ABSTRACT
The concept of performance has come to constitute a core feature of market-driven academia as a result of the fixation with performance that many universities have acquired in their desire to emulate corporate models. Performance lies near the heart of much corporate university procedure, intensifying its ritual-like aspects. The extent to which systems of performance measurement and management loom large in many present-day university environments is symptomatic of this. The relationship between ritual and performance has many facets to it, which hearken back to ancient forms of ritual while also illuminating ritualistic features of the contemporary workplace and the functions they fulfil. As the performance-related rites of corporatised academia are enacted, emphasis is placed on the adherence to officially endorsed rules. Adhering to the rules may render a ritual performance less hazardous. Howe points out that another aspect of risk lies in this requirement, for failure to comply with the exact procedures when enacting a ritual may bring about misfortune.
