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 researchmetrics, 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.
Recommended Citation
Luca, Edward J.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Narayan, Bhuva; and Hovorka, Dirk, "The Impact of Metrics on Wellbeing, Meaning and Purpose in the Managerial University" (2025). SJIS Preprints (Forthcoming). 2.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/sjis_preprints/2