The changing nature of academic careers in management education in Western societies

This chapter presents academic careers and their development in the field of management education in Western and OECD societies. It delineates the changing nature of these careers from the theoretical perspectives of Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the boundaryless career and careers ecosystem. The success of universities and higher education at a national level depends on people and their management, thus it is important to understand the careers of the people within this sector and examine the differences across models, in particular bearing in mind the dominance of the Anglo-Saxon model. The chapter explores the academic career path and related challenges, acknowledging that the academic labour market and career system are developing in line with contemporary career theories. These were initiated mostly in Western academia, not always readily fit for other contexts.