The Kardia Group

Critique is the coin of the realm in academe. Its presence is ubiquitous in most of the core activities of the academy, from publishing to the classroom to the tenure review, a price that must be paid, and often paid dearly. To be critical is the most sure route to gaining power, prestige and position. To successfully weather critique can also mean such gains, although often it simply means little loss of ground. To be found inadequate within a critique can mean substantial loss - often even when the critique itself is mean-spirited, ill-founded, or out-of-place.

This culture of critique reflects a commitment to a basic premise of education: the ability to examine, interrogate, test, and learn. It expresses itself in concepts such as critical thinking, the scientific method, and the merits of peer review. But as a reflexive activity upon which advancement in academia rests, the habits of critique are applied far beyond their usefulness, often creating contention and jockeying for position in discussions and departmental interactions where little is served by this behavior.

Equally challenging to any organizational change effort is the fact that critique as the economy of academia functions as any economic system, defining the structure of systems and relationships. Just as it is unusual to charge one's child for rent or an employee for their use of paper clips, there are significant arenas in academia where critique is considered to be off limits. In the academy this is often referred to as collegiality. Rude behavior in faculty meetings, inappropriate (yet still legal) boundaries with graduate students, inattention to necessary functions in the life of the department and much more often get sidestepped or worked around rather than discussed or confronted directly.

Organizational change efforts must take both of these factors into account, sometimes disarming the relentless barrage of critique to allow the possibility of a different kind of conversation, sometimes forging ahead into "naming the elephant" territory in order to move beyond barriers that the entire structure has trained itself to tolerate.