Can the concept of “lean management” be applied to academic recruitment? – a quasi-theoretical discourse

Abstract

This paper seeks to emphasise the need to re-evaluate university teacher recruitment processes.
The implementation of lean processes helps to improve organisational practices; in the case of university
recruitment, however, organisational processes have remained unchanged for decades. Although there is a
traditional justification for having academic recruitment as a rigorous and complex process (as a practiced
method by which to identify the most suitable applicants), the increase of competition across the sector, and
the internet revolution, has rendered these older methods partially ineffective. The author argues that
recruitment systems and practices need reviewing to overhaul inefficacious elements.