Recent studies have highlighted the major challenges faced by managers in the higher education sector and shown the contradictory demands which foster paradoxical tensions. Previous works have also underlined some specific tensions and rigidities that business school deans regularly face in their role. Yet, few studies have empirically explored…

PhD graduates are often recruited for positions that entail various work demands. Based on theoretical models of work demands, PhD graduates can appraise these demands in three main ways: as challenges, hindrances, or threats. The more aware they are of the skills they developed in their doctoral program, the more likely they are to appraise…

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a case study of the merger of two higher education institutions in France. The paper's main focus is not the politics that gave rise to the institutional merger, nor the rights or wrongs of the decision, nor the merger process itself; rather, it is the extent to and the ways in which these features…