Management Utopia or User Dystopia? A Critical Analysis of a University Administration System

Enterprise Systems (ES) have been introduced into many large organizations and are found across many sectors including Higher Education which is experiencing unprecedented levels of competition, government regulation and growth in student numbers. These systems based on ‘ideal’ models of business and organisational ‘best practice’ promise vast improvement in efficiency and effectiveness according to what might be seen as utopian visions of management. In reality they can result in a more dystopian reality. This empirical study takes a critical theoretical approach to an ES implementation in a UK university which procured and installed a large scale ES, SITS (Student Information Technology System). The study uses an inductive approach using interviews, document analysis and data from high level strategic meetings. This is analysed using a critical theoretical framework. Conclusions are that SITS has effected a significant de-skilling of academics resulting in the rise of a new managerialism within the HE sector.