Accountability and governance in academia: a Foucauldian perspective on digital governance and control
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 25 November 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The study views accounting, control and governance dimensions in academia through the Foucauldian lens in the digital era. The study demystifies the dichotomy of controls and creative academic initiatives for enhanced learning outcomes by utilizing the works of Michel Foucault (1977, 1980, 1991a, b, 1979) in the context of digitally native actors.
Design/methodology/approach
The archival documents were studied to gain a clear insight into the academic processes. Next, the primary data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews of academic administrators (AA) and professors.
Findings
First, the study establishes that academia extensively models its systems and processes on the Foucauldian tenets of disciplinary control, self-surveillance, trust, empowerment and visibility, utilizing a blend of digital and non-digital technologies. Second, the study unpacks the shortcomings and offers a nuanced critique of digital governance in academic institutions. Such institutions extensively situate their systems, processes and routines on Foucauldian tenets. Third, digital platforms do reinforce injustice and exclusion. Such digital exclusion exists among the faculty, the students and the administrative staff. There are student groups which are marginalized in emerging economy settings. Furthermore, in a predominantly technology-driven ecosystem such marginalized students’ academic experience is significantly different from their privileged peers.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few studies that utilize the Foucauldian lens to understand the tension among accounting, controls and governance outcomes, at a granular level in an emerging market academic setting which is characterized by inequitable resource distribution. Second, by collecting rich primary data from knowledge agents, it supports the dominance of Foucauldian thought with respect to disciplinary control, self-surveillance, visibility, trust and power by embracing digital technologies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the insightful comments of the reviewers which significantly improved the paper. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the guidance and the comments of the Editors in shaping this paper. The authors acknowledge the contribution of Prof. Nidheesh Joseph, Assistant Professor HRM, IMT Ghaziabad and Prof. Pradeep Kumar Hota, Assistant Professor, IIM Udaipur, and Mr. Tejaswi Vajinepalli, PGP HRM, IMT Ghaziabad, for sharing their insights with the authors.
Citation
Varma, A. and Bhawalpuria, T. (2024), "Accountability and governance in academia: a Foucauldian perspective on digital governance and control", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2023-0518
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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