in a recent article on academic freedom and organisational identity within universities (2001). He states:
If deans and department heads…are seen exclusively as managers, a culture will be developed where academic freedom is irrelevant or may not even be discussed. We need to think of them more as symbolic analysts who tend to the interpretive side of the academic enterprise and ensure that the organisation’s culture remains true to basic academic ideals (p. 14).
