The Business School Mood Index

Perplexishment

It is Monday the 10th of October 2023. You are an employee at the Business School of a moderately sized plateglass university in the UK.

You receive an email from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Performance, who you’ve never met, advising you that Andrew Plank, the Dean of a more successful business school, is going to join your school as the “Director of Transformation”. Andrew’s remit will be remit “to come up with a plan by the end of the year for how we will double KBS income in the next five years, embed the Kent 2030 programme of change, and capture significant investment. As this work progresses, Andrew will share more on how and where you will be able to feed into this.”

What you take away from this is an novel mix of surprise and confusion – a kind of perplexishment – a mental gridlock that comes from being faced with unexplained organizational change initiatives. There are plans to double the size of the business school? Is Andrew the new Executive Dean who the DVC will be working with more than existing reports? Is Andrew now in charge of new course development rather than the current Dean, Mary-Ann Battle? Is this effectively a “vote of no confidence” in the Business School’s current Senior Leadership Team, with the university seeing them as unable to deliver the kind of growth that they need? Why was this announced by email as a fiat accompli, as though you – an academic (who by definition always has questions) – would have no questions?

You go back to your day, reflecting on this new feeling.

Elestrasion

It is Wednesday the 14th of August, 2024. You are an employee at the Business School of a moderately sized plateglass university in the UK.

You receive an email from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Performance, who you’ve never met, advising you that Wilbur Davidson has been appointed as “Director of Academic Development” for the Business School. The email praises Wilbur as an esteemed Professor of Physiology who has acted as the head of that area before, someone who is experienced and good at working with large groups of stakeholders. You were unaware that “Director of Academic Development” was a post that was being recruited to and the email does not clarify what the post does or will be responsible for.

What you take away from this is a feeling of dejected uncertainty and sombre resignation – elestrasion – a sense that those leading an organizational change initiative have no interest in listening to what your needs as an employee are (and consequently that more uncertainty, not less, will continue to follow from their actions) so you resolve yourself to simply dealing with whatever chaos comes they send your way. There is a lucid sense of déjà vu – you know that you’ve felt that this has happened before. You have many questions. Who asked for this post to be created? What need is it intended to serve? Why was someone with no experience of working in a Business School hired to take up this senior role rather than one of our own Professors? Is Wilbur going to take over operational responsibility for the Business School? Will he sign off your upcoming annual leave? Has the DVC appointed their own “yes-man” to replace the noted curmudgeon, Andrew Plank, who has been acting as Dean of the Business School?

You go back to your day, reflecting on this new feeling.