Some management thinking urges on universities the desirability of commercial approaches to management. That type of thinking suggests that a first step should be the declaration by the university governing body of a clear mission and strategic directions and its imposition on the university. The processes within the university would then be confined to working out the programme details to realise the mission. It would be grossly over-optimistic to think such a process would work. Furthermore the suggestion misunderstands the nature of a university.
Most academics regard themselves as partners rather than employees.
They hold fiercely to their independence and right to be involved in major decisions. Good university leadership, therefore, has to bring together the aspirations and thinking of the whole university community. It is in the nature of the quest for new knowledge that no external authority can say with certainty that the approaches chosen by particular individuals or a particular university are irrefutably wrong. In most aspects universities are thus to be measured by criteria other than profit or return on assets. Nevertheless, benchmarking is as essential in universities as it is in other spheres.