Playing the Dignity Roulette: Deciphering Academic Dignity from the Perspective of Doctoral Scholars

Abstract

The publish or perish culture is a reality that management scholars deal with every day. It is a means of gaining legitimacy for the business schools while providing an objective approach to measure the performance of the scholars. At the same time, it paves the way for excessive competition, sham authorships, questionable research practices. While the literature on the implications of this culture is quite voluminous, it is primarily based on the experiences of seasoned academicians. So, in this study, we look at this culture from the viewpoint of doctoral scholars, specifically those pursuing their doctorate in a non-Western context. Our findings illustrate that the publish or perish culture subjects these scholars to a never-ending dignity struggle. They lose their dignity as they get dehumanized as machines for publications and stigmatized for their location and being non-native English speakers. These scholars internalize their inferior position and resort to internal divisions to recuperate their lost dignity. In sum, we propose that the publish or perish culture leads to the commoditization of dignity.