University management practices, accounting, gender and institutional denial

This paper sets out to examine the problematic gendered effects of the spread of an accounting mentality in university performance appraisal, academic awareness that accounting only ever tells part of the story notwithstanding.

The paper is based on the authors' experience, and thus deploys a version of autoethnography.

It was found that universities risk being seriously compromised by this “matrix madness”, and that it also specifically disadvantages women.

The paper presents an examination of the intersection between knowledge, power effects, accounting, gender and academic performance management.