Voices Off: Impact and Community in a Business School’s Backstage

This chapter traces issues of impact and community backstage within a small regional business school, principally from the perspectives of four people who perform often unremarked, taken-for-granted but essential infrastructural practices behind the scenes. One of these actors performs within what has been called a ‘third space’ (McIntosh & Nutt, Third Space Perspectives—Exploring Integrated Practice. A website and blog dedicated to exploring perspectives on integrated practice and third space professionalism in Higher Education. https://www.thirdspaceperspectives.com/ , 2022b); the other three inhabit a slightly different territory, which I call a ‘fourth space’. ‘Third spacers’ are academic administrators who occupy varying degrees of ‘academic space’. Fourth spacers are the ‘connectors’ (Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference. Little Brown, 2000) who join up the academic administration and more general administrative aspects of higher education (HE). The chapter draws upon an essentially conversational and curatorial approach that aims for congruence with humanistic management principles (von Kimakowitz, About Humanistic Management. https://humanisticmanagement.network/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019-HMN-Conference-About-HM.pdf , 2019). These four stories contribute to a richer picture of what really goes on in the life of a small, regional business school. Four strands or themes emerge: those of the (generally positive) impact of the business school internally on the university itself; the impact of technology and its implications for relationships; coping with and adapting to change; and relational challenges as well as opportunities inherent in an institutional growth imperative.