Unpacking informal contractual relationships: Pschyological contracts established by Australian business academics

The past two decades have seen enormous change in the number, funding and focus of Australian universities. Such changes have profoundly affected the context and conditions of academic work. Australian academics work in universities that have been characterised as increasingly managerialist and market-oriented (Marginson and Considine, 2000), where academic freedom and autonomy have declined and performance expectations have sharply increased (Winter and Sarros, 2002). Government funding now comes with more strings attached and managers within universities commonly apply tighter conditions and controls upon faculties, departments and individual academics as they allocate funds internally. However, despite increased accountability and responsiveness, Australian academics and universities are regularly criticised by politicians and the press for being out of touch with, or unresponsive to, the current and future needs of industry and students.