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Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of metrification on the sense of human flourishing academics gain through their research practices. Broadly speaking, human flourishing offers an overarching conception of human wellbeing associated with positive outcomes such as health, life satisfaction, meaning and purpose. Academic work can act as a pathway towards human flourishing. The value of research is increasingly measured through research metrics, including individual, journal or institutional rankings. Extensive literature on metrification argues that the increasing use of metrics is detrimental to scholarship and to academic freedom. Drawing on in-depth interviews with academics in a business school at an Australian university, we report on attitudes towards metrics and their impact on human flourishing. Our findings reveal a plurality of attitudes and adherence towards such metrics, ranging from skepticism and distrust, to indifference, and even appreciation and acceptance. An emphasis on measurable outputs within increasingly managerial universities narrows the focus of academic work and reduces opportunities for the important, yet less quantifiable, aspects of scholarly work that contribute to academic wellbeing. We argue that the digitalization of work practices and evaluation reshapes behavior and professional values, producing unintended and unobserved outcomes that undermine human flourishing.

DOI

10.17705/3SJIS/037.08

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