Research production administrators and academic governance: analysis of an identity conflict

Abstract

The managerial orientation of the scientific production modes in the Chilean university has given unprecedented power to the administrative staff. This part of the university staff is nowadays critical both for the implementation of public policies in higher education and science, as well as for the development of new institutional strategies and processes of university governance. From the perspective of social studies about employment, this article aims to understand the construction of the labor identity of male and female workers who work in scientific management positions in universities. The discourse analysis of 40 face-to-face interviews allowed us to recognize three types of identity narratives: as a subaltern identity "in the shadow of the researchers", as a rearranged identity where academics "do their crazy things, then I make them up", and finally as a negotiated identity where "one is willing to compromise one thing for another", where there is a search for identity consensus integrating traditional values of both university and private entrepreneurship. The authors conclude that identity and the legitimization of the administrative role of scientific activity are key dimensions in the performance of the work and for the development of academic governance.