Managerial reforms, institutional complexity and individuals: an empirical analysis of higher education

Many reforms have aimed at introducing and developing managerial tools in public organisations. However, their limited degree of translation is still unexplained. The purpose of this paper is to explore how individuals face managerial reforms using the frame of institutional logics. In particular, the paper analyses to what extent individuals identify opportunities and constraints associated with the reforms depending on the institutional logics they activate. The paper attains this aim by analysing the performance management system of teaching activities introduced by an Italian national reform (Act 240/2010). A qualitative approach was adopted by interviewing presidents of programmes and teaching managers of two Italian universities. Findings reveal that the multiple and competing logics existing in public organisations have strong infuences on individuals’ reactions to new managerial practices. The reforms put internal contradictions between multiple individual goals and identities in the spotlight so that the same reform contains a plurality of organisational and managerial consequences.